A little Build Assistance?
Bard of All Trades and Staggering Note are both from a Dragon article. Both the feat (Bard of All Trades) and the power (Staggering Note) are awesome, but you are definitely pushing the bounds of the limitations set by the DM.
Bard of All Trades does the same thing as the feat Jack of All Trades except a) you must be a Bard and b) it gives 1 more point of bonus (for a total of +4 to non-trained skills when combined with the bard class feature.
Staggering Notes is an at will ranged attack that deal Cha Mod damage and pushes the target 2 (I believe) squares. Before, during or after the push one ally can take a basic attack against the target. Its particularly great if you have a fighter as the fighter can then mark the target as well.
I forgot about speed 5 for the gnome. I agree with the above that if you do go gnome that you should concentrate on ranged (though having one 1 melee at will is still advisable).
Bard of All Trades does the same thing as the feat Jack of All Trades except a) you must be a Bard and b) it gives 1 more point of bonus (for a total of +4 to non-trained skills when combined with the bard class feature.
Staggering Notes is an at will ranged attack that deal Cha Mod damage and pushes the target 2 (I believe) squares. Before, during or after the push one ally can take a basic attack against the target. Its particularly great if you have a fighter as the fighter can then mark the target as well.
I forgot about speed 5 for the gnome. I agree with the above that if you do go gnome that you should concentrate on ranged (though having one 1 melee at will is still advisable).
IanB
First Post
Perhaps worth noting that you can always take the more generic Jack of All Trades feat from the PHB which gives a +2 instead of a +3 to untrained skill checks. (Prereq is 13 intelligence, not restricted to just bards.)
jbear
First Post
With the limitations your choices are few in so far as powers. One cool thing about the bard is that you can take as many multiclass feats as you qualify for. Your build will look something like this from what you said:
level 1
Gnome, Bard
Bardic Virtue: Virtue of Cunning
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 14, Dex 13, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 18.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 14, Dex 13, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 16.
AC: 17 Fort: 12 Reflex: 15 Will: 15
HP: 26 Surges: 9 Surge Value: 6
TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +10, Diplomacy +9, History +8, Bluff +9, Streetwise +9, Stealth +7
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Dungeoneering +1, Endurance +2, Heal +1, Insight +1, Intimidate +5, Nature +1, Perception +1, Religion +4, Thievery +1, Athletics -1
FEATS
Bard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Twilight Adept
POWERS
Bard at-will 1: Vicious Mockery
Bard at-will 1: Misdirected Mark
Bard encounter 1: Blunder
Bard daily 1: Stirring Shout
ITEMS
Ritual Book, Hide Armor, Light Shield, Wand Implement
RITUALS
Glib Limerick, Brew Potion
It's not necessarily the Bard I'd prefer to play but if sneaky is the way you want to go than sweet as. Personally I prefer the Warlord as leader, but there is nothing sneaky about the Warlord whatsoever, although there is a Charisma build for the Warlord as well.
Anyway, making a character that actually really sucks is quite challenging in 4e, so don't worry too much! Anyway, good luck and hopefully your DM can make the game enjoyable enough that the system becomes less jarring for you.
level 1
Gnome, Bard
Bardic Virtue: Virtue of Cunning
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 14, Dex 13, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 18.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 14, Dex 13, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 16.
AC: 17 Fort: 12 Reflex: 15 Will: 15
HP: 26 Surges: 9 Surge Value: 6
TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +10, Diplomacy +9, History +8, Bluff +9, Streetwise +9, Stealth +7
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Dungeoneering +1, Endurance +2, Heal +1, Insight +1, Intimidate +5, Nature +1, Perception +1, Religion +4, Thievery +1, Athletics -1
FEATS
Bard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Twilight Adept
POWERS
Bard at-will 1: Vicious Mockery
Bard at-will 1: Misdirected Mark
Bard encounter 1: Blunder
Bard daily 1: Stirring Shout
ITEMS
Ritual Book, Hide Armor, Light Shield, Wand Implement
RITUALS
Glib Limerick, Brew Potion
It's not necessarily the Bard I'd prefer to play but if sneaky is the way you want to go than sweet as. Personally I prefer the Warlord as leader, but there is nothing sneaky about the Warlord whatsoever, although there is a Charisma build for the Warlord as well.
Anyway, making a character that actually really sucks is quite challenging in 4e, so don't worry too much! Anyway, good luck and hopefully your DM can make the game enjoyable enough that the system becomes less jarring for you.
Dr_Ruminahui
First Post
I don't want to start an edition war, but if we know some of the things you dislike, we might be able to help you avoid/reduce the instances of those through character design.
Or maybe not... some of the design decisions in 4e simply can't be mitigated.
Or maybe not... some of the design decisions in 4e simply can't be mitigated.
eamon
Explorer
There's one important choice to make before you do anything else: look at the multiclass feats and consider which ones you might be interested in. These determine what you tertiary stat distribution needs to be.
If you don't want to multiclass, dump everything but cha and int - investing in other stats will generally cost quite a few point-buy points yet delivery very little.
Multiclassing options include paladin (str 13) for training in religion and the very nice paladin mark. You've already discovered the rogue (though that's MP2) -but MP2 also contains a warlord entry feat resourceful leader that's rather nice and has no prereqs (for you, anyhow) . In Arcane Power there's a Sorcerer multiclass that grants resist 5 to a damage type, also Str13 requirement. Fey Pact Warlock grants eyebite, which works hilariously well with the paladin's mark. I like the encounter-long damage bonus the barbarian multiclass grants, but that costs Str13 and Con13, which is too steep. The Ranger is an easy two-round hunters quarry, should you want that.
You also want to decide whether you'll use any weapon powers. I think at low level it's very worth it not to try to do too much at once; but if you want to use weapon powers, you'll need arcane implement proficiency or a songblade (assuming multiclass swordmage is out, anyhow...)
So, my recommendation is Cha 19, Int 17, Str 13 (post racial), or if you don't like odd stats, Cha 18, Int 18, Str 13 - that leaves plenty of multiclass options, and you've focused your point-buy points on 3 defenses.
If you don't want to multiclass, dump everything but cha and int - investing in other stats will generally cost quite a few point-buy points yet delivery very little.
Multiclassing options include paladin (str 13) for training in religion and the very nice paladin mark. You've already discovered the rogue (though that's MP2) -but MP2 also contains a warlord entry feat resourceful leader that's rather nice and has no prereqs (for you, anyhow) . In Arcane Power there's a Sorcerer multiclass that grants resist 5 to a damage type, also Str13 requirement. Fey Pact Warlock grants eyebite, which works hilariously well with the paladin's mark. I like the encounter-long damage bonus the barbarian multiclass grants, but that costs Str13 and Con13, which is too steep. The Ranger is an easy two-round hunters quarry, should you want that.
You also want to decide whether you'll use any weapon powers. I think at low level it's very worth it not to try to do too much at once; but if you want to use weapon powers, you'll need arcane implement proficiency or a songblade (assuming multiclass swordmage is out, anyhow...)
So, my recommendation is Cha 19, Int 17, Str 13 (post racial), or if you don't like odd stats, Cha 18, Int 18, Str 13 - that leaves plenty of multiclass options, and you've focused your point-buy points on 3 defenses.
I appreciate all the help from everyone!
For story reasons (and since I'm the only arcanist in the party) I'm going to eventually MC wizard and warlock, so stats are pretty easy. Orryn ended up looking a lot like what jbear posted.
We'll see how he fares tonight, when we get beyond initial storyline matters and into the fight that got set up last time.
For story reasons (and since I'm the only arcanist in the party) I'm going to eventually MC wizard and warlock, so stats are pretty easy. Orryn ended up looking a lot like what jbear posted.
We'll see how he fares tonight, when we get beyond initial storyline matters and into the fight that got set up last time.
