Background question: If a bard trained by a BlackChanter were to want to keep an undead on an even-kilter and generally behaving as they did when they were mortal (or at least close to), then how often would that bard need to play for their undead companion? Once a night, three times a day, more often, less? I'm not asking about giving bardic inspiration or any mechanical benefit - just about keeping an undead a bit less disconnected and behaving more like a human than a monster. (And yes, the similarity to a drug-dealer/junkie relationship isn't lost on me - everything in Arcanis has a price after all.)
I'm asking because I'm working on better crafting a backstory, and I've become taken with the idea of the tragic, compelling story of being a creature whom - after going for decades without feeling anything - is suddenly reminded of how to feel and finds herself inspired to try to be the hero she once was, but also knows that ultimately she won't be able to hang on to it and is destined to again forget her ideals and become an unfeeling, uncaring monster. To me, that's a great deal more compelling than a creature that is just going through the motions of a former life until it finds some other distraction. Like one of you said above: most undead become evil or just don't care - and therefore they'd have little reason to become heroes - ergo PC undead are the exception and need to have something about them in their background that keeps them heroic. IE: their time as an unfeeling monster is behind and ahead of them, but in the now of the campaign something has happened to help them rise above their nature and become heroes.
A few things in case people feel compelled to talk mechanics in response to a background question: 1; I am well aware that most blackchanters are from Canceri, and that Canceri is not a legal PC nation 2; I am likewise aware that currently in 5e any bard can affect any creature with bardic inspiration - but that lore-wise a bard should either voluntarily not have their songs affect undead party-members or should have some sort of IC explanation for having BC training (such as having been tutored by a Cancerese expatriate in the Pirate Isles, or having been a former slave, or some other such explanation) 3; If I go this route with my background, either my character's interaction with a blackchanter will be back-story only, I'd take the Vassals alternative Noble Background feature to have a non-combatant blackchanter vassal (never participates in combat - ever - as per the PHB rules), or my wife would play a bard with BC-training (she's tentatively agreed, but we haven't asked the Stat-Monkey if its an allowed thing yet... we want to check the background before even thinking about character stats) 3; Again, just want to know the background of the above - not asking about mechanics since its silly to ask about the mechanics when we all know that there are no mechanics written yet other than the SRD.
_________________ - Jacqualine Alicia C.
5e character: Ser Heidi val'Tensen, AKA Ser Adelheidis Sigrid val'Tensen of Moratavia
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