Guidelines for Skald Sagas

Simple Guide Lines for Creating a Saga:

1. Basic guide rules:

a. Always use a pinch of common sense

b. the minimum level of a saga is Level 3. There are no sagas of levels 2 or 1.

c. The prerequisites of a skald saga should be a perform (dance, oratory, sing, percussion or string) and an additional skill, language, feat or trait.

d. As a minimum, a Skald needs to let go of 1 spell slot and 1 use of Raging song per that spell slot to activate and maintain a saga.


2. Find a spell that has the closest effect to the effect you wish to give the saga. You can use spells from the lists of clerics, wizards or bards. Although you might find suitable spells in any arcane school, most proper spells to transform into sagas are from the schools of Abjuration, Conjuration [healing], Enchantment, and Illusion [glamer]. Spells with a [mind-affecting] descriptor are good candidates, as well as spells with the [sonic] and [language dependent] descriptors.


3. Generally speaking the minimum level of the saga should be the minimum level of caster needed to cast that spell in its highest level. That means that if the spell appears in more than one list, first find for which classes the spell is of higher level, and then find what is the minimum caster level each of these classes needs in order to cast the spell. For example, the spell Break Enchantment is Level bard 4, cleric 5, wizard 5, and therefore should be treated as a 5th level spell rather than 4th. To cast a 5th level spell, a sorcerer has to be level 10, while clerics and wizards can cast it when they reach 9th level. The initial Saga Level will therefore be equal to the cleric or wizard caster level needed to cast a 5th level spell - level 9.

4. To activate the Saga the Skald will have to use a spell slot of the spell level that is the minimum spell level that the chosen spell appears in any of the spell lists of wizard, cleric or bard. If we continue our example of Break Enchantment, its minimum level appears as a bard spell of 4th level. To activate the Break Enchantment Saga (9th level saga) the Skald will have to let go of a 4th level spell. However, a level 9 skald does not have 4th level spells, and therefore the skald will have to let go of a 3ed level spell. The reduction of the spell level will be compensated by expenditure of 3 of the skald Raging Song uses per reduced level. In our example, the activation spell slot was reduced from 4th to 3ed, so additionally to 3 raging song slots needed to be expanded because a spell slot of 3ed level is used, 3 Raging Song uses will have to be expanded because the spell effect is a 4th level effect.

Alternatively, if the spell level is too powerful for the Saga Level, and the writer does not want to invest Raging Song uses into reducing the spell level, he may update the saga level to the minimum level a skald needs to cast the spell. In the example above, the writer of the saga could have made the saga a 10th level saga, and avoid reducing the spell slot in exchange to Raging Song Uses.

5. The type of action performing the saga requires is usually the same as the Casting Time of the spell. However, in many cases you may double or triple the action time in exchange for 1 or 3 Raging Song uses needed to activate the Saga. Beyond that you can reduce the Raging Song uses of the Saga by adding 1 full round action per Raging Song use that you reduce. Keep in mind that the minimum number of Raging Song uses need to activate the saga can never be lower than the spell slot expanded in the saga's activation. Spells with a casting time of Swift Action cannot be written into a saga.

Original Spell casting time / Saga action	Extended Saga Action	Reduced number of Raging Song Uses
Standard Action	Full Round	-1
Standard Action	2 Rounds	-3
Full round	2 rounds	-1
Full Round	3 rounds	-3
2 or 3 rounds	+1 round / +1 minute	-1 per extra round -1 per extra minute

Let us continue with the Break Enchantment saga: to activate the saga a skald will give up a 3ed level slot and 6 rage song uses. The spell has a casting time of 1 minute. Instead, the Skald may decide that activating the Saga takes 3 minutes, and thus reduce the rage song uses by 3. It now costs a 3ed level spell and 3 raging song use to activate the Saga, but activating takes 3 minutes instead of 1.

6. If the spell has a material component, add 1 raging song use to its activation. If the material component is worth more than 50gp, in most cases the spell effect cannot be written into a saga (up to GM discretion).

7. Since the Saga is a "sound effect", i.e. the affected creatures need to hear it, in most cases the range of the spell has no significance for activating or maintaining the spell. The target of the saga is defined as in the spell, but think of the spell caster level as the Saga Level rather than the Skald level. Limitations such as the distance between targets may be ignored in many cases. The writer may add an option for the skald to add extra creatures to the targets of an effect by increasing the uses of Raging Song by 1 per creature or ally affected. In our Break Enchantment Saga the spell states that the spell target is "up to one creature per level, all within 30 ft. of each other". Since the saga affects anyone who can hear it, the distance between the listeners is ignored, and the saga can affect any of the listeners, but only up to one creature per Saga Level. Our saga level is 9, so only up to 9 creatures can be affected. However, if the Skald wants to affect more creatures, he may spend an extra Raging Sound use for every creature beyond the first 9.

8. The Duration of Saga effect is generally dictated by the spell. If the spell duration is instantaneous there is no extra cost to activating the saga, and it does not usually need to be maintained because the duration of the saga is instantaneous as well.
If the duration of the spell is in rounds (i.e. 1 round, 1 round per level, 1 round per two levels etc.) it uses no extra use of Raging Song for activation.
If the duration is described in minutes, add 1 raging song uses to the activation of the saga.
If the duration is described in hours or days, add 2 raging song uses to the activation of the saga.

If the saga needs to be maintained, it usually costs 1 extra use of Raging Song per round and or per affected creature, following its activation. In most cases the effect ends when the Skald chooses or when he runs out of Raging Song rounds. In our Break Enchantment Saga the spell states it is instantaneous, and thus there is no extra cost for its activation.



9. If a spell has a saving throw, so does a saga based on it. Sagas incorporate the skald's arcane powers into his performance and therefore if the spell they are based on has spell resistance entry, so does the saga.



10. If you slightly increase the power of the spell in your saga, add 1 extra use of Raging Song to its activation and/or maintaining. If you slightly reduce the power of the spell in your saga, reduce by 1 the number of Rage Song uses needed to activate or maintain it.