Divine Bard?

[b-dog]

I was thinking about a Sufi minstrel for my Dungeon Fantasy Silk Road setting and I was wondering if replacing the magical power with Divine power is too much for the Dungeon Fantasy setting. Ashique Hamri was born outside of Kabul and learned to play musical instruments at the local mosque and then decided to use his talents in service to the Divine. He is able to use his music to turn undead and also soothe the sick and injured. His music can also inspire evil people to become righteous so long as he plays his oud. Would he be better as just a cleric who uses music to cast his magic or should he be a bard? Thanks.

[Kromm]

To be honest, it would be kind of cool to posit variant Bardic Talent that works like Power Investiture instead of Magery and lets somebody use the clerical spell list instead of the bardic one. That's going pretty far off the reservation, but I doubt it would break the game.

[b-dog]

An Infernal Bard could be interesting too. Maybe all the warnings about Rock and Roll by the church is true...

[Stone Dog]

I'm not normally a big fan of b-dog's posts, but I have to admit that this is a fun idea. From a divine bard playing the music of the heavenly spheres to an infernal rocker. This is good stuff.

Especially since there is an In Nomine scenario where angels and demons are struggling to to command the Word of Rock and Roll.

[Anthony]

You could probably just swap Magery 0 + Bardic Talent for Clerical Investment + Power Investiture, but you'd wind up with a weird spell list, and just letting divine bards ignore prerequisites for the spells in their normal list would amount to them being Just Plain Better. I guess you could let them learn spells from their normal list without prerequisites, but require a virtuous life (oddly, clerical spellcasting doesn't seem to require you to live a virtuous life).

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

You could probably just swap Magery 0 + Bardic Talent for Clerical Investment + Power Investiture, but you'd wind up with a weird spell list, and just letting divine bards ignore prerequisites for the spells in their normal list would amount to them being Just Plain Better. I guess you could let them learn spells from their normal list without prerequisites, but require a virtuous life (oddly, clerical spellcasting doesn't seem to require you to live a virtuous life).

Bards don't have Magery 0.

[Kromm]

The way I'd do it is simply to treat "divine bards" as regular bards with Bardic Talent (Sacred) in lieu of regular Bardic Talent, the clerical spell list in lieu of the four standard wizardly colleges, Bardic Talent levels standing in for Power Investiture levels, and the need for sanctity replacing the need for mana. It's true that a bard must sing while a cleric needn't do so, but then a cleric has to pay 5 points for Clerical Investment while a bard doesn't.

[b-dog]

I was thinking that the Divine Bard may be a good way to represent the Buddhist monk. He could chant and have others meditate to heal them or to remove sickness or curses. Maybe his mere meditation creates an aura that turns arrows into flowers or creates a calmness that causes monsters to become peaceful or flee if they are truly evil.

[Imbicatus]

Or create a Druidic variant for the Pied Piper of Hamlin...