Hi Again. More questions... Bards and their Controlling Songs spells this time!
My wife's a Bard and one of the Base lists for a Bard is Controlling Songs. In this list are spells that can stun, hold or sleep an opponent. The Special Note at the bottom of the list says that the bard needs to provide some form of entertainment for the duration of the spell.
Two things came to mind on that one - if the idea is to incapacitate an opponent (by sleeping him for instance) in order to sneak past into a lair, wouldn't singing/tale-telling/playing instruments etc draw attention to the PCs from any other opponent that might be loitering nearby which would ruin the sneaking part of the plan?
And 2, is a 'play instrument' static manoeuvre be needed in order to cast the spell or could it enhance the effect of the spell?
I was thinking of adding in the static manoeuvre so depending on how successful the play instrument was, it could potentially increase the targets or duration or potentially decrease them too. (Now that she's become very proficient in singing and playing the lute there is the possibility of beefing up the spells as they seem very weak overall).
But as these spells require some form of auditory component in order to cast them, I can't see a way around the first point of attracting unwanted attention.
Has anyone else come across this and use funky house rules to compensate?
(short of casting spells from the other Bard Base lists like 'Silence' from the Sound Control list that limits an area that the sound can be heard - which is going overkill when you compare a Closed Essence spell of 'Sleep V' which is a level 1 spell of Spirit Mastery and it effects targets whose level add up to 5. That's far more powerful and covert AND it's only a Closed list - not even a Profession's Base list!)
