Review: Deadly Delves Reign of Ruin

Reign of Ruin is a 34 page adventure for Swords & Wizardry by Jon Brazer Enterprises, suitable for a party of 6th level PCs. In terms of transparency I received a complimentary copy for review purposes.

The book opens up with some starting fiction and background. The background is a set-up for the adventure, where the descendant of a long-dead black dragon tyrant mobilizes her minions to menace the warm-blooded races who her forebear terrorized so long ago. The backstory is a bit wordy and rather specific with proper names and regions. I feel that it could be shortened considerably to be more generic for the purposes of individual campaigns.

As for the present era, the plot hook for the party to get involved is via a scout’s last dying words of the razed city of Northam and its need for reinforcements. The other hook involves traveling merchants explaining in more detail that the Ixtupi (lizardmen devotees of the black dragon) have come to attack the village as revenge. Once the PCs get to the town, they find it in the aftermath of a massacre, with a few clues pointing to the identities and motives for their attackers in the form of a survivor’s testimony and draconic graffiti. The clues give a relatively good sense of the opposition for a canny group of players (corpses whose flesh seems to have dissolved off their bodies which is the result of acidic breath weapon), but overall I feel that this adventure could have had a stronger start if it began proper with the party arriving in the town. The merchant adventure hook is too much “tell, not show” and ideally the site of an attacked settlement alone should be enough to attract the PC’s attention.

Further encounters before the main dungeon itself include the village of Mistlevy (the raiders’ next target) and a swamp encounter where the Ixtupi are fighting a rival tribe of lizardfolk. In both of these encounters there is quite a fair number of enemies, but also potential allied NPCs to fight alongside. This does a good job of preventing characters from feeling overwhelmed, but on the other hand risks the GM rolling “against himself” a fair bit if their gaming group is slower-paced. A good idea may be to grant the players the opportunity to control said NPCs; I did this in various campaigns, which made my gaming group feel more engaged with the battle.

Additionally the first encounter has a point where the black dragon main villain makes a personal appearance to wreak havoc before fleeing back to her temple headquarters. The intent of the adventure is that the party will face her down in the heart of her lair, with the first encounter as a taste of things to come. Although mobile and strong like many dragons, the old adage “if it has stats, the players can kill it” holds strong. A bad saving throw or lucky attacks may bring the dragon down at the outset, and given that the final encounter is a pretty clever room full of terrain-based hazards, this would be robbing the gaming group of a good fight later on down the road.

The temple itself has three major levels not counting the aboveground entryway. It has a healthy mix of reptilian monsters, undead, animated objects, and other creature types to prevent combat from getting too monotone. The dungeon is the meat of the adventure, and there are quite a few traps. There was one trap that I liked but felt could have been executed better: stone pillars which summon corrupted elementals if a spellcaster uses magic which deals energy/elemental damage while within their vicinity. It takes an otherwise common tactic of “blast them all” to use against the party in a thematically interesting way. Unfortunately said trap is a one-time occurrence so that it is likely to happen without the players growing aware as to their purpose. A repeat appearances of pillars would engender a cautious mindset in players; they would need to weigh whether they risk using powerful magic against the enemies currently arrayed against them, but at the possibility of biting off more than they can chew. Another involves a room which fills with acidic water while dragonblood brutes (who are themselves immune to acid) attack the party. A hidden lever can be found during combat to drain the room. I particularly like this touch; it combines monsters and environmental hazards together in a way I don’t see often in many OSR modules.

As for enemies, there are mentions of what happens if the complex goes on alert, notably in the form of kobold slaves acting as messengers. However, most of the intelligent monsters rarely go beyond their own rooms and instead prepare to attack PCs who come to them first. This feels a bit artificial, and while it makes sense in some cases (unintelligent undead and constructs) it would’ve been nice to have suggestions for what rooms monsters would retreat to or use as chokepoints in case of an invasion of the temple. Lord knows the complex has enough traps to exploit for this purpose!

The final encounter with the black dragon overlord has a good description of the room in which the battle will take place, with descriptions of terrain for both the party and for the dragon to use to their advantage.

Miscellaneous Thoughts: The maps for this adventure are well-detailed. Full-color and grid-based, they cover the entirety of the main dungeon as well as the first encounter. The adventure also makes clever use of existing class features. The “Open Doors” roll, for example, is used for various feats of strength such as escaping from the grip of a giant venus flytrap or pushing a fallen stone block trap to reopen a passageway.

The adventure itself is rather expensive for its size ($10 for a 34 page adventure). Given that adventures have limited replay value for gaming groups, this reduces its viability in comparison to other Swords & Wizardry products of similar length but at more affordable prices. I understand the need to make up costs especially given the detail of the maps, but as a consumer it will not be an attractive option.

Clarification: The book's price as a PDF dropped to $6.95

In conclusion, Deadly Delves: Reign of Ruin rates well for an OSR adventure. It has the core idea of a dungeon delve, but the terrains, traps, and enemies are varied and well-detailed enough to keep the players on their toes. Its low points are that the BBEG shows up too early (and thus risks the potential for an early death), as well as the fact that temple has a high enough number of traps to the point of triggering player paranoia which can slow gaming to a crawl. But overall the good outweighs the bad in this dungeon crawl. My final verdict is a 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded to 3 for the purposes of OneBookShelf.

Dragons of Renewal DL4: Dragons of Desolation

Dragons of Desolation Cover by Keith Parkinson

The finale to the Autumn Twilight arc takes place entirely within the dwarven kingdom of Thorbadin. Now that the PCs have the Helm of Grallen, they possess a surefire way to get the dwarves to listen to them and possibly provide shelter for the refugees.

Overview

The Heroes of the Lance find the way into Thorbadin, and while there meet the noble Arman Kharas. After fighting their way out of Northgate with Theiwar dwarves in pursuit, they are brought to the Life-Tree of the Hylar where the Council of Thorbadin holds court. After the council debates, the PCs are sent on a quest to recover the Hammer of Kharas in the Valley of Thanes.

Venturing to the Valley, the PCs find a tomb on top of a floating mountain. While there a pranksterish copper dragon disguised as a dwarf acts as a guide. Before they can claim the Hammer, they fight Verminaard's draconic mount, Ember, at the top of the tomb.

Rushing back to Thorbadin, it turns out that the Daegar and Theiwar clans are in league with the Dragonarmies. By letting their forces into the mountain kingdom, a civil war occurs with the purpose of overthrowing the ruling Hylar and gaining possession of the Hammer for themselves. Amid the prisoners is Berem the Green Gemstone Man and Eben Shatterstone, the latter still posing as a loyal comrade if the PCs haven't found him out yet. The PCs are escorted or taken prisoner to the Temple of Stars, where Verminaard awaits. A grand battle occurs dramatically near a pit, which Verminaard is likely to tumble into should he be slain. Regardless of the battle's events, Arman is dealt a grievous injury and dies a hero. With the Hammer, the Hylar leader Hornfel is crowned King and order is restored.

Depending on how long the heroes took, the refugees' fate is either safe from or massacred by the Dragonarmies. Riverwind and Goldmoon have the option to marry if they're PCs in the adventure. The quest ends on a note that although the heroes struck a decisive victory against the Dragonarmy's forces, the battle for Krynn's freedom is far from over.

Things to Change/Look Out For

Maps: The AD&D adventure's strong suit is that it had more detailed maps of Thorbadin and its districts than the 3.5 adventure. Although knowing where the PCs are is not a necessity, given that most encounters are event-based than dungeon-room-based, it can be a nice visual aid to have.

Verminaard's Offer: This is only in the AD&D version, but I advise that you excise this. It's basically an opportunity for the villain to show up, gloat, and make an offer to the party to betray the refugees. While this can work in a book, show, or similar medium, in a tabletop game it's far more likely that the players will try to attack. Given that random nature of die rolls, it's possible that a lucky party might knock the Dragon Highlord off his mount and kill him right then and there.

Northgate: Overall, this section is fine as-is. The PCs meet Arman Kharas, who knows the way better than they do, and provides some good opportunity to do heroic stuff and save prisoners. However, the party is motivated to retreat as an onslaught of theiwar soldiers, dozens at a time, come to assault the party. Regardless of gaming system, running 30+ enemies at once can be a real slog unless you're using a singular "mob" template. I suggest keeping the theiwar army encounters more descriptive, and have a half dozen fight the PCs at a time when they're running.

Dark Dwarves and Derro: In the later RPG supplements, the evil dwarven clans of the theiwar and daergar are their own subrace of dwarves, but not the classic duergar and derro in other settings. In the original AD&D game, the theiwar dwarves are derro.

Personally speaking, I prefer having the dark dwarves physically and mechanically indistinguishable from the other dwarven clans. It plays up the "civil war" factor and makes it seem more subtle in having the Theiwar thane being a secret Dragonarmy agent. Unless the party has a dwarven PC, to an outside observer the feuding of council politics comes off as a less-established clan jockeying for power, rather than an obvious Evil McTraitorface trying to play the part of a villain with good publicity. It also avoids the question of why the council would tolerate and trust a thane from a subrace who are on the whole afflicted with murderous insanity.

Life-Tree of the Hylar

The Council: The Council is currently unsure of the Dragonarmy's true threat, and their isolationist policy will make them reluctant to open up their gates for refugees. After the Council debates, they will send off the PCs to find the legendary Hammer of Kharas as a token of goodwill, given that the Hammer plays a decisive role in determining which clan's thane becomes king of the nation. As a token of ensuring the party's cooperation, the council keeps Eben Shatterstone as a hostage (which is Raelgar, the Theiwar Thane's, idea). If the PCs refuse, they are imprisoned to await trial for trespassing on Theiwar territory and murder if they killed at least one dark dwarf in Northgate.

Holding off the "Lady in the Lake" Monty Python jokes, this is the next best way for the PCs to go on a dungeon crawl. However, the default example's a bit forced. Have the scene play out normally, but instead of making it the reward an open-ended "whosoever recovers the Hammer of Kharas, that person will the dwarves of Thorbardin befriend," attach a more tangible reward. Most likely shelter for the refugees, or agreement to refuse the Dragonarmy's offers (which the Theiwar and Daegar have been advocating for).

Another thing to consider is that in the AD&D version, the PCs have a chance of realizing that Verminaard is telepathically dominating Raelgar's speech during the meeting by noticing his mannerisms are similar to the Highlord. This is not present in the 3.5 version, but either way things don't change much on whether you include it or not. Even if a free agent, Raelgar's condemnation of the PCs still sets him up as a person the PCs shouldn't trust.

Battle Against Ember

Duncan's Tomb: There are precious few monsters and traps in this dungeon, and the main inhabitant is the copper dragon Evenstar. Emphasize the few encounters, traps, and Evenstar's trials in packed general areas instead of planning out the entire dungeon or doing a room-by-room search. Otherwise it will just feel empty and featureless.

The battle against Ember should be climactic, although like previous dragon encounters he is extremely powerful in 3rd Edition. Using the stats of a Juvenile Red Dragon, but increasing the size category to Gargantuan (without the Strength and Constitution increase) makes for a more reasonable encounter. Additionally, I also turned the flagpole into a mostly-depowered dragonlance which breaks after the battle. This helps demonstrate the power of the campaign's namesake and gives the players a taste of things to come.

For 13th Age, I used a modified Large White Dragon's statistics, save that cold damage is converted to fire and I switched around the vulnerabilities as appropriate.

Both versions of the game have smaller encounters afterwards: in AD&D's case kapak scouts, and in 3.5 six of Ember's children. I personally discarded any encounters in this chapter after Ember, for she served well enough as a climactic battle for this sub-section.

Return to Thorbadin: While the PCs were gone, the Theiwar and Daegar clans helped Verminaard and the Dragonarmies gain access to the kingdom, plunging the realm into civil war. This portion of the adventure involves the party fighting their way through soldiers to the Temple of Stars. One of the encounter locations includes a Daegar prison holding Eben Shatterstone and Berem the Green Gemstone Man. I personally did not include Berem in this adventure; on the contrary, one of the PCs bore the mantle of the Green Gemstone Woman for a 13th Age background. This worked better, as otherwise Berem is an easily forgettable NPC. I'd personally not have him in this adventure, and if he must show up in the campaign have it be during Dragons of Spring.

Capture: In the 3.5 version of the adventure, the PCs are supposed to go to the Temple of Stars after encountering Thane Rance of the Daegar, who demands the PCs surrender (albeit the PC bearing the Hammer of Kharas is allowed to keep it). If not, they must fight a total succession of 93 dwarves and draconians altogether. This is a form of rail-roading I despise.

Instead, allow the PCs to find out the Temple of Stars' location from enemy soldiers, Hylar allies, Arman Kharas himself, or likewise. It feels more satisfying for the party to walk in of their own accord and confront Verminaard once and for all.

The Fall of Verminaard

Final Battle: The climactic battle in the Temple of Stars is  easily one of the high points of the Autumn Twilight arc. Even so, there are a few things to change to make it better.

First, discard the forced handing of the Hammer of Kharas to Verminaard. Be it via the traitor Eben or telepathic mind control, these both take away agency from the PCs with little change in the endgame (Verminaard fights the PCs).

Second, there's a lot of enemies to keep track of. Verminaard, Arman Kharas, the fireshadow, Eben Shatterstone (potentially), and the dark dwarf and Dragonarmy soldiers. When running this battle, I had Thane Raelgar as an enemy NPC which Arman was busy fighting, and the dwarves and Dragonarmy soldiers as a sort of "mob" template which the PCs could attack as a whole.

In the default adventure, the two dark dwarven clans turn on each other when the Theiwar side with Verminaard, as the Daegar thane Rance had a deal that the Dragonarmies would hand him the Hammer instead (Verminaard seeks to take it for himself). This makes for some nice internal treachery, but another idea is to have valiant Hylar soldiers come rushing in to help, particularly if Arman is not with the party. Either way, the pitched battle makes for a chaotic background.

Thirdly, the standard adventure has Arman die regardless of the course of battle from a poisoned blade. This is meant to be a valiant sacrifice, but instead allow the PCs the option to change this. In my games I had Arman and Raelgar fighting in the background, describing how the heroic dwarf was starting to lose, as he lost his footing and the treacherous Thane raised a poison dagger to plunge into his chest...

At that point, one of my PCs rushed forth to save him in the nick of time, taking Raelgar out with a critical hit. Naturally your own campaign's conflict will be different, but granting the PCs the choice to momentarily disengage to save Arman at the risk of leaving their party open has more narrative and tactical impact.

Finally, there is the matter of the giant pit of death in the center of the Temple. It's a given that one or more PCs may get the idea to push Verminaard into it. Indeed this is how the Dragon Highlord met his end in the novels, but it can be anti-climactic system-wise if a PC uses a single bull rush, spell, or opposed Strength check to knock him in on the first or second round.

One idea is to place Verminaard a fair distance from the pit, or to give him a spell such as levitate to have him come back up. But this is quite obviously meant to mitigate a valid tactic with minimal dramatic impact. Another idea is to have him fall in when shoved or at the brink of death, but have him summon the fireshadow to lift him back up out of the pit with a blazing vengeance! This makes the battle feel like a nice evolution from a "first form"to "final stage" boss, to borrow video game terminology.

In Conclusion

Dragons of Desolation requires a few adjustments, but individually take little effort to change and fix.

I'm happy to have completed the first arc of the Dragonlance saga. I plan to begin writing for the Winter Night arc sometime next week. This will also be the first time the saga's two-party split-up is addressed in detail!

Are we seeing an increase in Nordic-themed RPGs?

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim received a Special Edition upgrade around late October this year. Funnily enough, the months leading up to that reignited my interest in the game but when the new version came out I did not touch it save for a few hours of experimenting. The truth of the matter was that not all of the old mods of the 2011 version were transferred or compatible, and the lack of Skyrim Script Extender or SkyUI support more or less killed any good reason to use the new version even though I got it for free.

About a month later, I saw a Pathfinder setting which combined two disparate elements of steampunk and Norse mythology into an interesting blend: Rhune, Dawn of Twilight. I'm still in the course of reading it, but it's quite a cool book. It has a strong sense of theme rather than trying for a "kitchen sink" approach, and core assumptions are built into the framework. For example, the Material Plane is not a globe, but rather the trunk of Yggdrasil the World Tree while the other planes of existence are its leaves, branches, roots, etc.

Then I was reminded of another book I got recently: the Northlands Saga by Frog God Games, which also released in its Complete version in early 2016. It was at this point I began noticing a pattern. After an illustrated book of the Poetic and Prose Eddas became a best silver seller on Drive-Thru RPG, this all but confirmed it.

Back in 2012, Cubicle 7 Entertainment released the stand-alone RPG Yggdrasil, a game set during a mythical Age of Vikings. Although Midgard by Kobold Press drew more upon Central and Eastern European themes, it did have its fair share of Nordic elements such as the world surrounded by a giant world-serpent eating its own tail.

Interest in Nordic themes is far from recent even in tabletop gaming. Going as far back as Deities & Demigods the Æsir–Vanir were described alongside the Greek and Egyptian pantheons, and quite a few campaign settings had their own pseudo-Scandinavian realms. But in regards to whole settings and sourcebooks there does seem to be a lot more Viking-related gaming material as of late. Part of me wonders how much this coincides with Skyrim's popularity (both the original 2011 and latest upgrade), and how much of it was just always there.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to let me know in the comments below!

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery is out!

Cover Art by Eric Lofgren

Six months ago this book was an assembly of notes in Microsoft Word. Even two years ago it was an idea I had; aside from Redhurst Academy of Magic for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, gaming sourcebook dedicated to magic school adventures and settings where rather rare. Sure you had city-based sourcebooks make mention of a mage's college here and there, but they were but one piece of the setting, one page in a much larger tome. Having grown up on Harry Potter and influenced by
school-based Japanese anime and manga, it seemed odd to me that such a popular and ripe subgenre was going more or less unexploited in the D&D and OSR fandoms.

As the largest book I've published yet, it is hard to describe the feelings going through me now that it is fully finished. For the last 3 days I spent 5 to 6 hours on average in Adobe InDesign, motivated by a newfound burst of energy now that I was nearing completion. As soon as I scanned the book for error-checking and made a prototype PDF which by all accounts worked, the tiredness rushed over me suddenly like a tidal wave. But within that exhaustion I felt satisfaction, happiness at a job well done. The happiness one gets at the end of a long and winding road, and as they look back they see that all their hard work led them here.

Thus the creation of this sourcebook. Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery is a 100-page sourcebook full of new rules and setting material optimized for campaigns where the PCs are apprentices at a magical academy and all the crazy shenanigans which can only occur from spell-slinging adolescents and grimoires full of forbidden knowledge. It was made with Swords & Wizardry in mind, but can be a useful toolbox for other Original and Basic D&D style retroclones. Even if the magic school campaign does not appeal to you, the book is filled with options sure to please any fan of spellcasters from new spells, a cantrip subsystem, turning books into a new form of treasure capable of teaching readers new and interesting abilities, and the like.

It's available for sale on Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow, and the product contains bookmarks and is watermark-free.

If this sounds interesting to you, or if you know of a gamer friend who would like this, feel free to take a look and share. I hope my work brings as much fun to your gaming table as I did writing it. But this isn't going to be my only magic-school sourcebook! I am hard at work on an adventure path for Pathfinder and 5th Edition, along with some other work projects. As they're still in the idea stage I'm afraid that I can't share much information about them as of now, but hopefully you'll be tided over with this latest offering.

To all my fellow fantasy academia enthusiasts, I wish you good luck and good gaming!

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery: First Draft is Done!

Little Witch Academia 2 Art

Pack your adventuring gear and spell component pouches, for magic school's just around the corner for the OSR!

One hundred and six pages. 36,619 words. All in MicroSoft Word, and I figure it's going to be even bigger once I add in page backgrounds and artwork! Even though it's still in development, this is my biggest piece of work yet and most of the tasks remaining involve the help of others. Fortunately I have plenty of stock art to fill the book's interior, but in terms of editing, cover art, and maps, those still need to be done and people hired. I can't predict when this will all be finished, but I'm confident in saying that we're nearing the finish line.

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery Excerpt: the Bard Class

Stock Art: Female Planetouched Bard by Ryan Rhodes

In some lands they are known as sha’ir, poets who communicate with spirits in exchange for knowledge and magical power. In others they are skalds, warriors who retell the deeds of legendary heroes to inspire their fellows in battle. And in the distant south they are griots, lorekeepers who pass down the history and traditions of their people. Whatever form they take, bards are learned folk who express their knowledge through performance and magical powers.

Prime Attribute: Intelligence and Charisma 13+ (a bard character gains a +5% experience bonus only if all of their prime attributes are 13 or higher)

Hit Dice: 1d6/level (a bard gains just one hp/level after 9th)

Armor/Shield Permitted: Bards can only wear leather armor and use shields.

Weapons Permitted: Bards can use any weapon they can get their hands on, although they need at least one hand free in order to play an instrument and cast spells.

Attack Tables: Bards use the Magic-User, Thief, and Assassin attack table.

Table: Bard Advancement

Level	Experience	Hit Die (d6)	Saving Throw	Class Abilities
1st	0	1	15	Spell Casting, Social Butterfly
2nd	2,000	2	14	Citizen of the World
3rd	4,000	3	13	Fascinate
4th	8,000	4	12
5th	13,000	5	11	Thief Magic Items
6th	20,000	6	10
7th	40,000	7	9
8th	60,000	8	8
9th	90,000	9	7	Establish College
10th	130,000	9+1 hp	6
11th	200,000	9+2 hp	5
12th	400,000	9+3 hp	4
13th	800,000	9+4 hp	4
14th	950,000	9+5 hp	4
15th	1,100,000	9+6 hp	4
16th	1,250,000	9+7 hp	4
17th	1,400,000	9+8 hp	4
18th	1,550,000	9+9 hp	4
19th	1,700,000	9+10 hp	4
20th	1,850,000	9+11 hp	4

Table: Bard Spells

Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6h
1st	1	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	2	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	2	1	-	-	-	-
4th	2	1	-	-	-	-
5th	3	1	1	-	-	-
6th	3	2	1	-	-	-
7th	3	2	2	1	-	-
8th	4	2	2	1	-	-
9th	4	3	2	2	-	-
10th	4	3	3	2	1	-
11th	5	3	3	3	2	-
12th	5	4	3	4	3	-
13th	5	4	4	4	4	1
14th	6	4	5	4	4	2
15th	6	5	5	4	4	3
16th	6	5	5	4	4	3
17th	7	5	6	5	4	3
18th	7	6	6	5	5	3
19th	7	6	6	5	5	3
20th	8	6	7	5	5	3

Requirements and Limitations

Musical Dependency for Spellcasting

Bards can only work their magic when able to perform. They tap into the collective consciousness of mortal culture and emotion as expressed through song, tales, and all manner of art throughout the ages. Much like a cleric’s holy symbol or a druid’s mistletoe, a bard needs a musical instrument to focus their spells. Singing, dancing, and similar performances are an exception to this, but require the bard's hands to be free as they gesticulate for dramatic effect.

Class Abilities

Spell Casting

Bards cast spells from a specific list. Like magic-users they carry a spellbook known as a bardic journal which they use to prepare their spells each day. The spellbooks of bards and magic-users are cross-compatible yet limited; a magic-user can transcribe spells from a bardic journal provided that said spell is on the magic-user spell list, and vice-versa.

The contents of bardic journals appear much like a private diary, with haphazard notes, musical sheets, and all manner of trivia with little rhyme or reason.

Saving Throw Bonuses

Bards gain a +2 bonus on saving throws vs. mind-controlling and sound-based effects.

Social Butterfly

Whether they’re a warrior-poet, traveling minstrel, or esteemed spiritualist, bards find it easy to influence people. As long as they’re in a settlement of at least 100 people, a bard can find basic accommodations at an inn or similar place of service for a party of five provided they entertain patrons.

Additionally, a bard can roll 1d20 once per day whenever they’re in a similarly-sized settlement (magic schools, roaming armies, and the like count for this). If the result is less than or equal to their Charisma, they pick up a piece of information about latest gossip and upcoming events which folks might otherwise only volunteer to trusted friends and not complete strangers.

Citizen of the World

Bards pick up many phrases, stories, and speech patterns of different lands as well as their writing. Starting at 2nd level a bard gains fluency in a bonus language, and another language at every even-numbered level thereafter.

Fascinate

A bard’s performance is mesmerizing, whatever form it takes. When outside of combat a bard is capable of entrancing 2d4 + level in Hit Dice worth of spectators. Those with Hit Dice greater than or equal to the bard’s can roll a saving throw to resist, but those affected become distracted and unaware of their surroundings. This can allow thieves to sneak around or enemy soldiers to mount a surprise attack.

This effect immediately ends if at least one member of the audience is attacked or killed in an obvious fashion, or if a person or event interrupts the bard’s performance.

May Use Thief Items

Bards can use any magic items usable by Thieves, plus any magic weapons, armor (leather only), and shields.

Establish College

At 9th level, the bard may establish or become leader of a bardic college. Such places act as centers of learning for new initiates, and contain much in the way of art, music, and culture. The bard will attract students and teachers over time seeking to learn by their example.

Bard Spell List

Spells marked with an asterisk (*) are detailed in the New Spells section on page xx.

1st: Charm Person, Detect Magic, Good Cheer*, Keen Ear*, Read Languages, Read Magic, Song of the First Era*, Song of the Hopeful Knight*

2nd: Cure Light Wounds, ESP, Magic Mouth, Phantasmal Force, Righteous Castigation*, Song of the Stalwart Companions*, Tongues*

3rd: Crescendo*, Fear, Invisibility, Knock, Mirror Image, Rope Trick, Suggestion

4th: Charm Monster, Confusion, Cure Serious Wounds, Danse Macabre*, Legend Lore

5th: Charm Plants, Contact Other Plane, Quest

6th: Conjuration of Elementals, Feeblemind, Mass Charm, Song of the Last Great Hero*

New Spells

Crescendo

Level: Bard 3

Range: 30’ radius

The caster produces a high-pitched note. Targets within range take 1d6 damage per level of the cast, and fragile objects with a low natural resonance (crystals, glass, etc) shatter. A successful saving throw means that the target takes only half damage.

Danse Macabre
Level: Bard 4th
Range: 60’ radius
Duration: Concentration or until dispelled

This spell takes the form of a recited song or tale, taking 1 round to cast. Upon completion, all undead within range of the spellcaster feel an overwhelming compulsion to dance for the duration of the spell. Mindless undead are automatically affected, while intelligent undead can resist with a saving throw. Dancing undead have a 50% chance per round to fight or cast spells normally, otherwise they spend the entire round dancing. Regardless of the result, dancing undead can only move at half speed.

The caster can only affect a number of undead whose total Hit Dice is twice his own.

Good Cheer

Level: Bard 1

Duration: 8 hours

Range: 60’ radius

After casting this spell, those resting nearby the bard find their spirits uplifted. When recovering damage naturally from uninterrupted rest, a character heals 1 hit point plus 1 hit point per level of the bard provided they remain within the spell’s radius. For example, someone resting while under the benefit of this spell cast by a fifth-level Bard heals 6 hit points per day.

Keen Ear**

Level: Bard 1, Unseen 1

Duration: 6 turns

Range: Touch

The subject gains the ability to hear noise as a level 3 thief. If the character already has the ability to hear noise at an exceptional level, this grants a further +1 on his hear noise checks.

Righteous Castigation

Level: Bard 2

Duration: 1d6 turns

Range: 30’

The caster condemns the target for their shortfalls and misdeeds. If the target fails a saving throw, they suffer a +2 penalty (-2 if ascending) on Armor Class as they’re rattled by the words. Lawful targets gain a +2 bonus on their Saving Throw, and mindless beings and those of pure evil such as demons have no conscience and are immune to this spell.

Song of the First Era

Level: Bard 1

Duration: Instantaneous

Range: N/A

This spell takes the form of a recited song or tale, taking 3 rounds to cast. Upon completion the bard makes an Intelligence roll in regards to recalling information, treating their attribute as 4 points higher for this purpose. If successful, a part of the performance provides an insightful piece of lore relevant to the situation at hand.

Song of the Hopeful Knight

Level: Bard 1

Duration: Concentration or until dispelled

Range: 60’ radius

This spell takes the form of a recited song or tale, taking 1 round to cast. Upon completion all allies within range gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls. This bonus persists for as long as the bard concentrates or until the spell is dispelled.

Song of the Last Great Hero

Level: Bard 6

Duration: Concentration or until dispelled

Range: 30’

This spell takes the form of a recited song or tale, taking 1 round to cast. Upon completion a spectral spirit of 16 HD appears, who was a renowned mortal in their old life. The spirit obeys the cast only for as long as the caster concentrates on it, after which they will discorporate and return to their home plane.

Last Great Hero: HD 16; AC 3 [16]; Atk Spectral weapon or spell ray (3d6); MV Fly 15; SV 4; AL Same as caster; CL/XP N/A; Special Undead Traits

Song of the Stalwart Companions

Level: Bard 2

Duration: Concentration or until dispelled

Range: 60’

This spell takes the form of a recited song or tale, taking 1 round to cast. Upon completion all allies within the radius gain morale (if said ally is not a player character) and gain a +2 bonus on saving throws versus spells and effects which would cause fear or alter their mental state such as charm person and confusion. If any allies are under said effects when the spell is cast, they immediately gain a new saving throw to resist.

Tongues

Level: Bard 2, Magic-User 3

Duration: 1 hour per level

Range: Touch

The target of this spell gains the ability to speak and understand any verbal language, but not to read or write it.

**Keen Ear first appeared in Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts by Dyson Logos.