Identity
Frontier Bards carry the songs that knit the unmapped worlds together. They sit at the campfire of a Frontier homestead one month, the wardroom of an independent freighter the next, the chapel of a Halcyion missionary outpost the month after. Their songs travel ahead of them — by old-fashioned bardic introduction, by frontier comm-net, by retold campfire myth — and so do their reputations. A Frontier Bard channels through the long road and through the hospitality codes that make the long road survivable.
Features
- L3 Frontier Standing
You are recognized across frontier worlds as a member of a loose, mutual-aid kinship of road-singers. In any settlement of fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, in any frontier outpost, on any independent freighter under five-crew, and in any small chapel or homestead in the spinward sectors, you can expect basic hospitality from at least one local: shelter for the night, a meal, the chance to perform for room and board, and one piece of locally relevant gossip or rumor. Mechanically: in any qualifying location, you may attempt a Charisma (Performance or Persuasion) check at DC 12 once per day to invoke Frontier Standing. On success, you secure the above hospitality and may ask one targeted question about the local situation. The standing is reciprocal — refusing to render aid to another Frontier-Bard in genuine need diminishes your own standing for the next 30 days, and the GM may rule that subsequent checks are made at disadvantage during that period. Additionally, you gain proficiency in Survival if you do not already have it.
- L7 Wayfarer's Map
You carry an annotated map — a chart, a folded star-plot, a personal travel journal, or a digital atlas linked to the Frontier-Bards' shared knowledge-base. You spend 10 minutes consulting and updating your Map. The Map grants you the following abilities: • When you arrive in a new settlement, outpost, or notable terrain feature, you may roll a Wisdom (Survival) or Intelligence (Investigation) check at DC 15 to recall whether a Frontier-Bard has been there in the last year and what they noted (GM provides a useful clue or warning if so). • Once per long rest, before setting out on a journey, you may spend 10 minutes with the Map to learn the rough hazards of the planned route (one significant terrain hazard, one likely encounter type, one notable landmark). You and any allies traveling with you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to navigate the route, and you cannot become lost on the route by non-magical means. • When you finish a long rest, you may transcribe new observations from the day into the Map; one Frontier-Bard NPC, anywhere in the spinward sectors, will read these notes within 1d6 weeks. The GM may make use of this as a narrative hook.
- L11 Tales of the Black
You know the old stories — the ones told around fires when the camp has run quiet, the ones the Frontier doesn't really publish. As an action, you begin to tell a Tale of the Black, sustaining the performance for up to 1 minute (requires a bonus action each round to sustain). Each hostile creature within 30 ft of you that can hear and understand you must make a Wisdom save against your channel save DC at the start of each of its turns during the performance, or be Frightened of you until the start of its next turn. A creature that succeeds on the save is immune to this use of Tales of the Black for the next 24 hours. Creatures immune to the Frightened condition, deafened creatures, and creatures that cannot understand any language you speak are unaffected. The performance ends early if you are incapacitated, silenced, or end it as a free action. You may use this feature once per short or long rest.
- L15 Frontier Hero
Your reputation precedes you into the fight. When you and your allies enter combat, each ally within 60 ft who can see or hear you (and who knows you are present) has advantage on their initiative roll. You also have advantage on your own initiative roll. Additionally, on the first round of any combat, allies who benefited from the initiative bonus also gain a Bardic Inspiration die from you at no cost; this die is rolled and applied per normal Bardic Inspiration rules, but does not count against your Bardic Inspiration uses per rest. The bonus applies once per combat, on the first round only.
- L18 Living Legend Capstone
You have become a name carried on the long roads. The effects below apply at all times once you have achieved this feature. • You have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion, Deception, Intimidation, and Performance) checks made against any creature that has heard of you. The GM determines who has heard of you, but in any frontier setting, on any independent freighter, in any roadside outpost, or in any community of fewer than 50,000 inhabitants where you have spent at least one night in the last year, this benefit applies by default. • Once per long rest, when you would be hit by an attack, killed outright, or fail a saving throw that would reduce you to 0 HP, you may invoke Living Legend as a reaction; the attack misses (or the failed save instead succeeds at the minimum DC), and a story-shaped explanation is supplied by an onlooker (a witnessing ally, a frontier bystander, the GM) within 24 hours — a song fragment, a rumor, a sworn account. Your reputation grows from the incident in a way the GM may render mechanically meaningful at future tables. • You can compose, broadcast, or perform a Living Legend ballad (a 1-hour performance, requires a basic recording or live audience of at least one), and within 1d6 weeks at GM discretion, the ballad reaches a community of your choice in the spinward sectors. Communities so reached treat you with the highest tier of Frontier Standing (no Persuasion roll needed; hospitality is enthusiastic; the community may render dangerous aid if asked).