Song of Surging (Performance)

Song of Surging (Stance; Su)

A bard with this performance can release the potential within themselves and their allies to cast spells with an uncanny mastery. Each round that the bard sustains this performance, they may choose a number of their allies (including themselves) to affect with this performance, based on their current Bard level, as described below:

• At Bard levels 1 - 10, the bard may affect up to 3 allies.
• At Bard levels 11 - 20, the bard may affect up to 4 allies.
• At bard levels above 21, the bard may affect up to 5 allies.

All allies chosen to be affected must be within range of the performance (typically within 30 feet of the bard), and must be able to perceive the performance.

While under the effects of this song, affected allies who have the Mana Burning class feature are no longer limited by their character level, when determining the maximum spell circle they can cause a spell to inflict. Where normally, you cannot use mana burning to raise the circle of a spell above 1 + half your total character level (rounding down), while this song is in effect, that is no longer true. Any spell cast by an affected ally that has a listed Circle for its damage can be mana burned as high as the caster wishes to take it, up to the maximum of Circle 18.

In addition, any affected ally that mana burns a spell while under the effects of this performance gains 1 additional circle as a bonus, as though they had spent an additional spell slot themselves. That is, if an affected ally casts a Fireball spell, which deals circle 3 damage, and mana burns it twice, spending two additional spell slots to do so, they gain a bonus circle from this performance, making the Fireball deal circle 6 damage. Furthermore, the affected ally could do this even if their level were not high enough to normally mana burn something up to circle 6 damage.

The bonus circle granted by this performance is considered a Performance Bonus, and stacks with any other source of bonus circles, such as those granted by certain Sorcerer Bloodline powers.

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

Finale: One ally that is affected by this performance at the time the finale is triggered can automatically succeed on all caster checks they make during the process of casting a spell as this finale is triggered. This means any defensive casting check, any checks to overcome spell resistance, or other caster check required to cast the spell automatically succeed. This only affects those checks required to successfully cast the spell. Once the spell is successfully cast, the actual spell and all of its effects are resolved normally. (For example, if the spell allows the caster to perform a combat maneuver against an enemy using a caster check, they would still have to roll that, since it isn't related to casting the spell, only resolving its effects.)