Everyman Minis: More Unchained Bard Masterpieces
Everyman Minis: More Unchained Bard Masterpieces
The second Everyman Mini that features new masterpieces for the potent Unchained Bard clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page introduction (not featuring the glyph-key this time around, but that’s a minor comfort detriment. Still, there’d be enough space…), 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let’s take a look! In case you were wondering, btw.: This Everyman Mini is exclusively available as part of the Klickstarter-bundle.
We start off with two new 1st level masterpieces, the first of which would be the Dance of Infinite Steps for the muse, you guessed it, dance. As a minor nitpick – “Dance” is bolded instead of “Muse.” This one nets you the performance bonus as a dodge bonus to AC and as a penalty to atk rolls, as well as 50% spell failure chance with verbal spells; accompaniment makes this significantly better, allowing for the double bonus, no penalty, and no spell failure chance. The second masterpiece would be the Thunderous March, which is associated with the muses dance, percussion, sing and wind instruments. This one nets all allies an additional +1d4 sonic damage with weapon attacks, +1d6 or +1d10 with accompaniment – you see, with Discordant Voice and use sing, you count as maintaining the masterpiece an additional time. I like this, but AoE +1d6 damage…at low levels, that’s a pretty big “ouch.”
At 3rd level, we have 2 masterpieces as well; the Anthem of Illumination, which is a 40-ft.-radius emanation and may be used with any muse (“Effect” not bolded properly). This one generates light, and may suppress darkness-effects, with accompaniment etc. allowing the masterpiece to dispel darkness and even count as sunlight. Distracting Drone has a range of 60 ft. and is available for any muse (“Muse” not bolded properly) and one target in range must make a Will save or lose all skill ranks, spells known, spells prepared and activated feats, as well as extraordinary, supernatural and spell-like abilities. Öh. WUT??? Okay, it’s implied that this is only while the foe fails the Will save each round, but…wut??? This is ridiculously good, a pain for the GM to implement on the fly, and literally one of the best debuffs I’ve ever seen Yeah, not gonna happen anywhere near my game.
The book features 3 7th-level masterpieces, the first of which is Clamor of Spirits, available for any muse. This one generates a cylinder, somewhat flame strike-y, which causes damage based on muse Perform ranks, which is clever. The damage type selection is also pretty nice, including the 4 base energy types, the 3 physical damage types and sonic, and sourcing the second half of the damage directly from a “divide[sic!]” power. I like the options to unleash more columns and have the energy “stick” to targets. Requiem for the Sovereign is a masterpiece for the muses oratory and sing. “Effect” is not bolded correctly. This one grants an ally or yourself an additional move or swift action. You can choose this up to 3 times, and choosing an ally twice allows you to grant the ally a standard action instead. WTF. This is ridiculously potent. No limitations to prevent abusive combos, no target can only be affected once per day cap, nothing. Broken and at best suitable as a mythic exclusive, and then only at higher tiers and levels.
Symphony of Elven Ascension is associated with the percussion and wind muses. It lets you choose from a list of conditions and descriptors and grant rerolls. As far as 11th level masterpieces are concerned, we have two: The Requiem for the Banshee thankfully is not insta-kill or the like – it bestows negative levels, which can be made permanent via accompaniment. Reviving Reveille is for all muses and heals allies, with the option to breath of life them. The 15th level masterpiece, Inspired Action, is for the muses oratory and sing. It lets you choose an ally within 60 ft. This ally gets a standard, a move, or a swift action as an immediate action. Oh boy. This breaks the action chain. Horribly.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are not up to the standards of Everyman Gaming; they aren’t as good on a formal level, but more importantly, they are all out of whack in a couple of rules-components. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has a nice artwork. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none.
I don’t get it. Both Everybody Games and author David N. Ross are usually guarantees that a book won’t be this flawed. 2 of this mini’s masterpieces are flat-out broken, and honestly, I’m puzzled how this happened. This is not good, and the glitches would be severe in a longer file. In such a short one? For me, they sunk it. This goes too far, even for the unchained bard’s respectable power-level, and in doing so, it breaks core components of the game. My final verdict can’t exceed 2 stars.
You can get the klickstarter bundle containing this file here on OBS!
Want a really cool and powerful bard? You can get the unchained bard here on OBS!
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Endzeitgeist out.
