Sorcerous Scrutinies: The Balladeer

 The Balladeer

A Player Character Class for DCC RPG

2023 Breaker Press Games

Johnny Mitchell stood alone on the creaking rope bridge, his throat dry, his heart hammering in the barrel of his chest.  Massive buffets of wind stirred his long hair and forced him to grip his lute to keep it from flying backwards.  He adjusted the high G string’s tuner; it was always the one to go flat.

The Moon-Dragon landed with a massive crash on the far side of the bridge, and an otherworldly roar erupted from the silvery menace.  It was time to perform.

Johnny played an enigmatic minor chord, and the creature locked eyes with him.  The distraction was working.  “An ode to the moon, O ye silver loon; your home beyond the black gloom…”  Johnny watched his halfling companion climb silently behind the beast, his long dagger clenched between his teeth.  The Wizard hid nearby and muttered to his dark patron, gathering his arcane energies for a massive attack, while Caligula the Fighter hung from a rope in the chasm mere feet from the Moon-Dragon.

The beast remained captivated by his improvised song, and he ended with a flourish and a bold smile.  “You have been a most attentive audience, ye cynthian cancer of these caverns.  But now, you must die.”  

The Moon-Dragon tilted its head in animalistic confusion, a murderous halfling dropped from above, and hell unleashed.  Johnny grinned, and began feverishly plucking his lute, a wild look in his eyes.

What It Is

The Balladeer is a class pamphlet written by Nick Baran of Breaker Press Games for the DCC system that calls back to the Bard classes of old.  The pamphlet is slim but packed with interesting features and abilities for aspiring Balladeers.  I find there to be something immensely collectible about these Breaker Press class pamphlets, and I love handing a stack of them over to players after a funnel to try and entice them away from the core classes!

As you may suspect, the Balladeer is a support class derived from the Thief base class that bolsters allies through musical performance.  Baran has given us a number of tools for players to enjoy, rather than the blanket +1 bonus to attack rolls AD&D offered in the original class description (p. 42 of my ‘89 PHB).  In combat, Inspiring Presence allows Balladeers to enhance their allies' deed dies as an aura effect, Words of Inspiration lets the Balladeer trade their action die to create a pool of party luck that anyone within earshot can draw upon.  Baran added a more specific boost of the ability as a single target variation, potentially super-charging one member of the party.

Out of combat, Baran offers players a skill list that includes several new entries alongside a handful of our Thief staples.  Balladeers can use Convince Person to manipulate social encounters, Distraction to keep a crowd occupied, or Know Lore to recall facts about both the familiar and unfamiliar.  These skills have so much flavor, and give a creative player so much to work with in non-combat situations.  

At The Table

The Balladeer is an excellent choice for someone like me, often the ‘forever DM’, who in play wants to focus on supporting newer players and helping to push the adventure forward by befriending NPCs and providing valuable lore.  The class is offensively limited, without a doubt, which may frustrate a newer player expecting some offensive ability to rival the deed of arms, the critically devastating backstab, or the Wizard’s frightening capacity to spellburn a 20+ result on Magic Missile or Burning Hands.  In a larger party of 4+, I find that the Balladeer really shines, establishing a new niche that doesn’t overlap with any of the core classes, and in fact synergizes with each of them in interesting ways.  

Conversely, I also like this class for an absolute beginner’s first foray into levelled play, perhaps in a one-shot module.  I gave my friend a level 2 Balladeer to join us in the last leg of a one-shot weeks ago, and he was delighted by his ability to hang back and boost his friends from a safe distance, provide interesting tidbits of info to the group, and generally help in almost every encounter in some way without having to be the star or make big shots on his own.  

Play Highlights

Johnny Mitchell definitely saved the day when he critically succeeded on an attempt to distract the Moon-Dragon of the Shudder Mountains while his allies prepared a devastating ambush!  The player was delighted to see that he was instrumental in the setup, and had a great opportunity to ham it up.

Another Balladeer joined forces with a Halfling and a Thief, and provided them with ample opportunities to run wild with their luck burning abilities with Words of Inspiration.  This ability also becomes a healing battery of sorts in a Lankhmar campaign without Clerics.

The new player who joined mid-module as a Balladeer discovered real stakes in the deed dice he was enhancing with Inspiring Presence. When the Warrior rolled a natural 5 on his enhanced deed die and deftly decapitated a vexing, floating foe, the Balladeer’s eyes widened and he sang, “He lost his head, and now he’s dead, he won’t be up in the morning.” The party rejoiced over his medieval stylings on the nursery rhyme.  He told me afterward that the mechanic gave him a reason to actually watch every roll, not just wait for his turn.

Art Spotlight

Carlos Castilho’s cover is fantastically evocative of the class and its general vibe; the balladeer creeps forward with her instrument, wearing a look of coy curiosity.  No weapons needed when you’re wielding the six-string!

Judge Takeaways

Consider Casting

Really the only feature that Baran didn’t include from the original concept of the DnD Bard (which I tracked down to Doug Schwegman’s article in Strategic Review, February 1976) is the delayed and lessened arcane casting ability.  On one hand, he gave the Bard wonderful uses for inspiration to both the group, individuals and to deed die users, but on the other hand it would feel right to offer Balladeers some delayed spell progression table (perhaps to add to the offensive capabilities of the class).  Consider giving the Balladeer one random level 1 spell at level 2, modified by their INT modifier and cast at a d16?  We don’t want to overpower the class, but could offer this little bit of versatility to nod our heads toward the elders.

Instrumental Arsenal

Alternatively, what if we gave Balladeers an Instrumental Mastery table rather than a diluted Arcane spellcasting one?  My four dusty volumes of the AD&D Encyclopedia Magica are filled with interesting instruments that could be flipped to DCC and sprinkled into your adventures.  A Balladeer could command a number of these equal to the number of spells an Elf can cast, and they could be separated into power levels just as spells are.  Rather than a full spell table, the items could have static PER DCs for their use, and perhaps a critical success and failure entry to spice things up?  Maybe each instrument could be activated one time per day, per level of the Balladeer.

Just using Wind Instruments as an example;  Level 1: Horn of Waking, Horn of Fog, Pipes of Pain.  Level 2: Horn of Blasting, Horn of Sleeping, Horn of Voices. Level 3: Brass Horn of Valhalla, Pipes of the Sewer, Horn of Blasting.

The Horn of Waking could have a PER DC of 12 to awaken every creature within 60’, or 120’ on a roll of 20+.  A roll of >1 could damage the instrument and cause dire insomnia to each nearby creature, denying them restful sleep for 1d3 days.

Overtaxing the Voice

Just as the Wizard can spellburn, how the Halfling and Thief can use their luck as a resource, what if the Balladeer could burn down their personality score to add oomph to their performances?  The singer overextends his range, the guitarist breaks a string with a massive strum, perhaps the Balladeer could burn Personality to add to any skill or performance roll, regaining one point per level each night of rest.  

Conclusion

As a semi-pro musician and career music teacher myself, the Bard has always been near and dear to my heart.  I am delighted to have found the Balladeer, which I will offer my players after each funnel I run moving forward.  The class is versatile, supportive, and filled with flavor for players to enjoy.  I may tweak things a bit to offer a more offensive punch in combat (I’m leaning towards the instrument table rather than the delayed arcane table at the moment), but the class definitely stands on its own without those modifications.  Tune your lutes, apply resin to your bows, and prepare your mouthpiece for adventure; the legendary exploits of your allies need to be immortalized in song!