Auto-mod didn't like the length of my post. Here it is, broken down into smaller posts. The collection of Spirit Tales I mentioned here, almost two years ago, finally put into a format you can read if you want. :)
I equate the 6 seconds not as an entire story; but rather a brief passage or quote from an epic tale; that evokes the echo of the story’s mythic character.
”Pillars from Eternity” actually provides an incredible source of inspiration for this concept; as their Chanter class (essentially bards), actually flavors their spells as catchy phrases from epic tales.
Example:
Tale of the Beguiler - “The devil wrapped their wings around their lover; stealing their heart & damning their soul.”
Take of the Phantom - “Cold steel plunged into exposed flesh; and for that wretched moment all they knew was terror.”
Tale of the Renowned Duelist - “His precision was astounding; the thrust of the rapier finding every vital point.”
You employ tools that aid you in channeling spirits, be they historical figures or fictional archetypes. You can use the following objects as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells: a candle, crystal ball, skull, spirit board, or tarokka deck.
Starting at 6th level, when you cast a bard spell that deals damage or restores hit points through the Spiritual Focus, roll a d6, and you gain a bonus to one damage or healing roll of the spell equal to the number rolled.
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If you cast something like wall of fire. Do you get the +1d6 every time a creature takes damage or only one time for the duration of the spell?
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
When you cast it, you get a bonus to one damage or healing roll. I suppose it doesn't say WHICH roll, so you're free to choose, but it's definitely only one.
And nobody has addressed how a Bard dependent on Random effects for a large part of their powers is somehow fitting a role in Ravenloft lore. So ghosts randomly tell you their stories...but you won't actually understand those stories because they are told to you in 6 seconds...while the other party members likely won't care what the tale IS anyway because to them it's just an interchangeable magic effect, like any other spell that takes an action to cast. How very anti-thematic. At least the Spirit Session ability is attached to Divination or Necromancy spells and has a realistic casting time of 1 hour. Why the game devs couldn't have created a better justification for Tales from Beyond when they managed to write something that gelled thematically in the case of Spirit Sessions is beyond me.
Is there something about Ravenloft lore that makes a random effect unfitting? I have run Curse of Strahd and read a few of the old Ravenloft novels and nothing about them seemed to suggest to me that an "unpredictable" ability would at all clash with the lore. If anything, the art of storytelling and the magic it carries with it is something that ties pretty well with the Vistani lore.
As for the issue of "how do you tell a tale in 6 seconds," it is definitely a bit wonky to think about, but I dont think it is worth making a big deal out of. Other people in the thread have already suggested alternate ways to think about it to try and make it fit, but ultimately it is just a disconnect between game flavor and game mechanics, which I understand can be frustrating.
It's not about whether it fits with Ravenloft Lore so much as whether it fits with a horror-filled (supposedly) setting that tends to be one of the more deadly demiplanes published. Having to pull a metaphorical animal out of a hat but not knowing beforehand which type of animal kinda reduces the influence of the magic trick, right? As in the audience is less impressed withe magician because they are not primed with the category of animal that is about to be pulled. Getting some random effect in the middle of combat is significantly worse than that because combat is often a life and death situation.
Rather than the Tales taking 6 seconds or less just to fit into the chronological limitations of 5E combat, it really should have been written in such a way that you would hear the spirit stories during a short or long rest, then get to store them for use at some point before the next long rest. That way, you can actually plan how and when to use their effects. This is both thematically more on point and better for party survival.
You could get away with just the title of the story like how in some super hero shows they shout their power when they use it or martial arts movies that say the move they are making. The story teller knows the story and it has the effect, the party doesn't need to know the details unless they ask after the fight.
Or you could say it as a joke, "Did you hear the one about the rude porcupine?"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Ummm, the Spirit Bard is not thematically similar to any action Shonen anime character I've ever seen. And listening to spirits tell their stories is not at all like shouting the name of a "special technique". Listening to stories implies that the listener actually cares about what is being said by the entity who is speaking, as opposed to being amped up on endorphins in a life and death situation and belting out the name of a power move yourself. Does a (American) football player listen to the story of the opposing quarterback in the middle of game? Does a hockey player patiently ask for the life story of someone in the audience during a hockey match?
At least the Spirit Session ability is attached to Divination or Necromancy spells and has a realistic casting time of 1 hour.
As for the issue of "how do you tell a tale in 6 seconds," it is definitely a bit wonky to think about, but I dont think it is worth making a big deal out of.
Rather than the Tales taking 6 seconds or less just to fit into the chronological limitations of 5E combat, it really should have been written in such a way that you would hear the spirit stories during a short or long rest, then get to store them for use at some point before the next long rest. That way, you can actually plan how and when to use their effects. This is both thematically more on point and better for party survival.
It's how I played it, when I played it. Nothing else made any sense.
Of course, there's still the weirdness where after you spend the first one in a day, you get a new one in just one turn. It's easy enough to just fluff it up and make it take longer, and have your character tell the story. But it's janky as heck that it doesn't just work that way by default.
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Auto-mod didn't like the length of my post. Here it is, broken down into smaller posts. The collection of Spirit Tales I mentioned here, almost two years ago, finally put into a format you can read if you want. :)
I equate the 6 seconds not as an entire story; but rather a brief passage or quote from an epic tale; that evokes the echo of the story’s mythic character.
”Pillars from Eternity” actually provides an incredible source of inspiration for this concept; as their Chanter class (essentially bards), actually flavors their spells as catchy phrases from epic tales.
Example:
Tale of the Beguiler - “The devil wrapped their wings around their lover; stealing their heart & damning their soul.”
Take of the Phantom - “Cold steel plunged into exposed flesh; and for that wretched moment all they knew was terror.”
Tale of the Renowned Duelist - “His precision was astounding; the thrust of the rapier finding every vital point.”
Question regarding:
Spiritual Focus
You employ tools that aid you in channeling spirits, be they historical figures or fictional archetypes. You can use the following objects as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells: a candle, crystal ball, skull, spirit board, or tarokka deck.
Starting at 6th level, when you cast a bard spell that deals damage or restores hit points through the Spiritual Focus, roll a d6, and you gain a bonus to one damage or healing roll of the spell equal to the number rolled.
-----
If you cast something like wall of fire. Do you get the +1d6 every time a creature takes damage or only one time for the duration of the spell?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
When you cast it, you get a bonus to one damage or healing roll. I suppose it doesn't say WHICH roll, so you're free to choose, but it's definitely only one.
It's not about whether it fits with Ravenloft Lore so much as whether it fits with a horror-filled (supposedly) setting that tends to be one of the more deadly demiplanes published. Having to pull a metaphorical animal out of a hat but not knowing beforehand which type of animal kinda reduces the influence of the magic trick, right? As in the audience is less impressed withe magician because they are not primed with the category of animal that is about to be pulled. Getting some random effect in the middle of combat is significantly worse than that because combat is often a life and death situation.
Rather than the Tales taking 6 seconds or less just to fit into the chronological limitations of 5E combat, it really should have been written in such a way that you would hear the spirit stories during a short or long rest, then get to store them for use at some point before the next long rest. That way, you can actually plan how and when to use their effects. This is both thematically more on point and better for party survival.
You could get away with just the title of the story like how in some super hero shows they shout their power when they use it or martial arts movies that say the move they are making. The story teller knows the story and it has the effect, the party doesn't need to know the details unless they ask after the fight.
Or you could say it as a joke, "Did you hear the one about the rude porcupine?"
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Ummm, the Spirit Bard is not thematically similar to any action Shonen anime character I've ever seen. And listening to spirits tell their stories is not at all like shouting the name of a "special technique". Listening to stories implies that the listener actually cares about what is being said by the entity who is speaking, as opposed to being amped up on endorphins in a life and death situation and belting out the name of a power move yourself. Does a (American) football player listen to the story of the opposing quarterback in the middle of game? Does a hockey player patiently ask for the life story of someone in the audience during a hockey match?
It's how I played it, when I played it. Nothing else made any sense.
Of course, there's still the weirdness where after you spend the first one in a day, you get a new one in just one turn. It's easy enough to just fluff it up and make it take longer, and have your character tell the story. But it's janky as heck that it doesn't just work that way by default.