Help me choose Feats for An Eberron Bard

[Dimensional]

I have been told that my group is starting a Eberron game monday and That I should bring a character.

I've been planning to Start a Bard Character for a while now so I'm taking a Human Bard.
now I will only get to see the New shiny Book that caused all this monday.

I'd like to use some of the new shiny content.
can you recomend me some feats that work well for a bard.

Starting at Lvl 1 so I have 2 feats.
I've heard good things about dragonmarks?

any idea's
Thanks
Jeremy

 

[cmanos]

lets see, Human Bard....

consulting my database of Eberron Feats


What kind of bard are you looking at playing?

Humans have access to the foillowing marks

Mark of Finding (House Tharashk)- used for finding and identifying objects and creatures

Mark of Handling (House Vadalis) - dealing with animals

Mark of Making (House Cannith) - Making things

Mark of Passage (House Orien) - getting places

Mark of Sentinel (House Denieth) - Protection


For your typical smarmy bard, none of them are a good fit.

Many of the Bardic music feats require higher level Perform than you would start with at L1

Relic Hunter could be neat. Gives you a bonus on appraise, knowledge and bardic knowledge. Req'd: Appraise 1, Know (History) 1

Master Linguist allows you a free language every level. Req'd: 4 known languages.

Investigate is good if you're going to be doing a mystery type game.

Heroic Spirit gives you more action points, so you'll be doing more daring things

Favored in House allows you to call in favors. You must be a member of a dragonmarked house, but you do not need to be marked.

Aberrent Dragonmark could be fun.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Unless you want to focus a bit more on combat (in that case, Eberron won't do much for a Bard, and you should stick with Point Blank Shot/Precise Shot or so), I would suggest taking some of the dragonmark or house related feats (either Favored in House or a Least Dragonmark.)

The mark of the sentinel might be useful, it gives a bonus to Sense Motive and gives you a defensive spell, though it would be difficult to fit any of the later abilities and the associated traditions with a Bard.
(As a Halfling Bard, The Mark of Hospitality or the Mark of Healing would be nice, I guess.)
The mark of Passage (house orien) can be useful later, since the later ones grant access to Teleport.

Either way, these feats will give you a certain reputation and influence in the world of the houses, which is a important point for a Bard, giving you and the DM several options for social activities (and thus places where the Bard can shine)

I believe there are also some feats that improve your bardic music abilities, those might be interesting for a Bard, too.

 

[Estlor]

You know, I'm not sure that there are any good Eberron-based feats for a bard at 1st level. I've always been a fan of building an archer-based human bard from the ground up - it lets you contribute a bit more in combat than just playing music every time. Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot (both of which, IIRC, a human bard can take at 1st level) effectively allow you to become a melee combatant since you can fire into melee without risk of hitting your friends. It makes for a good flanking mix, plus you can double team with the party fighter. Other feats from there depend on what kind of a bard you're making and what role they'll be filling in the party.

 

[Artoomis]

Relic Hunter could be neat. Gives you a bonus on appraise, knowledge and bardic knowledge. Req'd: Appraise 1, Know (History) 1.

I am playing an Eberron Bard and am just starting a home-brew prestige calss that all about recovering and keeping safe the treasures and legacies of Galifar.

This sounds like a perfect fit. Alas, I wiil not have access to RE until Thursday.

 

[Targos]

If you're interested in dragonmarks, check out the Dragonmarked PrCs in the book.

 

[The Souljourner]

Gah, lost a long reply.... Here's my 9th level Bard's list:

Expertise
Weapon Focus Longsword
Skill Focus: Use Magic Device
Spell Focus: Enchantment
Lingering Song

Balanced across a bard's three main faces - skills, spells, and combat. Note that I always carried a bow as well, but didn't take bow feats. It takes three bow feats to become a really decent bowman (and two to be anything but crappy), but anyone can swing a sword. A bard is a jack of all trades, don't try to make him a master of one, or you'll end up unhappy, because they just aren't built to be spectacular at any one thing.

Lingering Song is almost a must have, in my opinion. It's from Complete Adventurer, and doubles the amount of time that your songs last after you stop singing. That lets you cast spells after you start a song without worrying that it'll end before the fight ends. The rest are pretty self explanatory, just boosting a little of each of the bard's abilities.

-The Souljourner