The battlecry of the BBEG bard.
That is the reason why the guy that led the revolution against to old realms was a high-level bard…
She’s not the BIGGEST bad, but there’s a major villain who’s a bard type in Red Hand of Doom. (My players are about to meet her, actually.)
So Yennifer is a bard?
Except one everyone has clapped their hands, the spell ends on them.
So that’s where Dragon Quest’s Dancing Devils and whatnot come from!
I don’t get bards. I mean, wizards study magic. Sorcerers are born with innate magical abilities. Clerics channel divine power. But what the heck is the bard actually doing? Is he rocking out (over the course of six seconds) to such an extent that listeners take psychic damage? Is that something music just does in D&D? Like if you’re a level 1 commoner, can you literally die if the kids practicing on their guitars in the neighbor’s garage are too good (or too bad) at it?
(Edit: Yeah, yeah, “housecats kill more level 1 commoners than bards do”. Bards are a menace! Don’t try to obfuscate with statistics.)
Bards make fantastic villains. They can be the puppetmaster whispering in the ears of leaders to cause wars, or they can be the flashy conqueror who gives a villainous musical number instead of a monologue.
Edit: Give the villain Vicious Mockery, and have them use it liberally. The players will want them dead.
Also, nothing strikes fear into a party quite like knowing the BBEG has Power Word Kill in their back pocket. No save, no spell attack, no change to interrupt. They just tell one of your party members to die, and the party member keels over dead. Hopefully you have a 9th level spellcaster who has counterspell prepped and is willing to upcast to prevent it.
It can force the party to come up with some pretty elaborate traps just to bait the PWK prior to the fight. Since you can only use it once per day, the goal is usually to force them into a fight with something sacrificial (like a golem or a troll,) bait them into use the PWK on that creature, then rush in before they can escape.
