Bard

Third built class. Runs on the homebrew engine in the Core Rules using the Performance power model. Built from the Greenscale lore and the Zandara House perks. The Citadel that trains every Maester in the realm sits in Zandara, so this is the house of scribes, lorekeepers, festival masters, and political operators. Numbers are tunable; the mechanic is the point.

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1. What a Bard is

The voice of Zandara. Festival masters who open the season, orators who turn a hostile court, scribes and lorekeepers who hold what everyone else forgot, and political operators who never carry a blade and never need one. Human, schooled at the Citadel, fluent in the only weapons that matter here: a song, a speech, a well-timed quote, a rumor placed in the right ear. "Joy and Influence." Their gift is not violence. It is the room.

Power model: Performance. Verse is spent on performances (songs, oration, recitation) that buff allies, debuff enemies, charm and sway a crowd, and recall lore on demand. Some performances are sustained: they run on concentration, hold while the Bard keeps performing, and drop if the Bard is staggered, silenced, or chooses to end them. There is no environmental gating; a Bard works in a throne room, a tavern, or a battlefield. The loadout is swappable, re-trained on a long rest (a Bard learns a new piece), unlike the Sea Shepherd's fixed gift.

For mind-affecting performances (charm, fear, fascination, suggestion) the target resists with Will, the homebrew save that covers fear, charm, and mental control. Dissonant and psychic performances that batter the mind also key Will. Performances that simply buff or heal allies ask for no save.

2. The real power is the room

The combat half is the smaller half. Greenscale's actual dominance is influence: the Citadel writes the histories, sets the festivals, trains the Maesters every other house relies on, and remembers every favor and every debt. A Bard who never rolls for damage still moves a war by moving the people who fight it. That lives in skills and standing (section 9), and the HUD should never reduce it to one number.

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3. Progression (levels 1 to 10)

Same pool curve as the core (base column); Verse is a martial-style pool, so it uses the base column, not the leyline or Azura bonus.

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4. The performance model (how casting works for them)

Every Bard ability is a row on the same schema everything else uses, with one trait of its own: a performance can be sustained. A sustained performance carries a concentration flag; while it runs the Bard is performing, and it drops if the Bard is staggered, deafened, silenced by an effect, or chooses to end it. Only one sustained performance can run at a time.

name | unlock | cost | Cast DC | Resist DC | resist type | effect | sustained

• Action roll: 1d20 + level action mod + Charisma vs the Cast DC. On a miss the performance falls flat and the cost is still spent.
• If it targets enemies, they resist with the named save vs the Resist DC. Buffs and heals on allies ask for no save.
• A deafened Bard, or a Bard whose audience cannot hear them, may fail verbal performances (the core Deafened condition). A silencing effect ends a sustained performance.

5. Verse (the resource)

Verse is the Bard's pool, the Mage's spell points renamed. It refills on a long rest like any other pool, and a short rest restores 25% and recharges any performance marked 1/short rest. Verse does not gate on environment; a Bard is as strong in a dungeon as on a festival stage, because the instrument is the Bard.

There is no proximity mechanic and no leyline tap. What raises a Bard's output is the audience: performances that name a crowd or a held room get the situational bonuses already in the core (a target unaware, a foe lower level, an ally rallied). The HUD reads those from the scene, not from water or weather.

6. At-will verses (free, no cost, no roll)

Always available. The everyday craft of a Citadel-schooled voice.

Grace Note is the Bard's signature tell, the answer to a mage's prestidigitation and the Sea Shepherd's Spindrift: the parlor trick that announces a Citadel voice before a single word of business. It moves sound, never force. Purists at the Citadel insist the cleanest Grace Note lands a quote so precise the room laughs before the target does, and that throwing a sour note into a rival's toast is exactly the sort of thing a Greenscale would do and deny doing.

7. Core performances (every Bard)

8. The three repertoires (specialization, pick one at level 4)

Re-trainable on a long rest like the rest of the loadout, but you carry one repertoire at a time. Each deepens one face of the voice.

Inspiration, the rising voice. Buffs, rally, and healing through morale. The support pillar of the three. Branch unlocks: Battle Hymn (Lv6, Rallying Verse becomes an area buff that also grants advantage on the next save), Second Wind (Lv7, end one condition on an ally and heal 2d8 with a verse of resolve), and the capstone anthem (Lv9). The lowest damage, the highest staying power for a party.

Discord, the breaking voice. Debuffs, control, and dissonant psychic damage. The artillery of the three. Branch unlocks: Shattering Note (Lv6, area psychic that also Staggers on a failed Will), Aphasia (Lv7, a sustained verse that locks a single caster out of costed actions while they stay in hearing), Maddening Cadence (Lv8, sustained, 2d6 psychic per round to foes in an area and they roll saves at disadvantage). Devastating against minds, weak against the mindless.

Glamour, the beguiling voice. Charm, fascination, sound illusion, and social manipulation. The infiltrator and the courtier. Branch unlocks: Mask of Voices (Lv6, throw a convincing false voice or sound, advantage on the next deception or distraction), Fascinate (Lv7, hold a small crowd rapt and unaware while you perform, sustained), Suggestion (Lv8, plant one reasonable course of action in a target's mind on a failed Will, one task). Low damage, the highest reach off the battlefield.

9. Capstones (levels 9 to 10, house head, staff managed)

Voice of Zandara is the level 10 Greenscale House perk rendered as a capstone: the single speech that turns a battlefield, the moment the Voice of the Citadel proves that the room was always the weapon.

10. Class traits

• HP tier: Medium. Key stat: Charisma (the voice, the presence, the sway). Saves as core.
• Swappable loadout: performances and the chosen repertoire can be re-trained on a long rest. A Bard learns new pieces; the gift is craft, not blood.
• Magic items: a Bard may attune and use magic items, including ones that cast through an instrument or a written work. They are schooled, not blooded, but the Citadel teaches attunement.
• Sustained performances: only one runs at a time, drops if the Bard is staggered, deafened, or silenced, and ends by choice. The HUD tracks the active performance and ticks its effects.
• The room (RP layer): top-tier Persuasion, History, and Performance, the Citadel's lore on demand, and the Greenscale House perks (advantage on History and Persuasion at level 1, Courtly Favor at level 6, Voice of Zandara at level 10). The HUD surfaces standing and lore access; it does not turn the house's real power into a damage number.

House perk, Courtly Favor (level 6): in any settlement, a Bard has a 50 percent chance to gain a discount, a favor, or a piece of key information, staff or GM discretion. The HUD offers the roll; the GM rules the result.

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11. Open for your sign-off

• Level titles (Apprentice Singer, Lorekeeper, Maester, Court Maester, Master of Revels, Voice of the Citadel). Rename freely, and confirm whether "Maester" should be reserved for Citadel graduates only or used as the class title here.
• The three repertoire names (Inspiration, Discord, Glamour).
• Whether sustained performances should cap at one at a time (proposed) or allow a high-level Bard to hold two.
• Whether Charm and the Glamour line should break on any harm to the target (proposed) or only on harm the Bard deals.