Song of Steel (Performance)

Song of Steel (Stance; Ex)

A bard with this performance can turn themselves into a powerful combatant, temporarily focusing on their own power instead of empowering their allies.

Each round that the bard sustains this performance, they grant themselves (and only themselves) the following benefits:

• They gain a performance bonus to all of their melee and ranged to-hit rolls (including any melee or ranged touch attacks) equal to half their Bard class level, rounding down, to a maximum of +10 at Bard level 19. After Bard level 19, this benefit no longer increases.
• If the bard declares a full attack action while this performance is in effect, they gain a bonus attack at their highest attack value. This free bonus attack stacks with (can be used in addition to) any other bonus attacks they might have (such as from Haste (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), a weapon with the Speed magic property, etc.).
• Their damage with all attacks that inflict damage (regardless of what the source is, whether melee, ranged, spell, or class feature) is increased by 1d6+1 base weapon damage. As with any base weapon damage, this amount is multiplied by the experience tier of the bard's character level (regardless of which character class(es) they have). Thus, at level 6, this becomes 2d6+2; at level 11, it becomes 3d6+3; at level 16, it becomes 4d6+4, etc., to a maximum of 7d6+7 at level 31.

The bard must still sustain their bardic performance throughout this song to enjoy its benefits, which means most weapon attacks will not be possible while it is in effect. However, class features like Harmony and Staccato can be used with this performance with great success.

No creature may be under the effects of more than one performance, even if they are being performed by different bards.

Finale: The bard may slide themselves up to 2 squares as forced movement upon triggering the finale of this performance. The distance of the slide increases to 3 squares at Bard level 11, to 4 squares at Bard level 21, and to 5 squares at bard level 31. This slide cannot interrupt an attack has already been declared, but it can occur between the actions of a creature (such as between a move and an attack, unless that move and attack is a Charge, which is a single action).