A song that keeps playing while the singer fights. A story that changes the people who hear it. A painting that steps out of its frame.
You are an artist, and your art has weight. When you play, sing, dance, recite or carve, the world listens, and your allies fight harder, think faster and stand longer for it. Others see a performer. You know that every performance is a spell, and that the best ones never stop.
Your magic lives in your compositions: performances that keep playing while you do everything else. You strike between verses, cast between refrains and talk your way out of trouble with the melody still hanging in the air. As you grow, your songs last longer, reach further and learn to play in harmony.
In a fight, you keep a composition playing while you strike, cast and move, and each turn you choose whether to lean into your weapon or your magic. Among people, you are the voice of the group: you charm, persuade and perform, and you rarely say the same thing the same way twice. On the road, you tell the stories that explain the ruins and recall the legends that warn of the danger ahead. Between adventures, you perform for coin and reputation, compose new works, research lost lore and craft the instrument that will carry your next song.
Statistics
Stamina 8 plus your Constitution modifier. You increase your maximum Stamina by this number at 1st level and every level thereafter.
Key Attribute Charisma. At 1st level, your class gives you an attribute boost to Charisma.
Key Skill Performance. You are trained in Performance, and it automatically becomes expert at 3rd level, master at 7th level, paragon at 11th level, legendary at 15th level and ascendant at 19th level.
Skills
Trained in Occultism.
Trained in a number of additional skills equal to 4 plus your Intelligence modifier.
Attacks
Trained in simple weapons.
Trained in martial weapons.
Trained in unarmed attacks.
Trained in instrument loci.
Spells
Trained in Occult spells.
Deflection
Trained in light armor.
Trained in unarmored defense.
Defenses
Trained in Stability.
Expert in Evasion.
Trained in Resilience.
Trained in Clarity.
Expert in Spirit.
Expert in Resolve.
Perception
Expert in Perception.
Class Threshold
Trained in Bard class threshold.
You are untrained in anything not listed unless you gain a better proficiency rank in some other way. Your proficiency ranks improve as you gain levels, as shown in Table B-1: Bard Advancement below.
Key Terms
You'll see the following key terms in many Bard class features.
Composition To cast a composition cantrip or composition spell, you use a type of Performance. If the spell requires an auditory performance, you might recite a poem, sing a song or deliver a dramatic monologue; if it requires a visual performance, you might dance or pantomime. You can cast only one composition cantrip each turn, and you can have only one composition cantrip active at a time. If you cast a new composition cantrip, any ongoing effects from your previous composition cantrip end immediately. Composition spells that aren't cantrips don't count toward either limit.
Aura An aura is an emanation that continually ebbs out from you. It moves with you and affects every creature within it, including a creature that enters it after you cast the spell. Every composition with an emanation area is an aura.
Spellshape Actions with the spellshape trait tweak the properties of your spells. You must use a spellshape action directly before Casting the Spell you want to alter; if you use any other action in between, including a free action or a reaction, you waste the spellshape. Any effect a spellshape adds is part of the spell's effect, not of the spellshape action itself. Composition spellshapes apply only to composition cantrips, and you can apply only one spellshape to a casting unless an ability says otherwise.
| LEVEL | Class | Attack | Deflection | Stability | Evasion | Resilience | Clarity | Spirit | Resolve | Perception | Spells | CLASS FEATURES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Expression; Composition Spells; Courageous Anthem; Cadence; Trained Motif. | |||||||||||
| 2 | Trained Motif. | |||||||||||
| 3 | Counter Performance. | |||||||||||
| 4 | Expert Motif. | |||||||||||
| 5 | Lingering Composition. | |||||||||||
| 6 | Expert Motif. | |||||||||||
| 7 | Setlist. | |||||||||||
| 8 | Master Motif. | |||||||||||
| 9 | Harmonize. | |||||||||||
| 10 | Master Motif. | |||||||||||
| 11 | Earworm. | |||||||||||
| 12 | Paragon Motif. | |||||||||||
| 13 | Fortissimo Composition. | |||||||||||
| 14 | Paragon Motif. | |||||||||||
| 15 | Universal Refrain. | |||||||||||
| 16 | Legendary Motif. | |||||||||||
| 17 | Perfect Symphony. | |||||||||||
| 18 | Legendary Motif. | |||||||||||
| 19 | Eternal Composition. | |||||||||||
| 20 | Ascendant Motif. |
Class Features
You gain these features as a Bard. Features gained at higher levels list the level at which you gain them next to the feature's name.
Bard Spellcasting
| Level | Cantrips | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | 5 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 8 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 10 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 11 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 12 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - |
| 13 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - |
| 14 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - |
| 15 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| 16 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - |
| 17 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - |
| 18 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - |
| 19 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 20 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Your art reaches into the Occult: the half-remembered songs, forbidden stories and raw emotion that run beneath the surface of the world. You are a spellcaster, and you can cast Occult spells using the Cast a Spell activity. When you cast, your incantation might be a sung verse or a rhyme spoken just so, your gestures a turn of dance or a flourish of stagecraft, and your instrument can carry the whole spell.
You cast spells spontaneously. The number of spell slots you have each day is shown on Table B-2: Bard Spells per Day. When you gain a new spell rank, you gain one slot of that rank, and a second one at the next level, up to two slots of each rank. At 19th level, you gain a single 10th-rank slot, which stays a single slot at 20th level. You can fuse two spell slots of the same rank into a single slot one rank higher, and you can keep fusing up to your highest rank.
Some of your spells require a spell attack roll, and others have your enemies roll against your spell threshold, usually with a defense check. Your spell attack modifier and spell threshold use your Charisma modifier.
Cantrips A cantrip doesn't use a spell slot, and you can cast it at will. It's automatically heightened to half your level rounded up.
Spell Repertoire The spells you know form your repertoire. It holds a number of spells equal to your level plus your proficiency bonus in Occult spells plus your Charisma modifier, chosen from the Occult spell list at any rank you can cast, and you also know five Occult cantrips. You can cast any spell in your repertoire with a slot of its rank or higher, heightening it to the rank of the slot. Each time you gain a level, you can swap one spell in your repertoire for another Occult spell, including one of a higher rank.
Composition Spells
You can infuse your performances with magic to create unique effects called compositions. Compositions are a special type of spell that often requires you to use the Performance skill when casting it.
Composition spells are a type of focus spell, cast with Focus Points from your focus pool. The composition spell your Expression grants you gives you a focus pool of 1 Focus Point. To Refocus, you perform, write a new composition or otherwise tend to your art.
Composition Cantrips Composition cantrips are special composition spells that don't cost Focus Points, so you can use them as often as you like. They are in addition to the cantrips you choose with Bard spellcasting, and they don't increase your focus pool. You gain more composition cantrips by selecting them as Bard feats. Unlike other cantrips, you can't swap out a composition cantrip gained from a Bard feat at a later level, unless you swap out that feat by retraining.
At 1st level, you learn the courageous anthem composition cantrip and the composition spell granted by your Expression.
Area 60-foot emanation; Duration 1 round
You fill the air with a rousing song, a war cry or a few words of fire. You and all allies in the area gain a +1 status bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, spell thresholds and defense checks against fear effects.
Cadence
Your performance keeps time with your blows, and every strike you land is another beat that keeps the song going. A shield knocked aside becomes a cymbal crash, and a parried blade rings like a plucked string. Your enemies soon learn that fighting you only makes the music louder.
Once per turn, when you damage an enemy with a Strike, you can increase the duration of one of your active compositions by 1 round. Weapon Strikes, locus Strikes and spells that require a spell attack roll count as Strikes for Cadence.
While you have a composition active, your Strikes gain a status bonus to damage rolls equal to the number of weapon damage dice they deal. This applies to any composition, even one that doesn't normally grant a bonus to damage.
Expression
Every Bard has a form their art returns to again and again. For some it is a baton raised before an ensemble, for others a secret tucked inside an old verse, a canvas, a war cry or a blade that sings as it moves. Whatever shape it takes, it is the part of your art that no one else could have made.
Your Expression grants you a feature, a spell in your repertoire and a composition spell, all described under Expressions.
Counter Performance
Your art is a shield against the art of others. When a hostile voice tries to bend a mind or a terrible sight tries to break a will, you answer it with a stronger melody, a steadier gaze or a louder laugh. Your allies hear you over the noise and hold on to the sound.
You learn the counter performance composition spell.
Trigger You or an ally within 60 feet attempts a defense check against an auditory, visual or emotion effect.
Area 60-foot emanation
You answer the enemy's performance with your own. Attempt a Performance check of a type that matches the trigger: auditory against an auditory effect, visual against a visual effect, and either against an emotion effect. You and your allies in the area can use the better result between your Performance check and their defense check.
Lingering Composition
Your performances echo long after the last note. A well-placed flourish lets a refrain hang in the air and a rhythm keep beating in the room after your hands have stopped. The song fades, but not before it has done its work.
You learn the lingering composition focus spell.
You add a flourish that lets your composition linger in the air. If your next action is to cast a composition cantrip with a duration of 1 round, attempt a Performance check against a standard-difficulty threshold of a level equal to the highest-level target of your composition.
Critical Success The composition lasts 4 rounds.
Success The composition lasts 3 rounds.
Failure The composition lasts 1 round, but you don't spend the Focus Point for casting this spell.
Special Cadence can extend a lingering composition only once it reaches its last round.
Setlist
Every performer walks onto the stage with a list of pieces for the night, and a good one changes that list to suit the room. You know more songs than you could ever play in a day, and each morning you decide which of them tonight's audience needs to hear.
During your daily preparations, choose one Bard feat that grants a composition cantrip, of a rank your Class Proficiency allows. You gain that feat until your next daily preparations, and you can choose a different one each day. You can't choose a feat you already have.
Harmonize
You can perform two works at once, doubling your voice, playing while you dance or letting your instrument sing a second line. Where other performers must choose one song, you weave two together until neither can be told apart from the other. The result is richer than either piece alone.
You learn the harmonize focus spell.
If your next action is to cast a composition cantrip, it becomes a harmonized composition. A harmonized composition doesn't end when you cast another composition, and casting it doesn't end any other composition in progress. You can have only one harmonized composition at a time; if you harmonize another, the previous one ends.
Special A harmonized composition can't be extended by Cadence.
Earworm
A melody repeated often enough stays with the listener, waiting for its cue. You spend the quiet hours humming a tune, drilling a chant or rehearsing a step until your companions carry it without noticing. When the fighting starts, the song starts with it.
Choose a composition cantrip and spend 10 minutes repeating a melody, chant, speech or dance that embodies it. You implant the earworm in yourself and in every ally who can see or hear you for the entire activity.
When you roll initiative, attempt a Performance check against a hard threshold for your level. On a success, the chosen cantrip is active on you and those allies when the encounter begins, and it lasts until the end of your first turn. On a failure, the earworm is lost.
Allies forget the earworm after it activates, if you implant another earworm, or during your next daily preparations, whichever comes first.
Fortissimo Composition
Your anthems swell until nothing can drown them out. You pour everything into a single passage, pushing your voice or your instrument past what should be possible. For a few moments, the whole battlefield moves to your tempo.
You learn the fortissimo composition focus spell.
If your next action is to cast courageous anthem, rallying anthem or song of strength, attempt a Performance check against a very hard-difficulty threshold of a level equal to the highest-level target of your composition.
Critical Success The status bonus from your composition increases to +3.
Success The status bonus from your composition increases to +2.
Failure Your composition provides only its normal bonus of +1, but you don't spend the Focus Point for casting this spell.
Special Cadence can extend the effects of Fortissimo Composition by no more than 1 round.
Universal Refrain
Even the mindless have a rhythm. A golem's gears keep time, an ooze pulses to a beat and a restless dead thing still remembers the songs of its life. You have learned to reach all of them.
Your spells with the mental trait can affect mindless creatures and creatures immune to mental effects, and the mental damage you deal ignores immunity to mental effects.
Perfect Symphony
Your compositions layer like the voices of a full orchestra. Every flourish you add finds its place beside the others instead of drowning them out. Listeners no longer hear a performer; they hear an ensemble.
You can use two composition spellshapes before casting a composition cantrip, and using the second spellshape doesn't waste the first.
Eternal Composition
The world is a stage upon which you are always playing. Music follows you into every room, down every road and through every silence, and your body keeps its rhythm without being told. Even asleep, your fingers drum the next measure.
You are permanently quickened. You can use your extra action only to cast a composition cantrip that requires 1 action to cast.
While in exploration mode, you can declare that you are performing a composition cantrip that requires 1 action to cast while you use any other exploration activity. Even before your first turn in a combat encounter, that cantrip is active as if you had cast it on your previous turn.
If that cantrip is the one you implanted with Earworm, you can apply one composition spellshape to it as the encounter begins, paying its cost as normal. You can't apply more than one this way; the second spellshape of Perfect Symphony applies only when you cast a composition cantrip during an encounter.
Expressions
An Expression is the artistic form you focus on, and it shapes the way your magic reaches the world. Choose one at 1st level. It grants you a feature, adds a spell to your repertoire and teaches you a composition spell.
Aesthetic
Your art is made with your hands: painting, sculpture, engraving, tapestry. Your works hold magic, and sometimes they step out of their frames. Every surface you touch is a stage waiting for its curtain to rise.
Repertoire Spell summon fey
You can use Crafting instead of Performance for any use of the Performance skill, including casting compositions and meeting prerequisites. Crafting becomes your Key Skill instead of Performance. You gain the Magical Crafting skill feat, even if you don't meet its prerequisites.
Range 30 feet; Area 20-foot emanation around the work
Defense Resolve
The work you painted, carved or engraved steps out of its surface for a single, breathtaking moment. It appears in a space within range, and both of its effects fill a 20-foot emanation around it.
Arrive Unveiling (mental) Each enemy in the area attempts a Resolve defense check. On a failure, it is fascinated by the work until the work departs.
Depart Absence (mental) The beauty leaves the world, and its absence hurts. Each enemy in the area takes 2d6 mental damage, with a basic Resolve defense check.
Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 2d6.
Enigma
You chase the stories no one tells anymore: forgotten songs, lost histories, the truth hidden inside legends. Where others hear a nursery rhyme, you hear a map, a warning or a name that was meant to be forgotten.
Repertoire Spell pocket library
You are trained in Bardic Lore, a special Lore skill that can be used only to Recall, but on any topic. You use your Charisma modifier for Bardic Lore instead of your Intelligence modifier. If you have legendary proficiency in Occultism, you become expert in Bardic Lore.
Trigger You or an ally within range attempts a skill check to Recall.
Range 30 feet; Targets you or the triggering ally
You call on the deep mysteries of your art, and a forgotten memory comes back whole. Roll the triggering Recall check twice and use the higher result.
Lyricist
To you, a spell is a song with a sharper edge. Your verses carry your magic further, and your allies' spells ride on your music. In your hands, a fireball arrives on the downbeat.
Repertoire Spell concordant choir
While you or your allies are under your courageous anthem, their spells that deal damage gain a status bonus to damage equal to the anthem's rank, and their locus Strikes gain a status bonus to damage equal to the number of the locus's damage dice.
Range 30 feet; Targets 1 creature
Defense Deflection
You strike a chord so harsh the air itself splits around it. Make a spell attack roll against the target's Deflection. On a hit, the target takes 2d6 sonic damage plus your Charisma modifier.
Critical Success The target takes double damage and is stupefied 1 for 1 round.
Success The target takes full damage.
Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 2d6.
Maestro
You are the conductor. You don't play the loudest part; you make everyone else play better, and your art lives in the ensemble. A nod from you brings a hesitant ally in on the beat, and a raised hand steadies a whole room.
Repertoire Spell soothe
You learn the uplifting overture composition cantrip.
Range 60 feet; Targets 1 ally
Duration 1 round
Your performance makes an ally feel they can succeed at anything. This counts as having prepared to Aid your ally on a skill check of your choice. When you later use the Aid reaction, you can roll Performance instead of the normal skill check, and if you roll a failure, you get a success instead. If you are legendary in Performance, you automatically critically succeed. The GM might rule that you can't use this ability if encouraging your ally would interfere with the skill check, such as a check to Sneak quietly or maintain a disguise.
Range 30 feet; Targets you or 1 ally
Duration sustained up to 4 rounds
Your glorious singing mends wounds and gives a moment of respite from harm. The target gains fast healing 2. When you Cast the Spell and the first time each round you Sustain the Spell, the target gains 2 temporary Stamina, which lasts for 1 round.
Heightened (+1) The fast healing and the temporary Stamina each increase by 2.
Minstrel
You are the wandering player, and your instrument is also your weapon. Steel and string answer each other in every fight. The same hand that tunes the lute between towns knows exactly how hard it can swing it.
Repertoire Spell echoing weapon
The damage die of your instrument locus increases to d6, and its Strikes add half your Charisma modifier to damage. While you wield a duet weapon, an instrument attack you make after a weapon Strike on the same turn gains the agile trait.
Requirements You are wielding a weapon and an instrument locus, or a duet weapon.
Blade and string strike together. Make a Strike with your weapon, then a Strike with your instrument. Both count toward your multiple attack penalty, and the second takes the normal penalty. You can target different creatures.
Polymath
You never settled on one art. You act, sing, dance and tell stories, and you can turn any performance into a social tool. A tavern crowd, a noble court and a nervous guard at the gate are all just different audiences.
Repertoire Spell charm
You can use Performance instead of Diplomacy to Make an Impression and instead of Intimidation to Demoralize. You can also use an acting Performance instead of Deception to Impersonate. You can use your proficiency rank in Performance to meet the prerequisites of skill feats that require a proficiency rank in Deception, Diplomacy or Intimidation.
Range 30 feet; Targets you or 1 ally
Duration 1 minute
You recall a parable, and its lesson settles into the listener as if they had always known it. The target becomes expert in one skill or Lore of your choice for the duration.
Heightened (4th) The target becomes master instead.
Heightened (7th) The target becomes paragon instead.
Heightened (10th) The target becomes legendary instead.
Skald
You sing for war. Your verses are shouted over the clash of steel, and you stand in the front line to be heard. When the drums start, your allies stop counting enemies and start counting blows.
Repertoire Spell sure strike
You become trained in medium armor, and you gain the Shield Block general feat.
You strike to the pounding of war drums only you can hear. Make a melee Strike. If it hits, it deals an extra 1d6 sonic damage. If you are under your courageous anthem, its status bonus to the attack roll increases by 1 for this Strike.
Heightened (+4) The extra damage increases by 1d6.
Zoophonia
Your voice speaks to beasts: birdsong, wolf howls, the rumble of great herds. Animals answer you as one of their own. Where you walk, the forest gets louder.
Repertoire Spell summon animal
You can use Performance instead of Diplomacy to Request and to Make an Impression on animals, as though you shared a language, although this gives you no special ability to understand their responses. You can also use Performance instead of Nature to Command an Animal.
Area 15-foot emanation; Defense basic Evasion
Duration sustained up to 1 minute
Your voice calls a storm of songbirds that whirl around you and peck at your enemies. All creatures within the area are concealed, and all creatures outside the area are concealed to creatures within it. A creature other than you that enters the area or ends its turn there takes 1d6 piercing damage as the birds peck at it.
Heightened (+2) The damage increases by 1d6.
Instruments
Many Bards would rather fight with the instrument in their hands than put it down and draw a blade. A lute swung like a club, a drum struck hard enough to crack bone, a horn that screams a note sharp enough to cut: in the right hands, the song is the weapon.
Instrument loci An instrument is a locus, the weapon category of spellcasters. It follows the locus rules: your Strikes with it use your spell attack modifier, it deals sonic damage, and it can be etched with runes according to its quality. You are trained in instrument loci.
Codas A coda is a magical instrument that works like a staff, requiring investiture just as a staff does. Only a Bard can prepare one. It gains charges and casts spells exactly as a staff does: it gains charges equal to your highest spell slot rank, and as a spontaneous caster you can spend 1 charge and one of your spell slots to cast a spell from it. A coda is also an instrument locus, so you can attack with it and etch it following the locus rules. It is held in two hands, and a Bard who fights with another weapon must spend Interact actions to switch to the coda and back.
Duets A duet weapon joins an instrument locus and a melee or ranged weapon in a single item. Each part keeps the traits of its base weapon, and its damage die drops one step, to a minimum of d4. Used as a locus, a duet deals sonic damage, like every instrument locus; used as a weapon, it deals the damage type of its base weapon. Switching between the two parts costs no action, and the whole item takes 1 investiture. A duet weapon can also be a coda.
Motifs
Bard class feats are called motifs: a Trained Motif, an Expert Motif and so on up to an Ascendant Motif. You gain them by rank. Each feat below lists the rank at which it becomes available; when your Class Proficiency reaches that rank, you can select it. Feats marked with an Expression require that Expression, or Multifarious Expression for it.
Trained Motifs
You use a performer's cold reading and a glimpse of the aura to find your foe's strengths and weaknesses. The GM rolls a secret Occultism check for you against the Deception or Stealth threshold (whichever is higher) of an enemy of your choice who is not concealed from you, hidden from you or undetected by you, and who is engaged in combat. The GM might apply a penalty for the distance between you and the enemy. The enemy is then temporarily immune to your Combat Reading for 1 day.
Critical Success The GM chooses and tells you two of the following pieces of information about the enemy: which of its weaknesses is highest, which of its defense checks has the lowest modifier, one immunity it has, or which of its resistances is highest. In the event of a tie, the GM picks one at random.
Success The GM chooses one piece of information from the list above to tell you about the enemy.
Critical Failure The GM gives you false information.
You can shape the area of your composition spells. Whenever you cast a composition spell whose area is an emanation, you can change its area to a cone 10 feet larger, to a maximum of twice the original area. For example, a composition spell that affects a 30-foot emanation could affect a 40-foot cone, but a 5-foot emanation could only become a 10-foot cone.
You know exactly where a shaken mind leaves its guard down. Any enemy affected by a spell with the mental trait is off-guard to you.
Your art doesn't fit a single label. Choose an Expression other than your own. You gain that Expression's feature and add its repertoire spell to your repertoire, and your Expression counts as that Expression for the purpose of meeting prerequisites. You don't gain its composition spell.
Special You can select this feat more than once. Each time, choose a different Expression.
Your performances lend strength to your allies' arms and backs. You learn the song of strength composition cantrip.
Area 60-foot emanation; Duration 1 round
You bolster your allies' physical strength with a hearty exhortation. You and your allies in the area gain a +1 status bonus to Athletics checks and to your Stability and Evasion thresholds against Athletics skill actions such as Disarm, Reposition, Shove and Trip.
You're resilient to performances that aren't your own. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to defense checks against effects with the auditory, illusion, linguistic, sonic or visual traits.
Expert Motifs
Prerequisites Zoophonia
An animal joins your performances, singing, howling or drumming along. You gain a young animal companion. It is trained in Performance instead of the skill its type would normally grant.
Prerequisites Aesthetic
You set a composition down on a scroll, a sketch or a carving, and anyone who reads it can set the art in motion. You spend 10 minutes and 1 Focus Point to transpose a composition spell that takes a single action to cast. If the composition requires a Performance check as part of the casting, you attempt a Crafting check in its place, which the GM rolls as a secret check when you annotate it. If you have lingering composition or fortissimo composition, you can also apply one of them to the annotated composition, provided it can benefit from the modification; you spend an additional Focus Point, even if the secret check fails.
Any creature that can read the language you used can Activate the Item by spending a single action, which has the concentrate trait. This produces the effects of the composition as though the activating creature had Cast the Spell. The annotated composition loses its power the next time you make your daily preparations. While it is in your possession, you can render it inert with a single action that has the concentrate trait. You can't regain the Focus Points you spent on it until it is activated or loses its magic.
Prerequisites Enigma
You can procure information with confidence. Whenever you Recall using any skill, including Bardic Lore, you can forgo rolling your check and instead take the result the Assurance skill feat would give you with that skill. As long as you are an expert in a skill, you meet the prerequisites for the Automatic Knowledge skill feat for that skill, even if you don't have the Assurance feat for it.
Prerequisites Zoophonia
Animals don't just hear your song; they answer it, and now you understand the answer. You constantly have the effects of speak with animals as a 2nd-rank innate Occult spell. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to checks to Request of animals while this spell is active.
Prerequisites Lyricist
Every spell you have ever sung is written down somewhere, in the margins of your songbook. You keep a book of Occult spells, similar to a wizard's spellbook, and can use its spells to supplement your spell repertoire. Add all the spells in your repertoire to this book for free. You can use the Occultism skill to Learn Spells and add them to your book by paying the appropriate cost. During your daily preparations, choose one spell from your book that isn't in your repertoire; treat it as though it were in your repertoire until your next daily preparations.
Prerequisites Skald
With a rousing call, you urge an ally forward. If your next action is to cast the courageous anthem composition cantrip, one ally of your choice who gains a status bonus from the spell can immediately use their reaction to Stride.
Prerequisites Skald; Rallying Anthem
Like the storied heroes who stand firm against overwhelming odds, you and your allies hold the line. If your next action is to cast the rallying anthem composition cantrip, you can Raise a Shield, and one ally of your choice who gains a status bonus from the spell can immediately use their reaction to Raise a Shield.
Prerequisites Polymath; expert in Occultism
Your broad experiences translate to a range of skills. Your proficiency bonus to untrained skill checks is +0 instead of −2. You can attempt any skill check that normally requires you to be trained, even if you are untrained. If you have legendary proficiency in Occultism, you can attempt any skill check that normally requires you to have expert proficiency, even if you are untrained or trained.
Prerequisites Maestro
You attune another performer to your music, lending them a measure of your skill. If your next action is to cast a composition spell with an emanation area, the emanation spreads from a willing ally of your choice within 60 feet instead of from you. If you have Directed Audience, the cone can originate from that ally instead.
You subtly weave your spellcasting into a performance. If the next action you use is to Cast a Spell, the spell gains the subtle trait, hiding the shining runes, sparks of magic and other manifestations that would usually give away your spellcasting. The trait hides only the spell's spellcasting actions and manifestations, not its effects, so an observer might still see a ray streak out from you or see you vanish into thin air. As part of using Melodious Spell, you can choose to Create a Diversion, Demoralize, Perform or Request. If you do so, the spell you cast must have the auditory, emotion, sonic or visual trait to gain the subtle trait.
Prerequisites Multifarious Expression
You have mastered the signature work of another art. You learn the composition spell of an Expression you chose with Multifarious Expression.
Special You can select this feat more than once, once for each Expression you chose with Multifarious Expression.
Prerequisites Aesthetic
A few confident lines, and the thing you drew is simply there. You learn the quick sketch composition cantrip.
Cast 10 minutes
Duration until your next daily preparations
You sketch, paint or carve an object on a surface, and it steps out of it as a real object of light Bulk or less, no larger than 10 feet in any dimension. It's nonmagical and inanimate, and it has no value except to certain art collectors. If you depict a creature, a machine or a form of energy, such as a campfire, it appears only as an inanimate sculpture. The object has a painterly look that clearly marks its unusual origin, but it is as real as any other. It crumbles into flakes of paint when the duration ends or when you cast quick sketch again. The object isn't an ongoing composition, so casting another composition cantrip doesn't end it.
Heightened (3rd) The object can be up to 1 Bulk.
Heightened (5th) The object can be up to 2 Bulk.
Heightened (7th) The object can be up to 4 Bulk.
Heightened (9th) The object can be up to 8 Bulk.
Your song moves your allies to guard one another. You learn the rallying anthem composition cantrip.
Area 60-foot emanation; Duration 1 round
Your song moves allies to protect themselves more effectively. You and all allies in the area gain a +1 status bonus to Deflection and defense checks, as well as resistance to physical damage equal to half the spell's rank.
Prerequisites Enigma; expert in Occultism
Careful study of the art of rituals has made you better at performing them. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to all primary and secondary checks you attempt as part of casting a ritual.
Your music keeps tired feet moving long after they would have stopped. You learn the song of marching composition cantrip.
Area 60-foot emanation; Duration sustained up to 1 hour
You keep up a brisk performance that keeps your allies on the move. You and your allies in the area can Hustle for the spell's duration, in addition to your other exploration activities; your exploration activity is Sustaining this spell. You and your allies then become temporarily immune for 1 day. If you enter an encounter while performing this song, you can use your Performance modifier for the initiative roll, and you and your affected allies gain a +1 status bonus to that initiative roll.
Heightened (6th) You can Sustain the Spell for up to 2 hours.
Heightened (9th) You can Sustain the Spell for up to 4 hours.
Prerequisites Zoophonia or Aesthetic
Frequency once per 10 minutes
Requirements Your most recent action was to cast a composition spell.
When inspiration strikes, you weave a call to your summoned creatures into your composition. You Sustain a summon animal or summon fey spell, or you Command an Animal.
You can play a tempo so fast that your allies can't help but keep up. You learn the triple time composition cantrip.
Area 60-foot emanation; Duration 1 round
Your music sets a fast pace. You and all allies in the area gain a +10-foot status bonus to all Speeds.
Prerequisites Minstrel
Requirements You are wielding a weapon and an instrument locus, or a duet weapon.
Blade and string trade places as you move through the fight. You Step, make a Strike, Step, and make another Strike. One Strike must be made with your weapon and the other with your instrument locus, in either order. You can choose not to take one or both Steps.
Master Motifs
Trigger An ally within 30 feet Casts a Spell.
You use your performance to supplement an ally's spellcasting, providing magical energy for their spell in their stead. Attempt a Performance check against a very high threshold for the ally's level, and either spend a Focus Point (if the triggering spell is a focus spell) or expend a spell slot at least 1 rank higher than the triggering spell. If you succeed at your Performance check, your ally's spell doesn't cost the Focus Point or spell slot that ally would normally need to spend.
Prerequisites Zoophonia
You convey the quiet menace of a low growl or a predatory rumble. Attempt a Nature or Performance check and compare it to the Resolve threshold of each enemy adjacent to you. If you have an animal minion, such as an animal companion or a summoned animal, also compare it to each enemy adjacent to that minion. Each creature you succeed against is frightened 1, or frightened 2 if it's an animal. Regardless of the result, each target is temporarily immune to your Bestial Snarling for 10 minutes.
Prerequisites Minstrel
Trigger A creature within your reach critically fails a melee Strike against you.
Requirements You are wielding an instrument locus.
You answer the fumbled beat with one of your own. Make a Strike with your instrument locus against the triggering creature.
Prerequisites Skald
With a mighty shout, you stir an ally to attack. If your next action is to cast the courageous anthem composition cantrip, one ally of your choice who gains a status bonus from the spell can immediately use their reaction to make a melee Strike.
Your song is the last one your enemies expect to hear. You learn the dirge of doom composition cantrip.
Area 30-foot emanation; Duration 1 round
Enemies within the area are frightened 1. They can't reduce their frightened value below 1 while they remain in the area.
Prerequisites Zoophonia
You keep an ear open for the creatures around you and let them help you explore. When you Seek, if there are any willing animals in the area you choose, you can borrow their senses. You can then Seek with scent and tremorsense as imprecise senses, along with any other senses appropriate to the animals in the area, at the GM's discretion.
Prerequisites Well-Versed
Your music carries a bit of your defensive knowledge to everyone who hears it. Allies affected by any of your composition cantrips gain your +1 circumstance bonus from Well-Versed. Teaching your allies also sharpens your own ear: your circumstance bonus from Well-Versed increases to +2.
You mime a barrier so convincing that others believe it is real. You learn the house of imaginary walls composition cantrip.
Duration 1 round
You mime an invisible 10-foot-by-10-foot wall adjacent to you and within your reach. The wall is solid to creatures that don't disbelieve it, even incorporeal ones. You and your allies can choose to believe the wall exists and keep treating it as solid, for instance to climb onto it. A creature that disbelieves the illusion is temporarily immune to your house of imaginary walls for 1 minute. The wall doesn't block creatures that didn't see your visual performance, nor does it block objects. The wall has Deflection 10, Hardness equal to double the spell's rank, and Stamina equal to quadruple the spell's rank.
Prerequisites master in Performance; Animal Accompanist
Your animals have learned to follow your voice without hesitation. When you roll a success to Command an Animal, you get a critical success instead; if you roll a critical failure, you get a failure instead.
Prerequisites Enigma
There is always one more detail tucked away in your memory. When you succeed at a check to Recall, you gain additional information or context. When you critically succeed, you gain additional information or context, or you can ask an additional follow-up question; the GM chooses which.
Prerequisites Polymath
Every role you have ever played is still waiting in the wings. Choose Deception, Diplomacy or Intimidation. You can use Performance instead of that skill for any of its actions.
Special You can select this feat more than once. Each time, choose a different skill.
Prerequisites Animal Accompanist
Your animal companion grows up, becoming a mature animal companion. Increase its proficiency rank in Performance to expert instead of one of the three skill increases for a mature companion. It gains the Mesmerizing Performance advanced maneuver instead of the normal advanced maneuver for its type.
Requirements The companion's last action was a successful Performance check to Perform.
The companion keeps performing to captivate a single target within 30 feet that witnessed its successful performance. The target attempts a Resolve defense check.
Success The target is unaffected and temporarily immune for 1 hour.
Failure The target is fascinated by the companion for its next action, then temporarily immune for 1 hour.
Critical Failure The target is fascinated by the companion for 1 round. While it remains fascinated, it can't use reactions.
Your song refuses to end, and neither do the people who hear it. You learn the ode to ouroboros composition spell.
Trigger A creature's dying condition would reach the value at which it would die.
Range 60 feet; Targets the triggering creature
Your ode staves off death. The target's dying condition remains 1 below the value at which it dies. This doesn't prevent death from effects that kill the target without increasing its dying condition, such as disintegrate and death effects.
Prerequisites Skald
Trigger A creature within your reach uses an auditory effect, a manipulate action or a move action, makes a ranged attack, or leaves a square during a move action.
Requirements You are affected by your courageous anthem.
You bellow a ferocious call to arms and lash out at a foe. Make a melee Strike against the triggering creature. If the attack is a critical hit and the trigger was a manipulate action, the action is disrupted.
Prerequisites Minstrel
Your instrument has learned to hit as hard as it sings. Strikes with your instrument locus add your full Charisma modifier to damage, instead of half from Steel and String. When you critically succeed at a Strike with your instrument locus, the target is also deafened until the end of your next turn.
Prerequisites Maestro
Trigger You or an ally benefiting from your composition spell would take sonic or mental damage.
You bring your performance to a sudden, dramatic finish that drowns out the blow. Your composition spell ends immediately, and all allies who were benefiting from its effects gain resistance to the triggering damage equal to twice the composition spell's rank.
Prerequisites Collected Verses
A verse you borrowed for a day can earn a permanent place in your songbook. When you add a spell to your repertoire during your daily preparations using Collected Verses, the next time you prepare you can keep that spell in your repertoire and lose access to another spell of the same rank in your repertoire instead.
Your art has opened your senses to the world beyond. You gain spiritsense as an imprecise sense with a range of 60 feet. Spiritsense lets you sense the spirits of creatures, including living creatures, most undead that aren't mindless, and haunts within the listed range. As with your hearing and other imprecise senses, you still need to Seek to locate an undetected creature. Because spiritsense detects spiritual essence and not physical bodies, it can detect spirits projected by spells such as project image, or spirits possessing otherwise soulless objects. It can't detect soulless bodies, constructs or objects, and like most senses, it doesn't penetrate solid objects.
Your music lifts its listeners above whatever holds them down. You learn the symphony of the unfettered heart composition spell.
Range 30 feet; Targets you or 1 ally
Your symphony lifts listeners from their worldly concerns. Attempt a Performance check to counteract an effect applying one of the following conditions to the target: grabbed, immobilized, paralyzed, restrained, slowed or stunned. If you fail, you can't target the same effect on the target again for 1 day. Use the condition's source to determine the counteract threshold, such as the Escape threshold for grabbed.
Heightened (9th) You can target up to four creatures.
Prerequisites Aesthetic
You translate the emotion and power of a composition into other mediums. If your next action is to cast a composition spell that is auditory or visual, you can have it affect creatures who can witness it with any sense, not just those the traits indicate, even including special senses like tremorsense. You can choose to exclude any senses you choose.
Paragon Motifs
You can quicken your allies with a fast-paced performance. You learn the allegro composition cantrip.
Range 30 feet; Targets 1 ally
Duration 1 round
You perform rapidly, speeding up your ally. The ally becomes quickened and can use the extra action to Strike, Stride or Step.
Prerequisites Assured Knowledge
The answers come to you at exactly the right moment. You gain the benefits of the Automatic Knowledge skill feat with any skill you can use to Recall. As with Automatic Knowledge, you can still use it only once per round.
Prerequisites Eclectic Skill; paragon in Occultism
Even in a field you never studied, you find the right note. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to untrained skill checks. Once per day, when you attempt an untrained skill check, you can double this bonus to +4 and roll twice, using the higher result; this is a fortune effect.
Prerequisites Zoophonia or Aesthetic
Your art calls creatures to your side while the music is still playing. You cast the summoning spell your Expression adds to your repertoire, summon animal or summon fey, and a composition spell that takes 1 action to cast.
Prerequisites Zoophonia
Trigger A creature counteracts or disrupts the spell you're casting.
Requirements You have an animal minion within 30 feet of you.
When you and your animals sing together, your words ring out bright and bold enough to cut through any interruption. The animal assisting you can Stride and Strike the triggering creature. If the attack succeeds, your spell isn't counteracted or disrupted.
Prerequisites Minstrel
Trigger A creature or hazard would deal sonic damage to you or an ally within 30 feet.
You bend the acoustics around you and throw the sound back at its source. Attempt a Performance check against the Resolve threshold of the creature, or the Resilience threshold of a hazard. If the damage came from a spell, use the caster's spell threshold if it's lower.
Critical Success You reduce the triggering damage by an amount up to four times your level, and the source takes sonic damage equal to the amount you reduced.
Success As critical success, but you reduce the damage by an amount up to twice your level.
Failure The damage is unchanged.
You soothe your allies' wounds with the power of your performance. You learn the soothing ballad composition spell.
Range 30 feet; Targets you and up to 9 allies
You draw on your art to soothe your allies. Choose one of the following effects:
Fear The spell attempts to counteract fear effects on the targets.
Paralysis The spell attempts to counteract effects imposing paralysis on the targets.
Healing The spell restores 1d8 Stamina to the targets.
Heightened (+1) When used to heal, soothing ballad restores 1d8 more Stamina.
Prerequisites Mature Accompanist
Your animal companion continues to develop. It becomes a nimble or savage animal companion, your choice, gaining the abilities its type grants. Increase its proficiency rank in Performance to master instead of Athletics or Acrobatics. When you cast a composition spell, you can have it originate either from you or from your animal companion, if your companion is within 30 feet of you.
Prerequisites Lyricist; paragon in Occultism
Your lifelong study of Occult verse has stretched your magical capacity past what should be possible. You can cast one spell each day even after you've run out of spell slots of the appropriate rank, but you can't use this ability to cast a spell of your highest spell rank.
Prerequisites Enigma
Your mind works at an impossible pace. You instantly use up to five Recall actions. If you have any special abilities or free actions that would normally be triggered when you Recall, you can't use them for these actions.
Prerequisites Maestro
You fill your allies with magical vigor as you urge them into the fight. If your next action is to cast the courageous anthem composition cantrip, you and all affected allies gain temporary Stamina equal to 3 plus your Charisma modifier, which lasts for 1 minute.
Legendary Motifs
Trigger You would take damage from a Strike or spell that doesn't have the death trait or otherwise cause instant death (such as disintegrate).
Using your occult connections and incredible powers of persuasion, you convince yourself that the triggering damage is a figment of your imagination. The damage changes from its usual damage type to mental damage, and the damaging effect gains the nonlethal trait. You can't use this reaction if you are immune to mental effects or mental damage.
Prerequisites Courageous Advance; Courageous Assault
Your performance orchestrates an onslaught against your enemies. If your next action is to cast the courageous anthem composition cantrip, one ally of your choice who gains a status bonus from the spell can immediately use their reaction to Stride and then make a melee Strike.
Prerequisites Enigma; legendary in Occultism
Your repertoire is vast, holding far more spells than it should. Add one spell to your repertoire of each spell rank you can cast.
Your courageous anthem lets loose a discordant shriek that fills your allies' attacks with sonic reverberations. While your allies are affected by your courageous anthem, their weapon Strikes and unarmed attacks deal an extra 1d6 sonic damage.
Prerequisites Collected Verses; trained in Arcana, Nature or Religion
Your songbook holds verses no other Bard can read: formulas, prayers and the old words of the wild, rewritten in meter. As long as you're trained in Arcana, you can add Arcane spells to your book from Collected Verses; as long as you're trained in Nature, you can add Primal spells; and as long as you're trained in Religion, you can add Divine spells. As with the other spells in your book, you can add one of these spells to your repertoire as an Occult spell each day using Collected Verses, but you can't keep a spell from another tradition when you prepare again, even with Revised Verses.
Prerequisites Annotate Composition
Frequency once per day
Your greatest work keeps performing long after your hands leave it. You unveil a masterpiece in an unoccupied space within 30 feet and choose a composition cantrip you know that takes a single action to cast. The work casts that cantrip immediately, as though you had cast it from the work's space, and casts it again at the start of each of your turns for 1 minute, without using any of your actions. The work's composition doesn't count toward your limit of one composition cantrip active at a time. If the work is moved or destroyed, the performance ends.
Prerequisites Counterpoint
No missed beat goes unanswered. Your Counterpoint also triggers when a creature within your reach fails a melee Strike against you, not only when it critically fails.
Prerequisites Maestro
Your music refuses to let an ally fall before the last note. You learn the revivifying finale composition spell.
Trigger An ally within 60 feet who is benefiting from your composition cantrip would be reduced to 0 Stamina or killed by damage.
Range 60 feet; Targets the triggering ally
You end your performance on a note that refuses to let the song stop. Your composition cantrip ends immediately. Roll 1d6 plus your Charisma modifier and subtract the result from the triggering damage. If the result is greater than the damage, the ally regains Stamina equal to the difference.
Heightened (+1) The roll increases by 1d6.
The power of your songs can stir the dead to rise and fight alongside you once more. You learn the song of the fallen composition spell.
Range 30 feet; Targets up to 4 dead creatures or up to 4 undead creatures
Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You chant a dirge or an elegy that either rouses the dead to action or reminds the undead that they should lie at rest. If you target dead creatures, the bodies animate and can keep acting as if they were alive. A creature animated this way has 60 temporary Stamina and is slowed 1, but can otherwise act normally. Creatures animated with this spell die again when the spell ends. If you target undead creatures, each undead attempts a Spirit defense check.
Critical Success The undead takes 5d6 vitality damage.
Success The undead takes 10d6 vitality damage and is slowed 1 for 1 round.
Failure The undead takes 100 vitality damage and is slowed 1 for 1 minute.
Critical Failure The undead is destroyed.
Prerequisites Splendid Accompanist
Your animal companion gains one specialization of your choice. Increase its proficiency rank in Performance to legendary instead of one of the specialization's skill increases.
Prerequisites Skald
Every blow you land becomes a cue for your allies to follow. When you critically succeed at a Strike, one ally of your choice who is affected by your courageous anthem can immediately use their reaction to make a melee Strike, as if you had granted it with Courageous Assault.
Prerequisites Many Masks
There is no art you can't perform. Choose any skill. You can use Performance instead of that skill for any of its uses, and you can use your proficiency rank in Performance to meet the prerequisites that require a proficiency rank in that skill.
Ascendant Motifs
Your songs overwhelm the target with unbearable emotion, and they can strike it dead on the spot. You learn the fatal aria composition spell.
Range 30 feet; Targets 1 creature
You perform music so perfect that the target may die of joy or sorrow. Once targeted, the creature is temporarily immune for 1 minute. The effect depends on the target's level and current Stamina.
16th or Lower The target dies instantly.
17th If the target has 50 Stamina or fewer, it dies instantly; otherwise, it drops to 0 Stamina and becomes dying 1.
18th or Higher The target takes 50 damage. If this brings it to 0 Stamina, it dies instantly.
The crowd calls you back, and you give them one more piece they will never forget. You gain a second 10th-rank spell slot.
Your music can lead the weak-willed wherever you please. You learn the pied piping composition spell.
Area 5-foot emanation; Defense Resolve
Duration 1 minute
Your performance enraptures listeners, compelling them to follow you. Each creature within the emanation attempts a Resolve defense check when you Cast the Spell or the first time it enters the area, and then becomes temporarily immune for 1 day. Once per turn, you can Sustain the composition to increase the emanation's radius by 5 feet. You can Dismiss the spell.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature is fascinated with you.
Failure The creature is fascinated by you and uses all its actions to move toward you and compliment your performance. This effect ends if a hostile action is used against the creature.
Critical Failure The creature gains the minion trait and is controlled by you. This effect ends if a hostile action is used against the creature, or if you direct it to use any action that causes it harm.
Trigger An ally's turn begins.
Requirements The ally hasn't acted in the current encounter.
You announce the triggering ally with a litany of their legendary achievements, spurring them to action. The ally is quickened this turn and can spend the extra action to Stride, Strike, Demoralize, Feint or Perform.
You have learned to weave countless performances together into a single symphony. You're no longer limited to casting one composition cantrip each turn or having one composition cantrip active at a time; when you cast a new composition cantrip, the effects of your previous ones continue for their remaining duration.
Bard Archetype
An archetype character chooses an Expression with Bard Dedication, but gains none of its benefits until they take the feats below.
Prerequisites Bard Dedication
You learn the composition spell of the Expression you chose with Bard Dedication.
Prerequisites Bard Dedication
You gain the feature of the Expression you chose with Bard Dedication. You can then select Multifarious Expression as an archetype feat.
Design Notes
Open, and not decided yet
The rank of the two Initiate feats.