Let's see I have a Dwarven Viking Skald Bard, Astrid, who's got a hybrid great axe / lute type thing, and has literally everyone scared of her, even the fanatical barbarian of Freya. Currently level 12. Mostly people are scared of her because of her being a bit crazy, and her invention of a new form of punishment she calls Heralding. Where you use healing magic to basically delimb, burn, pluck the eyes out of, etc, then attach the person to a pole to be carried around or placed in a similar fashion as a heraldic flag all without them dying from shock or blood loss. We've determined she's chaotic evil, which actually makes her my first chaotic evil bard.
I also have my fire genasi escaped harem girl of the grand sultan of the city of brass, Naiya, she's play testing my dancer bard subclass, currently level three. She's chaotic good, and very ant tyranny. Just adding that to make sure people know that not all my character's are psychotic.
Valor bard originally but converted to college of metal which was someones homebrew. And yeah blood eagle taken to eleven. Currently we're heading to fight frost giants. But we'll be at war with the goblin race soon. Astrid has a tendancy of pissing off other peoples gods and has converted a whole army worth of goblinoids while pissing off the goblin god on numerous occasions.
I'm expecting her reckless disregard for other cultures and lack of respect for the gods of her enemies to bite her in the ass eventually. She's out for glory and intends become a legend, so she ramps everything up to eleven. She has an instrument that allows her to alter the weather once per day, she uses it to make an entrance. Just alters the weather willy nilly because it makes her look cool.
Kind of like that time we casually jumped of our instant fortess, and walked into a diplomatic situation because we knew it would be intimidating and look cool if we pulled it off. Sure the damage was annoying, but I have silly bluff and intimidate and athletics so as far as they knew it was irrelivant.
We already have people pissing themselves when viking scouts show up, because thats how we introduce ourselves as scouts, which is what we are, and thanks to Astrid viking scouts have become legendary. We're fair with people who treat us well, but piss us off and well... People are learning.
In my current campaign I'm playing as Quitter, the Goblin Bard. He learned to play music after stealing a Squeezebox from a passing minstrel, and started the process of learning magic from the Jester of his Goblin Horde (For those who don't pay attention to the minutia of Goblin lore, a Jester is a Goblin who gets to act like a well... a Jester to prevent Nilbogs from spawning). He was always fairly lazy (hence his name), and he tended to avoid work, but enjoyed spending time with animals. This made him a bit of an outsider in his clan, but he benefited from his generally friendly attitude making it easier for him to occasionally travel to the nearby human village to trade coin for supplies without simply getting shot on sight by the town guards.
One day, on a trading journey to acquire some fresh meat for his clan, he was playing his trusty squeezebox and noticed that one of the goats in the butcher's pen was dancing along to the music. Not wanting to see a fellow music lover turned into meat, he used his clan's money to purchase her outright. He named the goat Thaco (IC it's the name of a mythical Warg, although OOC nobody got the joke), only to realize his clan wouldn't care about her musical aptitude and would just eat her without a second thought. Despondent, he did what he could to play some music for her to dance along with, only to be shocked when one of the local villagers casually tossed them a copper. This was the first wealth he was ever given outright... Realizing the potential, he resolved to abandon his clan and venture out with Thaco to find wealth and comfort (and accidentally stumbled into adventure)
He's a Lore Bard, and I gave him the Entertainer Background, but honestly he would have made more sense to treat as an Outlander or Urchin. There's probably a solid homebrew that would make more sense for a monster race. I tried to play it more like he's a weirdo by Goblin standards, rather than go for the idea the goblins are "just misunderstood" or something like that.
I'm working on a 3rd level swords bard for a new campaign I'm starting soon, he is a half elf who was raised by a nomadic tribe of marauders, before he betrayed them and split with the heist money. He has some serious Peter Quill vibes, and exclusively sings 90s alt-rock (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, Smash Mouth, Counting Crows, the works - purely comedic flavoring on my part). The most interesting thing about him is that, inspired by Matt Coleville's video on the subject, the dm and I collaborated to say that as a result of illithid experiments (which he doesn't remember, since he has no memories before the age of 12) he is infected by a magical, chaotic evil symbiote which will slowly gain power and control over him...
I recently put together a Bard for the purpose of playing through Curse of Strahd.
Using the haunted one background, the Bard had previously been enslaved by an ancient fey hag, and was forced to enchant children and lure them to the hag’s lair to be consumed. Due to the weird nature of time in the feywild, while the character was in service for what felt like a few years, centuries passed. The character recognises themselves in local folk tales of the wicked figure, like the pied piper, who steals away children with their alluring magic.
Having broken free of servitude ,and stealing a shard of the hag’s power, the bard is of the college of glamour, and seeks to make amends for their past deeds. They look like an emo musician who plays haunting dirges - never again wanting to play the happy, lively music that led so many children to their deaths.
Using DnD beyond to create the character, I let the random name generator name the character. The name it provided was Gotthard.
So the character’s full name now is Gotthard Orgohomme.
Working on a bard for a quest starting in October.
Her name is Rhys and she's a twin to another bard character another player is making named Riley (we're like "We can't both be bards!" followed by a pause and going, "Why not?!" hence the twins were created). They call themselves the "Scottish Brothers Troupe" and yes Rhys identifies as a woman. The twins are super protective of each other and at the same time highly insulting to each other, you know like siblings are. And their main instruments are bagpipes (we also have a flute and fiddle for down times).
We're going into battle blasting Thunderstruck and no one is going to stop us.
I am currently only a LV 2 Bard going to 3 soon (College of Whispers); I am also a Yuan-Ti Pureblood, my proficiency is in the Flute as I am a Snake Charmer (Have a pet snake I keep in my robes called Snep). I use animal friendship and speak with animals quite commonly as well as Sleep. But I really love vicious mockery.
My second PC ever, after I DMed our group's last campaign, is the wood elven bard of lore, Ecarys Thalaeon. He's a charlatan who would looove some say in matters of power somewhere, but has had some hiccups climbing the social ladder...
He's lv4, and acts mainly as the Face and as Support to a party of a HElf Druid, a Gnome Arcane Trickster (rogue), a WElf rogue (assassin), and a Dwarf Hunter Ranger. The Assassin takes a big role in social interactions as well, and the Ranger is a wonderful roleplayer that brings some much appreciated levity to the table through his rural mannerisms. The Druid and the Gnome are usually a bit more quiet, though the Druid has been taking more agency lately. The Gnome is known around the table as the one who rolls insane clutch checks to save everyone in dire straits.
The main things I do are ask questions and apply social pressure to drive the story forwards. In combat I'm the one who usually goes down first, for I dumped on my Con while I love doing big plays, but I have some important control abilities that allow our damage dealers to do their thing. Hold Person and Blindness are my go-to spells, and Cure Wounds is much appreciated as we have no other healer. I took Thunderwave for damage but rarely get to use it for fear of harming my friends who also like to be in the thick of things. Prestidigitation is my favourite cantrip.
Ecarys is Str 11, Dex 16, Con 10 (8 originally), Int 14, Wis 12, and Cha 14. He wields a longbow and a rapier, and wears leather armour. He's well spoken and acts as if his Cha was 20 (leading to some interesting situations), is chaotic good, loyal to the people close to him and hungry for political influence. He plays the finnish national instrument, a kantele, which is represented by a dulcimer on his sheet. As his Dex will tell you he is a very apt dancer, though that hasn't really come up yet in the campaign.
Ecarys is fun to play. He always has a role, in no little measure thanks to Jack of All Trades and the Lore College, as well as the way he sort of swooped up the rest of the party to help him escape the town we started in when a scam of his went sour pre-campaign. Sometimes I worry about hogging the spotlight too much and subsequently hang back for a while to allow the others to do more stuff, but I do think the party dynamic is quite naturally flowing, especially as the Druid and the Arcane Trickster seem more naturally to be of the hangs-back kinda people.
Recently he fiddled with a cult leader's amulet and had a nightmare vision of an ancient Goddess of Madness and Monsters, which in addition to him nearly dying twice within a fortnight has left the poor troubadour a bit shell shocked. I'm interested to see where his story will lead.
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"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -Death
Fiego Laurentis de Gryphon, of the Waterdeep de Gryphones, is a dashing young half elf often seen about the balls and fetes thrown by the noble families of Waterdeep. His grandfather shocked Society gossips when he married the princess of a wood elf tribe from the High Forest, but by nowadays the de Gryphones are only mildly titillating. Fiego, stereotypical of a young noble, is something of a dilettante, and gravitated toward the Bardic College where he could pick up a little magic here, a little music there, all with a dash of swordplay thrown in. He dreams of the glory of heroism and even had the hand in creating Waterdeep's first Masked Vigilante, Nighthawk. A recent dream dalliance with Eilistraeee, drow Goddess of swordwork and dance, has left him with a touch of otherworldy power, as well as a single shining silver strand of hair in his otherwise auburn locks.
College of Swords Bard 4/ Hexblade Warlock 1
Edit: Oh yeah, and he speaks with his family's Cormyrian accent. Basically Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride.
To revisit Fiego, what better way to learn a bard than to make a playlist? At this posting he is now a Swords Bard 4/ Swashbuckler Rogue 3/ Hexblade Warlock 1.
Vex is boring. That's what he thinks of his own backstory. He's just another human from the Sword Coast born into a merchant family and not one with a long and storied past either. So he began telling tales.
Now he can be a Thunderchild, a long lost prince or the chosen one. Anything he wishes, if only to the end of the story.
Years go by and he finds a mentor in the tavernowner Aenar, a retired Blade. Now armed with spell and sword, Victor wants to make a name for himself.
This was my first 5e character as well as my first bard.
Kevin Dynamite
Lore Bard
He was a mix between Bullhorn from Black Dynamite and the Funky Phantom. Kevin was from our world and was somehow lost in the DMs universe. About four sessions in he named the party, "Kevin Dynamite and the Amazing Friends!" I love DnD
On the run from a pair of trackers from a pirate lord she accidentally embarrassed during a performance, honestly, who gets THAT mad over spilled beer? It was one mis-thrown dagger during my finale at the party. I even tried to make fun of her being all wet to break the tension. Some people have no sense of humor.
Anyway, I found a group of folks that call themselves the Smoking Drake Company. They didn't seem to mind me tagging along to dodge my pursuers. There was one time, I had set an elaborate booby trap involving a wet floor, a bucket and a door... the little gnome, wet gnome, she hates me even more now. How was I supposed to know the water was dirty? Her human companion always liked me and doesn't really put a lot of effort into catching me. I think she likes the traps I set. Now SHE has a sense of humor.
Emerencia has recently reached 8th level, College of Swords. She favors daggers, a rapier, daggers, spells that bewilder, spells that involve daggers, and she figured out how to kind of teleport. She also likes daggers.
This is my first time playing, and did not have a character ready at session 0. That was alright though because I wanted to be a team player more than anything, and pick a class that seemed as different as the rest of the group as possible. Also, I liked the idea of talking my way out of problems, and I knew bards were good for that.
I was originally going to play him as stereotypical as possible. A tavern performer who’s a lot more interested in music than combat. Then, as I’m going through the possible backgrounds, I come across Charlatan, and I decided that this was my class, Bard is just my ability.
Charles’ new backstory:
Charles was a traditional bard as a teenager. He made some extra money performing in the common room of the brothel that his mother worked in. She was human, but given his ears he assumed that his father must be some elf that had passed through. He would entertain the men that came through, play for tips, and often play cards with them - though he always cheated.
One of the more unique patrons was a gnome named Hâllen. Charles knew he was some wealthy guild member, but Charles did not realize that he was also a very powerful gang boss. Had Charles known that, he probably would’ve let Hâll win more often. But he never did, so Hâll always wanted to play to earn back his money. One evening, Hâll was dealt two eights of diamonds, and he realized Charles’ scam. Charles was shuffling his own marked deck into the game, and then shuffling it back out by the end of the night.
Any other gang boss would have had Charles’ fingers broken over this, and Hâll considered telling his Goliath bodyguard to do so. But instead, he offered Charles an apprenticeship.
From then on out, Hâll became like a father figure to Charles. Charles learned to become a better con artist and how to keep his fingers from being broken. The gang successfully pulled off some significant heists over the next few years, and having a bard in the gang proved useful. People don’t often watch the musicians at the party as closely as they do the guests, and Charles exploited that fact many times over. He rarely hurt anyone, as his tasks were more focused on disguises, forgery, and lies, but the gang as a whole got more violent and brazen as the years went on.
One job turned out to be a set up by a rival gang. The town guard was waiting for Charles and company, and they had to split up and run. That was five years ago, and Charles has taken his cons on the road. He hasn’t seen anyone from his old crew since, and he’s not sure what would happen if he did.
Native to the goblin tribe known as Clan Vile, located in a heavily forested region known as the Fellingwood, Flak was unique among his goblin kin, possessing a keen empathy and comprehension of the world around him. His clan would often initiate raids upon the neighboring towns and villages that bordered the Fellingwood, a prospect Flak himself had no stomach for. The first three raids, Flak could not bring himself to participate...he watched as his goblin clan murdered, raided and burned everything they encountered.
The fourth time, Flak intervened.
As he goblin clan attempted to gather some scared townsfolk to be enslaved, Flak turned against his clan and released the prisoners, sustaining a grievous wound in the process. This allowed the surviving townsfolk to rally enough to drive back the goblin incursion, with the aid of a paladin who happened to be present within the town.
This paladin had witnessed Flak's act of kindness, and recognized that he was a rare goblin of compassion and valor, and used her healing hands to revive him. She offered to take him on as her squire, a request that baffled the remaining townsfolk.
For the first time, Flak had been judged not by what he was, but by who he is. She had taken his measure by his heart, and not his appearance.
He accepted this paladins offer, and together they travelled the land, protecting the innocent. This paladin taught Flak the ways of the blade, and though Flak needed to hide his face from others in public, in the privacy of an inn or their campsite, the two of them became fast friends. And over time, their master-apprentice relationship became...something more.
But one day, while in town, Flak's face was revealed to some braggarts that encountered them in a town square. Believing that Flak was some monstrous thief, and the paladin a charlatan he was allied with, the group of people soon became agitated into a mob. Despite the protest of the paladin that Flak was an innocent, the mob lashed out at them, and the paladin ordered Flak to run while she attempted to calm them down and explain.
Outnumbered and seeing no other option, Flak did as he was ordered and fled, leaving the town and heading back to their campsite.
Flak waited for the paladin to return. An hour passed. Then another. Soon, it began to grow dark.
Worried, Flak stealthily snuck back to the town to find his friend.
He found her hanging from a tree in the middle of the town square...unarmored, battered and lifeless.
Devastated and heartbroken, he cut her down and took her body away from that terrible place, finding a place far away to lay her to rest.
After the burial, Flak ventured out on his own, concealing his true goblin nature constantly beneath cloak and helm. Though he could not bring himself to isolation, he had to be careful with whom he communicated with...with his considerable martial skills, he would earn coin in fighting pits, entering anonymously, always hiding his face beneath a helm, going by the alias "The Halfling", seeing as he could pass himself off as the small race somewhat easily. He would move from one town to the next, never lingering for very long for fear of discovery.
But all the while, Flak lamented his friends loss and fostered thoughts of guilt. She was dead because of what he was. He was determined to set things right.
Bardic legends told of an incredible power bestowed upon an individual...power that could even raise the dead...
Flak is a "College of Swords" bard who uses his master's teachings, combined with his own nimbleness, to pull off daring feats of swordplay. He multiclasses a bit of paladin to use "Divine Smite", and is a whirling dervish of dual blades.
His goblin skill to "Disengage", combined with "Squat Nimbelness", "Mobile" and his Flourishes, means that he is astoundingly fast and incredibly hard to pin down.
His venturing into magic is a means of practicality and survival...as a bard, he can use such magic to avoid trouble.
Ultimately, he wishes to use this magic to restore his loved one back to life.
Though he wishes to do good and uphold his master's teachings, he is continuously wary that revealing himself will only cause trouble.
Rufus was born to noble parents. His mother was a elf, his father a human, and to the outside world they appeared a completely normal noble family if a bit private at time. Appearances are deceiving. His mother was a fiend warlock and devil worshipping cultist and his father was a draconic bloodline sorcerer and Tiamat worshipping cultist. Rufus was supposed to be the Scion to usher in an age of darkness but instead he fought his family's guards and fled their estate. He soon joined a circus where trained the ringleader gave him the name Rufus. With them he as a juggler and acrobat and practiced the sword and channeled his innate magic through the bardic arts. After several years his mother's servants found him, and he was forced to leave the circus and began his life as an adventurer.
Level 6 College of Swords Bard
Level 3 Swashbuckler Rogue
Despite being significantly less malevolent than his parents, Rufus is still a selfish person and harbors a lot of anger about his childhood and he frequently lets it get the better of him. His only goal is to avoid his parents and live his life his way.
I'm currently playing in a regular AL group with a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Lore Bard, Eurixia Hss'tafi. She serves as the party's healer, because it fits her cover identity - she claims to be a priestess of Sune.
She hates most of the people she's adventuring with...
The elf wizard is too smart and too pretty. She's also a Mulmaster aristocrat, and a well regarded one, while Eurixia is a sort of disenfranchised noble back in Najara.
The dragonborn would be okay, as a type of Scaled One, except that he's crude and uncouth, and it often hampers her ability to accomplish the party goals in a subtle manner.
The human eldritch knight is just kind of a selfish jerk.
She's fond of the human paladin, but emotions and attachment are a weakness, so she hates him for making her feel like she does.
Lastly, she hates herself because her feelings for the human paladin make her weak.
That said... she treats them all well - they may be tools, but any good craftswoman takes care of her tools.
I've been playing around with the idea of a yuan ti bard, like a reverse snake charmer, college of glamour for all the entrancing effects. I don't know if its going overboard to have her instrument be a handful of live rattlesnakes?
I'm currently playing in a regular AL group with a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Lore Bard, Eurixia Hss'tafi. She serves as the party's healer, because it fits her cover identity - she claims to be a priestess of Sune.
She hates most of the people she's adventuring with...
The elf wizard is too smart and too pretty. She's also a Mulmaster aristocrat, and a well regarded one, while Eurixia is a sort of disenfranchised noble back in Najara.
The dragonborn would be okay, as a type of Scaled One, except that he's crude and uncouth, and it often hampers her ability to accomplish the party goals in a subtle manner.
The human eldritch knight is just kind of a selfish jerk.
She's fond of the human paladin, but emotions and attachment are a weakness, so she hates him for making her feel like she does.
Lastly, she hates herself because her feelings for the human paladin make her weak.
That said... she treats them all well - they may be tools, but any good craftswoman takes care of her tools.
I've been playing around with the idea of a yuan ti bard, like a reverse snake charmer, college of glamour for all the entrancing effects. I don't know if its going overboard to have her instrument be a handful of live rattlesnakes?
I've been playing around with the idea of a yuan ti bard, like a reverse snake charmer, college of glamour for all the entrancing effects. I don't know if its going overboard to have her instrument be a handful of live rattlesnakes?
To be honest, that does seem pretty gonzo, but if your campaign is that kind of campaign, go for it!
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Jester has always been a favorite character of mine. He’s a jester who’s become famous among courts because of his shape-shifting qualities, but I’ve boosted his stealth and deception to a high modifier, so he’s also good at espionage. My favorite espionage mission that I did as Jester was a quest in a Yuan-Ti pyramid and I shapeshifters into a half-blood and walked straight through the door. I kept a sending stone which was connected with our Paladin and I would give updates in each room, then the best thing happened. A Yuan-Ti Abomination Priest told me to go and protect the queen. I literally got to the objective on accident and it was so fun.
Let's see I have a Dwarven Viking Skald Bard, Astrid, who's got a hybrid great axe / lute type thing, and has literally everyone scared of her, even the fanatical barbarian of Freya. Currently level 12. Mostly people are scared of her because of her being a bit crazy, and her invention of a new form of punishment she calls Heralding. Where you use healing magic to basically delimb, burn, pluck the eyes out of, etc, then attach the person to a pole to be carried around or placed in a similar fashion as a heraldic flag all without them dying from shock or blood loss. We've determined she's chaotic evil, which actually makes her my first chaotic evil bard.
I also have my fire genasi escaped harem girl of the grand sultan of the city of brass, Naiya, she's play testing my dancer bard subclass, currently level three. She's chaotic good, and very ant tyranny. Just adding that to make sure people know that not all my character's are psychotic.
Heralding kinda sounds like the blood eagle ritual taken to 11. Valor bard or what college?
Valor bard originally but converted to college of metal which was someones homebrew. And yeah blood eagle taken to eleven. Currently we're heading to fight frost giants. But we'll be at war with the goblin race soon. Astrid has a tendancy of pissing off other peoples gods and has converted a whole army worth of goblinoids while pissing off the goblin god on numerous occasions.
I'm expecting her reckless disregard for other cultures and lack of respect for the gods of her enemies to bite her in the ass eventually. She's out for glory and intends become a legend, so she ramps everything up to eleven. She has an instrument that allows her to alter the weather once per day, she uses it to make an entrance. Just alters the weather willy nilly because it makes her look cool.
Kind of like that time we casually jumped of our instant fortess, and walked into a diplomatic situation because we knew it would be intimidating and look cool if we pulled it off. Sure the damage was annoying, but I have silly bluff and intimidate and athletics so as far as they knew it was irrelivant.
We already have people pissing themselves when viking scouts show up, because thats how we introduce ourselves as scouts, which is what we are, and thanks to Astrid viking scouts have become legendary. We're fair with people who treat us well, but piss us off and well... People are learning.
In my current campaign I'm playing as Quitter, the Goblin Bard. He learned to play music after stealing a Squeezebox from a passing minstrel, and started the process of learning magic from the Jester of his Goblin Horde (For those who don't pay attention to the minutia of Goblin lore, a Jester is a Goblin who gets to act like a well... a Jester to prevent Nilbogs from spawning). He was always fairly lazy (hence his name), and he tended to avoid work, but enjoyed spending time with animals. This made him a bit of an outsider in his clan, but he benefited from his generally friendly attitude making it easier for him to occasionally travel to the nearby human village to trade coin for supplies without simply getting shot on sight by the town guards.
One day, on a trading journey to acquire some fresh meat for his clan, he was playing his trusty squeezebox and noticed that one of the goats in the butcher's pen was dancing along to the music. Not wanting to see a fellow music lover turned into meat, he used his clan's money to purchase her outright. He named the goat Thaco (IC it's the name of a mythical Warg, although OOC nobody got the joke), only to realize his clan wouldn't care about her musical aptitude and would just eat her without a second thought. Despondent, he did what he could to play some music for her to dance along with, only to be shocked when one of the local villagers casually tossed them a copper. This was the first wealth he was ever given outright... Realizing the potential, he resolved to abandon his clan and venture out with Thaco to find wealth and comfort (and accidentally stumbled into adventure)
He's a Lore Bard, and I gave him the Entertainer Background, but honestly he would have made more sense to treat as an Outlander or Urchin. There's probably a solid homebrew that would make more sense for a monster race. I tried to play it more like he's a weirdo by Goblin standards, rather than go for the idea the goblins are "just misunderstood" or something like that.
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I'm working on a 3rd level swords bard for a new campaign I'm starting soon, he is a half elf who was raised by a nomadic tribe of marauders, before he betrayed them and split with the heist money. He has some serious Peter Quill vibes, and exclusively sings 90s alt-rock (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, Smash Mouth, Counting Crows, the works - purely comedic flavoring on my part). The most interesting thing about him is that, inspired by Matt Coleville's video on the subject, the dm and I collaborated to say that as a result of illithid experiments (which he doesn't remember, since he has no memories before the age of 12) he is infected by a magical, chaotic evil symbiote which will slowly gain power and control over him...
I recently put together a Bard for the purpose of playing through Curse of Strahd.
Using the haunted one background, the Bard had previously been enslaved by an ancient fey hag, and was forced to enchant children and lure them to the hag’s lair to be consumed. Due to the weird nature of time in the feywild, while the character was in service for what felt like a few years, centuries passed. The character recognises themselves in local folk tales of the wicked figure, like the pied piper, who steals away children with their alluring magic.
Having broken free of servitude ,and stealing a shard of the hag’s power, the bard is of the college of glamour, and seeks to make amends for their past deeds. They look like an emo musician who plays haunting dirges - never again wanting to play the happy, lively music that led so many children to their deaths.
Using DnD beyond to create the character, I let the random name generator name the character. The name it provided was Gotthard.
So the character’s full name now is Gotthard Orgohomme.
Working on a bard for a quest starting in October.
Her name is Rhys and she's a twin to another bard character another player is making named Riley (we're like "We can't both be bards!" followed by a pause and going, "Why not?!" hence the twins were created). They call themselves the "Scottish Brothers Troupe" and yes Rhys identifies as a woman. The twins are super protective of each other and at the same time highly insulting to each other, you know like siblings are. And their main instruments are bagpipes (we also have a flute and fiddle for down times).
We're going into battle blasting Thunderstruck and no one is going to stop us.
I am currently only a LV 2 Bard going to 3 soon (College of Whispers); I am also a Yuan-Ti Pureblood, my proficiency is in the Flute as I am a Snake Charmer (Have a pet snake I keep in my robes called Snep). I use animal friendship and speak with animals quite commonly as well as Sleep. But I really love vicious mockery.
My second PC ever, after I DMed our group's last campaign, is the wood elven bard of lore, Ecarys Thalaeon. He's a charlatan who would looove some say in matters of power somewhere, but has had some hiccups climbing the social ladder...
He's lv4, and acts mainly as the Face and as Support to a party of a HElf Druid, a Gnome Arcane Trickster (rogue), a WElf rogue (assassin), and a Dwarf Hunter Ranger. The Assassin takes a big role in social interactions as well, and the Ranger is a wonderful roleplayer that brings some much appreciated levity to the table through his rural mannerisms. The Druid and the Gnome are usually a bit more quiet, though the Druid has been taking more agency lately. The Gnome is known around the table as the one who rolls insane clutch checks to save everyone in dire straits.
The main things I do are ask questions and apply social pressure to drive the story forwards. In combat I'm the one who usually goes down first, for I dumped on my Con while I love doing big plays, but I have some important control abilities that allow our damage dealers to do their thing. Hold Person and Blindness are my go-to spells, and Cure Wounds is much appreciated as we have no other healer. I took Thunderwave for damage but rarely get to use it for fear of harming my friends who also like to be in the thick of things. Prestidigitation is my favourite cantrip.
Ecarys is Str 11, Dex 16, Con 10 (8 originally), Int 14, Wis 12, and Cha 14. He wields a longbow and a rapier, and wears leather armour. He's well spoken and acts as if his Cha was 20 (leading to some interesting situations), is chaotic good, loyal to the people close to him and hungry for political influence. He plays the finnish national instrument, a kantele, which is represented by a dulcimer on his sheet. As his Dex will tell you he is a very apt dancer, though that hasn't really come up yet in the campaign.
Ecarys is fun to play. He always has a role, in no little measure thanks to Jack of All Trades and the Lore College, as well as the way he sort of swooped up the rest of the party to help him escape the town we started in when a scam of his went sour pre-campaign. Sometimes I worry about hogging the spotlight too much and subsequently hang back for a while to allow the others to do more stuff, but I do think the party dynamic is quite naturally flowing, especially as the Druid and the Arcane Trickster seem more naturally to be of the hangs-back kinda people.
Recently he fiddled with a cult leader's amulet and had a nightmare vision of an ancient Goddess of Madness and Monsters, which in addition to him nearly dying twice within a fortnight has left the poor troubadour a bit shell shocked. I'm interested to see where his story will lead.
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -Death
To revisit Fiego, what better way to learn a bard than to make a playlist? At this posting he is now a Swords Bard 4/ Swashbuckler Rogue 3/ Hexblade Warlock 1.
Fiego Laurentis de Gryphon Playlist
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Victor Emile Xant aka Vex
Variant human male
Lvl 3. College Swords
16/14/12/10/8/14 in str/dex/con/int/wis/cha
Feats: Dual wielder
Vex is boring. That's what he thinks of his own backstory. He's just another human from the Sword Coast born into a merchant family and not one with a long and storied past either. So he began telling tales.
Now he can be a Thunderchild, a long lost prince or the chosen one. Anything he wishes, if only to the end of the story.
Years go by and he finds a mentor in the tavernowner Aenar, a retired Blade. Now armed with spell and sword, Victor wants to make a name for himself.
This was my first 5e character as well as my first bard.
Kevin Dynamite
Lore Bard
He was a mix between Bullhorn from Black Dynamite and the Funky Phantom. Kevin was from our world and was somehow lost in the DMs universe. About four sessions in he named the party, "Kevin Dynamite and the Amazing Friends!" I love DnD
Emerencia the brave, the daring, the great!
On the run from a pair of trackers from a pirate lord she accidentally embarrassed during a performance, honestly, who gets THAT mad over spilled beer? It was one mis-thrown dagger during my finale at the party. I even tried to make fun of her being all wet to break the tension. Some people have no sense of humor.
Anyway, I found a group of folks that call themselves the Smoking Drake Company. They didn't seem to mind me tagging along to dodge my pursuers. There was one time, I had set an elaborate booby trap involving a wet floor, a bucket and a door... the little gnome, wet gnome, she hates me even more now. How was I supposed to know the water was dirty? Her human companion always liked me and doesn't really put a lot of effort into catching me. I think she likes the traps I set. Now SHE has a sense of humor.
Emerencia has recently reached 8th level, College of Swords. She favors daggers, a rapier, daggers, spells that bewilder, spells that involve daggers, and she figured out how to kind of teleport. She also likes daggers.
Charles the Charlatan, level 3 Whisper Bard
This is my first time playing, and did not have a character ready at session 0. That was alright though because I wanted to be a team player more than anything, and pick a class that seemed as different as the rest of the group as possible. Also, I liked the idea of talking my way out of problems, and I knew bards were good for that.
I was originally going to play him as stereotypical as possible. A tavern performer who’s a lot more interested in music than combat. Then, as I’m going through the possible backgrounds, I come across Charlatan, and I decided that this was my class, Bard is just my ability.
Charles’ new backstory:
Charles was a traditional bard as a teenager. He made some extra money performing in the common room of the brothel that his mother worked in. She was human, but given his ears he assumed that his father must be some elf that had passed through. He would entertain the men that came through, play for tips, and often play cards with them - though he always cheated.
One of the more unique patrons was a gnome named Hâllen. Charles knew he was some wealthy guild member, but Charles did not realize that he was also a very powerful gang boss. Had Charles known that, he probably would’ve let Hâll win more often. But he never did, so Hâll always wanted to play to earn back his money. One evening, Hâll was dealt two eights of diamonds, and he realized Charles’ scam. Charles was shuffling his own marked deck into the game, and then shuffling it back out by the end of the night.
Any other gang boss would have had Charles’ fingers broken over this, and Hâll considered telling his Goliath bodyguard to do so. But instead, he offered Charles an apprenticeship.
From then on out, Hâll became like a father figure to Charles. Charles learned to become a better con artist and how to keep his fingers from being broken. The gang successfully pulled off some significant heists over the next few years, and having a bard in the gang proved useful. People don’t often watch the musicians at the party as closely as they do the guests, and Charles exploited that fact many times over. He rarely hurt anyone, as his tasks were more focused on disguises, forgery, and lies, but the gang as a whole got more violent and brazen as the years went on.
One job turned out to be a set up by a rival gang. The town guard was waiting for Charles and company, and they had to split up and run. That was five years ago, and Charles has taken his cons on the road. He hasn’t seen anyone from his old crew since, and he’s not sure what would happen if he did.
Name: Flak
Race: Goblin
Subclass: Sword Bard
Background: Gladiator
Feats: Squat Nimbleness, Dual Wielder, Mobile
Native to the goblin tribe known as Clan Vile, located in a heavily forested region known as the Fellingwood, Flak was unique among his goblin kin, possessing a keen empathy and comprehension of the world around him. His clan would often initiate raids upon the neighboring towns and villages that bordered the Fellingwood, a prospect Flak himself had no stomach for. The first three raids, Flak could not bring himself to participate...he watched as his goblin clan murdered, raided and burned everything they encountered.
The fourth time, Flak intervened.
As he goblin clan attempted to gather some scared townsfolk to be enslaved, Flak turned against his clan and released the prisoners, sustaining a grievous wound in the process. This allowed the surviving townsfolk to rally enough to drive back the goblin incursion, with the aid of a paladin who happened to be present within the town.
This paladin had witnessed Flak's act of kindness, and recognized that he was a rare goblin of compassion and valor, and used her healing hands to revive him. She offered to take him on as her squire, a request that baffled the remaining townsfolk.
For the first time, Flak had been judged not by what he was, but by who he is. She had taken his measure by his heart, and not his appearance.
He accepted this paladins offer, and together they travelled the land, protecting the innocent. This paladin taught Flak the ways of the blade, and though Flak needed to hide his face from others in public, in the privacy of an inn or their campsite, the two of them became fast friends. And over time, their master-apprentice relationship became...something more.
But one day, while in town, Flak's face was revealed to some braggarts that encountered them in a town square. Believing that Flak was some monstrous thief, and the paladin a charlatan he was allied with, the group of people soon became agitated into a mob. Despite the protest of the paladin that Flak was an innocent, the mob lashed out at them, and the paladin ordered Flak to run while she attempted to calm them down and explain.
Outnumbered and seeing no other option, Flak did as he was ordered and fled, leaving the town and heading back to their campsite.
Flak waited for the paladin to return. An hour passed. Then another. Soon, it began to grow dark.
Worried, Flak stealthily snuck back to the town to find his friend.
He found her hanging from a tree in the middle of the town square...unarmored, battered and lifeless.
Devastated and heartbroken, he cut her down and took her body away from that terrible place, finding a place far away to lay her to rest.
After the burial, Flak ventured out on his own, concealing his true goblin nature constantly beneath cloak and helm. Though he could not bring himself to isolation, he had to be careful with whom he communicated with...with his considerable martial skills, he would earn coin in fighting pits, entering anonymously, always hiding his face beneath a helm, going by the alias "The Halfling", seeing as he could pass himself off as the small race somewhat easily. He would move from one town to the next, never lingering for very long for fear of discovery.
But all the while, Flak lamented his friends loss and fostered thoughts of guilt. She was dead because of what he was. He was determined to set things right.
Bardic legends told of an incredible power bestowed upon an individual...power that could even raise the dead...
Flak is a "College of Swords" bard who uses his master's teachings, combined with his own nimbleness, to pull off daring feats of swordplay. He multiclasses a bit of paladin to use "Divine Smite", and is a whirling dervish of dual blades.
His goblin skill to "Disengage", combined with "Squat Nimbelness", "Mobile" and his Flourishes, means that he is astoundingly fast and incredibly hard to pin down.
His venturing into magic is a means of practicality and survival...as a bard, he can use such magic to avoid trouble.
Ultimately, he wishes to use this magic to restore his loved one back to life.
Though he wishes to do good and uphold his master's teachings, he is continuously wary that revealing himself will only cause trouble.
Rufus was born to noble parents. His mother was a elf, his father a human, and to the outside world they appeared a completely normal noble family if a bit private at time. Appearances are deceiving. His mother was a fiend warlock and devil worshipping cultist and his father was a draconic bloodline sorcerer and Tiamat worshipping cultist. Rufus was supposed to be the Scion to usher in an age of darkness but instead he fought his family's guards and fled their estate. He soon joined a circus where trained the ringleader gave him the name Rufus. With them he as a juggler and acrobat and practiced the sword and channeled his innate magic through the bardic arts. After several years his mother's servants found him, and he was forced to leave the circus and began his life as an adventurer.
Level 6 College of Swords Bard
Level 3 Swashbuckler Rogue
Despite being significantly less malevolent than his parents, Rufus is still a selfish person and harbors a lot of anger about his childhood and he frequently lets it get the better of him. His only goal is to avoid his parents and live his life his way.
I've been playing around with the idea of a yuan ti bard, like a reverse snake charmer, college of glamour for all the entrancing effects. I don't know if its going overboard to have her instrument be a handful of live rattlesnakes?
I've been playing around with the idea of a yuan ti bard, like a reverse snake charmer, college of glamour for all the entrancing effects. I don't know if its going overboard to have her instrument be a handful of live rattlesnakes?
To be honest, that does seem pretty gonzo, but if your campaign is that kind of campaign, go for it!
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Name: Jester the Jester
Race: Changeling
Class: Lvl 4 College of Satire Bard
Background: Entertainer
Jester has always been a favorite character of mine. He’s a jester who’s become famous among courts because of his shape-shifting qualities, but I’ve boosted his stealth and deception to a high modifier, so he’s also good at espionage. My favorite espionage mission that I did as Jester was a quest in a Yuan-Ti pyramid and I shapeshifters into a half-blood and walked straight through the door. I kept a sending stone which was connected with our Paladin and I would give updates in each room, then the best thing happened. A Yuan-Ti Abomination Priest told me to go and protect the queen. I literally got to the objective on accident and it was so fun.