Bard Multiclass..anything good?

[Oscar carramiñana]

Ok, really weird idea here... what about taking a few levels (maybe only one) in bard, and given an appropriate alignment change (NG to LG, say), multiclassing to paladin?

A bard paladin of Sune the goddess of love and beauty seems very nice idea to play.

 

[Felix]

BardX/Ftr2/Rog2/Sor1

Human, of course, although Gnome could work as well. This gives you just about as much versatility as you want: 2 fighter feats, a nice +1d6 SA, utility spells from the sorcerer level, and a fair degree of bard music and knowledge. The BAB works out to be the same as straight bard, and in the end you get a +2 to Fort saves for a -1 to will saves (5 levels mixed compared to the last 5 levels of bard)

 

[Darklone]

One thing about the singleclass bard dudes here:

Starting with barbarian or fighter might screw your skills a little bit... but without the additional hitpoints, I wouldn't have survived till level 2 in any of these campaigns.

Don't you have 15 level 1 char groups where the DM hunts the PCs with trolls and owlbears?

 

[The Spectrum Rider]

Ok, really weird idea here... what about taking a few levels (maybe only one) in bard, and given an appropriate alignment change (NG to LG, say), multiclassing to paladin?

Maybe this should go into House Rules because we cheated a bit but... in our campaign bards can be of any alignment. And there is a monks' group (the Order of the Silver Lining; patron deity: Cereus, god of intelligence and clouds) that permits multiclassing with bards. So I played a bard/monk, keeping the levels roughly equal (one of the Order's rules: if your monk level is less than or equal to any of your other class levels, you can only level up as a monk) - and had a grand old time of it.

This was 3.0, where arcane spell failure applied to bards even with light armor, so it might be a little weaker now. But in any case I choose it because it was interesting, not powerful.

Edit: in 3.0 many of a bard's abilities depended only on his Perform ranks, not his class level, and Perform wasn't split into subskills (although it was in our campaign) - so this combination was *definitely* more powerful in 3.0

The Spectrum Rider

 

[Hypersmurf]

I played a Bard/Rogue/Trickery Cleric multiclass once, but he didn't last very long - he got his throat cut by a party member.

-Hyp.

 

[tarchon]

One thing about the singleclass bard dudes here:

Starting with barbarian or fighter might screw your skills a little bit... but without the additional hitpoints, I wouldn't have survived till level 2 in any of these campaigns.

Don't you have 15 level 1 char groups where the DM hunts the PCs with trolls and owlbears?

It certainly paid off with my char - when I took the 2nd Barb level, I rolled an 11 for hps too. In 3.0, the skill points weren't an issue, since Barbarians get 4 anyway, and they got some nice class skills that Bards didn't like Wilderness Lore and Ride.

 

[CCamfield]

A bard paladin of Sune the goddess of love and beauty seems very nice idea to play.

Yeah, that could certainly work. But I think there are other possibilities too... historically, and today, music has played a large part in religion. People sing hymns in church today, the Greeks did the same 2500 years ago, I'm sure other peoples did even earlier. So in a D&D sort of setting, I was imagining a warrior of god, perhaps even a grim faced one, singing a hymn to his god while fighting evil.

For bard-fighters, or bard-barbarians, there's this sort of inspiration, of course...

"Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
...
And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City." - Tolkien, The Return of the King

 

[ThoughtBubble]

According to a roomate, the Bard/Assassin combo is awesome.

 

[Darklone]

It certainly paid off with my char - when I took the 2nd Barb level, I rolled an 11 for hps too. In 3.0, the skill points weren't an issue, since Barbarians get 4 anyway, and they got some nice class skills that Bards didn't like Wilderness Lore and Ride.

Right. And these bard multiclass characters usually have everything, good saves, skillpoints, class skills, not bad BAB, spells... the only problem is hitpoints if you wanna help your buddies in melee. For the bard archer it's not that bad... but you can always use feats and especially weapon proficiencies.

One level barbarian and extra rage will keep you on par with most fighters and barbarians in the group till level 8.

 

[Oscar carramiñana]

Yeah, that could certainly work. But I think there are other possibilities too... historically, and today, music has played a large part in religion. People sing hymns in church today, the Greeks did the same 2500 years ago, I'm sure other peoples did even earlier. So in a D&D sort of setting, I was imagining a warrior of god, perhaps even a grim faced one, singing a hymn to his god while fighting evil.

For bard-fighters, or bard-barbarians, there's this sort of inspiration, of course...

"Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
...
And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City." - Tolkien, The Return of the King

This are so nice but Theoden king was not a tavern bard! he was a knight a leader, maybe a marshall.
This song are more close to a warrior skald I think
Before all battles the "captain" says an inspiration words to his soldiers to improve his morale.