building a bard

[aboyd]

Quite frankly, this has only applied when people don't know how to build bards.

You're... writing that as if it's a rebuttal, but it was exactly my point. Bards need to be built correctly, and 99% of D&D gamers don't know how. Thus, bards have a reputation for sucking. But those of us who love CharOp are fine with this, because we love figuring out how to build a bard right. It's a good challenge.

But it does mean that when the 99% of the gamers who have no idea how to do it right complain that bards are ineffective/underpowered, they're right 99% of the time.

At DunDraCon last month, I ran the Dale of the Dead module. It features a bard as the BBEG. And the bard provided by the module author is built terribly -- as usual. However, I rebuilt it. You can imagine that, knowing how to build it exactly as I wished, the PCs were very surprised and dismayed by how effective she was. I didn't even optimize the bard songs; just a lot of immediate action spells that interrupted or auto-retaliated when someone attacked her, and it drove the players a bit nutty.

I love bards specifically because they're difficult to do well, and I'm the kind of player who enjoys figuring it out. Give me a wizard to play and the other players will be green with envy, because I will be nearly a god by level 5, solving every issue without needing their input, while simultaneously being a PITA to kill. But have me play a bard... I could put huge amounts of energy into it and still the net result will just be that a few of the players say, "Huh, I guess bards are actually pretty decent."

 

[supermansdead]

So tell us how to figure the bard out! =)

My default character is a half-elf bard with exotic weapon proficiency whip-dagger, and I will always try and steer him into being a master of masks before the campaign inevitably falls apart.

I find I end up relying on a high reflex save, balls, and ingenuity to survive almost every encounter. It's a cool feeling to do things the party never expects you to do.

 

[Dandu]

So tell us how to figure the bard out! =)

My default character is a half-elf bard with exotic weapon proficiency whip-dagger, and I will always try and steer him into being a master of masks before the campaign inevitably falls apart.

I find I end up relying on a high reflex save, balls, and ingenuity to survive almost every encounter. It's a cool feeling to do things the party never expects you to do.

Build wise? I dunno, something like this would probably do it.

 

[aboyd]

So tell us how to figure the bard out! =)

Dandu got it right, the link he provided is a popular build type. He also earlier mentioned the most popular way to build a bard -- have a laser-like focus on maxing out Inspire; give everyone in the party +lots to hit & damage. That's really, seriously good, and is the single best argument for playing a bard. The party will love you.

Of course, that assumes that you can get a hold of all the items necessary to stack up the bonuses to Inspire. In my campaigns, about the best you could hope for would be a +3 at low levels. That's still pretty good.

For right now, though, I'll walk you through the bard I played at DunDraCon. It is attached. This bard was miserably difficult to kill, but had only one ally, so she didn't even bother with Inspire Courage. I'll step you through what she did.

Bard's Pre-encounter planning
On page 1 of her character sheet (attached) you should see that she has a very high Craft (Trapmaking) skill. She used this to create a "Booby Trap" as listed in the DMG 2. These are cheap easy traps, and in this case, she made a trap that alerted her with a bell whenever anyone came near her building.

The players were not checking for traps and in fact triggered this trap, so she got 2 rounds to prepare for combat.

Bard's Pre-battle buffs
The bard ordered her thug to hide behind a wall, ready to bull rush a PC into an open grave. Then, she cast two spells:

1. Alter Self to Troglodyte -- standard cheese that grants +6 to AC.
2. Mirror Image - got 6 mirror images, IIRC.

Finally, she crouched down behind a gravestone for cover, hoping to secretly watch who arrived and see how things played out.

Bard in combat
Combat began almost immediately, with the thug bull rushing, but failing completely. The thug was killed by the end of the very first round of combat. I, uh, guess I didn't build him as well as I built the bard.

Here is what she did, round by round. She is level 10, fighting 6 PCs of level 6 each.

1. Swift Invisibility, Sonic Shield (+4 AC, retaliation), declare Karmic Strike feat (-4 AC, retaliation, her total AC was now 23 as combat started), climb on top of low wall.
2. Dissonant Chord (about 20 HP blast effect), jump down off wall onto other side.
3. Sonic Weapon, move to keep melee combatants at bay.
4. For her action, she strikes in melee, doing 2d6 +1. She starts taking hits, but the mirror images hold up, and when she does get hit, the attacker has to endure her Karmic Strike hitting for 2d6 +1, and then Sonic Shield damaging for 1d8, and then the attacker is pushed away by 5 feet.
5. Same as previous.
6. Same as previous, but her Mirror Image spell ran out. At this point, the players are freaking out. A lone bard has them all badly wounded, while her huge fighter ally was utterly ineffective.
7. Swift Invisibility, move outside of the flanking box, ding heavy-hitting fighter with a G'Elsewhere Chant (teleporting the PC 100' away). As the other PCs re-surround her, when a strike actually lands on her 23 AC, she uses Stay The Hand as an immediate action to force the PC's attack to fail.
8. Wand of Make Marionette, Stay the Hand, retaliation damage.
9. Wand of Make Marionette, Stay the Hand, retaliation damage. The wand fails this time, but no worries. She has moved the fighter out of combat & the archer is now her puppet. She is also still at 35 HP, and her ability to retaliate outside of her own turn is causing everyone grief. They are all at about 10 HP now.
10. Swift Invisibility, move, wand of Make Marionette. Fighter PC finally returns with a charge action, swings, fails the saving throw when she uses Stay The Hand to stop him, and fighter player is now swearing at the table.
11. By now she's out of spells. However, she is using her Lyric Spell feat to regain a bunch of spells. Swift Invisibility, move, Charm Monster.
12. She's now really out of spells, but half her enemies are incapacitated in some way. She strikes with her rapier, and it's a slugfest for a round or two until she dies.

I think what I'm particularly proud of is how much of her effects were sonic-based. Her weapon was screaming, sonic blasts were going off every round, etc. Forget how effective she was -- just for the role play of the bard, it was delightful.

But speaking of effectiveness, anyone who read through those 12 list items above knows that she pulled punches at the end. With her Lyric Spell feat & invisibility, she could have pulled back and blasted them with another Dissonant Chord, ending probably 5 of the PCs. I swapped in Charm Monster because it's effective without killing anyone.

The PCs won & lived, but I think at the end only 3 were able to move or act on their own. For the rest, they had to wait to heal/regain control.

Now that's a fun bard to play. I wish I could play her as a player instead of as a DM.