HitDie: d6  Mana: d10  Skills: 8 Saves: fRW Defense: 1/3
 +toHit: Archery 75%, Brawl 50%, Melee 75%, Trown 75%
 
  This is not some merry minstrel or casual playwright, but a dynamic figure whose powerful charisma and diverse skills inspire and fortify those around him. The bard is a magnetic personality; admirers want to be near him, while enemies fear him. He's very world-learned and cosmopolitan, being familiar with many different legends and customs and having travelled to all manner of exotic lands. He dabbles in magic, scholarship, intrigue and skullduggery and even in the combat arts, not trusting any one field alone to protect him in the world. Like the Rogue, he relies first and foremost on his wits and charisma to get him out of trouble. Many Bards eventually join one of the bardic colleges that dot the world, ancient institutues of hallowed mystery, revered heritage and grand political power.
  The Bard is a jack-of-all-trades class, with a lot of diverse abilities. He has a wide selection of skills, including stealth, a dabbling of arcane magic and competant fighting skill with a wide variety of weapons and armour. He also has entirely unique abilities, such as the power to hearten and augment his allies supernaturally with music, and a diverse body of knowledge that gives him a good chance to automatically identify items and monsters.

CLASS SKILLS
   The class skills of the bard are Alchemy, Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Crafts, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Jump, Knowledge (all), Listen, Perform, Spellcraft, Swim, Tumble and Use Magic Device.

CLASS FEATURES
   All the following are class features of the bard.
  * Proficiencies -- The bard is proficient with simple weapons, light weapons, short blades, daggers, archery and light armour.
 
  * Spells -- Though not nearly as skilled as wizards or druids, bards do dabble in magic. They cast spells from memory, having no need for spellbooks or paraphenelia. Their spell list lacks the raw power of the primary casters, but it is very diverse, including enchantments, illusions, minor evocations and even low-grade healing spells. Bards receive one sorcerous spell level at every even class level, and start with a single, bonus 1st-level spell slot at 1st level. Bardic spells are not negatively impacted by light armour or shields.
  * Bardic Music -- Bards excel at performance, whether it be singing or using a musical instrument. In fact, bardic adventurers can create works so moving as to have a tangibly supernatural effect upon their audience. This ability is a valued secret passed down by the bardic colleges, and is the source of much mystique and legend.
  Bards can produce the following musical effects as they advance in level. All bardic music effects are based on a Perform skill check; creatures unwilling to be affected may counter with a Will-based saving throw. Bardic music does not affect mindless or deaf creatures, for obvious reasons, and has a range equal to the bard's Perform skill rating plus two. Each use of bardic music costs 1 Fatigue Point, unless otherwise noted. Maintaining a bardic music effect requires singing, which prevents spellcasting (barring the use of Vocalize Spell) and imposes a -2 circumstance penalty to attack and defense. You automatically stop singing whenever you change map screens as well.
  Inspire Courage (1st): The bard is able to inspire great valour in her allies and friends. When this bardsong is sung, all allies are freed from the effects of the Afraid status, and gain a morale bonus to attack and damage rolls equal to the bard's Charisma modifier; for multiclass bards, this modifier is capped at their total bard levels.
 
  Fascination (3rd): The bard causes a single creature to become enraptured with his music, unable to move or attack for as long as she sings. Attacking the creature of otherwise inflicting damage will break the spell. A Will save against DC (10 + 1/2 bardic music levels + Charisma modifier) negates this effect.
   A bard with 10 levels of bardic music is skillful enough to fascinate entire groups of creatures -- when she uses this song, every hostile creature who can see and hear her is affected.
 
  Countersong (5nd): This ability allows a bard to counter sound-based mystical effects that might harm her or her allies, such as a banshee's wail or the shout spell.
  Inspire Competance (7th): The bard's music can inspire allies to great feats of heroism, granting them a competance bonus equal in magnitude to the bard's Charisma bonus (capped at bard level for multiclass characters) to attack rolls and saving throws. The effect also grants +15% attack speed per level of Charisma modifier, and twice the modifier to Defense Class.
 
  Hymn of the Phoenix Arisen (9th): The bard sings a primal, life-affirming ballad that establishes a kind of psychosomatic bond among herself and all allies who hear the song. Any healing effect on any member of the party thereafter affects all members of the party equally, whether from potion, spell or other source. Additionally, all listeners -- including the bard -- are treated as having a Fire Resistance equal to the bard's Perform skill rating and gaining six temporary Fatigue for the duration of the song.
 
  Spellbreaker Chant (11th): A bard with this level of ability is able to sing a baritone chant with intensely difficult phonetics that duplicate and confuse the verbal components used by spellcasters, hypnotically leading them to mispronounce syllables. Anyone attempting to cast a spell who can hear the chant must make a Concentration check opposed to an immediate Perform check by the bard. If the bard's check is higher, the spell is disrupted. Additionally, the spellcaster must then make a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 Bardic Music level + Charisma modifier) of become confused for 2d4 rounds.
  Dirge (13th, Uniplmemented): The deep harmonics of the bard's music evoke a supernatual dread and despair in all who hear it, causing them to become Afraid and flee for the length of the song.
  Inspire Greatness (15th, Uniplmemented): The bard's music augments the power, endurance and general heroic ability of her party, adding a morale bonus based on her roll to all of their attack and damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks and other rolls. She also grants them extra temporary Hit Dice (d10s) and the accompanying temporary hit points. Finally, her party is made immune to fatigue and fear effects for the duration of the song.
  Ensnare the Heart (18th, Uniplmemented): The bard is able to produce a strain of music so pure and beautiful that it will echo throughout the heartstrings of another for eternity, binding them to the bard's service willingly and gladly. Only one being may be so enthralled at a time, and that being's CR may not exceed the bard's level plus her Charisma bonus. No loyalty checks are made for this creature, and it does not count toward either the bard's party HD or summoned/charmed HD.
   * Legend Lore -- Bards are familiar with a wide variety of legends. A bard's Legend Lore level equals her bard level. It adds its full value to her Knowledge (Magic) and Intuition skills, and half its value to her other Knowledge skills. The first time a bard sees or picks up an unidentified magic item, she makes one Knowledge (Magic) check against the item's level. The more her check beats the item's level, the more she learns, in this order: its nature, whether it is cursed, whether it is blessed, its magic, its plus, its second plus, and whether it is an artifact. Each item allows only one such check. Her higher Knowledge skills also help her recognize monsters on sight.
   * Storycraft -- Artifacts are more than magical items; they are legends. Quite literally, an artifact gains its enchantment not from a mage's workings, but from the shifting of the tapestry of fate and the recognition and blessing of the gods after a legendary deed is performed with it. Even normal magical items gain power when the raw stuff of stories is woven around them.
   Bards tell stories, craft reputation and carve the very fabric of legend with their words. Needless to say, this gives them no small degree of power over magical items and artifacts.
   In game terms, every bard level after the first gives the bard one Storycraft charge. Each charge raises the magical plus of one item by one. A bard can give a first plus to any weapon, armor or shield, magical or plain. Any other item must already have a plus. Storycraft cannot raise an item above +5. It cannot raise the item's Item Level above the bard's [Bard Level + Charisma modifier], and never above 20. It does not work on cursed items, potions or scrolls. It also does not work on an item whose magic, plus and blessing are not all identified. A charge costs no experience, gold or time, and the game asks you to confirm before it spends one. The increase is permanent and irreversible. The charge is not refunded if the item is destroyed.
   [ In the full-release version of Incursion, this will only be possible in a tavern, where the bard can tell stories to an appreuciative audience. In this version, it can be done anywhere, at any time. In the full release, bards will also gain the following ability related to magical items:
 If a bard performs a legendary deed -- killing a quest nemesis or a creature whose Challenge Rating is six or more above his own -- using a magical item, that item has a chance (5% per bard level) of becoming an artifact and gaining extra powers. ]
   * Bonus Feats -- Reflecting the diverse tricks they pick up on their travels, bards gain a bonus feat slot at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th and 20th levels. These feats may be chosen from any feat in the game that does not have another feat as a prerequisite.
  * Starting Equipment -- Bards start with a musical instrument, a short bow and light melee weapon (if they don't already have better from a different source), noble attire and a significant supply of gold -- the largest allotment of any class.
   Bards, as the most social class, also start out with a humanoid companion willing to quest with them to explore the dungeon and discover new treasures under a kind of apprenticeship.

THE BARD
   Level  Def  Fort Refl Will Special Abilities
     1    +0    +0   +2   +2  Inspire Courage
     2    +1    +0   +3   +3  +1 CL, Storycraft
     3    +1    +1   +3   +3  Fascination
     4    +1    +1   +4   +4  +1 CL, bonus feat
     5    +2    +1   +4   +4  Countersong
     6    +2    +2   +5   +5  +1 caster level
     7    +2    +2   +5   +5  Inspire Competance
     8    +3    +2   +6   +6  +1 CL, bonus feat
     9    +3    +3   +6   +6  Mass Fascination
     10   +3    +3   +7   +7  +1 caster level
     11   +4    +3   +7   +7  Inspire Heroism
     12   +4    +4   +8   +8  +1 CL, bonus feat