Optomize multiclassing human bard

[Gaiden]

I am new to 4e and looking for help to optimize a bard in a party composed of a human wizard, shifter rogue, and goliath warden. I was planning on creating a human cunning bard. I particularly like the unlimited multiclassing available for bards and wanted to exploit that to its fullest potential. It seems to me that such multiclassing can greatly expand the roles with which this bard can fill.

Mechanically I am looking for versatility w/o futility. In other words, I want the character to be able to fill different roles but not so poorly that his filling them is pointless.

First I am torn between human, half elf, and gnome. The half-elven paragon feat converting his multiclassed at-will encounter power to an at-will power seems amazing. The gnomish feat that gives +1 to attack and dmg with charm powers equally seems REALLY good. Of course, the human extra feat allows that many more multiclassing feats.

Mechanical suggestions would be most appreciated.

Current stats: 13,13,13,14,17,18 (arrange as desired - I actually rolled these!)

The other aspect is the image of the character. If you remember Hauer from Fatal Fury, that is the personality I am going for - 'over the top full of himself'. Not sure if there is a way to tie that in to your suggestions.

Thanks for the help

 

[Starfox]

I was going to say that it is actually quite costly for a bard to have many multiclasses because of the attribute prerequisites, but rolling - and rolling as you have - that is not a problem.

Actually going deep into a class does not really seem worthwhile. Picking up one multiclass feat in each of many different classes is lovely tough - basically each of those feats is worth two regular feats. So its more a matter of skimming many classes than diving deep into any one class.

Not that taking the power-swap feats as a bard presumably allows you to swap into a power from any of your multiclasses, but you can only pick each power-swap feat once, meaning you can only ever swap 3 powers.

 

[FrozenChrono]

I'd put the 18 into charisma and the 17 into int. The 14 might be a good idea to put into con for the extra healing surge and +1 to your fort.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Hauer from Fatal Fury so I'm not quite sure what you're going for.

A wand will give you a few options as far as multiclass powers go so you won't have to switch implements every time you cast something from a different class. You can also take a feat (I forget what it's called, it's in arcane power) to use your charisma for to hit on all MC powers.

Picking up a few other leader multiclasses will give you extra daily heals. Always nice to have extra in a pinch and you're party will love you for it.

If you decide to go mostly ranged think about getting a shield for your off hand. +2 to AC and reflex that you can take off when you need to make a skill check will help keep you alive to keep healing.

If you go melee or at least pick up a few melee powers your rogue will have a much easier time doing way more damage. Talk to him about how able he'll be to get combat advantage.

Once you hit paragon I'd have the warden or rogue pick up agile opportunist to get the most out of you Cunning class feature.

 

[Gaiden]

I'd put the 18 into charisma and the 17 into int. The 14 might be a good idea to put into con for the extra healing surge and +1 to your fort.

So I was looking into this and it seemed to me that Int for a cunning bard just wasn't that important. The core ability of the cunning bard is why I chose that option. However, its merely the range of the ability affected by Int and having now played 4e, it never seems like battle maps are large enough that the increased range would matter. Moreover, the cunning encounter powers don't actually seem as good as other bard powers (further making int less useful). Finally, the benefits gained from a high int don't come close to having a high con when you I can take a feat to give me scale male armor.

Counterpoints welcome.

 

[eamon]

So I was looking into this and it seemed to me that Int for a cunning bard just wasn't that important. The core ability of the cunning bard is why I chose that option. However, its merely the range of the ability affected by Int and having now played 4e, it never seems like battle maps are large enough that the increased range would matter. Moreover, the cunning encounter powers don't actually seem as good as other bard powers (further making int less useful). Finally, the benefits gained from a high int don't come close to having a high con when you I can take a feat to give me scale male armor.

Several powers reward a high Int, such as blunder at first level (which is, in my experience, an absolutely excellect power since it grants an ally an attack which is almost sure to hit). The additional range is nice, but not critical. The wand of Vicious mockery mastery is absolutely terrifying in the hands of a character with high int.

You don't want to waste feats on chainmail + scale armor proficiencies, there are way to many actually neat feats to pick instead. So, keeping Int high means you have a good AC.

By contrast, you're not winning much by going Con without playing a valbard (a very decent option for a half-elf, btw). If you have your heart set on a cunning bard, I'd stick to Int+Cha. It saves feats, and has a few nice side effects, and I'm not seeing the advantage any other stat has.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

you get chain for free, but still if you want to multiclass a lot, int is better, because your paragon path student of seven is int based

 

[Gaiden]

you get chain for free, but still if you want to multiclass a lot, int is better, because your paragon path student of seven is int based

Only Compensatory Insight is Int based and it only effects multiclassed powers. I was thinking of multiclassing with warlock, wizard, and invoker to gain eyebite, thunderwave, and grasping shards, respectively. Even if I also take the power swap feats, is the befit I'll get in dmg from these powers worth it?

 

[Gaiden]

The wand of Vicious mockery mastery is absolutely terrifying in the hands of a character with high int.

I am not sure what you are referring to...

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Only Compensatory Insight is Int based and it only effects multiclassed powers. I was thinking of multiclassing with warlock, wizard, and invoker to gain eyebite, thunderwave, and grasping shards, respectively. Even if I also take the power swap feats, is the befit I'll get in dmg from these powers worth it?

If you take combat virtuoso and have compensoratory insight you can have normal bard attack bonus and you squeeze out a lot of damage from them.

with at least 14 in all stats and 20 int and 23 charisma by level 11 your multiclass powers deal more damage than your class powers, especially if they are int based
edit: or even more if they are charisma based

 

[eamon]

I am not sure what you are referring to...

Vicious mockery is quite a solid at-will which imposes a -2 penalty to attacks on a hit target. With the "master's wand of vicious mockery", you additionally get to apply your int modifier as penalty to a second target. With psychic lock, that means whenever you hit you'll be handing out at least a -4 penalty to two creatures, which is enough to seriously hamper them. If you have a high Int, you'll be rendering one creature almost completely harmless for a round - there's not much even an overlevelled solo is going to be doing when he's got a -7 to hit. And you can do that every round you hit with vicious mockery...