[UA] Avatar: the Musician (Bard problem solved)

[Chris Cooper]

Your bard is very limited -- she seems to have different grades of the same ability -- which is fine for D&D's powers per level advancement. But in UA, I feel archetypes need a bit more oomph than incremental changes of the same ability.

Here are my suggestions. 

Taboo: No other animal indulges or possesses an appreciation for music as we do. The voice is the very first musical instrument and all other instruments are extensions of the same divine spark. To ignore the spark is to snuff it. So, the muso must sacrifice herself for the music. She may have no long-term relationships or make any more money other than the bare minimum - she may not do more than two of the following three needs on a day to day basis: house herself or have sex, clothe herself or practice hygiene, or feed herself. Feeding includes booze and drugs.


01 - 50
If muso rolls her musician skill; if it's successful she can reduce or increase one skill possessed by someone else by the sum of the Avatar: Muscian skill. This lasts for one scene.

51 - 70
The muso can wrack or heal the soul with her music. On a successful Avatar: Musician roll, the target suffers the sum of the roll in either Soul or Wounds or a combination of both. Physically, there aren't injuries and the target's emotions result in depression, coughs, sickness, headaches and things that are not regularly medically diagnosable.

71 - 90
After a performance, the muso can generate emotional loyalty and even worship from her music. On a successful Avatar: Musician roll, all Soul rolls from members of her audience can flip-flop all Soul-based rolls if they directly benefit the muso. The audience can hang on to this obsession-like freebie until they fall asleep or lose conscious at which point it is lost.

95 - 99
The muso now becomes the needle playing in the groove of the Akashic record. If she composes music about a single individual, she can affect that individual once. This individual can even be herself.

She can bestow a charm that works like a pool of points equal to the sum of the Avatar: Musician roll. The target can allocate these points as skill points to any skill they possess on a one-to-one ratio whenever they wish. Even if they fail a roll, the retroactive boost turns failure into a win. The effect and placement is permanent.



      
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