IC Description:

Silvyrfrost takes a sip of wine and motions for you to approach.

"[name]", she says in a cheerful whisper, "You have progressed far, so show me what you've learned of the passion of the old bards? Show me your knowledge of the days before Dzree?"

Silvyrfrost stares at you in eager anticipation as you begin to recount the facts, the history, and the dates. Her smile quickly fades into an unwelcome frown, and she takes a long, pensive sip of her wine.

After what feels like an eternity, she slowly speaks. "[name]. That is not what I asked of you. I asked for passion. I asked for knowledge, and instead you give me memorized lines from a dusty tome." An expressive sigh escapes before her scolding continues. "Have you not learned anything from your time in our guild? Knowledge is studied, true, but it is nothing without passion. Feeling!"

"You must learn," she says, "but only if you have ears to hear." In a single movement, she traces a sigil and gestures at you. A soft howl echoes in your ears as you find yourself unable to move.

She approaches. With slow, steady breaths, she traces an unfamiliar sigil in the air. "Feel it," She slowly whispers, "and stop trying to look at it. See it. Stop trying to think about it. Know it. Stop trying to touch it. Feel it." You feel confused and unsure. Out of desperation and lack of options, you reach out with your senses. You pause. The familiar rhythm is there, but... there's something else. A shift in the harmonious streams surrounding you. You try to focus on it, but the more you try the further away it seems.

Silvyrfrost's tightens her grip, her fingers digging deeply into your eyes. You feel intense pain and helplessness that plunges you an emotional chasm. Without even trying to find it, you see it. Bright as day. You can touch it. You can feel it. It flows with you. It consumes you. Your pain. Your fear. Your longing. Your lust. Long buried emotions mix together to form an unfamiliar harmony that you instantly recognize.

Opening your eyes, you see Silvyrfrost lightly thumbing her fiddle. She smiles once more and nods. "Welcome back," she says with a soft smile. "Now, are you ready to tell me what you know?"

You close your eyes and hum the tune. Your mind is clear and your buried emotions rage to the top. You release the inhibitions. You release the social constraints, and quietly move in harmony with the rhythm that makes you unique. With a dramatic and melodically voice, you recount the stories of legend. You detail the accounts of Sh'kial as an interpretive dance, and you mime in glorious detail the preserved history collected by the older bards.

Silvyrfrost smiles. "That's good," she says, "but would you like to hear the rest of the story?" She picks up a fiddle and recounts a glorious tale of a young bard dutifully recording the history and spells of all of elanthia. She explains his passion, his lusts, his recklessness, and his willful disregard for reason. Through music, you feel all of his emotions, and you know them. The emotions are similar, but the rhythm is not.

She stops and looks at you warmly. "Do you know why he succeeded," she asks? You nod. You know. She smiles and says, "We call it the Rubato. It is the music within us all. Everyone's song is different, and not everyone can easily reach that harmony. It takes practice, skill, patience, and release. It's impossible to teach. It's only possible to show to those who can already see it. Through the Rubato, we lucky few can tap into our emotional center and guide the streams into patterns that they were never meant to take. By controlling our center we can more safely defend against emotional damage, but be aware that the first bard to learn this pattern was truly insane. I pray that you never know his success."

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OOC Description: Level 100+ ability for bards. They learn a new play method. Play/hum rubato. Bard only. It's at a difficulty level one step higher than concerto. While humming or playing it, you get a saving roll on sorcerous backlash. The quality of the roll depends on how well you play and at what level. A masterful rubato has maybe a 1/20 chance of failure where a poorly playing it while struggling has no benefit. Masterful also has a 100% chance of hiding the backlash. You may be injured, you may die, but you make it a "performance" so no one thinks you're a necromancer. Confident is at 50%, 0% for normal. (This is a sliding scale based on the quality of the song. Slight difficulty + masterful may only be a 90%).

This was fun to read and a very cool idea!

Name of Ability: A+
NPC Suggested Interaction: A+

At the moment, bards are suffering from something of an identity crisis in DR. This isn't a complaint, just a fact. We have a signature skill called Bardic Lore without a good definition of its purpose or design. I'm not sure there's a noticeable benefit in game for it at the moment. We also have some rich in game lore and some heritage definitions that can make roleplay fun. But due to things beyond our control, development hasn't happened which can be frustrating for players and GMs.

I think some development needs to happen or some thoughts need to be shared. Otherwise we could be bouncing ideas that make no sense with what might be already planned.

That said, there's nothing wrong with posting ideas. Plus, it's fun.

>Also not really sure why the lore primary guild would get a tool magic primary guilds don't?

I think this is more a search for a purpose for bards and their signature skill than a request for something that magic primary guilds don't get.

Bards are about using knowledge and sound to enhance abilities or produce a desired affect. There are a couple ways a bard can do that:
1)Performance - play or sing and not unique to the guild
2)Enchantes - which seem to be just vocal currently
3)Whistles - at the moment just signals to other bards
4)Screams - useful in emergencies in combat

If you look at what currently carries an effect, it boils down to enchantes and screams. Screams aren't useful outside of combat. So the one thing that bards can do right now to affect things in game is magic.

That is why a discussion of abilities and tools will gravitate to magic which is secondary for bards instead of lore. It has nothing to do with magic primary vs magic secondary.

Should this be different? Maybe. Could this be different? I'm not sure. So far, the one way bard usefulness has reinforced being lore primary is the use of magic to bolster lore skills. That's still a reliance on magic, though.

If that remains, bard requests for abilities will always center around magic. Then it becomes a discussion of what is a reasonable magic ability within those constraints.

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~Faih

> Also not really sure why the lore primary guild would get a tool magic primary guilds don't?

Primarily, in game lore.

Consider this:
1. Bards have a long IG and functional history of dabbling in other guild's spell books. It makes sense that they would develop protections (even accidentally).
2. Sorcerous casting is a matter of intuition and emotion, something bards excel at, as hinted by Echoes of Aether. The only sorcery buffing spell in the game.
3. Bards are the historians and record keepers of the realms. They have intimate knowledge with spells normally outside of their purview.
4. Everyone can do things a little different. This is classified as a performance ability for a reason. It affects magical skill, and it ties into the magic system, but RP wise it's based off the bard's performance/emotion and intuition.

> I'd say, from a metagame perspective, that an ability should either reduce chance of backlash or hide the backlash.

I like that. Make it a choice between hum vs play. Hum to draw inward and protect. Instrumental play to push outward and project or disguise. You still take damage with the instrument, but you may not be caught. You still may be caught with hum, but you'll be able to subdue the damage.

> For what it's worth, there's nothing that says a Magic Secondary can't do something unique and special with magic.

That's not a no. I'll take it!

>>The milder the backlash, the lower the skillcheck and the less added severity. But it would take a hell of a performance to hide your arms exploding in black and purple flames and showering passers-by in your blood and bone.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxohDs2-UM

>>How would Rubato handle the internal head and nerve damage? It seems like it would hinder your ability to pull of a credible performance if your brains are bleeding out your ears and you're unconscious.

That's why they're professionals.

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Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

>How would Rubato handle the internal head and nerve damage? It seems like it would hinder your ability to pull of a credible performance if your brains are bleeding out your ears and you're unconscious.

Sound could protect from damage depending on the originating source for the particular damage. The idea that sound waves can be used to shield from or disrupt attacks as well as prove as a source of discomfort or damage for others if projected at them isn't unique to DR. Can sound disrupt magical backlash? Maybe.

However, when you reference the history and knowledge of bards dabbling in other guilds' spells, it's possible the knowledge and expertise is enough to protect from the damage.

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~Faih