How the Barbarian became the Bardbarian.

Why you should never forget your background proficiency.


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This is a story from my friends homebrew d&d campaign. The players are a elven rogue named Elaran, Markes the human gunslinger, and finally my character, a protecter aasimar barbarian named Garek. In this campaign we rolled for our stats, and all of us roled pretty good. In my case, I decided to break the streotype, and make my barbarian smart. This resulted in a lot of fun times and better roleplay, and here is the best example of this. The setting was a tomb of ancient king whose unresting spirit was terrorizing those who entered, the people who managed to escape describing this horrible music the echoed throughout the tomb. In addition, others experianced hallucinations of their worst fears that drove some mad. Our party was sent to deal with this undead spirit and make the tomb safe for the reasearchers who wished to gain the knowledge of what layed inside. It was good gold for us, but admittedly we had no real why of combating the hallicunations inside, as we had no spellcasters, and lacked the funds to aquire and spell scroll that could add in our exploration and keeping us safe. Admittedly, we had to rely on our luck when it came time to our wisdom saving throws. First Markes rolled, getting above the saving throw and able to go through without issue. Next it was my turn. While my wisdom modifier was not bad, I was still a barbarian and thus had to pray to the dice gods that I rolled high. Thankfully my prayers were answered, and I passed my wisdom saving throw. At least it was Elarans turn, and we all thought he was going to pass easily. He had advantage on the saving throw as it was a charm effect and he was an elf. Much to the players disappontment, he was the only one who failed the saving throw. As we enter the resting place of the Mad King, Elaran began to see the vision of his most hated enemy. As in game we tried to snap Elaran out of it, the spector of the ancient king appeared, and with it he began to play a horrible music, both in tone and in quality. As we rolled inititive, a worried thought ran through my mind. We were already going to have a hard time beating him with all of us fighting, and we were down a player due to the failed save. I was fortune that I went first. As the dm asked me what I wished to do with my turn, a dumb but fun thought crossed my mind. I told the dm, "I pull out my lute and I start playing a rock and roll tune." Garek's background is Outlander, and part of the proficencies gained is a musical instrument. The dm was at a lost for words, understandably not expecting that to be my action in combat. He asked me to roll a lute check adding my charisma, and I rolled pretty high. The next turn was the ghost king, and instead of attacking, he used his action to play his music, the encounter now turning into a music contest. Every time I rolled, it ended up being higher then the ghost king, who began to grow angry with Garek. At one point I used my radiant soul ability to make myself look like an angelic rockstar. During this time, Markes was able to get a few good hits in and snap Elaran out of his hallucinations. From there,my now bardbarian finally dropped the lute, and delivered the final blow. This gam is still ongoing, and while there are plenty of good stories from it, this was the most fun I had, making a complete fool of myself and becoming a honorary bard.

[zombify_post]


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