M ute M usician (B ard a rchetype )
A mute musician forswears speech for the unnatural songs
and thunderous silences of the depths of space. She learns
to blend light and sound in seemingly impossible ways.
Some mute musicians look to the darker aspects of Desna
as their inspiration for these performances, but most mute
musicians find their muse in the alien sounds of the Elder
Mythos and the entities that orbit the blind idiot god
Azathoth, who floats in the heart of the Dark Tapestry.
Mute (Ex): A mute musician has a disability or injury
(possibly self-inflicted or even psychological) that prevents
her from speaking or vocalizing. Language-dependent
effects (including Perform [oratory]) require the bard to
be able to use telepathy, nonverbal languages, or writing
to communicate. She cannot use Perform (sing) or speak
languages, though she can still create audible bardic
performances by means of a musical instrument. A mute
musician can provide verbal and somatic components for
spells she casts via any musical instrument in which she
has ranks in the appropriate Perform skill.
Eschew Materials (Ex): A mute musician gains Eschew
Materials as a bonus feat at 1st level.
This ability replaces bardic knowledge.
Bardic Performance: A mute musician gains the
following bardic performances.
Symphony of Silence (Su): At 3rd level, the mute musician’s
music muffles all other sounds within a 30-foot radius. All
creatures in the area of effect gain a +2 bonus on all saving
throws made against sonic attacks or language-dependent
effects. This bonus increases to +3 at 7th level, +4 at 11th
level, +5 at 15th level, and +6 at 19th level. Symphony of
silence relies on audible components.
This bardic performance replaces inspire competence.
Maddening Harmonics (Su): At 14th level, the mute
musician can create a performance so baffling and
discordant that it usurps all thought within a 30-foot
radius with chaos and entropy. The mute musician can
select which creatures in this area are affected by the
maddening harmonics and which are not. All targeted
creatures within this area must succeed at a Will saving
throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 the bard’s level + the bard’s Charisma
modifier) or be confused for as long as they can hear the
performance. If the creature succeeds at its saving throw,
it is immune to this ability for 24 hours. This performance
relies on audible components.
This bardic performance replaces frightening tune.
Ceaseless Performance (Su): At 15th level, the mute
musician can continue taking the free action to maintain
a bardic performance even while confused, cowering in
fear, dazed, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, petrified,
silenced, staggered, stunned, or unconscious. Even if the
mute musician is killed, she can continue to take the free
action to maintain her performance as long as she has
rounds remaining. Only the utter destruction of the mute
musician’s body (such as via destruction or disintegrate, or
by reducing the bard to a negative hit point total equal
to 10 × her Constitution score) causes the performance
to end.
This ability replaces inspire heroics.
Song of the Conjunction (Su): At 18th level, the mute
musician can harmonize with the alien chorus beyond
the music of the spheres, creating a portentous cosmic
alignment. This effect duplicates a gate used to travel, save
that the destination point must be on the same plane as
the bard, but it is not otherwise limited by distance.
This bardic performance replaces mass suggestion.
Insights from Beyond (Ex): At 2nd level, a mute musician
adds two abjuration, conjuration (calling), conjuration
(summoning), or conjuration (teleportation) spells from
the sorcerer/wizard spell list to her list of bard spells
known. At 6th level and every 4 bard levels thereafter, she
can choose two more spells to add to her spells known.
This class feature replaces versatile performance.
Dulled Horror (Ex): At 2nd level, a mute musician
gains a +4 bonus on saves against confusion, fear, insanity
effects, and the supernatural abilities of aberrations.
This class feature replaces well-versed.
Eldritch Caesura (Su): At 10th level, a mute musician
can insert unsettling silences into her otherworldly music
by spending an additional 1 round of bardic performance
per round. This supernatural technique impossibly blurs
the line between music and light, transmitting audible
performances and sonic bard spells through most
barriers save lead. This allows the music and sonic spells
to affect creatures across planar boundaries (including
on the Ethereal or Shadow Planes), vacuums, and areas of
magical silence.
This class feature replaces jack-of-all-trades.
Ex-Mute Musicians: A mute musician who regains the
ability to speak or chooses to speak aloud loses all abilities
granted by this archetype. She can regain the archetype’s
abilities by spending 24 hours without speaking.