Mods / The Balladeer: A Musical Buff Class

Tags:
Magic Utility Other
Author:
saturniidae
Side:
Both
Created:
Oct 14th 2025 at 4:10 AM
Last modified:
Jun 3rd at 2:36 AM
Downloads:
2625
Follow Unfollow 89
Latest release (for Vintage Story 1.21.5 - 1.21.6, outdated):
VSBalladeerClass_1.1.2.zip  1-click install
For testers (for Vintage Story 1.22.0 - 1.22.3):
vsballadeerclass_2.0.0-pre.2.zip  1-click install

Note: Until Instruments updates, this mod will remain in pre-release and use Coral's temporary fork. Get it here.

 

Introducing the Balladeer!

 

The Balladeer is a utility-focused class which sacrifices a lot of utility with regard to mining and combat in exchange for buffing their fellow Seraphs instead.  As long as they are playing an instrument (specifically an ABC file*) they apply buffs to healing effectiveness, hunger rate, temporal decay, walk speed, and both melee and ranged attacks to any Seraphs within a 20m radius.

Note that this class is more than likely not well balanced, especially in single player where the Balladeer likely suffers without any friends to buff. Use at your own discretion.

 

Requires Instruments** and C&N Effects.

 

* More information about ABC files is available on the Instruments mod page.

** I also recommend Instruments QuackPack for some nice default instruments, including the accordion in the mod image (not needed with Coral's temporary fork).


 

Buffs:

  • Bard: While playing a song, grants +15% healing effectiveness, -20% hunger rate, +10% temporal charge, +10% walk speed, +10% mining speed, +25% melee and ranged weapon damage, and +10% ranged weapon accuracy and speed to all Seraphs in range.
  • Fleetfooted: +10% walk speed
  • Picky Eater: -5% hunger rate

 

Debuffs:

  • Bard: While playing a song, applies +15% animal detection range to all Seraphs in range.
  • Brash: +15% animal detection range (Optional since v2.0.0)
  • Frail: -2.5 health points, -25% ranged distance (Optional since v2.0.0)
  • Claustrophobic: -15% ore drop rate, -10% mining speed (Optional since v2.0.0)
  • Overconfident: -15% melee damage, -15% ranged damage (Optional since v2.0.0)

 

New with v2.0.0:

  • Playable bone flute: A custom flute craftable from either a bone or a normal bone flute, exclusive to players with the Bard trait
  • Configurable traits: Customize the class by enabling or disabling any of the static debuffs
  • Bacon Bacon Bacon compatibility: Super secret item for those who are brave enough leave bacon cabbage on
    • Will ye fill the world with sounds of bacon and joy, or will ye tarry and toil in darkness and despair?

 

Also, here's an ABC file for yinz' saxophones

Mod Version Mod IdentifierFor Game version Downloads Released Changelog Download 1-click mod install*
2.0.0-pre.2 vsballadeerclass
1.22.0 - 1.22.3
83 Jun 3rd at 2:36 AM vsballadeerclass_2.0.0-pre.2.zip 1-click install

- Added the... other flute

2.0.0-pre.1 vsballadeerclass
1.22.0 - 1.22.3
24 Jun 2nd at 6:07 AM vsballadeerclass_2.0.0-pre.1.zip 1-click install
  • Upgrade to .NET 10 and Vintage Story 1.22.0+
  • Add new config options for the following:
    • Enable/disable Claustrophobic trait
    • Enable/disable Overconfident trait
    • Enable/disable Brash trait
    • Enable/disable Frail trait
  • Add new variant of the Bone flute which can be played as an instrument
  • Improved buff icon somewhat
  • Removed starting accordion as it never worked quite right, and now the new bone flute is cheap enough anyways
  • Updated mod icon to match ModDB icon
1.1.2 vsballadeerclass
1.21.5 - 1.21.6
1865 Nov 1st 2025 at 8:02 PM VSBalladeerClass_1.1.2.zip 1-click install
  • Effect trigger now uses Trait system instead of the Class, so this mod should be more compatible with other mods that might let you get the Bard trait on its own.
  • Made activation rate, effect duration, and effect tier configurable
    • If you use an effect tier other than 1, the text in the Traits window will no longer be accurate. Multiply the percentages by the trait for the correct value.
    • Yes, this also affects animal detection range!
  • Added configuration validation and comments for ease of use
1.1.1 vsballadeerclass 86 Oct 31st 2025 at 1:05 AM VSBalladeerClass_1.1.1.zip 1-click install
  • Added a new buff to Bard effect: Now adds 10% mining speed.
1.1.0 vsballadeerclass 389 Oct 16th 2025 at 8:43 PM VSBalladeerClass-1.1.0.zip 1-click install
  • Rebalanced buffs / debuffs on the Balladeer class
  • Made effect radius configurable; increased the default horizontal effect radius from 20m to 20.5m
  • Now requires CAN Effects ≥0.2.16 (recompiled for 1.21.5!)
  • New mod image
  • Minor changes related to the code to make it nicer ;P
1.0.0 vsballadeerclass 106 Oct 14th 2025 at 4:18 AM VSBalladierClass-1.0.0.zip 1-click install
  • Initial release. Tested with 1.21.1 and 1.21.5, but likely works with other 1.21 versions as long as CAN Effects still does.
  • Adds the Balladeer with initial stats.
0.9.0 vsballadeerclass 72 Nov 5th 2025 at 11:10 PM vsballadeerclass_0.9.0.zip 1-click install

- Backport to 1.20.12
- Requires Instruments v2.0.3 and CAN Effects v0.2.15


23 Comments (oldest first | newest first) (threaded | flat)

LumpyAcidFish, Jun 3rd at 2:10 AM

yeah but how
look at the comments on the instruments page, the instruments mod crashes the game when you hold one

saturniidae , Jun 3rd at 2:36 AM (modified Jun 3rd at 2:42 PM)
@LumpyAcidFish: yeah but howlook at the comments on the instruments page, the instruments mod crashes the game when you hold one

I'm using Coral's temporary fork until Instruments updates, which works great! but none of the instruments have lang keys :P


edit: now has lang keys :)

Coral, Jun 3rd at 12:35 PM (modified Jun 3rd at 12:42 PM)
@saturniidae: I'm using Coral's temporary fork until Instruments updates, which works great! but none of the instruments have lang keys :Pedit: now has lang keys :)

I'd completely forgotten about that, i'll add the lang keys later today or sometime this week haha.

Edit: Updated, a kind user had already provided files.

LumpyAcidFish, May 25th at 2:15 PM

there is a fork for instruments on 1.22 if you want to update your mod to that now

saturniidae , May 25th at 5:12 PM
@LumpyAcidFish: there is a fork for instruments on 1.22 if you want to update your mod to that now

Oh nice, thanks for the heads up! I'll look into it

YangWenLi, Dec 16th 2025 at 5:47 PM

Picky eater probably should not be the name of the -5% hunger rate buff, usually this means the opposite. It's not actually wrong etymologically, but people don't really use it like that in this context.

How about "Light Eater" or "Nibbler" instead?

ZeroAresIV, Dec 7th 2025 at 11:46 PM

Should definetly make certain instrements give different effects, similar to the bard class in Dark and Darker

TerinDragoness, Nov 8th 2025 at 5:27 PM

Sounds good, but aw maaan the -15% ore drops is a big ouch for me since mining is the main thing i like.

prototype464, Nov 6th 2025 at 5:41 PM

Can you imagine the Balladeer blasting Tenebre Rosso Sangue in the mines? I can. And it's the greatest thing ever.

MrJewsbury, Nov 6th 2025 at 3:18 PM

Absolutely perfect, working great on 1.20.12 now. Listining to everlong by foo fighters playing whilst fighting wolves is great XD

saturniidae , Nov 5th 2025 at 10:30 PM (modified Nov 5th 2025 at 11:12 PM)

MrJewsbury Oddly even with the deps change, the class isn't loading.  Might take a bit more to figure out what's going on there
Edit: In 1.21, looks like the mod loader was updated to support custom classes without having to patch the survival json files. I'll have to reimplement the classes and traits as a patch.

Edit: OK, should be good to go now.

MrJewsbury, Nov 5th 2025 at 9:16 PM

saturniidae I am no mod wizard myself but from what I can tell, the Instruments mod folder structure changed between 1.20.X and 1.21.X 
I am not 100% sure on how your mod interacts with the instruments mod or how custom classes interface with 1.20.X but I presume it would vary between the two game versions
But I nudged the dependancies in the mod info to that of 1.20.X and the class just doesn't appear so would need a rebuild for the earlier versions of the requirement mods.

saturniidae , Nov 4th 2025 at 3:34 PM

MrJewsbury Unless I'm missing some kind of major architectural change with how mod loading or classes and traits work in 1.20, it should be possible... Probably won't be my highest priority at the moment but I'll see what I can do

MrJewsbury, Nov 3rd 2025 at 8:48 PM

Is there any chance this can be made for game version 1.20.12?

WillDig, Oct 16th 2025 at 10:51 PM

10/10.

 

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get the Instruments mod to play Careless Whisper and then I can live out my Sexy Saxophone Superstar Sergio Flores dreams.

saturniidae , Oct 16th 2025 at 9:23 PM

Joeyfar624 I licensed the mod under a pretty permissive license, MIT, so you can technically fork and make whatever changes you want as long as you keep the original license on it o7

Joeyfar624, Oct 16th 2025 at 9:16 PM

this class looks awesome! do you mind if I could ask for permission if I could edit the class to help fit my classes mod? I can give you more details about it on discord. My discord is Joeyfar624. Thank you.

saturniidae , Oct 15th 2025 at 8:40 PM (modified Oct 16th 2025 at 6:15 PM)

2025-10-16: Looks like CAN Effects has been recompiled for 1.21 now!

Joeyfar624 Thanks for the heads up, I've added a note about that

Also, it looks like all the mod needs is to be recompiled for the new version of the game. I submitted a pull request to their git page.

Joeyfar624, Oct 15th 2025 at 8:08 PM

I tried pressing SHIFT + L while mid game and it immediately crashed. Turns out that this is just a CAN Effects error for 1.21. I have already contacted the author of the mod for this so I'm waiting for a response until then. I'll let you know if they fix it or not when I possibly get a response.

saturniidae , Oct 15th 2025 at 3:27 AM

Aldi It applies a five second effect every three seconds while you are playing an ABC file, so it will stop applying the effect when you stop playing, letting any current effect expire. Once that effect ends you do lose all buffs!

TheRealFlynn, Oct 14th 2025 at 7:48 AM

sweet!

Aldi, Oct 14th 2025 at 7:10 AM

Hey that's a cool idea of a class! One question: it says "while playing a song..". Does that mean when you stop, the effects stop?