#high charisma

tip 1: use rhymes and this cite specifically https://www.rhymezone.com/ 

when giving bardic inspiration I always (except a few times) have a rhyme to go with it. saying “I play my lute” is fine but making little rhymes really pulls other players in. it’s also way easier than trying to write an entire song like Scanlan does, plus I can’t sing and it doesn’t take up as much time. 

tips for rhymes, find words you associate with each PC. 

look up rhymes for fighter, ranger, cleric ect. and try to make it fit. for example “he’s rather esoteric, our cleric, far from generic, and never barbaric, he’s calm even when I’m hysteric”. all of those come up when you look up Cleric. it’s a short inspiration that can fit most clerics but will make the one you’re inspiring feel good.

rhyme with names. names especially make other PCs feel good because it’s generally unique to the character. however names are hard because rarely will names fit perfectly in a rhyme, so just grab the last part. like if their name is “Zaram” you won’t find a rhyme, but you will if you look up “ram”. of if their name is something like “Garcar” pronounce it out loud and find a word that sounds like the last part. “car” is pronounced like “sar” which sounds like “Czar”, now you have a rhyme. “my friend Garcar, is a little bizarre, but careful if you Spar, because he’s a rock star”.

situations are great too. This could be based on the mission or recent RP. if you’re fighting vampires look for vampire rhymes, if you’re fighting goblins look for goblin rhymes. An RP example, in my current bard, Meku’s, game the barbarian said something like “I longingly look at the hammer” so my rhyme was “making quite the clamour, I don’t mean to yammer, but you seem enamored, you really want that hammer!”. It adds to the RP they already started and makes them feel heard. 

Tip 2: tell Jokes

I always play horny bard characters so my jokes are usually dirty jokes, but this doesn’t just apply to that. Really lots of situations call for jokes, or you can just make it a character trait they always tell jokes. This really brings RP out of people. Similar to before, look up jokes based around class, RP, or situation. A PC likes jewelry, look up jewelry jokes. Dumb blonde jokes can become dumb barbarian jokes. Fighting vampires, look up vampire jokes. Call out who you want to RP with like “my PC scoots closer to other PC and nudges them saying ‘There’s a bunch of food set out, we must be in the vampire’s casketeria!’” this will ALWAYS get a response. A groan, a “they roll their eyes”, a “they laugh”, or anything else. Now you have a dynamic set up with that other PC. 

This can happen during combat too. Spells that involve talking, like silvery bards, vicious mockery, or really any, can just have you making a joke as your spell casting. For example I like the Spirit bard subclass, in it you have different tales on a chart. So I looked up jokes based around those charts. One was “clever animal” so my joke was “people say dolphins are as smart as humans but I think they’re jumping to conclusions”. This led to the party talking about what a dolphin is and how smart they might be. It was fun, simple, and relaxed RP that made the party feel closer. 

Now jokes are hard, I suggest just stealing off the internet. You don’t have to be crazy creative with it or anything, if anything stupid jokes are more fun. However, you will have duds. There will be times where your jokes aren’t recognized and you will feel crummy. Just move on and don’t let it get you down. 

Tip 3: give gifts!

I can’t express this enough. Non-mechanical gifts do WONDERS for RP. Most of my bards make friendship bracelets for the party and this always goes down amazingly. A special card or pressed flowers, or a trinket made into a necklace, all things that will really just make the other PCs feel special. I’ve had campaigns end where the PC describes being buried with their friendship bracelet. 

Also, make a big deal of it if someone gives your PC a gift. Talk about them putting it on the desk in their room, or a special pocket. Say “thank you” in whatever way feels character appropriate. If it’s a big deal to your character say they tear up, if it’s small slap their shoulder, that sort of thing. 

I’ve never had a DM charge my PC more that a silver for these sort of gifts because they recognize that it’s good for building party cohesion. 

Tip 4: fashion

Give your bard a style. This could be a cowboy, or Gucci, or like a fool, or in Meku's case, like a spirit Halloween store. It makes them stand out as an individual but also gives other PCs something easy to work with. You make a bad joke and they say “oh quiet cowboy”. 

Speaking of cowboys, make your character wear a hat of some sort. There is so much description you can do with a hat alone. Someone casts gust, “my character holds their hat in place”. Under the frightened effect “she hides her face in her hat”. It’s also a easy target for other PCs. a rival PC might teasingly knock it off their head, one might ask to wear it, other might brush it off for you. It’s a very stylistic item that doesn’t have to be tracked or anything so it makes just randomly bringing it up easy. I’ve had other PCs start wearing the same style of hat as my PC. 

Ask other PCs to help with style. If someone mentions their character’s hair cut, say “oh my god it’s beautiful, could you style my hair”. Y’all, a hairstyle is the strongest of RP bonding things. I guess because it’s almost always visual so all PCs have thought about it. From “let me braid your hair” to “can you cut my hair” or “what products are you using” it’s amazing. It can really apply to any aspect of style but hair is just a insanely easy and simple way to build a bond between PCs. 

Lastly, have a key color. This is super important in my opinion. Give your bard a favorite color and use it OFTEN. Meku’s favorite color is purple. All her magic is described as purple, all her clothes are purple, if she’s buying an item she asks for purple, ect. It’s again super easy but a huge way to make your bard stand out within the party and seem extra charismatic. 

Tip 5: describe EVERYTHING

You don’t need to write a novel's long description or anything but every little description makes you seem more charismatic. When Meku casts dimension door I say “you see a sparkly purple door open up as she uses dimension door.” polymorph, her animals are always described as purple and sparkly. Last session had a good one, she used heat metal then fire bolt I described it as “she glares at the man, blows into her cupped hand like she’s blowing on a ember. Then removes a hand and flicks her middle finger up with a fire bolt going into his face”. It’s not super long but adds a lot of character to the bard and adds visually to a fight. It also got a few laughs because it killed the guy. 

I recommend giving your character an element or material as a theme. I’d clear it with the DM that you aren’t changing damage type, just taking creative liberty with description. If your bard is water themed, describe things like cure wounds as “a faint mist sprinkles over you and you heal for__”. Eldritch blast could be flicking water droplets off your hand. Heat metal could be boiling water, haste could be tossing them a drink. These small things really just add a lot. 

Feel open to act a fool. I’m sure a stern bard can be fun but I have the most fun playing the class clown style bard. You fail a dex check at catching something, say “I got it!! Uh.. oops” or “she puts her hat up like a shield and gets knocked on her ass”, “eats dirt” is another good description. It makes your character seem endearing and makes you seem really good at handling failure. In a weird way it makes your character cooler. A stern fighter who is gruff and strong getting knocked prone will seem embarrassing because the character is supposed to be cool and competent. A silly bard getting knocked over then making a joke as they jump back up makes it seem like nothing can affect your character. Everyone will fail at some point so being foolish with the failure just makes the character seem more charismatic. 

Tip 6: have a journal or doc 

I always make journals for my bard and bring it with me. In my spare time I’ll write down jokes or rhymes or descriptions of spells. I divide the journal up, spell descriptions in one part, jokes in another, and inspiration rhymes in another. Divide inspiration rhymes up by PC and have a general section as well. Cross out or add a checkmark when you use the joke or rhyme so you can keep track of what you’ve used already. For spell descriptions just add a brief description and have it handy for when you cast. “Mending looks like bright red thread weaving through the material and magically joining it together” then when you use it say “you see red magical thread sew the two parts of the page back together”. I forget to describe spells a lot so having the page open helps you make it fit the situation. 

Past: Ten of pentacles (upright) I had a huge laugh at this draw. Not only is it a card that talks about old money in the family (which, you don’t say, she’s nobility, DUH!), but it also suggests to look back at your family tree so that you can discover a long lost family member, or something of the like. And Haloisi being a tiefling is pretty much it, since she has infernal heritage and I had yet to determine if there was any other member of the family that shared that with her or not (spoiler there was not, so… where did it came from?). It speaks of domestic harmony too, so I knew she would at least grow in a loving family, which was a relief.

Present: Two of swords (upright) Well, this one is pretty much related to what I was talking about before and pretty much cleared off my doubts related to her father since it’s a card about being torn about something. And family is the most important thing for her, it just made sense that it was probably the affection towards the father the grew her and the desire to leave behind the long years of denial of the existence of a father with which she share flesh and blood. And she’s the also struggling with the idea of leaving the safety of her home to try and find out what happened to said biological father, despite considering the man that raised her the only father worth mentioning. A very big struggle there for this poor insecure girl that has her family and her god as the true pillars she lives for.

Future: Seven of pentacles (reversed) I usually leave the “future” card for a general suggestion on how to play more or less what I wrote in the mess that were the five card before this one in actual gameplay. Like somewhat of a closure kind of thing. Yet, this card that has as one of the core meaning a change of plans, made me opt for another alternative too. I decided it was too good of a card not to build a bit more on her backstory with those hints of having setbacks on the more work related side of things. It usually points towards finding out that you managed things in a bad way in the past. And I had to pick just one card for her father, just to be sure that my gut feeling was guiding me in the right direction, to that that I hit the jackpot. Cause for Haloisi’s dad the deck gave me the Five of pentacles (upright), another card related to business failure, one that does a possible way out, with a little help from the right person. That’s it, anything else I’m gonna go more into detail on her actual backstory. As far as how to play Haloisi, I think I gave enough of an explanation of how I think her personality is with her mind and spirit card, anyway…

FULL BACKSTORY

A surprise from the moment she was born, Haloisi is the daughter of Baron Ferdumin Grenmar and his wife Baroness Riren Thulai Grenmar. While the local nobility immediately considered scandalous Haloisi’s birth because of her infernal heritage, her family didn’t seem to really care about what other people thought of it all. Haloisi was loved as much as her older brother Moru, and the twins Thioh and Lieh, just a couple of years younger than her (yet, none of infernal heritage). They all received an education worthy of nobility, but were always loved and cared for by their parents. They never felt neglected despite the many business related trips Ferdumin had to make and that Riren usually accompanied to. Despite the happy familial life, Haloisi was surrounded by the malicious gossips of the local nobility. She was aware that people thought she wasn’t related to Ferdumin and her siblings, and said that she was instead the child of an affair between the Baroness some wandering bard that apparently had charmed Riren at a party when Ferdumin had been gone for month for one of his trips.  Haloisi had quickly learned how to ignore the whispers and found ways to deflect people’s attention from those kinds of gossips with her own mostly innocuous hearsays, directed towards the people that tried to hurt her. One thing she always found refuge in were her studies on magic and her prayers. For a while her father tried to convince her to enroll in a school to become a practitioner, but she never really found that idea attractive. She was happy that she never enrolled into that school when a business competitor falsely blamed Ferdumin for fraud. The Baron ended up being framed for the crime and her father spent a couple of years in prison, despite the family attempts to prove his innocence and clean up their reputation so that they wouldn’t go bankrupt. They failed to prove Ferdumin’s innocence before the end of his sentence, and even once he got released from jail the family name was still disgraced and the family business was failing. Since her sibling were the ones that were taking care of the business, Haloisi turned more and more to her prayers. With the guidance of her deity and the abilities she received from them, she decided to try to restore her family names and wealth in a different way, finally leaving the nest for the first time. (And maybe, on her journey, she would even finally have the chance to meet that long lost father that she’s been so long in denial of wanting to actually get the chance to know.)

SUGGESTION CORNER

Suggested features Ability scores: High Wisdom and Charisma (pretty decent Intelligence), Low Strength (I do suggest dumping Dexterity too, if you are comfortable with that; just to really embrace the “noble girl that lived a very sheltered life” stereotype. Cause why not!). Skill proficiencies: Insight and Religion Gaming set proficiencies: Chess Other: I obviously did not pick a specific god cause that really depends on the setting. But just to give a general idea with Forgotten Realms: more of a Mystra vibe than Azuth.