Perform Skill Expanded

PERFORM (CHA)

Like Craft, Knowledge, and Profession, Perform is actually a number of separate skills.

You could have several Perform skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill.

Each of the nine categories of the Perform skill includes a variety of methods, instruments, or techniques, a small list of which is provided for each category below.

• Act (comedy, drama, mime)

• Comedy (buffoonery, limericks, joke-telling)

• Dance (ballet, waltz, jig)

• Keyboard instruments (harpsichord, piano, pipe organ)

• Oratory (epic, ode, storytelling)

• Percussion instruments (bells, chimes, drums, gong)

• String instruments (fiddle, harp, lute, mandolin)

• Wind instruments (flute, pan pipes, recorder, shawm, trumpet)

• Sing (ballad, chant, melody)

Check: You can impress audiences with your talent and skill.

A masterwork musical instrument gives you a +2 circumstance bonus on Perform checks that involve its use.

Action: Varies. Trying to earn money by playing in public requires anywhere from an evening’s work to a full day’s performance. The bard’s special Perform-based abilities are described in that class’s description.

Try Again: Yes. Retries are allowed, but they don’t negate previous failures, and an audience that has been unimpressed in the past is likely to be prejudiced against future performances. (Increase the DC by 2 for each previous failure.)

Special: A bard must have at least 3 ranks in a Perform skill to inspire courage in his allies, or to use his countersong or his fascinate ability. A bard needs 6 ranks in a Perform skill to inspire competence, 9 ranks to use his suggestion ability, 12 ranks to inspire greatness, 15 ranks to use his song of freedom ability, 18 ranks to inspire heroics, and 21 ranks to use his mass suggestion ability. See Bardic Music in the bard class description.

In addition to using the Perform skill, you can entertain people with sleight of hand, tumbling, tightrope walking, and spells (especially illusions).

A character may also gain a synergy bonus on Perform if he is attempting to gain money by acrobatic feats from a crowd.  Characters with 5 or more ranks in tumbling or tightrope walking gain a +2 synergy bonus to their perform skill when used in this manner.  The bonus given is for characters performing before crowds for their enjoyment.  This bonus cannot apply to Bardic Music checks.

Also, a character with the Prestidigitation spell or similar illusions may attempt to perform minor tricks for the enjoyment of crowds.  Having any of these spells active provide a +10 bonus to the Perform check to gain money or to awe primitive cultures with the perform skill.  As with the synergy bonus with tumbling, this bonus is narrowly construed and cannot be applied to other uses of the Perform skill.

Influence Others:  The following tables may be used by bards and non-bards to have non-magical effects on listeners.  Bards using their performance skill in this manner do not use up their Bardic Music for the day.