Disciple of Rock (bard/warlock PrC)

[Prime32]

DISCIPLE OF ROCK


   

The devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind 'cos he was way behind and he was willin' to make a deal.
When he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot.
And the devil jumped upon a hickory stump and said: "Boy let me tell you what:
I guess you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too.
And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the devil his due:
I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, 'cos I think I'm better than you."
The boy said: "My name's Johnny and it might be a sin,
But I'll take your bet, your gonna regret, 'cos I'm the best that's ever been."

-The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Charlie Daniels

 A general description of whatever the class is!

BECOMING A DISCIPLE OF ROCK
How you would normally become a member of this prestige class.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Skills: Perform (any) 8 ranks
Feats: Melodic Casting^CM
Invocations: Baleful utterance and Charm
Special: Inspire courage, Eldritch blast 1d6
Special: Must have defeated a fiend in a rock-off


Class Skills (4+Int): Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Disguise, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device

Hit Dice: d6

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Invocations
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Bardic music, Heavy metal, Rockin' blast, Sonic resistance 10	-
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	Cacophany, Maximum loudness +10ft	+1 level of warlock
3rd	+2	+3	+1	+3	Feedback	+1 level of warlock
4th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Maximum loudness +20ft, Power metal	+1 level of warlock
5th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Noise, Sonic resistance 20	+1 level of warlock
6th	+4	+5	+2	+5	Maximum loudness +30ft, Death metal	+1 level of warlock
7th	+5	+5	+2	+5	Bringin' down the house	+1 level of warlock
8th	+6	+6	+2	+6	Maximum loudness +40ft, Extreme metal	+1 level of warlock
9th	+6	+6	+3	+6	Rock the soul, Sonic resistance 30	+1 level of warlock
10th	+7	+7	+3	+7	Maximum loudness +50ft, Speed metal	+1 level of warlock
11th	+7	+7	+3	+7	Up to eleven	+1 level of warlock

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Disciple of Rock is proficient with simple weapons and with light and medium armor, but not with shields.

Bardic Music (Su): A Disciple of Rock's levels in this class count as bard levels for determining the effects of their bardic music and which forms of bardic music they have access to.

Heavy Metal (Ex): A Disciple of Rock can use bard spells and warlock invocations in medium armor without incurring arcane spell failure. His caster level for bard spells and warlock invocations is equal to the sum of his bard, warlock and Disciple of Rock levels.

Rockin' Blast: The Disciple of Rock's eldritch blasts deal sonic damage in place of their normal damage type, ignoring an amount of sonic resistance equal to the disciple's caster level.

Sonic Resistance (Ex): A Disciple of Rock gains sonic resistance 10, increasing to 20 at 5th level and 30 at 9th level.

Cacophany (Su): At 2nd level, whenever a Disciple of Rock uses bardic music, enemies within range take 1 point of sonic damage for each damage die of his eldritch blast. He may affect objects with this ability if he wishes.

Maximum Loudness: At every even level, increase the range of the Disciple of Rock's bardic music and eldritch blast by +10ft.

Feedback (Su): At 3rd level, whenever you successfully use Countersong or Song of Freedom to break an effect on a creature, you may choose for the creator of the effect to take damage as if you had struck them with an eldritch blast, regardless of distance. You may inflict this damage a maximum of once per round, regardless of the number of effects ended.

Power Metal (Sp): At 4th level, when using an invocation a Disciple of Rock may expend two of his daily uses of bardic music to empower it, as if he had applied the Empower Spell metamagic feat.

Noise (Su): At 5th level a Disciple of Rock has become so loud that in any round where he uses bardic music, every enemy within 5ft per rank he possesses in Perform is treated as deafened. Unlike normal deafness, this offers no defense against sound-based attacks from the Disciple of Rock or his allies.

Death Metal (Su): At 6th level, a Disciple of Rock may expend a use of his bardic music ability to turn undead (if he is good) or rebuke undead (if he is evil). His effective cleric level is equal to his caster level. Undead he successfully turns also take damage as if they had been struck by his eldritch blast, while undead he bolsters heal damage equal to half that inflicted by his eldritch blast. This ability does not count as turn undead for the purpose of abilities powered by uses of turn undead (such as Divine feats).

Bringin' Down the House (Su): At 7th level, once per round when you use bardic music you may also use your baleful utterance invocation as a free action.

Extreme Metal (Sp): At 8th level, when using an invocation a Disciple of Rock may expend three of his daily uses of bardic music to maximise it, as if he had applied the Maximise Spell metamagic feat. This ability cannot be combined with Power Metal.

Rock the Soul (Su): At 9th level, if a Disciple of Rock hits a creature immune to fear or mind-affecting effects with its eldritch blast (or otherwise causes it to take eldritch blast damage), for 1 round that creature loses its immunity to these effects but gains a +5 bonus on saving throws against them.

Speed Metal (Sp): At 10th level, after using an invocation a Disciple of Rock may expend four of his daily uses of bardic music to activate another invocation with a casting time of 1 standard action or less. This ability may be used only once per round, and cannot be used in the same round as Power Metal or Extreme Metal.

Up to Eleven (Ex): At 11th level, the save DCs of the Disciple of Rock's invocations and bardic music increase by +2 (stacking with the Ability Focus feat, if he has it). In addition, he gains immunity to sonic damage and ignores the sonic immunity of others. Finally, Perform is now a class skill for all of his classes.

[Prime32]

So here's something I wrote on a whim, partly so that bards could shoot sonic blasts out of guitars, and partly for the whole "devil's music" thing.

Still WIP; I'm not a huge music buff, so I'd appreciate suggestions on names and class features.

[Chemus]

Neat concept.

The requirements seem fairly steep since Charm is a lesser invocation, and perform is not on the warlock's class list. So, 6th level warlock is required. Bard 1/Wlck6 gets you there, so maybe it's not as steep as I thought. Just some cross class Perform ranks needed.

Has Melodic Casting been errata'd? If not it doesn't allow for SLA's as far as I can tell.

The charm invocation already replicates charm monster...

[linklord231]

You could enter at level 6 with Human Paragon, or any other trick to get Perform on the Warlock's class list. 
Human Paragon 1/Bard 1/Warlock 3/Disciple of Rock 11/Warlock PrC 4 gets bardic music as a 12th level bard (up to Song of Freedom) and invocations as a 17th level Warlock (EB 8d6, Dark invocations). 
Alternatively, HP 1/Bard 4/Warlock 4/DoR 11 gets bardic music up to Inspire Heroics and EB 7d6, but misses out on Dark invocations. 

It would be super nice if this gave partial progression for bardic spellcasting too, but that might be pushing the power level too much.  I just hate having a "dangling" ability like that 

Edit:  Scratch that, I missed the part where it only has 8/11 invocation progression.  The first build above gets EB of 7d6, no Dark invocations.  The second gets 6d6, but still has Greater invocations. 

[TheGeometer]

This idea is just awesome. It literally rocks. My only complaint, besides the imbalance of class feature power mentioned by Chemus, is that I think it could stand to be a bit more powerful. Either boost the warlock progression up to full, or add in another partial bardic spellcasting progression. Or both; someone using this PrC shouldn't have to give up their Dark invocations.

[Prime32]

Right, brought warlock progression up to 9/10 and made a few other additions.

[linklord231]

Nice.  Does Speed Metal stack with Quicken SLA?

[awaken_D_M_golem]

See You In "Hell" My Friend
with triple repeated V component
vary the "word" for other planes.
Full round action, rest of group must head  bang.