How many different bards could you have?


Advice


How many different bard archetypes providing different bonus types could you have in one party stacking on one another?

Vanilla Inspire Courage - Competence


In a large party, have a bard and an Urban Skald.

The Bard has his inspire courage, the (Urban) Skald can grab Superstition into Witch hunter for an untyped bonus damage vs magic users (or things with spell likes which is everyone). The big advantadge of Urban Skald is that superstition essentially replaces the will save bonus anyway, that everyone loves free dex, and that you dont stop concentration abilities on your allies.

Urban Skalds have some interesting features, such as being a fairly rare source for Insight to AC (World Serpent totem), concealment (Spirit totem tier 2), overcoming DR (world serpent totem), but well, generally speakign you would want savage intution (to start performing as a free action at start of combat), superstition (massiv bonus to saves, which can be doubled with moment of greatness if that was precast) and witchhunter (basically a flat +4 damage on level 8).


A lot, Bard has many archetypes and then you have masterpieces on top of that


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Copy-Paste:

• Vanilla grants a competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Archivist grants an insight bonus to AC and on attack rolls and saving throws against knowledge'd targets.
Dwarven Scholar grants the benefits of combat feats.
Filidh grants an insight bonus on Reflex saving throws and to AC.
Flamesinger grants bonus fire damage on weapon attacks.
Court Bard lowers enemies' attack and damage rolls (language dependent).

And that's just the performances replacing Inspire Courage, without other performances like Flame Dancer's Song of the Fiery Gaze.

Notable Masterpieces:
Battle Song of the People's Revolt shares a teamwork feat.
Blazing Rondo grants Haste with improved numerical bonuses.
Life Budding in Salted Earth grants fast healing.
Symphony of the Elysian Heart grants Freedom of Movement.


My wife has a Seeker-level archivist bard in PFS who is highly optimized for knowledges, which makes her naturalist ability very reliable. She is very popular with other bards, because her go-to combat buff doesn't compete with theirs!


Derklord wrote:

Copy-Paste:

• Vanilla grants a competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Archivist grants an insight bonus to AC and on attack rolls and saving throws against knowledge'd targets.
Dwarven Scholar grants the benefits of combat feats.
Filidh grants an insight bonus on Reflex saving throws and to AC.
Flamesinger grants bonus fire damage on weapon attacks.
Court Bard lowers enemies' attack and damage rolls (language dependent).

And that's just the performances replacing Inspire Courage, without other performances like Flame Dancer's Song of the Fiery Gaze.

Notable Masterpieces:
Battle Song of the People's Revolt shares a teamwork feat.
Blazing Rondo grants Haste with improved numerical bonuses.
Life Budding in Salted Earth grants fast healing.
Symphony of the Elysian Heart grants Freedom of Movement.

Nice list!

To add to it... Arcane Duelist can hand out weapin enchantments via Bladethirst.

Arbiter Bards can share teamwork feats via Inspired Teamwork/Versatile Teamwork.

Chronicler of Worlds can help the party adapt to other planes of existence via Quintessence Infusion.

Arcane Healer gets Channel Energy, and thus can use Versatile Channel for all sorts off different options.

Magician can use Dweomercraft to add a bonus on caster level checks, concentration checks, and attack rolls with spells and spell-like abilities.


Hate to break it to you, VM, but most of your entries don't really work: Arcane Duelist only buffs a single weapon (until 18th level),
Averaka Arbiter doesn't share teamwork feats, it basically has Solo Tactics, and Arcane Healer can't use Variant Channeling, as that only works "if the class's abilities are tied to serving a deity". Chronicler of Worlds and Magician do work, although their buffs are extremely niche (especially in an all-Bard party).


I stand corrected.

Shows how much I used Bladethirst with Vash, my Arcane Duelist. Lol. Vash was always all about that Inspire Courage/Flagbearer/Banner of Ancient Kings business.

Good catch on the Arcane Healer's version of Channel Energy, and how Variant Channeling works.

I completely forgot that the Arbiter gets Solo Tactics and not Tactician... I was wondering why my Arbiter is VMC Cavalier, and now I know.


Don't forget some bards could be using offensive performances. A second Vanilla Bard could be using Dirge of Doom to debuff enemies, for example.


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*Writes down information for bard guide.*


IluzryMage wrote:
*Writes down information for bard guide.*

You have my attention...

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