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DFRPG / Stunt/Power for Bardic style magic - What do you think?
« on: July 23, 2010, 01:44:56 PM »
Hey all!
So I was playing with the concept of a character that used rhyme and song to control/power his magic and there are numerous ways to do it in the DFRPG. For instance I could create a version of channelling/evocation that uses perform to control the magic, either with a stunt or just changing the power itself slightly (allowing the character to use perform instead of discipline to control seems relatively fair considering how relatively rare the perform skill is and how important mental defense could be). This could be a useful way to do it, possibly the best way to do it for a pure bard, but not what I was looking for.
Alternatively, I could use perform as a skill to gain a bonus to spell casting but again, that's really not what I'm looking for and will be expensive spell wise.
So how about this. A stunt/power that allows you to gain a +2 bonus to your attack roll if you actually make up a rhyme or song that matches the spell you want to cast. The +2 is justified by saying that if you can't come up with a good rhyme then you can't cast the spell. It's not skill based but role-play based (doggerel, limericks and cheesy lines from popular songs all count) and you can't ever repeat a rhyme. If you come up with a rhyme or song that isn't very good then you can cast but you don't get a bonus. It's done as a free action.
Of course, you could make it even more bardic and have this as a stunt.
'Once per exchange as a supplemental action you can give yourself a +2 bonus to a roll, or someone else either +1 or -1 to a single roll if you can come up with a relevant song or rhyme.
Of course you can create a variant of these with the perform skill, but I think actually saying rhymes or singing songs when gaming is a lot more fun
So what do you think? Is it balanced? Would you play a character that could do this?
So I was playing with the concept of a character that used rhyme and song to control/power his magic and there are numerous ways to do it in the DFRPG. For instance I could create a version of channelling/evocation that uses perform to control the magic, either with a stunt or just changing the power itself slightly (allowing the character to use perform instead of discipline to control seems relatively fair considering how relatively rare the perform skill is and how important mental defense could be). This could be a useful way to do it, possibly the best way to do it for a pure bard, but not what I was looking for.
Alternatively, I could use perform as a skill to gain a bonus to spell casting but again, that's really not what I'm looking for and will be expensive spell wise.
So how about this. A stunt/power that allows you to gain a +2 bonus to your attack roll if you actually make up a rhyme or song that matches the spell you want to cast. The +2 is justified by saying that if you can't come up with a good rhyme then you can't cast the spell. It's not skill based but role-play based (doggerel, limericks and cheesy lines from popular songs all count) and you can't ever repeat a rhyme. If you come up with a rhyme or song that isn't very good then you can cast but you don't get a bonus. It's done as a free action.
Of course, you could make it even more bardic and have this as a stunt.
'Once per exchange as a supplemental action you can give yourself a +2 bonus to a roll, or someone else either +1 or -1 to a single roll if you can come up with a relevant song or rhyme.
Of course you can create a variant of these with the perform skill, but I think actually saying rhymes or singing songs when gaming is a lot more fun
So what do you think? Is it balanced? Would you play a character that could do this?