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View Full Version : The Otherworldly Harmonic (D&D 3.5) PrC, PEACH



Forever Curious
2010-05-27, 10:53 AM
So, I was recently reading this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122103&highlight=Xeno) by RealmsOfChaos and have fallen in love with the concept of the Far Realms for use in standard D&D. Thus, I bring you...


The Otherworldly Harmonic
"I sing a song of madness." -Marvex, an otherworldly harmonic

Othworldly harmonics are bards who have been corrupted (or empowered) by the power of the Far Realms.

Game Rule Information

Requirements
-Skills Perform (any) 10 ranks
-Feats Force of Personality
-Special Must have witnessed some phenomena from the Far Realms (fought a Pseudonatural creature, etc.)
-Special Bardic Music class feature

Skills
The otherworldly harmonic’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge
(the planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), and Speak Language (n/a).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Otherworldly Harmonic
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Far-song, Eerie chant, Music from madness|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Aura of Dissonance (30 feet) |+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+3|Destructive Cacophony, One With the Outside|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|Greater Aura of Dissonance (60 ft)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|Music of the Shattered Spheres|[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Otherworldly harmonics gain no proficiency with any armor, weapons, or shields.

Far-song (Su): By tapping into the Far Realms, an otherworldly harmonic can produce horrifically beautiful songs and performances. Far-song follows the same rules for bardic music (see the players Handbook, pg. 29). Otherworldly harmonic class features stack with bard levels to determine how often he can use bardic music or far-song. They do not stack for determining bardic music effects. Each use of far-song counts as a use of bardic music.

Eerie Chant (Su): An otherworldly harmonic can emit a strange chant to confound those not tied to the Far Realms. To be affected, a creature must be able to hear the otherworldly harmonic perform. The effect lasts for as long as the enemy hears the otherworldly harmonic perform and for 5 rounds thereafter. An effected creature sickened unless it succeeds on a Will save (DC = 10 + otherworldly harmonic’s ranks in Perform). Success renders the creature immune to this ability for 24 hours. Creatures native to the Far Realms are immune to this ability.

Destructive Cacophony (Sp): An otherworldly harmonic’s music can warp and break items of this world. The effect lasts for as long as the otherworldly harmonic performs and for 5 rounds thereafter. All objects that can “hear” the otherworldly harmonic perform must make a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + otherworldly harmonic’s ranks in Perform) or lose the benefit of its hardness. Further, every round the otherworldly harmonic can target an object in the area of this ability with a shatter spell (treat the otherworldly harmonic’s HD as its caster level).

Music of the Shattered Spheres (Su): An otherworldly harmonic can become a direct link to the Far Realms temporarily, channeling it’s pure madness into music. To be affected, a creature must be able to hear the otherworldly harmonic perform. The effect lasts for as long as the enemy hears the otherworldly harmonic perform. An effected creature must make a Will save (DC = 10 + otherworldly harmonic’s ranks in Perform) or fall to the ground gibbering (similar to Tasha’s Hideous Laughter). Success renders the creature immune to this ability for 24 hours. When the performance ends, all effected creatures must make another save (same DC) or be rendered insane as the spell. In addition, during the performance, all creatures lose any immunity to mind-effecting abilities they may have. Creatures native to the Far Realms are immune to this ability.

Music from Madness (Su): By sacrificing his own sanity, an otherworldly harmonic can fuel his musical abilities. By suffering two points of Wisdom damage, an otherworldly harmonic gains an additional daily use of bardic music. This damage cannot be prevented in any way.

Aura of Dissonance (Su): A strange garbled murmur radiates from the otherworldly harmonic, altering the sound around them. Spells cast using verbal components, bardic music, and other sound-dependent abilities (such as a cloaker’s moan) suffer a 25% failure chance. An otherworldly harmonic is immune to his aura and can suppress it as a free action which does not provoke an attack of opportunity. In addition, an otherworldly harmonic can designate any number of creatures to be immune to this ability.

Greater Aura of Dissonance (Su): The aura of madness spewed from the otherworldly harmonic becomes more intense. The range of the aura increases to 30 feet. In addition, the failure chance increasses to 50%.

One With the Outside (Ex): An otherworldly harmonic can consort with creatures of madness. All aberrations and creatures from the Far Realms regard the otherworldly harmonic with a “Friendly” attitude automatically. Actions from the otherworldly harmonic or allies affect their attitudes as normal. However, all other creatures regard the otherworldly harmonic with an “Unfriendly” attitude automatically, and will never increase their attitude above “Indifferent” when dealing with him regardless of any action.

---

An easy adaptation is to have otherworldly harmonics draw their power from another source (such as the plane of Limbo) or a specific evil entity (see the book Elder Evils for fun examples of mind-numbing horror)

DragoonWraith
2010-05-27, 11:30 AM
One, on the fluff side of things, this is awesome. The features are very fitting, thematically, and I love the class name.

Two, mechanically, this has some serious problems: basically, you're giving up "a ton" for "not much".

You trade 2 spellcasting levels, Inspire Courage progression, and a feat (though a decent one) for a series of bardic musics that are not really any better than the ones you're giving up. Plus you can't even do it until level 10.

Eerie Chant is OK-ish, as Sickened is a decent effect, but it's Mind-Affecting so tons of things are immune to it, especially at 11th level and later when you have it.

Destructive Cacophony is devastating, but more likely to destroy things you don't want to destroy than anything else. Besides, at this level, the Wizard has an Adamantine Dagger, never mind the actual warriors.

Music of the Shattered Spheres is a first level Bard spell. It gets an area, which is nice, but seriously, it's a first level spell.

Aura of Dissonance means you can't stand within 15 ft. (and later 30 ft) of a friendly spellcaster with it on. A. a Bard doesn't want to be within 30 ft, much less 15, of anything dangerous, most of the time, and B. odds are this does more harm then good.

One With the Outside is decent, but mostly fluff.

Basically, this is a huge nerf to a low-ish powered class. 5/5 spellcasting and progressing Inspire Courage as if you'd gained levels in Bard, plus a lower skill requirement, would probably make it worthwhile, but as is... it hurts more than it helps.

Forever Curious
2010-05-27, 01:19 PM
One, on the fluff side of things, this is awesome. The features are very fitting, thematically, and I love the class name.
Thanks. Off to a good start...


Two, mechanically, this has some serious problems: basically, you're giving up "a ton" for "not much".
...and nevermind. :smallsigh:


You trade 2 spellcasting levels, Inspire Courage progression, and a feat (though a decent one) for a series of bardic musics that are not really any better than the ones you're giving up. Plus you can't even do it until level 10.
I was considering making it obtainable at level 7. Would this work?


Eerie Chant is OK-ish, as Sickened is a decent effect, but it's Mind-Affecting so tons of things are immune to it, especially at 11th level and later when you have it.
Would it be balanced without it being mind-affecting? Also, would a class feature that allows you to pierce immunity to mind-affecting abilities be too powerful?


Destructive Cacophony is devastating, but more likely to destroy things you don't want to destroy than anything else. Besides, at this level, the Wizard has an Adamantine Dagger, never mind the actual warriors.
Hmm...yeah. Would it be better if the shatter effect was controlled, but otherwise left the same?


Music of the Shattered Spheres is a first level Bard spell. It gets an area, which is nice, but seriously, it's a first level spell.
...I believe you are mistaken. 1) it has a much higher DC, and 2) it can render foes insane as the spell. You might have skimmed over that part, but it's there. Does this change your mind at all?


Aura of Dissonance means you can't stand within 15 ft. (and later 30 ft) of a friendly spellcaster with it on. A. a Bard doesn't want to be within 30 ft, much less 15, of anything dangerous, most of the time, and B. odds are this does more harm then good.
Very well. If it was limited to enemies would it be acceptable?


One With the Outside is decent, but mostly fluff.
Caught me. :smallsmile:


Basically, this is a huge nerf to a low-ish powered class. 5/5 spellcasting and progressing Inspire Courage as if you'd gained levels in Bard, plus a lower skill requirement, would probably make it worthwhile, but as is... it hurts more than it helps.
Would the above suggestions make it playable?

DragoonWraith
2010-05-27, 01:28 PM
Oh, it's playable, it's just self-nerf, as is. Forgot to mention the lower Skill Points and smaller Skill List, which is also a problem.

With the fixes you suggest, I'd still make it a 5/5 casting class. With those fixes, it's worth the music you give up (including Inspire Courage), but I don't think it's worth the spellcasting. But yes, those would help immensely, especially the changes to the Aura, which goes from "I probably don't want to actually have this on for fear of screwing someone up" to "this is a serious detriment to enemies around me" - though you still need to be faaar too close to them to make it effective, IMO.

A feature to render Mind-Affecting-immune enemies vulnerable to it would be very interesting. The Bard has a lot of those, so it would be very valuable. Two spellcasting levels... probably not so much, but one, quite likely.

In case you haven't noticed, not much is worth a spellcasting level, much less two. Seriously, they're just that important.

Forever Curious
2010-05-27, 01:50 PM
Oh, it's playable, it's just self-nerf, as is. Forgot to mention the lower Skill Points and smaller Skill List, which is also a problem.
Actually, they are exactly the same as Dirgesinger, a bard PrC from Libris Mortis. So don't think the skills are too much, honestly. I'll see if anyone else thinks so.

With the fixes you suggest, I'd still make it a 5/5 casting class. With those fixes, it's worth the music you give up (including Inspire Courage), but I don't think it's worth the spellcasting. But yes, those would help immensely, especially the changes to the Aura, which goes from "I probably don't want to actually have this on for fear of screwing someone up" to "this is a serious detriment to enemies around me" - though you still need to be faaar too close to them to make it effective, IMO.

A feature to render Mind-Affecting-immune enemies vulnerable to it would be very interesting. The Bard has a lot of those, so it would be very valuable. Two spellcasting levels... probably not so much, but one, quite likely.
I made Music of the Shattered Spheres "dispel" immunity to mind effecting abilities. I couldn't find a good fit for a separate class feature.

In case you haven't noticed, not much is worth a spellcasting level, much less two. Seriously, they're just that important.

Class updated a bit.

DragoonWraith
2010-05-27, 01:56 PM
Looks good now.

As for the Dirgesinger, I don't remember it's exact stats, but one thing to realize is that many, many WotC PrCs are poorly balanced. Some much too powerful, some much too weak.

Anyway, this looks nice now. I don't know if I'd trade a spellcasting level for the ability to eliminate Mind-Affecting immunity, but I can see situations where I would.

Forever Curious
2010-05-27, 02:00 PM
Looks good now.

As for the Dirgesinger, I don't remember it's exact stats, but one thing to realize is that many, many WotC PrCs are poorly balanced. Some much too powerful, some much too weak.

Anyway, this looks nice now. I don't know if I'd trade a spellcasting level for the ability to eliminate Mind-Affecting immunity, but I can see situations where I would.

I will take that to mind. I'll look at a few other bard PrC's and see what the consensus is for skills.

DragoonWraith
2010-05-27, 02:04 PM
My opinion is, this PrC isn't really particularly "better" than straight Bard (well, OK, it is a bit now, but it pays a Spellcasting level for it), so there's not really any reason to diminish the skills. Just how I think about it, though I suspect most Bard PrCs do drop down to 4+Int.

I also generally feel that Wizards was too stingy on Skill Points anyway. But that's more of a problem for Fighter-types (2+Int on anything but a Wizard or Archivist is disgusting)...

Forever Curious
2010-05-28, 10:31 PM
112 views, 1 person critique. Really, playground?

DragoonWraith
2010-05-28, 10:39 PM
It's not that uncommon. My last two homebrews got one and two respectively, and they weren't very thorough (though they were helpful). *shrug* Then the Swordmage has 315 posts, tons of critique, someone DMing a game for me to test it, and lots of other people contributing. Was it especially "better" than my others? I don't really think so, though I do rather like it. Some things just get people's attention, some things don't.