Rudar Dimble
First Post
This will be my first time playing a bard. It is probably going to be a gnome. Starting level 7. Question is simple: good feats please and why?
Thanx
Thanx
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feats for bard
- Thread starter Rudar Dimble
- Start date
Velmont
First Post
Spell Focus Enchantment: If you are in 3.0, the +2 is almost a must for a bard, as most of his spell with save come from there. In 3.5, it is only +1. A bit less interesting, but since many offensive spells of the bard is in this category and echantment is generally a all-or-nothing spell, it is still a good idea.
Archers feats: Bard can do good archers, and with only d6 as hit dices, it is not a bad idea to be out of the action the most possibly.
Great Fortitude: Always good, as Fort is the weak save of bard, but better later, and less interesting for a gnome who have a bonus in Con.
Linguering Song: From Songs & Silence, may have done some mistake in the name, but it allow the songs to continu to take effect 2 rounds after the effect should ends, can always be usefull.
Leadership: Good charisma and no familiar/mount to drop your leadership score, this feat is made for them. I always have prefer to call it Fanclub
Archers feats: Bard can do good archers, and with only d6 as hit dices, it is not a bad idea to be out of the action the most possibly.
Great Fortitude: Always good, as Fort is the weak save of bard, but better later, and less interesting for a gnome who have a bonus in Con.
Linguering Song: From Songs & Silence, may have done some mistake in the name, but it allow the songs to continu to take effect 2 rounds after the effect should ends, can always be usefull.
Leadership: Good charisma and no familiar/mount to drop your leadership score, this feat is made for them. I always have prefer to call it Fanclub
The Souljourner
First Post
I like disguise spell (Song and Silence - basically lets you incorporate spells into a performance so that people can't tell you're casting a spell, +1 level to the spell slot)
I'm starting a 9th level human bard and took the following feats:
Disguise spell
Extend Spell
Combat Expertise
Improved Disarm (for the fun of it)
Skill Focus: Use Magic Device
Use magic device is a great skill, and +3 is invaluable given the fact you can't take 10 on it. With 10 ranks and 16 charisma and skill focus, you'll be able to use any wand on a roll of 4 or more
-The Souljourner
I'm starting a 9th level human bard and took the following feats:
Disguise spell
Extend Spell
Combat Expertise
Improved Disarm (for the fun of it)
Skill Focus: Use Magic Device
Use magic device is a great skill, and +3 is invaluable given the fact you can't take 10 on it. With 10 ranks and 16 charisma and skill focus, you'll be able to use any wand on a roll of 4 or more
-The Souljourner
two
First Post
linger song?
I've never found Lingering Song to be that useful. It increases the default bard inspire courage time to greater than 5 rounds (after singing stopped).
Not many battle last more than 5 rounds, first of all, and secondly unless the bard casts a spell on the 2nd round of combat, the bard can fight/sing at the same time, meaning this feat won't come into play much (because the bard song lasts as long as the bard sings+5 rounds), which could be forever (until the bard casts a spell).
I can't remember the last time a bard song "ran out"... I'd go with another feat, personally. Leadership is the big winner.
Spell Focus: enchantment. Only grants +1 to the DC of your save... it's really not worth it. What it means is this (on average): after casting 20 "save or be enchanted" spells, ONE time a bad guy failed his save because of the +1 to DC where he otherwise would not have. (because he rolled exactly the featless DC+1. On any other roll, the feat did not matter).
That's a VERY low return on your investment. It might take 8 levels before you even cast that many enchantment spells!
I'd definately not worry about upping your DC's by 1 for a feat. Almost any other feat will get used more often, even a skill focus feat (UMD!).
I've never found Lingering Song to be that useful. It increases the default bard inspire courage time to greater than 5 rounds (after singing stopped).
Not many battle last more than 5 rounds, first of all, and secondly unless the bard casts a spell on the 2nd round of combat, the bard can fight/sing at the same time, meaning this feat won't come into play much (because the bard song lasts as long as the bard sings+5 rounds), which could be forever (until the bard casts a spell).
I can't remember the last time a bard song "ran out"... I'd go with another feat, personally. Leadership is the big winner.
Spell Focus: enchantment. Only grants +1 to the DC of your save... it's really not worth it. What it means is this (on average): after casting 20 "save or be enchanted" spells, ONE time a bad guy failed his save because of the +1 to DC where he otherwise would not have. (because he rolled exactly the featless DC+1. On any other roll, the feat did not matter).
That's a VERY low return on your investment. It might take 8 levels before you even cast that many enchantment spells!
I'd definately not worry about upping your DC's by 1 for a feat. Almost any other feat will get used more often, even a skill focus feat (UMD!).
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The Souljourner
First Post
I agree with the sentiment about spell focus: enchantment... there just aren't that many enchantment spells for a bard to cast. Yeah, pretty much all his offensive spells are enchantment, but precentage wise, it's like 20%. My 9th level bard has 3, out of 11 spells known.
I just don't know if I can justify two feats for +2 to the DC of 3 spells. There are just too many other useful feats you can take. Let the evokers take spell focus... I think bards have better things to concentrate on. You're not a fulltime caster, so I don't think you should take feats as if you were.
-The Souljourner
I just don't know if I can justify two feats for +2 to the DC of 3 spells. There are just too many other useful feats you can take. Let the evokers take spell focus... I think bards have better things to concentrate on. You're not a fulltime caster, so I don't think you should take feats as if you were.
-The Souljourner
Velmont
First Post
All depend on how you build your Bard, if you concentrate on enchantment spells, you mey be better to take it. My last bard had at least one enchantment per level, and generally half was enchantment. And with that, I took spell focus and it was pretty usefull.
But if you do an illusionnist or balance caster bard, it may be less... Anyway, I think the first thing to any character you must choose, it is his concept, and with that, you'll know which feats to take, and most of the time, it is not necesserly the most powerfull one.
But if you do an illusionnist or balance caster bard, it may be less... Anyway, I think the first thing to any character you must choose, it is his concept, and with that, you'll know which feats to take, and most of the time, it is not necesserly the most powerfull one.
Extra Songs: Gives you +4 songs slots to spend.... my bard plays in a campaign that has a lot of stuff going on each day.
Extended Song: My DM likes to have battle last a long time... so we have fights that last 12+ rounds.
Other than that, it all depends on how you want to structure your bard. Bards are arguable the most versatile class, so choose your feats with your particular bard in mind.
- Kent -
Extended Song: My DM likes to have battle last a long time... so we have fights that last 12+ rounds.
Other than that, it all depends on how you want to structure your bard. Bards are arguable the most versatile class, so choose your feats with your particular bard in mind.
- Kent -
two
First Post
call me crazy but
I think it extremeley unlikely that you will need more "extra bard songs" per day... once you are over bard level 4-5, that's really enough. At lower levels, usually your party can't handle more than 1-2 battles a day so it's a wash.
How many "battles" or "suggestions" can you possibly pull off? More than 5 (at 5th level)? If so it's a very very unusual event (no campaign I've been in ever saw a bard run out, even at low levels), and generally spending a feat to ward off a very very rare event is not worthwhile.
kpdezend said:
I think it extremeley unlikely that you will need more "extra bard songs" per day... once you are over bard level 4-5, that's really enough. At lower levels, usually your party can't handle more than 1-2 battles a day so it's a wash.
How many "battles" or "suggestions" can you possibly pull off? More than 5 (at 5th level)? If so it's a very very unusual event (no campaign I've been in ever saw a bard run out, even at low levels), and generally spending a feat to ward off a very very rare event is not worthwhile.
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