Help on Bard Build - It's a matter of pride, folks.

[Scratched_back]

Whoah.

More details, please? Level, duration, casting time...?

Pg 104, Player's Guide to Faerun.

Bard 1
Duration: Variable (as long as next Inspire Courage lasts)
Components: V, S
Casting time: 1 Standard action

When you use the Inspire Courage function of your bardic music ability whilst this spell is in effect, the morale bonus against charm and fear effects increases by 2, the morale bonus on attack and damage rolls inscreases by 1. This effect lasts until your inspire courage effect ends. If you don't begin to inspire courage within one minute of casting this spell the harmony effect ends.

 

[Nail]

So, unless I'm very much mistaken, all of these un-named bonuses stack and at 3rd level a Bard can give his entire party +5 to hit for an entire combat. Now that's fruity.

Could you put all 5 of those pluses descriptions in one post? ...for those of us with difficulty reading......

 

[Scratched_back]

Could you put all 5 of those pluses descriptions in one post? ...for those of us with difficulty reading......

Hahah, sorry. This thread has become a right mess! Right, these bonuses then:

1) +1 Morale Bonus - Bard's Inspire Courage (PHB Pg 29)
2) +1 Unnamed increase - Item: Masterwork Weapon (CAdv Pg 124)
3) +1 Unnamed increase - Feat: Song of the Heart (Eberron)
4) +1 Unnamed increase - Spell: Inspirational Boost (CAdv Pg 153)
5) +1 Unnamed increase - Spell: Harmony (Player's Guide to Faerun Pg 104)

 

[Scratched_back]

Grease is nice. Hideous laughter is deadly if you meet lots of creatures of your type (humanoids, presumably), but not so good against others (they get +4 to the save). Swift expeditious retreat from CAdv is good for a melee bard (I think, never tried it): it's expeditious retreat, but you can cast it as a swift action and it only lasts for 1 round.

I think actually I'm going to put all my eggs in one basket and take Harmony and Inspirational Boost, for the massive ally boost. Either that, or drop one for Cure Light Wounds. Saying that, Tasha's is also tempting.

What's your first choice [for feats]? I missed that, and now I can't seem to find it.

Errr... I must've neglected that. I have an excuse! I have a daughter now ten days old and the sleep deprivation is frying my memory! I think extra music WAS a good choice, until I saw some of the regional feats (see below).

Combat Expertise and Improved Disarm are nice. With a whip, that's +6 to disarm right there, over and above your normal attack bonus. And when you don't want to be hit, you can use Expertise to the max and still have a decent chance of hitting AC 10 (for aid another) or touch AC (for that daze effect, with bladeweave)

Two more feats that need to be mentioned (you can't take them at 1st, but they're definitely something to be considered for later) are Doomspeak from Champions of Ruin and Haunting Melody from Eberron. Doomspeak lets you impose a -10(!) penalty to pretty much everything for 1 round on a single opponent that fails a very difficult (DC = 10 + character level! + Cha) Will save. Haunting Tune lets you make enemies within 30 ft. shaken (standard Will save). Both use up one use of bardic music, of course. However, Doomspeak also requires 8 ranks in intimidate, so a single class bard can take it at 15th level at the soonest, but a Ftr/Brd or a Rog/Brd can take it at 6th.

Doomspeak sounds very useful, and when 15th level arrives I dare say it shall be mine. It WILL be 15th level too, I'll have to stick pure bard. No point arguing that Bard's are playable if I dilute them with already established classes.

There's also another one that gives you something like the dragons' frightful presence. When you attack or cast a spell, Will save to avoid being shaken... something like that. Could be useful, since the DC is, of course, Cha-based...

Let us know if you find any other that are useful!

The value of Extra Music depends heavily on how fast you expect to level, I think. If you'll be 2nd level for a significant amount of time, Extra Music is great: it more than doubles your music/day, right? But as you go up in levels, it becomes less and less useful. I played my bard 7th-9th and IIRC I ran out of music just once, and I was using Snowflake Wardance, which means another use every time I personally got into a fight.

Useful regional feats (I was shocked at these by the way!):

Artist: +2 on all perform checks and one art-based craft skill. In addition, you may use your bardic music ability three extra times per day. (Bye bye extra music!)

Dreadful Wrath: When you charge, make a full attack, or cast a spell that targets an enemy or includes an enemy in its area, you gain the frightful presence ability for that round. Each enemy with a 20ft Radius of you must make a Will save (DC 10 + half char level + CHA mod) or be shaken for 1 minute.

Mind Over Body: Use INT/CHA mod for HP's at 1st level (instead of CON), gain 1HP when you learn any metamagic feat, gain +1 Insight Bonus to AC permanently.

Smooth Talk: Take -5 on rushed diplomacy checks rather than the usual +10. (Rushed, by the way, according to the PHB on Diplomacy, is anything less than one minute i.e. 10 rounds)

NOTE: Only one regional feat can be taken by a character. Also, these feats can only be taken at 1st level.

Even considering you're planning to use the mw instrument rules that let you tweak the music bonuses, you might still want to trade that mw instrument back for a mw weapon (whip, or whatever)... and then just buy a mw instrument! A mw instrument is 100 gp, while a weapon is 300 gp, after all.

Good point!

 

[Synthetik Fish]

I think actually I'm going to put all my eggs in one basket and take Harmony and Inspirational Boost, for the massive ally boost. Either that, or drop one for Cure Light Wounds. Saying that, Tasha's is also tempting.

Be careful when casting these spells. Read the Descriptions closely, and you'll see that you NEED to cast Harmony first, and THEN Inspirational Boost (followed immediately by Inspire Courage next round.)

Just lookin' out for ya

 

[Scratched_back]

Be careful when casting these spells. Read the Descriptions closely, and you'll see that you NEED to cast Harmony first, and THEN Inspirational Boost (followed immediately by Inspire Courage next round.)

Just lookin' out for ya

Hahah, thanks man

 

[Jens]

Hello. I have "almost never" played a bard and that was back in 2e, so I can't be said to be experienced. But I still I have some suggestions

Line C: 16, 14, 14, 13, 12,10 (Total: +9 Bonus)

The 4 in B just hurts too much so this is my syggestion on how to use such good stats (it may have been offered before) :
Human (feat and SPs which keep giving) with Str 12 (pretty decent), Dex 14 (get boosters later), Con 13 (14 at 4th), Int 14 (SPs are not retroactive), Wis 10 (oh well), Cha 16 (saves and many skills, improve this from 8th onwards)

Remember you'll want to to do a bit of everything (you should be able to contribute to *any* situation and rule social encounters) so don't put all your eggs into one basket. It does sound juicy to up the bonus from Inspire Courage a bit, but I wouldn't focus on one thing entirely.

Skills: You can max out perform, get good diplomatic skills (get the synergies, but I wonder if the synergy booster is really worth a feat?) and still have points left over for things like tumble, umd, hide/move silent, appraise, ... The stats above give 9 SP per level.

Spells: Bards pick spells for the long haul, so be sure to get lasting ones. E.g. for 1st level, Grease is good but Sleep is not, and Tasha's is a fighter-killer. Bards get mind-affecting spells a level early and some of them are good - and doesn't Spell Focus (Enchantment) improve DCs against bardic music as well? Also, I'd not get Cure Light but wait for Cure Moderate since it's twice as good for only one extra level (I know 2nd level has many good spells such as Mirror Image, but still...)

As for weapons, how about a bit of everything: Bow, whip, sword, dagger. Don't do 2wf, it'll reduce your BAB too much and keeps you from benefiting from your your masterwork mithral buckler (get it when you can afford it).

Masterwork: I think the benefit of "hands-free" oratory/singing beats masterwork instruments, but that's really a judgement call.

Feats: I don't know all the wonderful feats out there, but reserve room for Leadership at 6th. As previously posted, it never hurts to have an army to put where your mouth is
From the PHB, feats such as either Combat Expertise + Improved Trip, Point Blank Shot + Precise Shot, or Spell focus may be good; Improved Initiative is never wasted.

As it has been said, you are a 2nd level 2½th-tier fighter in a 4th level party so it will be really easy to get killed. In combat you'll probably be the most valuable singing (boosting everyone), shooting arrows and defending the wizard.

Let's hear how things turn out !

 

[Synthetik Fish]

Let's hear how things turn out !

Um, well, we kinda already did. Human bard with emphasis on Inspire Competence. This includes a Feat out of Eberron at 3rd level, 2 different first level spells, and a MW instrument that all add +1 to attack and damage for the bard's ability.

Oh yeah, and some crazy talk about a whip? :\

 

[irdeggman]

Um, well, we kinda already did. Human bard with emphasis on Inspire Competence. This includes a Feat out of Eberron at 3rd level, 2 different first level spells, and a MW instrument that all add +1 to attack and damage for the bard's ability.

Oh yeah, and some crazy talk about a whip? :\

I think he meant how did it work in-game not in character development. That is was the group (and DM) convinced that bards are not wimps?

 

[jasin]

Pg 104, Player's Guide to Faerun.

Bard 1
Duration: Variable (as long as next Inspire Courage lasts)
Components: V, S
Casting time: 1 Standard action

When you use the Inspire Courage function of your bardic music ability whilst this spell is in effect, the morale bonus against charm and fear effects increases by 2, the morale bonus on attack and damage rolls inscreases by 1. This effect lasts until your inspire courage effect ends. If you don't begin to inspire courage within one minute of casting this spell the harmony effect ends.

Hm. So it's basically a weaker version of inspirational boost (weaker, since IB is a swift action to cast).

I wouldn't allow both in my game, since they seem to be basically two versions of the same spell. But if you can get away with it...