[4e Epic Destiny] Avatar of Music [PEACH]

[Loxagn]

Well, my last homebrew was frankly a pile of crap typed up while bored, exhausted, and possibly delusional from allergy medicine. Thus, I submit to you something I came up with while functioning normally.

Crunch-wise, it is extremely similar to the Archlich, which was intended. I took inspiration from some famous fictional bard-types, and translated it into something special and kind of cool for bards.


Avatar of Music
“I am the music, and the music is me. The song is my lifeblood, and each note is the very essence of my soul.”

Prerequisites: 21st level, Bard

You become the foremost musician of your age, so empowered by the eternal symphony of the universe that you transcend mortal capability. Each chord you pluck out contains within it the vibrant sound of an entire orchestra, each word you speak holds a sublimely musical quality that cannot be simply ignored.

There are few who do not know your name; even the gods themselves have to nod in respect to your prowess with an instrument.

You have one instrument that is forever bound to you; this instrument is an extension of your soul and forever becomes your ward.


http://th08.deviantart.net/fs18/300W/f/2007/148/a/3/Midvalley_by_solidgrafi.jpg

Immortality?
When you complete your final quest, you can feel the urge of the music calling out to you, flowing through you, a siren song that resonates ever louder in your mind. Though you may try to resist, you cannot ignore it for long. One last time, you play your Swan Song, a final goodbye to the world, empowered with the essence of pure, perfect melody. Echoes of your instrument and your voice echo far beyond the planes, and with the final chord you transcend mortality, becoming one with music itself. You all but disappear from the mortal realm, but you don’t go far.

You are a muse, an inspiration of artists and bards everywhere, a patron saint if you will. Though you’ve officially ‘left the building’, you’re in no way gone for good. You pop up from time to time, helping whomever you want on a whim, and you just might come back to visit a bard that reminds you of yourself so long ago. Needless to say, you are an undying legend, and you’re going to make sure you’re not forgotten any time soon.

Avatar of Music Features
Lyrical Voice (21st level): Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Bonded Instrument (21st level): You enchant your chosen instrument with your very life force. When you drop to 0 hit points or fewer, you and your possessions crumble to dust, and your instrument teleports away to a place of your choosing. A day later, you reappear alive with maximum hit points in the space wherever your instrument returned to, with all your possessions. Your instrument can be destroyed. It has 40 hit points and resist 20 to all damage. If your instrument is destroyed, you can reforge it by spending 10 days and 65,000 gp. If you are ever separated from your instrument, you can summon it to your hand instantly by spending a minor action.
Thunderous Melody (21st level): Any enemy that comes within 3 squares of you or starts its turn there takes 5 thunder damage.
Alluring Harmony (21st level): You gain resist thunder and resist psychic 5 + ½ your level.
Power Ballad (24th level): Whenever you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you regain the use of an expended bardic encounter power.
Legends Never Die (30th level): Once per day, when you die, you explode in a burst of raw, sonic fury. All enemies within 10 squares of you take 2d10 thunder damage, and the enemy that killed you takes an additional 2d10 psychic damage. At the start of your next turn, you reappear in the same space or in the nearest unoccupied space with health equal to your bloodied value and with all encounter powers recharged. You lose all remaining healing surges and are dazed until the end of your next turn.

Avatar of Music Power
Rising Crescendo
Avatar of Music Utility 26
The fury of the song flows more freely through you, and you can feel your strength returning.
Daily – Arcane
Minor Action
Personal
Effect: You regain one bardic encounter or daily power that you have already used.
You gain resistance to all damage equal to 5 + ½ your level until the end of the encounter.

[Shadow_Elf]

I don't see any problems with it, but as you mentioned, it is basically Archlich for Bards, and I didn't see any problems with Archlich either.

So, solid conversion, but by your own admission, not very original.

[Volin]

It has some issues, especially that it focuses very hard on the character dying a lot to use his powers.

I do have one suggestion that I think is more interesting though. Bonded instrument makes the character's instrument the important thing. While it is indeed tempting to say that if niel pert were stuck dead he would appear behind his drums the next day, I don't think he would tell you his legacy is a large set of things he hits with wooden sticks. I think he would say it was his music.

Especially in medieval and renaissance Europe, a musician was remembered, even during his time, when others played his songs. I would instead say that if the character is killed before his natural death, he reappears when someone plays a song he composed somewhere in the world. I like the idea of the character crawling out of the beyond by following the sounds of music.

[Loxagn]

Hm. You know, I actually like that idea, though I do like the idea of a 'signature instrument' as well. Maybe just give the instrument some minor powers on its own and keep that.

Instead of Bonded Instrument at 21st level, we have Signature Instrument at the same level, and a little more implementation of the idea of Swan Song at 23rd level.

Signature Instrument (21st level): You have a signature instrument. Your instrument is treated as a +5 magic implement for the usage of bardic powers. Your instrument cannot be destroyed. If you are ever separated from your instrument, you can summon it to your hand instantly by spending a minor action. For the purposes of rituals such as Raise Dead, your instrument counts as a part of your body. At 27th level, your Instrument becomes a +6 implement and can be summoned as a free action.
Swan Song (23rd level): You have your own personal 'swan song', a song so familiar to your soul that you can hear it even from beyond the veil of death. When you drop to 0 hit points or fewer, you and your possessions crumble to dust, and your Signature Instrument teleports to a place or ally of your choosing. A Raise Dead ritual to bring you back that uses your Signature Instrument as a focus is free and has a casting time of ten minutes, during which your Swan Song will play on your instrument completely of its own accord, your body and possessions fading back into existence as the ritual moves on.

[Shadow_Elf]

Hm. You know, I actually like that idea, though I do like the idea of a 'signature instrument' as well. Maybe just give the instrument some minor powers on its own and keep that.

Instead of Bonded Instrument at 21st level, we have Signature Instrument at the same level, and a little more implementation of the idea of Swan Song at 23rd level.

Signature Instrument (21st level): You have a signature instrument. Your instrument is treated as a +5 magic implement for the usage of bardic powers. Your instrument cannot be destroyed. If you are ever separated from your instrument, you can summon it to your hand instantly by spending a minor action. For the purposes of rituals such as Raise Dead, your instrument counts as a part of your body. At 27th level, your Instrument becomes a +6 implement and can be summoned as a free action.
Swan Song (23rd level): You have your own personal 'swan song', a song so familiar to your soul that you can hear it even from beyond the veil of death. When you drop to 0 hit points or fewer, you and your possessions crumble to dust, and your Signature Instrument teleports to a place or ally of your choosing. A Raise Dead ritual to bring you back that uses your Signature Instrument as a focus is free and has a casting time of ten minutes, during which your Swan Song will play on your instrument completely of its own accord, your body and possessions fading back into existence as the ritual moves on.

I like this. I would drop Power Ballad and replace it with Swan Song. THEN I would make the level 30 feature not related to death, and a little more... epic.

Perhaps:
Perfect Notes (Level 30): Select a bard daily attack power with the implement keyword and a bard daily utility power. These become encounter powers. The daily attack power affected by this feature must use your Signature Instrument as an implement.

Does that sound good? It means you take a few bardic rhymes or songs and make them your own, mastering them to the point of perfection, where you can weave their magical notes more frequently.

[Sir Homeslice]

I'll have you know the Archlich got a piece of errata that makes Bonded Instrument three times better as if you painted it red.

[Shadow_Elf]

I'll have you know the Archlich got a piece of errata that makes Bonded Instrument three times better as if you painted it red.

The Archlich's Errata actually made their Phylactery better, in case you didn't notice :smalltongue:. Instead of removing you from the encounter for ten days every time you drop to 0 (which is not uncommon, especially for squishy wizards), it removes you from the encounter when you die, and actually, y'know, saves your life, instead of preventing your death.

In comparison, the version of Bonded Instrument in the OP is worse.

[Sir Homeslice]

The Archlich's Errata actually made their Phylactery better, in case you didn't notice :smalltongue:. Instead of removing you from the encounter for ten days every time you drop to 0 (which is not uncommon, especially for squishy wizards), it removes you from the encounter when you die, and actually, y'know, saves your life, instead of preventing your death.

In comparison, the version of Bonded Instrument in the OP is worse.

I was saying that, since Avatar of Music is pretty much a copy and pasted Archlich with a few things switched around, and Archlich just recently got errata that made it infinitely better than before... I was informing the OP that there was Archlich errata out that would affect Avatar of Music.

[Shadow_Elf]

I was saying that, since Avatar of Music is pretty much a copy and pasted Archlich with a few things switched around, and Archlich just recently got errata that made it infinitely better than before... I was informing the OP that there was Archlich errata out that would affect Avatar of Music.

Ah, I read that as "Archlich just got an errata, and now 'Bonded Instrument' is three times better [than Phylactery]". My bad :smallredface:.