You are skilled in a type of artistic expression, which may encompass a variety of specific methods, and you know how to put on a show.
Like Craft, Knowledge, and Profession, Perform is actually a number of separate skills. For instance, you could have the skill Perform (act). Your ranks in that skill don’t affect any checks you happen to make for Perform (oratory) or Perform (string instruments). 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. The DM is free to expand any of these categories with additional methods, instruments, or techniques, as appropriate for his or her campaign.
Check: You can impress audiences with your talent and skill.
| Perform DC | Performance |
|---|---|
| 10 | Routine performance. Trying to earn money by playing in public is essentially begging. You can earn 1d10 cp/day. |
| 15 | Enjoyable performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 1d10 sp/day. |
| 20 | Great performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 3d10 sp/day. In time, you may be invited to join a professional troupe and may develop a regional reputation. |
| 25 | Memorable performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 1d6 gp/day. In time, you may come to the attention of noble patrons and develop a national reputation. |
| 30 | Extraordinary performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 3d6 gp/day. In time, you may draw attention from distant potential patrons, or even from extraplanar beings. |
A masterwork musical instrument (page 130) 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, at the DM’s discretion. 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).
Source: Player’s Handbook (version 3.5), page 79.
The character can sway an audience’s attitude with his or her performance.
| Initial Attitude | New Attitude (DC to achieve) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostile | Unfriendly | Indifferent | Friendly | Helpful | Fanatic | |
| Hostile | Less than 20 | 20 | 25 | 35 | 50 | 150 |
| Unfriendly | Less than 5 | 5 | 15 | 25 | 40 | 120 |
| Indifferent | — | Less than 1 | 1 | 15 | 30 | 90 |
| Friendly | — | — | Less than 1 | 1 | 20 | 60 |
| Helpful | — | — | — | Less than 1 | 1 | 50 |
| Attitude | Means | Possible Actions |
|---|---|---|
| Hostile | Will take risks to hurt you | Attack, interfere, berate, flee |
| Unfriendly | Wishes you ill | Mislead, gossip, avoid, watch suspiciously, insult |
| Indifferent | Doesn’t much care | Socially expected interaction |
| Friendly | Wishes you well | Chat, advise, offer limited help, advocate |
| Helpful | Will take risks to help you | Protect, back up, heal, aid |
| Fanatic | Will give life to serve you | Fight to the death against overwhelming odds, throw self in front of onrushing dragon |
Fanatic: The attitude of fanatic is added here. In addition to the obvious effects, any NPC whose attitude is fanatic gains a +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution scores, a +1 morale bonus on Will saves, and a –1 penalty to AC whenever fighting for the character or his or her cause. This attitude will remain for one day plus one day per point of the character’s Charisma bonus, at which point the NPC’s attitude will revert to its original attitude (or indifferent, if no attitude is specified).
Treat the fanatic attitude as a mind-affecting enchantment effect for purposes of immunity, save bonuses, or being detected by the Sense Motive skill. Since it is nonmagical, it can’t be dispelled; however, any effect that suppresses or counters mind-affecting effects will affect it normally. A fanatic NPC’s attitude can’t be further adjusted by the use of skills.