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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kelleris" data-source="post: 1603800" data-attributes="member: 19130">Several people have already mentioned Arcane Strike, and I thought I'd just point out that there are actually two 3.5 versions, one from a Dragon and one from Complete Warrior.The Dragon feat allows you drop a spell slot as a free action and gain a bonus to you next attack roll equal to twice the spell's level, and a bonus to damage equal to +1d6 per spell level.  A bard can pretty much grab this right off the bat.  This is the one I prefer.The Complete Warrior feat has a requirement of 3rd level spellcasting, so 7th level of bard.  It works the same way, but the bonuses are +1 and +1d4 per spell level to all attacks in the round.Personally, I think they goobered up the CW feat pretty bad.  Consider: a hasted 16th-level bard set up for dual-wielding can drop a 6th-level slot for +6 on all of his 7 attacks for the round, and gain a total of 42d4 points of bonus damage!  Nuts.  I also don't like it because they nerfed the arcane-smiting-with-glowy-sword-of-doom flavor out of it.  Plus it gets better on two different levels; as you get more attacks and as you gain spell levels.  Why they made the changes escapes me.So, yeah...  Dual-wielding melee Bard.  Use the CW version of arcane strike to turn your spells into pain, boost your AC with the Two-Weapon Defense feat tree (it's like a shield, but one that you can use without being proficient and without ASF).  Pick spells that are sometimes really useful and sometimes useless like comprehend languages or locate object or neutralize poison, since you can always turn them into fiery hurting anyway.Voila - melee bard.You can also make an interesting melee bard using the Dragon arcane strike and EWP (a really big two-handed weapon), but that build tends to run through its resources in one good battle.P.S. High-Dex bard + spells like blink or invisibility + chain shirt + Two-Weapon Defense feats and fighting defensively + 5+ ranks in Tumble = the highest AC you'll see outside of a monastery</blockquote>

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