Divine Bard (D&D Bard variant)

This article is imported from the Hastur wiki. See the import log for details.

Unofficial rules compendium

UA 50 - Suitable servant of gods of love/music/confusion.

Not all bards are arcanists; some derive their special powers from a divine tradition. In many primitive cultures, the divine bard takes the place of the cleric or the adept as the guide of the people’s religious beliefs.

The divine bard is slightly more powerful than the normal bard. Not only do they get a greater selection of spells, these spells become divine spells and can be cast in any form of armor. To make up for this, the divine bard must be a good servant of his patron, and the patron can choose to withold the spells and supernatural abilities of a servant that strays.

Class Features

The divine bard has all the standard bard class features, except as noted below.

Spellcasting: A divine bard learns and casts spells as a normal bard, with some minor exceptions. A divine bard’s spells are divine spells, not arcane spells. A divine bard prepares spells like a cleric does.

A divine bard can’t cast spells of an alignment that doesn’t match his. Thus, divine bards cannot cast lawful spells (since bards can’t be lawful). Neutral divine bards can’t cast any spells associated with an alignment (and are thus relatively rare).

Add the following spells to the divine bard’s class spell list: 0 — create water, cure minor wounds; 1st — detect evil/good/law, protection from evil/good/law; 2nd — consecrate, desecrate, gentle repose; 3rd - magic circle against evil/good/law, prayer; 4th — remove disease, speak with dead, sending; 5th — divination, restoration; 6th — commune, hallow, unhallow, raise dead.'

Option

Choose a patron and replace the extra spells with a clerical domain and the associated granted power. The spells from these domains are not automatically learned and do not add any new spell slots; instead they are just added to your spell list.

Obsolete

These bits from Unearthed Arcana were removed as obsolete:

To learn or cast a spell, a divine bard must have a Wisdom score (not Charisma score) equal to at least 10 + the spell level. All other spellcasting factors, including bonus spells and save DCs, are still determined using the divine bard's Charisma score.

Like druids, paladins, and rangers, divine bards need not designate a specific deity as the source of their spells. However, a...