Unless you really want to go into melee combat (remeber, d6 HD, medium BAB, no Sneak Attack, no Cleric bonus spells on every combat thing)
Str 11
Dex15
Con12
Int15
Wis10
Cha17
Feats:
Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot should be the first combat feats. (Precise Shot is important, you do not want to stop shooting when the fighters engange in melee, do you?)
Rapid Shot gives you a cheap extra attack.
Everything else, I think, is really up to you. Maybe Dodge, Mobility, Shot on the Run (well, in the far future
)
Weapons: If you are not an Elf, you will have to use the bard free profiency for Composite Longbow (or, if you are a small creature, Composite Shortbow).
Skills:
Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Use Magic Device are really important Bard Skills - well, and obviously, Perform.
Move Silently, Hide can be great - you can accompony the rogue when he has to scout, and he will feel much safer than...
Concentration is really important if you want to go into melee and still be able to safely cast spells. It might be not so important if you stay on distance to targets - but remember, enemies can decide to close in...
Spells:
Consider at least one of the Cure Spells. If you decide to take a higher level one, this might be very useful in later combats (Cure Lights do not help much in high level combats, but the wands are cheap)
Try to take Enchantments that are difficult to reproduce by skills or your Bardic Music Abilities. (Charm Person - Diplomacy, Suggestion - Bardic Music Fascinate/Suggestion and so on)
Greater Magic Weapon is a very important spell if you want to shoot arrows all the day. And Haste is always a good spell.
Some of the Divinitation Spells the Bard get can be very useful, too.
Having some Scrolls around can be very useful - with enough ranks in Use Magic Device, it is even unimportant what kind of scroll (arcane, divine, wizard only spell? Who cares!)
Multiclassing:
Not really a good idea, since you lose your spell progression. And though the Bard does only get up to 6th level spells, he gets many useful spells.
If you still want to multiclass (only a single class gets boring to you, eh?), consider Rogue (skills + sneak attack) or Ranger (becoming even more independet from others, Wilderness Lore, Track).
If you`re still looking for a concept: How about Skald = Bard+Barbarian!
Other things:
Bards can do well, even if they are alone - they have a decent skill and spell list. Bards will always shine in any Diplomacy Type encounter, and you should be prepared for some nice roleplaying oppertunities.
While the other guys might kill the most foes, sling the powerfulst spell, it is the bard with his charisma that will get the chicks
(Charisma 17+? And Bluff? And Diplomacy? And Sense Motive?)
It might also be you that has the job of holding the group together, and compensate for the lack of anything, especially style and good behaviour.
Do not forget your Bardic Knowlege Ability, it will give you many useful information - and you might use it for roleplaying setting up tactics: "This reminds me of Uthgard, the Barbarian, when he had to attack the Orc Camps on Mount Thalatos..."
Some more or less experimental things - some of them I saw others do, unfortunately, my lack of skills prevent me from doing such things..:
If you can sing, rhyme or do similar things not only inplay but also offplay, you might be able to enhance the fun even more - for everyone. If you use background music, you might consider having some songs ready that you can play in the CD player or Cassete Recorder, so you maybe do not have to sing yourself.
If you have some spare time outside of your roleplaying events, you could even consider writing a kind of ballad or song, that reports of the heroic adventures of your group. If you do not meet often for roleplaying, this can also be helpful for everybody getting back into character and in the story of the adventure.
Oh, here is a link about Bard maxing:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~tarchon/bards.html
Mustrum Ridcully
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