Bardic Music

While Obsidian has not confirmed the existence of bardic music (or the features that improve it) in NWN2, it is a class feature of the bard class which have been confirmed.

3.5 Bardic music
Once per day per bard level, a bard can use his song or poetics to produce magical effects on those around him (usually including himself, if desired). While these abilities fall under the category of bardic music and the descriptions discuss singing or playing instruments, they can all be activated by reciting poetry, chanting, singing lyrical songs, singing melodies, whistling, playing an instrument, or playing an instrument in combination with some spoken performance. Each song requires both a minimum bard level and a minimum number of ranks in the perform skill to qualify; if a bard does not have the required number of ranks in at least one perform skill, he does not gain the bardic music ability until he acquires the needed ranks.

Starting a bardic music effect is a standard action. Some bardic music abilities require concentration, which means the bard must take a standard action each round to maintain the ability. Even while using bardic music that doesn’t require concentration, a bard cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), or activate magic items by magic word (such as wands). Just as for casting a spell with a verbal component, a deaf bard has a 20% chance to fail when attempting to use bardic music. If he fails, the attempt still counts against his daily limit.

Countersong

 * Bards gain countersong at 1st level.

Fascinate

 * Bards gain fascinate at 1st level.

Inspire courage

 * Bards gain inspire courage at 1st level. At 8th level, and every six bard levels thereafter, this bonus increases by 1 (+2 at 8th, +3 at 14th, and +4 at 20th).

Inspire competence

 * Bards gain inspire competence at 3rd level.

Suggestion

 * Bards gain suggestion at 6th level.

Mass suggestion

 * Bards gain mass suggestion at 18th level.

Inspire greatness

 * Bards gain inspire greatness at 9th level.

Song of freedom

 * Bards gain song of freedowm at 12th level.

Inspire heroics

 * Bards gain inspire heroics at 15th level.

NWN comparison

 * Bardis music in NWN only provided two effects, a general bonus to allies or a penalty to opponents.
 * Only a generic perform skill existed in NWN as a bard-only skill.

External resources

 * NWNWiki:Bard Song
 * NWNWiki:Curse Song