[restlessgriffin]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Adventurers page 112, "Woodwind. Bamboo flute, tin whistle, or similar. You cannot speak while playing. Two-handed. $40, 1 lb."

I would say no, Jag cannot do what he claims to be able to do. He must sing.

That's unfortunate as it really limits the viability of many instruments. I'd really like to see greater variety and really liked that Jag didn't just use the traditional lute. This also means no mute Bards. No pied piper style Bards. What a shame. Disappointing.

I'd also love to see magic users that can spell cast using dance. I'd want to fit them under the Bard template.

Song of Command is clearly intended to work on groups per the clause "-1 per slave already under your control (you can add one new victim to the song per turn);". I see nothing in Song of Command that suggests to me that you cannot control groups by issuing verbal commands to the group, e.g. "arrest that man!" In fact, controlling groups would be fairly useless if you could not command them as groups.

While that's the way I'd like it to be, I don't think that is according to RAW. The modifiers seems to imply you need to do targets one at a time. The main text also seems to indicate this. "You can control the mind of someone" (singular). ... "you can add one new victim to the song per turn".

Personally, I'd prefer being able to act on an entire group. Say there are 10 enemies, you chose to target 5 of them to limit the negative modifiers. You go into Song of Command and order them to "drop your weapons". So the Bard is at -5 (-1 for each targeted enemy). Any of them that fail the quick contest will drop their weapons. Bardic Talent provides a bonus to the Bard.

RAW seems to indicate you could only order on person and then one other each turn with cumulative -1 for each person still under control. So if you ordered " drop your weapon and leave it on the ground" that could be done one at a time.

can also cast Bravery on your whole party for 1 hour for 2 FP, if you first squeeze everybody into the same hex. Note that Bards can learn Bravery. This is much, much better than high levels of Fearlessness because Fearlessness still fails on a roll of 14+ (per Exploits page 10).

I did not think Bards could learn Bravery as I did see any reference to Bard in the spell. Hopefully you are correct and I'm misinterpreting that. BTW, It would also help with Druid since I would like them to have dull access to all Elemental spells, not just ones listing druidic.

It's possible that Resist Sound might also work against Song of Terror--check with your GM.

Pro tip: an elven bard can learn Concussion, and if you precast Resist Sound on everybody in the party then Concussion becomes a fantastic spell, not just for the Bard but for any Wizards in the party too. This nicely covers a Bardic weakness, namely the issue of what to do in a dungeon crawl when fighting Unfazeable monsters immune to mind control? Hurling AoE grenades for HT-3 stun that friendlies are immune to is one great answer; to a lesser extent casting strategic Magery 0 spells like Haste and Darkness is also a good use of time. (Wading into melee or firing a bow is also an option against weak foes but it's nice to have better options.)

Concussion still causes damage.. The sound component only impacts stun effect. However, I see your point on using the spell vs Unfazable opponents. I'll make a note on that. Thanks.

Note also that Bardic Songs do not take penalties from spells "on", so in some ways bards are even better at buffing than wizards and clerics are. Even with six or seven spells on and effective spell skill of only 9, a bard can still Mind Control or Rapier Wit at full skill, whereas a wizard's Charm spell would be very anemic at skill 9.[/QUOTE]

Noted.