Charisma spells Lesson 1: Bard songs
I am a Bard.
More then anything, that is my magic. It is quite easy. It is, I feel, one of the most evident and thriving magics that still exists in this culture besides necromancy and engineering. SO this, quite briefly, is an explanation of bardic magics.
warning: prz prz prz refrain from purposely manipulating others. The karma is soooo bad that it is not worth it!!! Idolitry will get you no where and only drain your oh so precious chrisma.
The first thing that each of us gets is a song. Not always sang, it is sometimes played or even spoken, or even written. Sometimes, a real quality bard will posess many different types of songs with many ways to perform them.
These are some of the spells that I use in daily life:
Sing- I sing everything from jazzbop to opera. Just imagine what happens when someone with a good voice and style sings in public...odd things happen. One may increase the whole room's charisma, their fighting abilities, even make them feel bad (necro bards exist too).
Play- I play a number of instruments. Piano, synthesizer, harp, drums (all sorts), even the guitar if I'm really high. Instruments, again can be used for many crowd effect spells.
Talk- Talk skill is prolly the most important. Manipulation is both rewarding and quite dangerous. A rogue bard may use charm talk on a merchant to rob them blind with a smile (my friend, not me). A merchant bard may use the same technique to sell items for a higher price. I use talk the most, to persuade -sometimes by disuade and later persuade- to get around. I never go hungry when i'm poor, I never find myself without a warm bed. I can talk skill my way into people's hearts. for me it is sacred, i do not lie to them, but i do not always tell them the entire story...most cannot handle my wisdom the same way.
Write- to date, now, I have emassed over 1000 pages of poetry. I am working on a book and type on here like a madman. Not to metion muds. I worked for a newspaper for a stint, a few times. I can pass any essay test in college. this skill is very useful, but perhaps the most in danger of my own egotism save for one other skill.
Act- and that is acting. I can be anything. I can pretend any life i have encountered, they all become parts of me, my rhetoric, my actions, and my perspectives which i hold on stage...but the world is your stage! i rarely fail job interviews. My charisma spells become overwhelming. ( my friend mercubio much acceeds me in this arena) but, i refuse to use my act skill most of the time now in favor of silence. I have found that a lot of times acting and manipulating, no matter to what ends, will cause bad karma. It takes rare purity to act and not have god smack you over the wrists for it!
The advantage to all of these spells, as you may have noticed, is that they're all area effect, they all effects groups if needed. It is quite amazing. Dangerous business, but nessesary. The bard is only as good as his group.
The bards songs provide many protection against allignment spells, all of which are incredibly helpful. I can easily talk to a police officer one moment and be friends with a meth cook all at once. My neutrality is invaluable at this point, it is the stake upon which i place my very life!
The most interesting thing I learned about my main class was how I could multiclass into other studies quite easily. Because all of my spells are charisma based, it is quite easy for me to use some minor sorcery (such as divination or very minor elementalism) but, this especially classed well with shamanism.
I took a few years in college and out to study plant lore. Combining psychadelic plants with chrisma spells means you have an unbending will while tripping. this is quite advantageous for it is how i got my skills in divination and mastered LUCID dreaming. So now, I learn how to combine plants for chrisma boosts so I can be a better bard! It all works so well together. My songs are much stronger now, my wisdom has greater potency. I became 7 times the bard I ever was. HAving your songs is one thing, having the widom to understand them is another. that's why so many comics and rock stars have used different drugs, to enhance their performance, chrisma bonuses.
SInce I'm talking about multiclassing, I must mention the necrobard. They are sorta my opposition, being a diviner shaman multiclass. The prime necrobards are our leaders here in america. They use bard songs to justify to a willing public (who doesn't want a bard song buff, right?) their chemical concoctions, their synthetic malstroms, their biochemical warfare, their oil driven machine of death magic.
I grew up with a ranger father, so i got a lot of that stuff, too. My allignment swings tword the forest, nature, the druids and such and thus the power of the necrobards' songs weaken me...
but i am still surviving, despite having to live in the machine, i'm still near my colorado mountains.
My spells are quite dangerous to a lot of those in power now. I am worried for what I will do with my life as a high level, i have to watch my back. More protection vs. my own government's allignment. ugh.
This was a very quick overview of hows songs and bardic magic works. I know each of the areas I outlined in depth if anyone wishes to discuss them. Sorry it's so brief. there is so much more! hopefully in the next couple of months i'll outline some shaman spells and some qualities of the modern necromancer (most of you are necros -self included- simply cause we live here and use the technology we use) in society.
and a final warning to those aspiring naive bards:
manipulation owns you! you never really control the other person's soul!
otherwise SING, sing every chance you get and help the earth
sing from your heart, not a desire to own others.
and finally, a little food for thought for those who still think that this is heretical 'magic' or a sin.
Jesus was the uber diviner bard.
explanation of the classes
merchants and rogues
are the same take away one, the other doesn't exist
clerics and necromancers,
in modern times, are all the same
the clerics forgot all their druid heritage and now primarily rely on synthetic medicaation processed with oil (the utmost death magic)
clerics no longer treat the patient -save for some chinese medicine and tribalism- they treat the illness, which only exists in the imagination!
we are people, not specific ailments. when one treats a part of a person instead of holistic medicine, they hurt them more.
Druids are not around anymore, they've almost been hunted down to extinction by modern globalization. Druids who use technology to get by are Rangers, due to their hybrid of skills and not primarily relying on nature.
If you are a Paladin let me know and I'll come group with you ;)
but I want to see lay on hands first, hehe
most of us are bards, necroneers (egineers using necromancy) or merchant / rogues. Most of us are spread quite thin between all of these.
