Martial Bard?

Hey everyone, any tips on how to build a martial bard?

So far I was thinking...

- A level of fighter for martial weapons (and a feat)
- Concentrate on spells that enhance combat instead of buffs and divinations (Whirling Blade, Haste etc.)
- Class feature in Dungeonscape (?) that trades Bardic knowledge for a bonus on attack/ckill/save rolls

A level of fighter isn't worth it unless you really, really need a feat. Bards get longswords anyway.

I built what seems like a pretty effective martial bard character with the Spell Compendium and the Eberron core book. The key is maxing out your Inspire Courage result, with the Inspirational Boost spell and the Song of the Heart feat, which combine for an additional +2.

I built the character for a high-level game that my DM is going to run in a couple of months. The sourcebooks were pretty wide-open; let me look at see what I ended up using.

Dwarf Bard10/Fighter2

Feats:
C1: Battle Caster (Complete Arcane)
F1: Power Attack
C3: Force of Personality (Complete Adventurer)
F2: Cleave
C6: Song of the Heart (Eberron core book)
C9: Ironskin Chant (Complete Adventurer)
C12: Melodic Casting (Complete Mage)

Spells:
0th: Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Prestidigitation
1st: Cure Light Wounds, Disguise Self, Improvisation (SC), Inspirational Boost (SC)
2nd: Glitterdust, Sonic Weapon (SC), Tactical Precision (SC), War Cry (SC)
3rd: Charm Monster, Fear, Haste, Sonic Shield (PHB2)
4th: Resonating Bolt (SC)

The character wears mithril full plate and wields a Crystal Echoblade, which lets him add half his bard level to damage rolls. With Inspire Courage going, he's getting +4 to attack and damage, and an additional +5 from the weapon. In combat, he'd start with Haste on the group, and preferably Improvisation, Sonic Weapon, and Sonic Shield on himself. Seems like he'd be pretty decent; I'm looking forward to trying it out.

If you want to dip into another base class, the Warblade from Book of 9 Swords is a good choice. For one level, you get a d12 HD, +1 BAB, +2 Fort, a few maneuvers, a stance, and the ability to retrain any weapon-specific feats such as Weapon Focus. Specialize in the White Raven school; its maneuvers and stances are good for buffing you and your allies, and there's a feat in the book which allows you to combine your White Raven stance with bardic music.

If you're looking for prestige classes, the Warchanter from Complete Warrior is the obvious choice. In exchange for your spell progression, you gain full BAB, a d8 HD, a strong Fort save, bardic songs based around buffs, and the ability to use two songs at once.

Have your Fighter take a few ranks of Perform (Lute)?

Seriously...

1) You can mix in levels of Ftr, Rgr, Barb, PsiWar, Soulknife, Lurk, Incarnate, Swashbuckler, Beguiler, or Duskblade.

2) As a straight bard, get a mithril Breastplate, Chainmail or Chain Shirt. Also consider the advantages of armor from other sources, like the Datsana or Ashigaru armor from Oriental Adventures.

3) Add a good ranged weapon to your repetoir- hurt 'em first so they can't hurt you later.

4) Use a race with some kind of martial benefit- Elves with their WPs, Dwarves & other races with Weapon Familiarities, Lizardfolk, Warforged, Thri-Kreen & Skarn with their natural weapons and/or Natural Armor, Githzerai & certain Anthropomorphic Animals with unusually high Dex mods (+4 or greater).

5) A trick that is pretty good for boosting any PC's damage output is "going big" using weapons that are larger than normal. There are 3 common ways to do that: Using the Enlarge Person spell; using the Expansion psionic power (like Enlarge Person, but good for 2 size bumps) or supersizing your weapon via Monkey Grip or a race with Powerful Build.

6) Careful Feat selection is your buddy. High Dex? Combat Reflexes and Deft Opportunist can be fun. High Str? TWF + Oversized TWF can boost your damage output. If you're playing in Faerun, use a longsword and have it made of Gold or Platinum for the Heavy Weapon Feat (Magic of Faerun) to boost its base damage.

7) Mix in levels of a class that can use spells that boost martial performance- like Sorcerer, for instance- and flog those spells. A personal fave of mine is Whirling Blade (esp. with Sculpt Spell) combined with any 2-handed bladed weapon, but the Bard's Longsword is good enough to make the spell a good mook-slayer.

8) Your bard probably has a high Dex- take feats like Combat Reflexes, Expert Tactitian and Deft Opportunist. This will work especially well with his sole standard reach weapon, the Longspear...which, BTW, does just as much damage as some Martial weapons.

I second the Warblade option. (I'm actually playing a Warblade with a couple of Bard levels now.)

The White Raven martial school is great for bards. There's also a feat that will allow your Bard and Warblade levels to stack for Inspire Courage - and, I think, allow you to use Bardic Music in combat more easily.

-Stuart

Have a peek at mixing in crusader. Devoted Spirit maneuvers and stances complement bards very nicely, furious counterstrike further increases your attack capabilities, and you can pick up White Raven stuff as necessary. Heck, if you concentrate on bard spells with no somatic components, you could even do your schtick in full plate with a shield.

You know, I might just try making one of those myself!

Ftr4/BardX is great. Perhaps not as bad as warblade, but WS and RWM make this build very effective as an archer... plus he has Haste and his Bard song, both things that are good for archers as well.

Consider taking the Snowflake Wardance feat (Frostburn); it lets you add your charisma bonus to your attack modifier. Unfortunately it only works with a slashing weapon wielded in one hand, and you can't use shields and medium or heavy armor.

Thurbane said:

Hey everyone, any tips on how to build a martial bard?

- Class feature in Dungeonscape (?) that trades Bardic knowledge for a bonus on attack/ckill/save rolls

Click to expand...

Can anyone enlighten the uninformed? What's the class feature in Dungeonscape for bards?

Oh, and I was considering statting up one of these myself using the Quickblade PrC on the WotC website.