I'm working on a Bard for our party. Its been decided that she will be a non-combatant and enchantment heavy (and I mean heavy)... I've been toying with her feats and I've set aside two to provide the best defense they can in the event that the party is unable to adequately protect her. The two feats I'm torn between are Acrobatic and Acrobatic Dodge or Improved Unarmed Strike and Snake Style. On the surface it would seem that Snake Style is the better option as it is usable every round. Am I correct in assuming that the skill bonuses granted by Acrobatic or Snake Style would not be applicable when using Versatile Performance to use Perform to replace those skills?
The problem is that I'm unfamiliar with Bards and I'm not 100% certain how Versatile Performance works with these two feats. I presume that I can use it in place of either the Acrobatics check or the Sense Motive check, correct? If so, let's say I'm engaging in Bardic Performance using a performing style that doesn't match the Versatile Performance requirement - can the Perform still stand in for the respective skill checks?
Any thoughts or clarifications on how this works and if this idea would be viable would be much appreciated.
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Am I correct in assuming that the skill bonuses granted by Acrobatic or Snake Style would not be applicable when using Versatile Performance to use Perform to replace those skills?
I believe so, since you are using your bonus from the Perform skill not the actual skill bonus. If the character had anything that granted them a bonus to that Perform skill however that would apply.
You could make a house rule that would allow, say, Perform (Oratory) to replace Acrobatics, but purely by the RAW you must use the specified Perform skill bonus in place of the actual skill (Perform [Dance], in place of Acrobatics).
I think you may be better off simply giving them Dodge and another defensive feat like Combat Expertise. Spell selection can also help, they don't need to be Abjuration spells, a few Illusions can do wonders for keeping your Bard safe from harm.
I think you may be better off simply giving them Dodge and another defensive feat like Combat Expertise. Spell selection can also help, they don't need to be Abjuration spells, a few Illusions can do wonders for keeping your Bard safe from harm.
The character will be trying to stay at range and beyond the reach of the bad guys as much as possible. Savings throws will be through the roof thanks to a dip into Paladin for Divine Grace so all that she needs to worry about is ranged attacks. Most foes won't have many which is why I'm leaning towards Snake Style - against 1 attack/round your skill check total serves as your AC, including your touch AC. That's as good a defense as I could think she'd want.
I think I got confused on my other question and thus confused you, presuming that you needed to 'pick' a perform style when using Bardic Performance - let's say I choose 'Dance' and begin my performance, buffing everyone with Inspire Courage. Then, a round or two into combat I need to use my Snake Style feat to avoid an attack... well, that uses Sense Motive which is replaced by the Sing perform skill, not Dance - do I have to stop my Dance Performance to use it?
Looking at it, I would think not as 1) you can Dance and Sing at the same time and 2) your Bardic Performance doesn't interfere in spells with verbal or somatic components, so I suppose it wouldn't interfere here either.
Looking at it, I would think not as 1) you can Dance and Sing at the same time and 2) your Bardic Performance doesn't interfere in spells with verbal or somatic components, so I suppose it wouldn't interfere here either.
You don't need to do any actions to gain the benefits of versatile performance, ie you don't need to sing to get a bonus to sense motive. It just works. I like to look at it as practicing a lot in your chosen versatile performance skills have given you a huge edge in their related skills.
I would go with IUS/Snake Style as that also opens up deflect arrows for you to negate yet another ranged attack coming in. This way you can save your snake style immediate action for ranged touch attacks or spells, and use deflect arrows on the more mundane stuff.
Sidenote: Snake style's weakness is that it burns your swift action for the following round. If you're counting on using snake style, don't count on using your swifts.