Bard Prestige Class for the Musically Inclined?

[Zerrian]

Hi everyone,

I've found a few posts about Bard prestige classes but most of them were either geared towards the melee/magic aspects of the bard. My brother just started up his character, he wants his character to be all about buffing and musical skills. So I'm helping him focus his skill/feat selections towards a prestige class that's more based on music and performance rather than melee or magic.

I've already spotted Virtuoso and Master Harper as possible "music" based prestige classes. Does anyone else have any suggestions as to what he could pick from?

Thanks for any help in advance!

-Zerrian
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Jack - lvl 6 ½ Samurai
Taius - lvl 4 Preferred Soul

 

[Ahnehnois]

Virtuoso is definitely your class. You might consider looking at Exemplar if you really want to pump the skill. Also check out some of those bardic music feats in Complete Adventurer and beyond; no class duplicates most of them.

 

[Zerrian]

Virtuoso is definitely your class. You might consider looking at Exemplar if you really want to pump the skill. Also check out some of those bardic music feats in Complete Adventurer and beyond; no class duplicates most of them.

Many thanks for those suggestions. I did spot them and thought Exemplar was a great PrC for a musical bard. I gave my brother five suggestions, Virtuoso, Exemplar, Seeker of the Song, Sublime Chord and one other. He decided to go with Sublime Chord as it fit the path he felt his bard would go.

Thanks for the feat suggestions. Going towards Sublime Chord leaves feats completely open, which is nice, so I'll look over those and see what might be best. If anyone has some Sublime Chord feat suggestions, please feel free to leave them here. I'm guessing he'll want some [casting] feats now as well?

 

[Ahnehnois]

I'm guessing he'll want some [casting] feats now as well?

There are a couple of doozies in Complete Mage, including Melodic Casting, if you're trying to use music but still want to have spells.

Also, Touch of Healing (Complete Champion) is legal for bards. I suggest perusing this handy list of alternate class features, as you can go a lot of different ways with the bard ones.

Also, as an FYI, there is a forum specifically for build advice, to which this post may end up getting moved.

 

[Empirate]

Sublime Chord is really all about the casting (even though it still improves your music). Excellent feats for it include:

Melodic Casting (basically a must have for a bard, IMO),

Doomspeak (if you're neutral or evil),

Words of Creation (if you're good),

Mindsight (if you have telepathy, e.g. via one level in Mindbender),

Dragonfire Inspiration (if you want to buff using Inspire Courage),

Song of the Heart (same),

Lyric Spell (to let you cast more at the expense of music uses),

Extra Music (if you want to make use of bardic music feats),

Snowflake Wardance (if you plan on getting into melee now and again).