Bard Power Build

[frog]

Actually, Sublime Chord casting goes up to 9th level spells. Their list begins with 4th level spells.

And their increased "bardic" type abilities aren't too shabby either. But this route definitely emphasizes magic over skill-monkey, which might be a problem without a rogue in the party.

Yeah...but really, if they have managed to survive this long without a rogue they can probably do ok for a little while longer.

Although I understand that they have been through about 4 clerics over the course of their adventures.

That is a high mortality rate if I have ever seen one.

 

[KPCMammon]

When I think of bards I think of music. If that is what you want to focus on, how does this sound?

Song of the Heart (Eberron Campaign Setting)
Masterwork Drum or Mandolin (Complete Adventurer)
Words of Creation (Book of Exalted Deeds)

Your Inspire competence will either give:

+10 damage, +8 attack, and +6 saves vs. fear with a drum or +6 damage, +10 attack, and +6 saves vs. fear with a mandolin (and you can cast while maintaining music)

This could be reduced by order of operations. Hopefully it does work due to all of the bonuses being constant

If you took the feat that extends bardic music duration (which book is it in?) you could also get up inspire heroics (+10 dodge ac, +10 morale to saves to one) or Inspire Greatness (6 d10 hit dice, +6 competence on attack, +4 competence on fortitude to three allies (you could count as an ally))

Be warned, although inspire competence does little non lethal damage on use, activating all three and subsequently passing out may get you a coup de gras. This problem could be ignored if you are kept strapped to the fighters backpack (the smaller you are the better).

If you have a druid also consider Music of Growth, with Words of Creation and Music of the Heart it gives a +12 enhancement bonus to strength and constitution to all animals and plants within 30 feet. This is good for DMs that don’t let legendary apes wear equipment (it may seem odd, but some DMs have strange rulings on wildshape “for the sake of balance”).

 

[Evilhalfling]

Sub Cord is complete Arcane.
the spell slot list above was for a 15th lvl char -thus 7th level spells.
for a skill monkey - not sure, at 15th many skills are obsolete.
really +20 is a workable number
so with + 14/+15 ranks in social skills (bluff, diplomacy, gather info, use magic device)
you only need a total of 14 for most tumbling, ignore Hide and MS
spot you should max if possible.

 

[two]

When I think of bards I think of music. If that is what you want to focus on, how does this sound?

Song of the Heart (Eberron Campaign Setting)
Masterwork Drum or Mandolin (Complete Adventurer)
Words of Creation (Book of Exalted Deeds)

Your Inspire competence will either give:

+10 damage, +8 attack, and +6 saves vs. fear with a drum or +6 damage, +10 attack, and +6 saves vs. fear with a mandolin (and you can cast while maintaining music)

This could be reduced by order of operations. Hopefully it does work due to all of the bonuses being constant

If you took the feat that extends bardic music duration (which book is it in?) you could also get up inspire heroics (+10 dodge ac, +10 morale to saves to one) or Inspire Greatness (6 d10 hit dice, +6 competence on attack, +4 competence on fortitude to three allies (you could count as an ally))

Be warned, although inspire competence does little non lethal damage on use, activating all three and subsequently passing out may get you a coup de gras. This problem could be ignored if you are kept strapped to the fighters backpack (the smaller you are the better).

If you have a druid also consider Music of Growth, with Words of Creation and Music of the Heart it gives a +12 enhancement bonus to strength and constitution to all animals and plants within 30 feet. This is good for DMs that don’t let legendary apes wear equipment (it may seem odd, but some DMs have strange rulings on wildshape “for the sake of balance”).

Words of creation is tough to qualify for, isn't it?

If it CAN be gotten, it should be.

It is the one feat that breaks the bard.

 

[Remathilis]

A bard/rogue? Bad combo. Bards are background/support characters, rogues are front-liners. You'll be sacrificing the two things that make you great: sneak attack and spells. Any build that is even will ruin the utility of either, and and lopsided build (rog5/brd10) is just dead-weight.

A bard combo build depends on what you want from a bard. Here is one of MY favorites.

Charmer/Con-Man: Really easy. Max out diplomacy (18 ranks), 5 ranks in bluff, sense motive, know: nobility (+6 synergy), half-elf (+2), Negoiator (+2), Skill Focus (+3), Circlet of Pesusasion (+3), modest cha (16, +3 min) and a cloak of cha +4 (+2). = +39 diplomacy. You can get that even higher with a half-elf racial paragon class (+1 extra) and a high cha/cloak of cha. Toss in a higher bluff, some intimidate, and gather info (round off with sense motive, knowl local, perform: oratory) and you can talk a king into a royal pardon, a guard into a free jail pass, a monster into different dining plans, and a princess out of her royal gown.

For extra flavor, don't forget glibness (bard spell, +30 bluff checks!). Keep a few cure spells and buff spells for dungeons, and you'll be golden.

 

[frog]

A bard/rogue? Bad combo. Bards are background/support characters, rogues are front-liners. You'll be sacrificing the two things that make you great: sneak attack and spells. Any build that is even will ruin the utility of either, and and lopsided build (rog5/brd10) is just dead-weight.

A bard combo build depends on what you want from a bard. Here is one of MY favorites.

Charmer/Con-Man: Really easy. Max out diplomacy (18 ranks), 5 ranks in bluff, sense motive, know: nobility (+6 synergy), half-elf (+2), Negoiator (+2), Skill Focus (+3), Circlet of Pesusasion (+3), modest cha (16, +3 min) and a cloak of cha +4 (+2). = +39 diplomacy. You can get that even higher with a half-elf racial paragon class (+1 extra) and a high cha/cloak of cha. Toss in a higher bluff, some intimidate, and gather info (round off with sense motive, knowl local, perform: oratory) and you can talk a king into a royal pardon, a guard into a free jail pass, a monster into different dining plans, and a princess out of her royal gown.

For extra flavor, don't forget glibness (bard spell, +30 bluff checks!). Keep a few cure spells and buff spells for dungeons, and you'll be golden.

Hmm...fits right in with the charming roguish type character I was hoping for. A con man indeed...

 

[Kelleris]

I'd strongly consider a dual-wielding bard, actually, with the awesome power of Arcane Strike (Complete Warrior) and 6 attacks per round, 7 hasted. That's a full attack sequence with +5 on all attacks and +30-35d4 extra untyped arcane energy damage a couple of time per day, with only slighly worse results the rest of the time. Get the broadblade shortsword from Complete Adventurer and fight defensively (with 5+ Tumble ranks) and get a +5 dodge bonus to AC for a -4 penalty on attacks, then concentrate on your Dex and charisma for stats (Dex for weapon finesse and AC, Charisma for bardic spells and the huge AC boost from sirine's grace in the Spell Compendium), and you can be well-nigh unhittable, especially with the also-huge bonus for inspire heroics. Take Two-Weapon Defense if you have the slots and your full-defense AC will be impregnable and (even better!) mostly applicable even to touch attacks. Round out with utility spells that might come in handy at weird moments (you can always feed those slots to Arcane Strike anyway) and the advice earlier in this thread to make the bardic music bonuses larger to ensure that you hit. Don't forget that inspire courage lasts as long as you play (you will be singing), so you can start it up any ol' time and have it already up when combat starts. Use zone of silence both for the unbeatable Move Silently check and so your singing doesn't warn bad guys.

For extra bonus ridiculousness, see if you can convince your DM to let you take wraith strike as a bonus spell with the Extra Spell feat to guarantee that you miss only on a 1 in those rounds you feel like unloading a horrible, horrrible arcane strike punishing. Then take the flaws from Unearthed Arcana that give you a penalty on all ranged attacks (use spells instead, or just dimension door into melee) and the one that reduces your Will save (you'll still be better off than a "real" fighter, and knowledgeable NPCs won't typically hit the obvious bard with a Will save spell anyway).

Extra extra bonus shenanigans - use the spell point variant from Unearthed Arcana so you have the option of alpha striking with arcane strikes and swift action spells when need be.

Oh yeah, and this stuff almost leaves your spell selection and skills up in the air. Use those to either get more and better buffs and combat skills (Hide, Move Silently, Tumble, Sense Motive, Spot, Listen), utility spells as mentioned, or play the enchanter/skills monkey thing to the hilt.

 

[pawsplay]

Level 15 melee monster

Feats: Combat Casting, Battle Caster, Weapon Finesse, Arcane Strike, Dodge Mobility.
Spells: shadow evocation, greater invisibility, haste, mirror image, cat's grace, expeditious retreat.

Basically, you can buff an ally, or you can wade into battle yourself. One example would be to turn invisible, cast haste, inspire greatness on someone, use shadow evocation to give yourself fire shield, cast cat's grace. Now you can go anywhere on the battlefield, nearly untouchable, using arcane strike to do in comparitively low hp or high DR opponents, exploting mobility in terrible ways. If your opponent has blindsense, you can mirror image (which is a figment spell).

Ideal equipment is probably a rapier that does energy damage, an animated shield, mithril plate.

 

[two]

true --

Level 15 melee monster

Feats: Combat Casting, Battle Caster, Weapon Finesse, Arcane Strike, Dodge Mobility.
Spells: shadow evocation, greater invisibility, haste, mirror image, cat's grace, expeditious retreat.

Basically, you can buff an ally, or you can wade into battle yourself. One example would be to turn invisible, cast haste, inspire greatness on someone, use shadow evocation to give yourself fire shield, cast cat's grace. Now you can go anywhere on the battlefield, nearly untouchable, using arcane strike to do in comparitively low hp or high DR opponents, exploting mobility in terrible ways. If your opponent has blindsense, you can mirror image (which is a figment spell).

Ideal equipment is probably a rapier that does energy damage, an animated shield, mithril plate.

Yeah, you can then wade into battle... after FIVE ROUNDS of buffing.

By which time many battles are over.

As "caster melee" builds go, this one is impossible.

Any real spell/combat build has 1 round of buffing (max), and depends on a lot of long-term buffs (which can be up for hours/days).

I like bards a lot, but:

"One example would be to turn invisible, cast haste, inspire greatness on someone, use shadow evocation to give yourself fire shield, cast cat's grace"

is nonsense.

 

[Sammael]

The Bard/Seeker of the Song in my game is doing just fine, even more so because there isn't a dedicated blaster arcane spellcaster in the party. The fact that seeker songs are (Su) abilities helps. A lot.