User talk:GS4ALASTIR/Mental Bard Proposal

Combat Instruments:

• New weapon type that functions nearly identical to a runestaff.
  • Usable only by Bards.
  • Can be played like a musical instrument.
  • Trading also counts for magical ranks when determining runestaff defense to make up for their lower skill cap compared to pures.
  • Parry messaging is more magical, such as the Bard summons musical notes from the instrument that distract away the blow.

• Runestaff Conversions
  • Any two-handed instrument can be used as a combat instrument once converted to the new base. Any combat properties that work on runestaves would also work on combat instruments.
  • A few of the spells of war in the Bard Base work with combat instruments.
  • Bards will be able to put a runestaff and an existing instrument into a converter container and it would take the combat properties of the runestaff and apply them to the instrument.
  • Note that there will be a lot of restrictions on this converter to not inadvertently break items, so we will run a few conversion merchants within the month after release of these updates.

Spell Song Mechanics:

• Bards will no longer manually use the renewal system.
  • Instead, any spell with a duration of “song” (e.g., Song of Valor (1010), Song of Mirrors (1019), etc.) has an indefinite duration similar to focus songs Mind Over Body (1213) and Focus Barrier (1216), but without the mutual exclusion component.

• Renewing spells no longer cost mana, and instead reduce the maximum mana available to the Bard based on the number of songs active.
• All spells with the duration of “song” cost maximum mana at a rate of ROUNDUP(Spell Level / 5)).

Song Name:	Mana Cost:
Etude of Certainty (1006)	2 max mana
Kai’s Anthem (1007)	2 max mana
Sonic Shield (1009)	2 max mana
Song of Valor (1010)	2 max mana
Sonic Weapon (1012)	3 max mana
Sonic Armor (1014)	3 max mana
Song of Power (1018)	4 max mana
Song of Mirrors (1019)	4 max mana
Dancing Weapon (1025)	5 max mana
Song of Luck (1030)	6 max mana
Song of Tonis (1035)	7 max mana
Total to maintain all songs	40 max mana

• Songs will continue to have an automatic renewal every 60 seconds. If the Bard is unable to concentrate the song can still fail.
  • Bards have a chance to resist renewal failure (while incapacitated?) at a baseline percentage equal to their Discipline Bonus.
  • Mental Lore: Telepathy also increases the chance songs are maintained through being incapacitated at a rate of 1% per rank.
  • Sonic Armaments are not subject to the renewal failure.

Summary of Changes:

Mental Bard Proposal:	Details:
Name: Mindward (1208)	At 20 ranks of ML:Telepathy, this spell can be EVOKE'd for a group version for 20 mana.
Name: Harmony (1230)	This spell would replace Song of Peace (1011). While active, the caster and their group cannot take hostile actions and hostile actions against them require a warding check with +50 TD Bonus.

Current Proposal:	Details:	Mental Bard Proposal:	Details:
Name: War Chant (1001) Spell Type: Offensive Spell Effect: +10 AS/+6 CS to next attack Roundtime: 1s Duration: 120 seconds. Mana Cost: 1 Lore Benefits: EL:Air Interactions: Crescendo (1014)	The updated version is renamed to War Chant (1001). War Chant (1001) provides a +10AS/+6CS bonus for 1 attack, it can be cast on others. War Chant (1001) is automatically applied by Crescendo (1014) at 10 ranks of EL:Air every 60 seconds. For every 3 ranks above 10, the auto-apply is reduced by 1s down to a minimum 30 seconds at 100 ranks.	War Chant (1001) Spell Type: Offensive Spell Effect: +10 AS/+6 CS to next attack Roundtime: 3s Duration: 120 seconds. Mana Cost: 1 Lore Benefits: ML:Telepathy	The updated version is renamed to War Chant (1001). War Chant (1001) provides a +10AS/+6CS bonus for 1 attack, it can be cast on others. At 5 ranks of ML:Telepathy, the cast RT is reduced to 2s. At 40 ranks of ML:Telepathy, the cast RT is reduced to 1s.
Name: Resonance (1002) Spell Type: (Single Target) CS Attack Spell Effect: Damage Roundtime: Lore Benefits: ML:Manipulation Interactions:	The updated version is renamed to Resonance (1002).	Resonance (1002) Spell Type: (Single Target) CS Attack Picking Locks + Disarm Traps Bonus Spell Effect: Damage Roundtime: Lore Benefits: ML:Manipulation Interactions:	The updated version is renamed to Resonance (1002). Casting Resonance (1002) at a locked box will reduce the lock and trap difficulty. The trap difficulty reduction is 25 + Spell Song Ranks/2 + Disarm Traps bonus/10 + ML:Manipulation ranks/3. The lock difficulty reduction is 2.5 * (25 + Spell Song Ranks/2 + Pick Locks bonus/10 + ML:Manipulation ranks/3).
Name: Dissonance (1003) Spell Type: (Single Target) CS Attack Spell Effect: Disruption Damage -15DS Debuff Roundtime: 3s Mana Cost: 3 Lore Benefits: ML:Telepathy Interactions:	The DS bonus from Fortitude Song (1003) is rolled into Song of Valor (1010). Dissonance (1003) gains a ML:Telepathy benefit to include spell casting disruption (607) at 25 ranks with the -15DS Debuff.	Name: Dissonance (1003) Spell Type: (Single Target) CS Attack Spell Effect: Disruption Damage -15DS Debuff Roundtime: 3 Mana Cost: 3 Lore Benefits: ML:Manipulation Interactions:	The DS bonus from Fortitude Song (1003) is rolled into Song of Valor (1010). Dissonance (1003) gains a ML:Manipulation benefit to include spell casting disruption (607) at 25 ranks with the -15DS Debuff. Wielding a combat instrument doubles the spell disruption chance.