UA:Bard Variant: Bardic Sage

This material is published under the OGL

Bard Variant: Bardic Sage

The bardic sage focuses his efforts on learning, research, and the power of knowledge.

Alignment: The bardic sage must be neutral good, neutral, or neutral evil. The true pursuit of knowledge cares little for ethical extremes. A bardic sage who becomes chaotic or lawful cannot progress in levels as a bardic sage, though he retains all his bardic sage abilities.

Base Save Bonuses: The bardic sage has good will saves, but has poor Fortitude and Reflex saves.

Class Features

The bardic sage has all the standard bard class features, except as noted below.

Spellcasting: A bardic sage learns and casts spells as a normal bard, with a few exceptions. In addition to the normal number of spells known, a bardic sage knows one Divination spell of each spell level he is capable of casting. For example, a 1st-level bardic sage knows four 0-level bard spells plus one 0-level bard spell of the Divination school (such as detect magic, know direction, or read magic. The bardic sage's number of spells per day does not change.

To learn or cast a spell, a bardic sage must have an Intelligence score (not Charisma score) equal to at least 10 + the spell level. All other spellcasting factors, including bonus spells and save Difficulty Classes, are still determined using the bardic sage's Charisma score. Add the following spells to the bardic sage's class spell list: 1st — detect chaos/evil/good/law; 2nd — Zone of truth; 3rd — arcane sight; 4th — analyze dweomer (lowered from 6th), sending; 5th — contact other plane, greater scrying (lowered from 6th); 6th — true seeing, vision.

Bardic Knowledge: A bardic sage gains a +2 bonus on all bardic knowledge checks.

Bardic Music: A bardic sage's powers of inspiration are not as persistent as those of a traditional bard. His ability to inspire courage, inspire greatness, or inspire heroics lasts only 3 rounds after the ally can no longer hear the bardic sage sing, rather than the normal 5 rounds.

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