Long Story Short: I am homebrewing a Bard subclass. In the context of the class, I feel it makes sense to say that this specific subclass wouldn't need an Arcane Focus. Essentially, their magic would come from within in a way that doesn't need to be channeled into an item.
Putting aside issues of Magic Canon, does this create problems for the balance of the game? I don't typically have a strong head for numbers and nitty-gritty, so I'm having trouble parsing if giving the Bard a second hand free would fundamentally affect their combat balance. Does anyone have any insight or experience with this topic?
Material components (or the spellcasting foci that can replace them) are things that characters can lose access to, which is somewhat important to game balance (it's at least worth considering). I've tossed around the idea of playing a draconic bloodline sorcerer whose spellcasting focus is their blood, which runs into the similar issue of "if someone manages to deny them their focus, it's because they're dead," which doesn't actually solve the problem. Balance-wise, the material component 1) can be denied and 2) takes a free hand. As long as you account for those two things, there's no balance concern. If you don't account for them, just think about how much of an impact it's going to make?
It acts in a similar way to somatic components, which require you to physically hold something - without this spell component you will get a lot more PCs wielding two-handed weapons or weapon+shield whilst casting spells freely.
Long Story Short: I am homebrewing a Bard subclass. In the context of the class, I feel it makes sense to say that this specific subclass wouldn't need an Arcane Focus. Essentially, their magic would come from within in a way that doesn't need to be channeled into an item.
Putting aside issues of Magic Canon, does this create problems for the balance of the game? I don't typically have a strong head for numbers and nitty-gritty, so I'm having trouble parsing if giving the Bard a second hand free would fundamentally affect their combat balance. Does anyone have any insight or experience with this topic?
Thanks!
It sounds interesting and I would love to hear your ideas. To clarify, though, spellcasters never actually need to use a spellcasting focus to cast their spells. What they will sometimes require is a Material Component which is a specific item or kind of item, in order to cast the spell. If that item is both common enough to not have a listed monetary value and is not consumed by the casting of the spell, then the spellcaster has the option of holding a spellcasting focus in their hand instead of providing the material component. If the item has a listed cost or is consumed during casting, the spellcaster must provide that exact item in order to cast the spell and may not substitute it with a focus.
That said, if your homebrew subclass allowed the bard to forego the use of a focus or an instrument in the case where the spell is able to use a focus I don't think that would be unbalanced.
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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!
Swords Bards can use their weapons as foci, which lessens the burden on them, so there is precedent for this. Your version just does away with it altogether, which is slightly more powerful, but the same feature on a Swords Bard also provides an armor proficiency so if this was all the feature did I don't think it would be overpowered.
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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!
I think all of the complicated rules interactions with spellcasting foci can be boiled down to trying to enforce 2 balancing factors:
Being able to "disarm" a spellcaster (compared to martials that are significantly hindered without their gear).
Forcing spellcasters to dedicate a hand to "equipping" spellcasting (compared to martials which can't have a melee weapon, ranged weapon, and shield equipped at the same time. Burden of choice).
I just filtered out spells to see if there were any with a Material component only and no other component necessary, but it returned nothing. So currently there is no spell that would allow this proposed subclass to cast spells with no components at all.
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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!
Everyone above has done a great job outlining the key balance concerns. I just wanted to quickly add that keeping a free hand for casting is not actually a hurdle for a player using a two handed weapon. They can go freely between swinging there great axe and pulling things out of their spell component pouch without needing to draw or stow anything. You only need both hands on the weapon when actually swinging it. Having a free hand is a problem for players that are dual wielding or using a sword and a shield.
Perhaps a thematic way to ensure slight balance - this bard class can replace any material component with a verbal component (except those with a gold cost or which are consumed by the spell). Turns a VM spell into a V, and SM or VSM into VS.
End result would be a few spells now being able to cast while holding things in two hands or while tied up, but gagging the bard or trapping then in a Silence spell could completely shut down almost all of their casting.
But yeah, the impact on overall game balance is very small.
Similar features already exist. Model it after that!
Eg:
When you cast any spell of 1st level or higher from your Psionic Spells feature, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal or by spending a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level. If you cast the spell using sorcery points, it requires no verbal or somatic components, and it requires no material components, unless they are consumed by the spell.
Inspired Spellcasting.
When you cast any spell of 1st level or higher from your Bard spell list, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal plus by spending a use of your bardic inspiration. If you cast the spell in this way, it requires no verbal or somatic components, and it requires no material components, unless they are consumed by the spell.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
It acts in a similar way to somatic components, which require you to physically hold something - without this spell component you will get a lot more PCs wielding two-handed weapons or weapon+shield whilst casting spells freely.
My primary spellcaster PCs typically favor two-handed weapons for that very reason.
Long Story Short: I am homebrewing a Bard subclass. In the context of the class, I feel it makes sense to say that this specific subclass wouldn't need an Arcane Focus. Essentially, their magic would come from within in a way that doesn't need to be channeled into an item.
Putting aside issues of Magic Canon, does this create problems for the balance of the game? I don't typically have a strong head for numbers and nitty-gritty, so I'm having trouble parsing if giving the Bard a second hand free would fundamentally affect their combat balance. Does anyone have any insight or experience with this topic?
Thanks!
In descending priority order, here are the balance problems you introduce (some of which may be intentional):
You've written the ability to work on Arcane Foci, which Bards can't use, so your house-rule does nothing: Bards can't use Arcane Foci, so the ability to ignore needing one is useless. I will continue this list assuming the ability also works on Bard Spellcasting Foci.
While it doesn't work on Bards RAW, it does work on Arcane Focus users: Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards. I'll assume below this is intentional and keep it, as most of the potential consequences come from multiclassing.
Subtle Spell normally doesn't actually work due to the M component; anyone seeing you touch your focus to cast has seen you cast and gets access to the usual consequences, including casting Counterspell. This fully enables Subtle Spell to render spells subtle, casting a spell with no components at all and hence ignoring Counterspell or other potential Reactions to the cast, among other consequences.
The bard no longer needs a hand free to touch their focus, meaning for any V/M spell or any V/S/M spell with Subtle Spell, you've enabled them to cast without juggling their equipment, which generally doesn't come up but can when their Use Item interaction is busy doing something other than picking their weapon back up after casting. It also comes up with Reaction spells of all sorts, as the Bard can't juggle off-turn.
You've reduced the minimum carrying capacity spent on casting Bard spells known from the Bard class from 1 pound (Shawm or Flute) to 0.
For Sorcerers, Wizards, and Warlocks, you've reduced from 1 pound (Wand or Crystal) or 4 pounds (Staff) to 0.
You've reduced the minimum gp spent on casting these spells from 2 gp (Shawm or Flute) to 0.
For Sorcerers, Wizards, and Warlocks, you've reduced from 5 gp (Staff) or 10 gp (Wand or Crystal) to 0.
You've rendered it impossible to remove the focus from the Bard, which makes it a lot harder to do things like safely imprison them or have plots where their focus was stolen and they need to recover it.
None of these are the biggest deal in the world if you're willing to give up, as a DM, on plots centering around them, especially item 6. Item 3 has been hyped a lot in this thread but is usually immaterial because most combats don't heavily involve needing your item interaction, particularly if you build your Bard around not needing filled pockets. Any Bard can nearly freely cast while wielding a sword+board or two-handed weapon as it is by using their Item Interaction to re-ready their weapon after casting, which is what I meant by "juggling" above.
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Long Story Short: I am homebrewing a Bard subclass. In the context of the class, I feel it makes sense to say that this specific subclass wouldn't need an Arcane Focus. Essentially, their magic would come from within in a way that doesn't need to be channeled into an item.
Putting aside issues of Magic Canon, does this create problems for the balance of the game? I don't typically have a strong head for numbers and nitty-gritty, so I'm having trouble parsing if giving the Bard a second hand free would fundamentally affect their combat balance. Does anyone have any insight or experience with this topic?
Thanks!
Material components (or the spellcasting foci that can replace them) are things that characters can lose access to, which is somewhat important to game balance (it's at least worth considering). I've tossed around the idea of playing a draconic bloodline sorcerer whose spellcasting focus is their blood, which runs into the similar issue of "if someone manages to deny them their focus, it's because they're dead," which doesn't actually solve the problem. Balance-wise, the material component 1) can be denied and 2) takes a free hand. As long as you account for those two things, there's no balance concern. If you don't account for them, just think about how much of an impact it's going to make?
It acts in a similar way to somatic components, which require you to physically hold something - without this spell component you will get a lot more PCs wielding two-handed weapons or weapon+shield whilst casting spells freely.
It sounds interesting and I would love to hear your ideas. To clarify, though, spellcasters never actually need to use a spellcasting focus to cast their spells. What they will sometimes require is a Material Component which is a specific item or kind of item, in order to cast the spell. If that item is both common enough to not have a listed monetary value and is not consumed by the casting of the spell, then the spellcaster has the option of holding a spellcasting focus in their hand instead of providing the material component. If the item has a listed cost or is consumed during casting, the spellcaster must provide that exact item in order to cast the spell and may not substitute it with a focus.
That said, if your homebrew subclass allowed the bard to forego the use of a focus or an instrument in the case where the spell is able to use a focus I don't think that would be unbalanced.
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!
Swords Bards can use their weapons as foci, which lessens the burden on them, so there is precedent for this. Your version just does away with it altogether, which is slightly more powerful, but the same feature on a Swords Bard also provides an armor proficiency so if this was all the feature did I don't think it would be overpowered.
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!
I think all of the complicated rules interactions with spellcasting foci can be boiled down to trying to enforce 2 balancing factors:
I just filtered out spells to see if there were any with a Material component only and no other component necessary, but it returned nothing. So currently there is no spell that would allow this proposed subclass to cast spells with no components at all.
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!
Everyone above has done a great job outlining the key balance concerns. I just wanted to quickly add that keeping a free hand for casting is not actually a hurdle for a player using a two handed weapon. They can go freely between swinging there great axe and pulling things out of their spell component pouch without needing to draw or stow anything. You only need both hands on the weapon when actually swinging it. Having a free hand is a problem for players that are dual wielding or using a sword and a shield.
Perhaps a thematic way to ensure slight balance - this bard class can replace any material component with a verbal component (except those with a gold cost or which are consumed by the spell). Turns a VM spell into a V, and SM or VSM into VS.
End result would be a few spells now being able to cast while holding things in two hands or while tied up, but gagging the bard or trapping then in a Silence spell could completely shut down almost all of their casting.
But yeah, the impact on overall game balance is very small.
Homebrew subclass? Add a feature. Simple.
Similar features already exist. Model it after that!
Eg:
When you cast any spell of 1st level or higher from your Psionic Spells feature, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal or by spending a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level. If you cast the spell using sorcery points, it requires no verbal or somatic components, and it requires no material components, unless they are consumed by the spell.
Inspired Spellcasting.
When you cast any spell of 1st level or higher from your Bard spell list, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal plus by spending a use of your bardic inspiration. If you cast the spell in this way, it requires no verbal or somatic components, and it requires no material components, unless they are consumed by the spell.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
It won't break anything, no. Especially not on a Bard. They don't have much to do with their hands anyway.
My primary spellcaster PCs typically favor two-handed weapons for that very reason.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
In descending priority order, here are the balance problems you introduce (some of which may be intentional):
None of these are the biggest deal in the world if you're willing to give up, as a DM, on plots centering around them, especially item 6. Item 3 has been hyped a lot in this thread but is usually immaterial because most combats don't heavily involve needing your item interaction, particularly if you build your Bard around not needing filled pockets. Any Bard can nearly freely cast while wielding a sword+board or two-handed weapon as it is by using their Item Interaction to re-ready their weapon after casting, which is what I meant by "juggling" above.