Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Conjureman" data-source="post: 46206" data-attributes="member: 2583">I've been playing a bard in a campaign for about a year now and here are my suggestions...Race:  Go with what you like.  All races have advantages and disadvantages so it really comes down to how you want to play it.  My bard is human and I have really, really appreciated the bonus skill points and bonus feat.Stats:  Again it depends on what you want to do.  I personally would arrange them pretty much as you have.  Do keep in mind stat change issues if you chose a race though.  Hit points will be a low commodity and you have not the best AC in the game.Skills:  This is my favorite part of the bard.  You can fill almost any niche in a party, if you choose to specialize, by your choice of skills and spells.  Conversely, you can choose to be more of a "generalist" and pick up a variety of skills.  Raise that perform every level, though!  Keep in mind how you want to play the bard when you make your choices.  Also keep in mind how your DM runs a game.  If this is a new DM with whom you are unfamiliar, ASK.  With your high charisma, skills like diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, etc. seem like great choices (and let you create your own "bard" niche) but if you play in a hack and slash game, or if your DM pretty much bases outcome purely on role playing, you are just wasting points.  Does the DM make everyone roll diplomacy or intimidate unskilled when they try to influence others?  If so, definetly raise these.  If not, you might not want to waste the points...in the end you would likely find yourself the *only* one being asked to roll  when you try to use charisma based skills.  (I know that seems insane but if a DM is very role playing based, the thought process at times goes like this "Hey, that was great role playing from the fighter.  I am totally convinced.  The evil priest would definetly let him go."  Later on down the road, the bard tries to resolve a conflict between two warring tribes with diplomacy.  The good natured DM thinks "Let me have him roll diplomacy...I don't want him to have wasted all those skill points and never roll it", not thinking about the fact that in reality you are now being penalized for spending the points because even if you role play it well, you *still* have to roll when no one else does.  Trust me on this.)Is the campaign high magic or low magic?  If it is a high magic campaign, use magic device is definetly a great skill.  If you are in Faerun and tripping over Vecna's Eye while walking to the bathroom, by all means, spend points on it.  But if magic items are the rarest of the rare, don't waste you time as it will be worthless.  When magic items are rare, they are more likely to be "intended" for a certain character when obtained, meaning you won't have extra wands floating around that you could utilize.Decipher script can also be a good skill, depending on the type of campaign.Personally, I did a bit of generalization because I am (sadly) in a party with no cleric, no wizard, and no rogue.  So, I have raised move silently and hide, and put a fair number of points into "wizardish" knowledge skills and spellcraft.  Trust me, if you generalize instead of specialize, those bookoo points you seem to have from high intelligence and being human get used pretty quickly.Some rules of thumb for assigning skill points:  If you go through several adventures and never find a skill useful, dump it and don't bother to raise it anymore.  It is not likely to come up often enough to be worth your expenditure.  I did this with  decipher script ("To translate the language, you have to have some sort of reference to work from...") as it was utterly useless.  Ditto with Use Magic Device as we play in a low magic campaign.  Feats:  Pick weapon feats that suit your weapon choice (i.e-either weapon finesse and weapon focus or point blank shot and precise shot).  Skill focus with perform is great.  If using Use Magical Device, skill focus for that skill is an excellent choice, as well.  As many, many spells from your spell list are of the enchantment school Spell Focus:  Enchantment is another good choice.  If your DM is the type that lets you talk your way out of combat and only allows you to speak on your initiative (don't ask) improved initiative can be helpful to let you get some diplomatic words out before everyone starts blowing everyone up. Weapons:  You are a bard so go with style, baby, go with style.  With your high dex, you are best off with either something like the rapier with weapon finesse, or going with a ranged weapon like the bow.  I initially did weapon finesse but basically, I sucked.  I think I was third level before I actually hit in combat.  With DM permission (and a bit of story telling creativity) I switched to the long bow and am much happier.  Consider this:  A human bard at 1st level can start play with proficiency in the long bow (chosen from the one martial weapon proficiency), point blank shot, and precise shot.  This lets you stay out of melee and fire into the fight with no penalties.  In fact, if you are within 30 feet you get a +1 bonus to attack and damage.  Plus, bows do great crit damage so 20s will light an extra special little fire in your heart.  Also, once you get access to third level spells you can take haste, which makes you one arrow firing enemy nightmare...Spells:  I go with a combination of versatility and duration.  We don't get to cast that many spells per day compared to "pure casters" so spells like mage armor, cat's grace, and eagle's splendor (from Magic of Faerun) become excellent choices because you get more bang for you buck, so to speak.  Each lasts one hour per level and while the effects are not explosive, good rolls with having only these three spells used will give you approximately +6 to your AC (with no armor check penalty if you use mage armor and forgo phsical armor), +2 to your initiative, +2 to your attack (if using finesse or a ranged weapon), +2 to the DC of any spell you cast requiring a save, and temporarily raise your score in a dozen or so skills.  The other nice thing is that these spells come in handy almost every adventure.  Make sure to have at least one spell per spell level that has very obvious and frequent use potential.  That way, almost no matter what happens in an adventure, you will have spells that are useful despite your limited repetoire.  I also agree that utility spells are a good idea...comprehend languages, phantom steed, and if you are going to be a diplomat, never underestimate Tongues.  The charm line of spells is also great (charm person, charm monster) but the downside is they are "all or nothing" effects...if the target saves, too bad.   If you have a cleric in the party, you can forego the cure line of spells, although it is nice to at least have access to cure light wounds (either through spells known or a wand/scroll) in case the cleric goes down.Equipment:  *Sighs and wishes his bard could have all those wonderful things someone else posted* At eigth level, I finally dumped my +1 leather armor as mage armor was better.  Soooo, as you can guess I am really not in a position to comment on magic items...Good luck and you will have a lot of fun!  The 3rd edition bard is a great character class and the first real "playable" bard DnD has come up with.</blockquote>

Verification