Bards: do they even use feats?

[Sullaf]

Last week a friend of mine created a 9th level human bard. He had five feats to gain, but to our surprise we both were a little lost as to which feat bards actually use.

Now I'm in the middle of creating a bard. He is first level and has two feats. Now what would make good options for a bard?

Sofar I am stuck with Spell Focus (perform) and Improved Iniative, but what feats should I take in the future?

Does anybody has any tips?

 

[EricNoah]

What sources are you allowed to use? PHB only?

Song and Silence would be the place to start if you're allowed access to it. Disguise Spell, Extra Music, Lingering Song, Obscure Lore, Requiem, and Subsonics might be worth it, along with any of those "+2 bonus to two skill" feats.

 

[Crothian]

Do you mean skill focus perform?

My human bard started with Skill focus Perform and point blank shot. Other feats I took (he went to 20th level) were: Favored Instrument (Spells and Spellcraft; think spell focus but only when using a certain instrument), Disguise Spell (Song and Silence), Subharmonics (Song and Silence), Weapon Focus and improved critical whip dagger (weapon of choice), and Heighten spell.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Hi, Sullaf. I'm currently playing a Human Brd3 in an FR campaign, and my three feats are Luck of Heroes (FRCS), Point Blank Shot, and Scribe Scroll. My party's a bit odd (Halfling Mnk3, Human Pal3, and Dwarf Ftr1/Clr2 — we just lost our arcane caster; she moved back to her home country), so that's effected my feat choice a bit. Here's why I chose what I did:

1) Luck of Heroes — I figured I'd be in the thick of things more than I might like, so I picked this up — with an 8 in Con, it's been quite helpful.

2) Point Blank Shot — Without a true fighter at 1st level (the dwarf started as a Clr1), I needed to be more effective in combat. I also chose shortbow as my bardic weapon proficiency, so... Anyhow, if your bard's an archer, you can do a lot worse than this.

3) Scribe Scroll — This makes up for the fact that I can't cast all that many spells (my only first level spells are Harmony, Cure Light Wounds, and Mage Armor). I've got more flexibility, which I think is key. The other consideration here was Brew Potion, but my character's a linguist, so this made more sense for him.

Skill Focus (Perform) and Improved Initiative are good choices, too.

I don't know if that helps, but that's where I'm at.

Best,
tKL

 

[Victim]

Archery feats are useful.

Spell Focus: Enchantment or illusion, depending on spell choices.

Craft Wonderous Item is also useful.

Skill enhancers are also useful, especially for opposed checks.

Leadership is another great way to leverage the bard's high Cha into a useful ability.

 

[Sullaf]

Yes I meant Skill Focus... stupid typo

We are only allowed to use the PHB afaik and therefor it is imho a little hard to find feats. Weapon Finesse comes to mind (although prerequisite forbids first level pick). I choose rapier as his weapon although my pc mostly dislikes fighting. Instead he likes to persuade others to do the fighting for him, so I'm not getting that much combat feats.

Scribe scroll... Isn't that REAL expensive. Say you want to scribe a second level spell. You have to be a 7th level character. Using the formula lvlxcLx25 a second level spell would cost your bard 2x7x25=350gp to create. He could buy the same spell for 150 gp...

That is the main reason I did not take the feat. Maybe I could use other feats besides the PHB, but I simply do not see what feats a bard would take on high level when only using the PHB.

 

[Sullaf]

Archery feats seem compelling, maybe I will drop the rapier and take on a bow, although a rapier is so... bardlike

 

[EricNoah]

Scribe scroll... Isn't that REAL expensive. Say you want to scribe a second level spell. You have to be a 7th level character. Using the formula lvlxcLx25 a second level spell would cost your bard 2x7x25=350gp to create. He could buy the same spell for 150 gp...

You can voluntarily lower the caster level on the scrolls you create to as low as you want. Hmm. But with the way bards get their spells ... someone smarter than me is going to have to help me out with that one...

 

[Victim]

Yes. However, you can compromise. Use a bow in real battles, and a rapier when showing off against inferior foes. I was planning on having my bard take finess, but my HP and AC have been so sucky that she must stay away from melee. Unfortunately, she can't use archery either since one of the primary fighters is an archer and always has his bow sundered. So she loans out her longbow to him.

 

[Sullaf]

Yeah I know one can lower their casterlevel, but in order to scribe a 2nd level spell, a bard has to be at least 7th level. Can't get any lower than that afaik. Btw the same applies for 1st level spells. (lvlxclx25 = 1x2x25 =) 50 gp to scribe a first level spell, wheras he could have bought the spell (and thus keeping his xp) for 25 gp.

Unless I am mistaken, this is the way it works...