Basiran Dancer

What can I do that a regular dancer can’t? What, you mean aside from kicking your knee so hard that the kneecap erupts from your skin and skitters across the floor?”

– Jandy Gozer, gnome Basiran dancer

Equivalent in 5e to a College of Blade Bard, using a dance performance to attack and cast spells.

People across Tellene know Basiran dancers for their exotic skills, grace and outrageous costumes. According to legend, the ancient masters of the dance were famous fighters who hid secret fighting techniques among the innocuous popular dances of the time. These dancers appear in courts as far apart as P’Bapar and Tarisato, and from metropolitan Bet Kalamar to rustic Segeleta. While the overwhelming majority of Basiran dancers are female, male characters do have roles within the intricate dance, and some of the most famous dancers have been male.

The first Basiran style of dance, known as samarata (or “dance fighting”), traces its roots back to the meeting of the Kalamarans and Fhokki in the area now known as Dodera. Each culture argues that it invented the style and introduced it to the other, but the evidence supporting either claim is suspect. In any case, since the founding of the famous Ladies’ School of Dance and Culture in Bet Urala in 220 IR, Basir and Tokis have been the centers of the old tradition. More recent dance styles can be found in the supplement Stealth and Style: A Variant Class Guidebook to the Infiltrator and Basiran Dancer

Now, before we get started, let’s clear up a common misconception. Basiran dancers don’t necessarily come from the Kingdom of Basir, in the Kalamaran Empire. The term “Basiran dancer” mostly describes the kind of dancer, not the place of birth. Another way of saying “Basiran dancer” is “a dancer trained in the style of dance that Basir is best known for.” Basiran dancer is a shorter and easier term to use.