[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by Dammann

It appears to me that these songs are a sort of spells-as-powers as alternative abilities to Bardic Talent. The Bardic Talent is prerequisite to casting the more traditional spells.

Nah. They're not alternative abilities to the Talent. That's like saying spells are an alternative ability to Magery.

The Talent doesn't stop working while you use the songs and you don't get a price discount for your first song; you have to pay full price. If it was an AA of the Talent, then you would get a big discount on your first one. Which is a fine idea, mind, and I would prefer for it to work that way. But that's not how it works. Also, those songs cost more than the Talent they have as a prerequisite, so obviously they're not AAs.

I'd rule that spells cast via Bardic Talent that require maintenance expire as soon as a Bard Song is used.

That doesn't follow the text.

Spells with durations might continue, however. Bravery lasts one hour, and cannot be maintained. I look at duration as the effect of the spell, independent of what happens to the caster, so I would rule that Bravery continues, even if the caster switches his active Alternate Ability or if he dies.

I'm not sure if Bravery should even stop. The Song limitation in Basic says you have to sing to cast spells and it points to the rituals section of the magic chapter.

I would rule, then, that you only need to sing to cast the spell in the first place, and that additional singing is not required to maintain bard spells.

I think that's the correct interpretation, and that's what I was assuming originally when I suggested using Bravery with the Terror power. Just look at what it says for Bardic Talent:

Originally Posted by DF 1

Bardic Talent both adds to Bard-Song rolls and lets the bard cast Communication and Empathy and Mind Control spells (only!) as if he were a wizard who had the same level of Magery with the Song limitation.

The song limitation doesn't say anything at all about maintaining spells. So I would assume that works as normal.


Where the need to sing or play an instrument comes in is with the abilities with the Bard-Song modifier on them, which works differently from the song limitation which they have on their Magery.

That stuff under Bard-Song, then, only applies to those abilities with that modifier. Not to his spells. And we still need rules for fighting while singing or playing an instrument, or doing two things at once. But oh well.



Therefore, under the clear reading of the text, the bard can maintain his spells as normal, maintain multiple spells, and do everything else as a wizard. The only difference with his spells is that he never ignores the need to speak as a ritual, and that speaking must be in a musical form. That's all the song limitation does on his spells.

We were getting the Song limitation for his Magery and the Bard-Song limitation for his powers mixed together earlier. They're two separate things and they each work very differently.



So Bravery + Terror works just fine, and that's the best use of the Terror power if you don't mind spending the FP to cast the spell. Otherwise, just have the rest of the party plug their ears while you pound on your drums from a half a mile away or whatever. You can terrify an entire village with that thing. It's one of the best area attacks in the game.