Striking a balance...

[PureGoldx58]

Oh yeah, just about any class that's primarily a spell caster outshines the Bard as a caster. You can bump him with feats, expand his spell range, add meta-magics as you will, you're turbo-charging a moped. It's a really first rate moped when you're done, but it's still a moped.

I really would suggest speaking with the DM plainly and stating your opinions. It really helped me and my DM is so stubborn that he and I butted heads about making his Epic character not 27 levels of wizard....

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

From a DM perspective, I am not at all surprised the melee touch attack spell started a round of nerfing. Treat with care the touch AC, there was a reason it didn't survive into 4E.

Is it so integral to the character in any case? Probably not. I would have negotiated a mitigated nerf and kept the character.

As a player I'd go as others have suggested and roll up a straight fighter. Even with just the PHB1, this straight-forward tough hombre will stun those fancy pants builds.

 

[Dandu]

As a player I'd go as others have suggested and roll up a straight fighter. Even with just the PHB1, this straight-forward tough hombre will stun those fancy pants builds.

I am in full agreement.