Bard in the making - Help needed

Greenfeuer

Explorer
Well hello there people!

I am currently rethinking my idears for my bard I started on this new Pathfinder Campaign in our own low fantasy universe.

My plans are to make this trickster bard/rogue type. Mainly focus on the bard part, cause I wanted to try somthing new.

I am heading towards arcane trickster, which means 3-4 levels in rogue and rest in bard and arcane trickster.


Now here is my current stats and feats. Don't remember my skills too well so we skip those. But I will metion two I am in doubt of.


Str: 10
Dex: 15 ( Used my 2+ stat Human on it, was 13. ))
Con: 11
Int: 15
Wis: 12
Cha: 18.

Feats:

Decitful: 2+ Disguise 2+ Bluff.

Persusive: 2+ Diplomacy 2+ initimidate.

They will yield 4+ when a skill is rank 10 or above.


I plan maybe to take Weapon Finesse for more combat focus as a Rogue Talent since my character starts out as level 2 sorta, (We got a respec do to som changes). And I have though of a few other feats but non I am 100% settled on.


My team is made up of another Rogue and a Fighter. But don't put much into what group I am in, since we often die in these campaigns or get npc who helps. So the team switch alot. So don't mind that!


There is aswell two skills I am wondering about. I have chosen Proffesion: Bard. But I have heard that Perform can yield gold aswell, is it good to have both?

I have chosen craft intruements aswell.



We focus heavly on the rp aspect and skills are used often. There is not much dungeoneering, its more low fantasy based so we mostly end up fighting non monster creatures. But we do bash into som now and then.


Magic is aswell low key, hench why I can't start out as a bard right away. Though it is possiable/promised that such classes opens up as we go, with the possiablity of a respec/reclass.



Hope the infomation is suffecient. I like to focus mostly on my character as a Trickster sort of bard, a sorta Loki type, aswell the classic bard who likes to bring party and good mood to the people. In short, he likes to have fun! ;)

If possiable he likes to stay clear of fighting, and his not very honorable either on how to stay clear of it. He rather trick or put a dagger to the kidney on those who want his life, than faceing them in open battle.


Aka. Relays more on sneak attack if he -must- fight.

Our plotline is we are gonna join this guard force, who is sorta "Lazy/easy" money who ain't really worth much after being all switch out with a new guard force. And their ain't that much criminal or war activity as it is, and its heavly ruled by nobles. Atleast openly.



Update: We rarely make it above level 10-12 due to a high dead rate in our group and a very consiquence filled world, so skills DO matter alot aswell cause we mostly do social interaction with other human npc/non-monster npc. Monsters may show up and they are out there, but our most fought creature is other humans / a few other races. So take that into mind.



I am free to re-do my stats though I am not sure if I am allowed to reroll them. Take that in mind.

I can take other feats, but I may try to convince my gm to boost them. Decitful so it you can roll bluff or disguise twice day, as in you roll two dices a take the highest. Aswell with the other feat, to make them more veriable. Or is that just OP?


Another setup I though up was takeing

10: STR
17: DEX +2 huiman racial from 15.
11: CON
13: INT
12: WIS
18: CHA.

But that will yield a very low INT, and since I wish to be the guy who get stuff don. Mostly with knowlegde or words, I may see myself short.



When I am becomeing a bard is up to the story, but I hope it will be around level 4. So I can get my 3 rogue levels.

Do to bard not being pick-able at start, I get to choose Rogue as favorit class and change it later to Bard when It becomes pick-able. :)




Hope it gives sort of info. I don't plan to go 100% melee or ranged, I like to stay to the Jack of all trades theme.


Abit of everything. I may take two weapon fighting for more sneak when in close combat, aswell the ability to throw two throwing weapons instead of one.


My focus is as said a trickster. And I like to be able to do both abit melee and ranged. Though this is not a must, but a sorta... Well thing I prefer to go with. :)

Hope there is enough infomation here!

Ups! Forgot! We probably won't use more then the corebook, so there is a big possiablity we won't go with archtypes and such :)
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

We are not too big on the lbs and carry weight. Our GM exaime that out from our stats and situation, he focus alot of realism that sutff will differ.
 

Let me first preface everything I'm about to say with this: if you're only pretending to be a bard now and can re-spec/class later, do whatever you want until then - Bards have several abilities that are unique to Bards, and being a pretend-bard until you can get them doesn't really prepare you for how to use them.

THAT SAID...! :D

I am heading towards arcane trickster, which means 3-4 levels in rogue and rest in bard and arcane trickster.
Having a rogue already on the party makes it difficult but not impossible to step on each other's toes.

Going with the build you have, I'm going to credit @mikebr99 for offering this level arrangement (back in 2005 :heh:): Rogue 3 / Bard 7 / AT 10

This will net you 7d6 sneak attack and casting as a 17th level bard by the time you get 20 levels in total.

I plan maybe to take Weapon Finesse for more combat focus as a Rogue Talent
Yes, yes you should, and to that end, jack your Dex as high as you can get it. Since light weapons and ranged weapons both work off Dex, you get tons of mileage out of it. Your build with a 13 Int is more than serviceable, as Rogues get the most skill points of all the classes and you've already chosen to focus on Social skills (the ones keyed to Charisma).

I have chosen Profession: Bard. But I have heard that Perform can yield gold as well, is it good to have both?
Perform IS essentially Profession: Bard, so save your skill point.

I have chosen Craft instruments as well.
If your DM allows you to get away with crafting _all_ instruments with this skill, that's great. If not, I'd pick a Craft skill with wider application. Craft: Carpentry could allow you to craft most woodwinds and some stringed instruments, for example, but also houses and toys.

Based on your desire to be a "con man", I see your skills with 13 Int (9 in total) lining up like:
Bluff, Craft: Instruments, Disguise, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Perception, Perform, Stealth, and Sense Motive.

Many or all of these will carry over into your Bard skill list.

Other than that, enjoy being a Rogue for three levels and never look back. :)

Two questions:
a) If your DM wants a low-magic campaign, why play a magic-using character? I know there are few non-caster classes, but that leads me to...
b) Is your DM aware of the Dragon Age tabletop RPG? It looks like he wants a simple Fighter / Rogue / Mage paradigm and that system accomplishes said paradigm quite well.
 
Last edited:

BTW, your original post is mostly black type...and its largely invisible to those using ENWorld's black backgrounded "Legacy" setting to view the site...like me.
 

BTW, your original post is mostly black type...and its largely invisible to those using ENWorld's black backgrounded "Legacy" setting to view the site...like me.

I'm on my phone, but if you link the stickies Meta thread about this it'll probably help.
 


I will write more soon! Very soon!

So faar I haven't changed the stats and we will see if I change them. I plan to increase my dex to 16 at level 3. I am not sure if I wish to changed my int. I am sorta the skillfull person in the group and the one doing all sorts of things.


I succed a 6-7 Linquistic checks with a DC of 14 or such. That pretty much gave us acess to a side plot, where we should act as guards :)

I use my INT skills alot, aswell. And now I am the only rogue, our rogue player decied to make a new character.

So now we are a Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger.

So I probably focus on supporting them more then anything else xD As I said our group changes alot, and we have alot of NPCS helping us out at times and large scale fights. Though we avoided being beaten by 8-9 fanatics, me and the rogue due to pure awesome roleplay + a deadly high diplomacy, somthing we may else have died of.


I am allowed to level as a bard now, due to a supernatural incounter with a bard sort of type. I plan to level as a bard next level, then as a rogue once more to 3th or 4th. I am thinking of taking a 4th level to get one more feat + another rogue bonus :)



As told VERY long specs/builds may not work due to the fact that we rarely last that long. But its always nice to have a goal, sort of.



I write more soon :)
 

Great job on reformatting your text color! Except one little thing...

The color "red" is usually reserved for moderators when they're bringing the thunder. "Orange" is what they use when they're handing out warnings before they get angry and post in red.
 


Should I by the way get my con raised above 11? Or is 1 hp each level not really a big matter?

Thinking of increase my dex to 16 and my int to 16 aswell.



I may have lost 4hp points do to not having my con at 12 +1, but I felt at the time of making that wisdom would matter more. Since if I failed a rolled that killed me anyway with spot/listen, hp wouldn't matter too much.

We use our skills ALOT, there is tons of checks. Do the fact we are not doing the whole classic D&D crawl. :)


I may be able to change my stats, but I am not much for it, due to the fact that game is already on going/it may gets things diffcult.

But did I loose alot the whole not having 12 in con thing?
 
Last edited:

Remove ads

Top