Bard

A travelling musician leans against the bar, clearly inebriated and clearly confident. He woos a local maid, and tonight, they stay in the same room.

The king's herald rides into town, dismounts his stallion, and unfurls a scroll. The pronouncement of the king's new tax resounds across the village. The villagers pay, and the rider leaves. They never asked to see the seal. 

The Bard is a class versed in the written word. With your knowledge of lore, rhetoric, theology, and politics – plus whatever other niches you have mastered – you are more than ready to persuade, intimidate, and charm your way to the top.

Overview

Prime Requisite: CHA

Minor Abilities: Hard-Headed, On a Roll, Way with Words, Harsh Truth.

Special Ability: Polemics

Hard-Headed

Increase your Concession limit by 1.

On a Roll

Whenever you successfully make a point, you may make another different point (you can’t just say the same thing over and over.)

Way With Words

You may spend a Wit point to transfer any number of your remaining Wit points to an ally.

In game, this represents your character’s riffs, embellishments, and reminders given to your allies to help them better make their case.

Harsh Truth

You may negate the effects of any one point by revealing a harsh truth about the character making the point.

This truth is so shocking that it will divert the attention of any listeners to the truth itself and away from anything that may have been said before.

This does not necessarily need to be true, but if it is false, you must make a Charisma check for it to succeed, and it still must be based on some contrived evidence.

You may only use this ability if you know a harsh truth about the character. You cannot just make a Charisma check or ask the Referee to tell you. You might investigate the character’s home or place of business for harmful information. You might befriend them sometime before you know they will be your rival and gather information that way.

However you gather information, you must have information to use this ability, and you may use it as many times as the amount of information you have will allow.

Polemics

You stand before the council of elders. They have only gathered once in the last 20 years, but you have roused them from their apathy today. Instead of making a measured, respectful appeal, you lambaste the council, indicting them for their inaction.

The heretic cult affronts you, uncomfortably close to your face. They have killed many of your Clerics, and so there is only you, a priest, left to face them. You begin pronouncing plague after plague upon them from your holy book. They are so overcome with terror and awe that the fall to their knees in repentance.

Polemics are resolved by rolling a pool of d6. The size of your dice pool is determined by your Special Limit, and to succeed on any given Polemic, you must roll 2 successes.

Normally, a success on a d6 is a 4, 5, or 6. However, if the Referee thinks you have an advantage, success would be a 3, 4, 5, or 6. If you have a disadvantage, success would be a 5 or 6. Of course, the larger your pool, the more likely you are to roll two successes.

Every time you fail a Polemic, your dice pool decreases by 1 for the day. The next day, all your Polemic dice are restored. When you only have two Polemic dice left, you do not lose them by failing Polemics.