Aha, yes, a new tertiary skillset for bards based on influencing type of abilities. Someone suggested this in another thread, and I've expanded upon it a bit.
I give you... Speechcraft!
Some of these skills require the cration of a new game mechanic, called 'Mood'.
It'll appear in SCORE next to the Hunger and Sleep ratings, and can range from 'Happy' to 'Severe Depression'.
The more sad a person is, the more likely they are to break down in tears or hurt themselves instead of performing the action they intended.
Having a shattered ego or losing in an influence battle will reduce your happiness by a level or two.
Charisma, Ego and skill in Dramatics/Influence affect the amount of effort needed to change mood.
Sleeping recovers mood.

AB SPEECHCRAFT
Oration With the skill of public speaking, perform better in debates. (defense, ORATE to use, +1 charisma)
Apathy Convince someone of how pointless their life is. (reduces mood, if 'Sad' causes lethargy)
Bedtime Send someone to sleep with a soothing story.
Horror Terrifying the wits out of someone often causes phobias.
Urbanlegend A friend of a friend's tale can cause paranoia.
Warstory A tale of bloodshed and death can send even the calmest of minds into a reckless frenzy.
Fantasy A fantastic legend can cause one to daydream.
Hilarity A humorous anecdote can force someone into a fit of hysterics. (epilepsy-like affliction)
Badfood Reveal a horrible secret to someone about the last meal they ate. (vomiting)
CunningLinguist As your use of language increases, you become more effective at influencing others.
WorldUnison Elaborate upon the merits of a wonderful world, totally free of conflict. (pacified)
Ridicule Force someone onto the threshold of depression. (reduces mood, if 'Depressed' causes masochism)
Novelist Scribing your best material into a book, you can perform twice as fast, at half the ego cost. (10P, works on magictome)
Doublesubject You can merge two of your speaking tactics into one. (2 power, masked)
Gibberish "Biscuit fish on your mother's six ankles." (causes confusion)
Assurance After confusing someone with gibberish, convince them you make sense, causing dementia and hallucinations.
MasterDebater Raises max ego and makes all debating styles much stronger. (passive)
Intimidate Looming over someone darkly and whispering unspeakable tortures will paralyze them in fear.
Smalltalk Whisper sensuously to cause a person to lust after you.
Shock Boo! Those with phobias are susceptible to a good shock. (amplifyphobia, causes ego damage at 100 ego per phobia)
Breakdown Those with a shattered ego or in a particularly low mood can be forced into having a nervous breakdown. (5P, functions like Inquisition)
Falsify Fill your opponent's head with false information, causing utter stupidity.
Dysmorphia Convince them of how disgustingly fat and ugly they are. (causes anorexia, reduces mood)
Coercion Convince someone to do something... whether they want to or not.
Suicide Those in the very lowest mood with a shattered ego can be convinced that their life isn't worth living. (5P)

Comments?

so,, it causes people to be emo? Does it work on Glooms?

Would Harbingers even get any other choice?

I like this.

I like it too!

I have Aiakon's Seal of Approval?

It's kind of interesting! Almost like influencing only on people, not mobs!

This one: Badfood Reveal a horrible secret to someone about the last meal they ate.

Made me think of the movie Waiting.

But how do you increase mood?

Sleeping! Sipping bromides should raise it a tad too, probably.
Healers should also get a skill to heal moods.

Edit: Actually, I think applying bromides would be better... Then you'd have a kind of deepwounds thing going on.

Sounds good. Really like it.

I think there should be skills which increase your mood, buffing you. Other than that, I like it!

If this was implemented, I might come back to check it out (Although I wouldn't like giving up Illusions for it - it should replace Acrobatics.)

Oh wait, that's an argument *against* it.

I like this a lot. Add it to the Secondary Skillsets thread? That's the one Fain promised to read.

Wow, I like it

it's very interesting. But I can already see an initial problem with it. Tarot plus some of this would be absurdly good? Its like having double whammy sleep hexes along with aeon in tarot. or doublesubject sleep with like anorexia and then double sleep. this would be ridiculous cause with tarot you can already double fling cards for some time. as well as passive song effects. Bards were meant to be underclassed, now I agree not ridiculously underclassed, but when perfect fifth gets fixed they'll be not as bad and ridiculous on teams. We've already seen some old logs of whoring blanknote and perfect fifth.

Bards already are better at influencing/debating then then best non-bard, do we -really- need to make them even better still? I like the basis behind the skillset (I used to orate in the JCL in my State capital during conventions, and loved it), just not that it's making people who are the best at X even better at X.

I think I have to agree with Krellan. Alot of these skills would just be too good. Bards are meant to be very good in teams, but they are not supposed to be this good one-on-one. This takes a lot of the most powerful skills from other classes and combines them into one. It grants the double afflict (including double sleep) of hexes, inquisition, the draining/instakill and amplifyphobia of telepathy, the commands of wicca and other nice perks like better debating and influencing. In and of itself it sounds a bit powerful; when combined with other bard songs/abilities, it's way too much.

Bards are meant to be balanced in 1 vs. 1 combat just like every other class.

Actually, from what was said when they first came out, they are not meant to be balanced in 1 vs 1 combat. They are meant to be a little UP in 1 vs 1, and and a little OP in group vs group. That was their design from the beginning. Right now they are TOO weak in 1 vs 1, but they are not meant to be on par with other archetypes in individual fights.

Mitbulls, no. Estarra never ever said that they were supposed to be weak 1 on 1. She said they wouldn't be OP by any means, but she never said they were supposed to be Underpowered. However, I admit this skillset is a bit OP in places.

Something to note: Yes, bards need a lot of work, but please think carefully about whether your skillset idea is too powerful before you post it. We are currently UP. That isn't a reason to post a dozen OP skillsets.