Bards are welcome everywhere as entertainers, reporters, and mail carriers. Bards have a near-sacred charge to deliver messages quickly and accurately. Anyone who self-identifies as a bard in a community is commonly expected to publicly post his or her itinerary and temporary residence, so that people can give the bard messages and packages to deliver. Although some bards don't like to be tied down to an itinerary, this is standard practice to avoid being mobbed with requests for delivering messages to places he or she has no intention of visiting.

Bard

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills

The bard’s class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all) (Int), Language (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the bard.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A bard is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the longsword, rapier, sap, short sword, shortbow, and whip. Bards are also proficient with light armor, medium armor, and shields (except tower shields). A bard can cast bard spells while wearing light armor and using a shield without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance.

     Unlike traditional arcane spellcasters, a bard can cast spellsongs while wearing armor or using a shield, suffering no chance of spellsong failure if the total armor check penalty is –3 or better. Otherwise, you suffer arcane failure chance as normal.

Bardic Knowledge

A bard picks up a lot of stray knowledge while wandering the land and learning stories from other bards. You may make a special bardic knowledge check with a bonus equal to your level plus Intelligence modifier to see whether you know some relevant information about local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places. This check does not reveal the powers of a magic item but may give a hint as to its general function. You may not take 10 or take 20 on this check; this sort of knowledge is essentially random.

Spellsongs

A bard casts arcane spellsongs drawn from the spellsong list. Spellsongs are similar to spells, divided into three types: spellnotes, spellchords, and spellmelodies (or occasionally just “notes,” “chords,” and “melodies”). They all have verbal components, but no somatic or material ones.

     Spellnotes are quick, single notes of magical song that can be cast as move actions. That means you can perform a standard action in the same round that you cast a spellnote. You could, for example, cast a spellnote and then make a single attack, move up to your speed, or even cast another spellnote or spellchord.

     Spellchords are more complex spellsongs, involving a drawn-out combination of notes. These are cast as standard actions. And they truly are “chords” of song; while most singers can sustain only a single note at a time, bards can sing multiple notes simultaneously (for mundane performances as well as in spellsong casting).

     Spellmelodies are the most complex spellsongs and take a full round to cast.

     Except where noted, always treat spellsongs as spells for such purposes as dispel magic, detect magic, spell resistance, and so on. If a spell-level equivalent is needed, treat spellnotes as 1st level, spellchords as 3rd level, and spellmelodies as 5th level. Metamagic feats do not affect spellsongs.

     Similar to the way sorcerers cast spells, you need not prepare spellsongs beforehand or keep a spellbook. Bards receive bonus spellsongs for high Charisma, as shown in the table below. To cast a spellsong, you must have a Charisma score of at least 11 for notes, 13 for chords, and 15 for melodies. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a bard’s spellsong is 11 + Charisma modifier for notes, 13 + Charisma modifier for chords, and 15 + Charisma modifier for melodies.

     Spellnotes can be combined into spellchords, and spellchords can be combined to make spellmelodies. You can expend five spellnote slots for the day to create a spellchord, or three spellchord slots to create a spellmelody. Likewise, a single chord slot can power five notes, and using one melody slot, you can cast three chords (or 15 notes).

Spellsongs per Day                     Spellsongs Known

Bonus Spellsongs for High Charisma

Unlike other spellcasters, bards combine their talents easily to produce powerful magic. Multiple bards can contribute notes, for example, to create a spellchord effect that they all know. The spellsong’s effects are based on the highest level bard’s level and ability score for determining parameters of the spellsong that depend on them (in particular, save Difficulty Classes). Further, if a saving throw is called for, for every two bards involved, the Difficulty Class to resist the spellsong increases by +1.

     Spellsongs can be used to make spell completion and other magic items, including scrolls, potions, wands, and so on, assuming the bard has enough ranks in the appropriate skills. For costs, treat spellnotes as 1st-level spells, spellchords as 6th-level spells, and spellmelodies as 10th-level spells.

      Feats such as Spell Focus or any metamagic feat do not affect spellsongs. Bards have access to special feats that modify the effects of their spellsongs.

Well-Versed (Ex)

At 2nd level, you become resistant to the bardic performance of others, and to sonic effects in general. You gain a +4 bonus on saving throws made against bardic performance, sonic, and language-dependent effects.

Lore Master (Ex)

At 4th level, you become a master of lore and can take 10 on any Knowledge skill check you have ranks in. You may choose not to take 10 and can instead roll normally. In addition, once per day, you can take 20 on any Knowledge skill check as a standard action.

     You can use this ability one additional time per day at 10th level, and three times per day at 16th level.

Weave Notes

A bard of at least 5th level can expend two spellnote slots to cast a single spellnote with one of the following three enhancements (selected prior to casting):

1. A 50% increase in duration and range
2. A +2 bonus to saving throw Difficulty Class
3. A 50% increase in damage

Jack-of-All-Trades (Ex)

At 8th level, you can attempt any skill, even if the skill normally requires you to be trained. At 15th level, all skills are class skills for you. At 19th level, you can take 10 on any skill check, even if it is not normally allowed.

Evasion

At 9th level and up, a bard can dodge and avoid even magical and unusual attacks with agility. If a bard makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally inflicts half damage on a successful save (such as a red dragon’s fiery breath or a fireball), the bard instead suffers no damage. Evasion applies only if the bard wears light armor or no armor. A helpless bard (such as one who is unconscious or paralyzed) does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Weave Chords

At 12th level, a bard can expend two spellchord slots to cast a single spellchord with one of the following three enhancements (selected prior to casting):

1. A 50% increase in duration and range
2. A +2 bonus to saving throw Difficulty Class
3. A 50% increase in damage

Improved Evasion

At 17th level, a bard’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks such as a dragon’s breath weapon or a fireball, but henceforth she suffers only half damage on a failed save. A helpless bard (such as one who is unconscious or paralyzed) does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Weave Melodies

A bard of at least 20th level can expend two spellmelody slots to cast a single spellmelody with one of the following three enhancements (selected prior to casting):

1.  A 50% increase in duration and range
2. A +2 bonus to saving throw Difficulty Class
3. A 50% increase in damage

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