Troubadour, Minstral

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Overview & Creation

The quavering tune, song from the heart uplifts company spirits and drives away the darkness. A minstrals enchanting tunes evoke emotions and can be used to placate hostile crowds and even earn a little coin on the side. A minstral is a jack of all trades able to apply themselves whatever is needed.

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Class Features

Lv.3 Company Bard

Adventuring is a dangerous and stressful occupation that benefits from a voice of inspiration and party member able to keep up the banter and jokes deep into the darkest dungeon. At this level and every third level (3rd, 6th and 9th) the minstral adds a new bardic performance to their repertoire.   Inspirational Performance – As part of a short or long rest The minstral may undertake a 10min ritual performance to inspire their party giving all members a d8 inspiration die that they may use between now and their next rest.   Emotive Performance – As an action the minstrel may strike up an emotive tune in an attempt to conjure a certain emotion for all present within 120ft. The effects remain until the beginning of the minstrels next turn and effect all allies and hostile creature in the same manner;

• Fear – Disadvantage on any saves against fear effects
• Sadness – Creature movement speed decreased by -5ft, and attacks suffer disadvantage
• Anger – Gives +3 damage to attacks that hit, but gives disadvantage on attack rolls
• Surprise – Gives advantage on saves
• Joy – Grants a +5hp bonus to healing effects
• Disgust – Disadvantage on any constitution saves, or to resist the sickened condition

With GM discretion, the minstral may ask to evoke an emotion not listed, when they do so, the effects are left to GM discretion.   Morale Boost – Whenever the minstral would use their inspirational abilities the inspiration die is increased to a d12.   Busking and Harking – The minstral knows how to draw in a crowd with street entertainments, earning coin, reputation and being able to hark out message or rumour at the same time. Once per day whenever the minstral is in a settlement, they may spend a 8hr ritual to complete several street entertainments earning Xd6 gold, where X is the minstrels level. As part of this ritual, the minstral may also hark news or rumour spreading a message to the settlement which becomes rumour knowledge to all NPCs in 1d4 days.   When earning gold in this manner, the GM may apply modifiers for the size of the settlement, or current weather conditions adding or subtracting d6 die as appropriate. When this would be the case, the minstrel knows the value of X before performing their street entertainments.   Solo – The minstral begins a performance of their chosen art for an audience. For each 1d20 mins of performance, the minstral may make a performance check. Each result of 15 or above, confers a cumulative +1 bonus (Max +5) to charisma checks with NPCs part of the audience for the next week and reveals the minstral as a notable person in the area to those NPCs who saw the performance.  

Lv.5 Actor

The minstral hones their acting and performance skills in mimicry and dramatics gaining the following benefits;

• The minstral increases their charisma score by +1 to a maximum of 20.
• You have advantage on Charisma skill checks when trying to pass yourself off as a different person so long as you have spent at least 1hr studying their behaviour, stance and dress.
• You can mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures. You must have heard the person speaking or heard the creature making the sound for at least 1 min. A successful wisdom save against your deception check reveals the sound as faked.

 

Lv. 7 Street Rumour

A minstral always has an ear for the local gossip and rumour able to conduct one of the following actions as part of a short or long rest in a settlement;

• Gather local rumour - When they do so they learn 3 facts about; places & people, beasts and flora, history & events, local customs, trades & industries. That could be pertinant to their current adventure or character arcs. These facts are accurate 00-66% of the time.
 
• Underground Contact - Find the name of a local crimelord, and how they may contact them knowing the crimelords speciality (fencing, forgery, robbery, extortion, smuggling, prostitution, confidence trickster) and how the party may make introductions. This information is accurate 06-90% of the time, and 00-05% of the time it is a trap by local law enforcement.
 
• Corroborate Rumour - The minstral takes time to track the source of a rumour and ascertain its veracity, finding either the name, location or event that sparked the rumour, and if it is likely true or not (this is accurately deduced 00-90% of the time).
 
• Root of Local Authority – The minstral deduces the name of a local official responsible for law and order, where they are based, how introductions or audience may be granted and if they are respectable and effective in their role, or corrupt and possible to be bribed. Each piece of information is accurate 00-90% of the time.

 

Lv10 Enchanting Performance

The mistral is able to emulate the motions of spellweavers practising their routines and motions to replicate a magical effect through the art of performance instead of magical training. The minstral chooses a spell that they have learnt to copy which they now add to the list of their abilities.   To cast this spell, the minstral spends an action to begin the performance which continues until the beginning of their next turn. As an action at the start of their next turn the minstral may complete the performance, casting the spell. When they complete this spell they use their performance skill rather than arcana.   Due to the unorthodox casting, counterspelling attempts against this performance are made with disadvantage.