Guide to the Battle Herald


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Hey I'm late to the conversation but I think that ignoring Street Performer Archetype might be a bit of a mistake. I was trying to make a Tank that has a lot of Combat Control, and Disappearing Act has a really cool effect. Make your squishy's invisible to people within 30 ft of you. (It's important to note that the ally doesn't need to be close at all for this to work.)

I charge in and hit with my first attack and try my best throughout the rest of the combat to keep them off my casters and damage dealers. Giving up my action to cast pseudo invisibility on an ally is incredibly useful for me. Especially if they need time to buff, or want to catch someone flatfooted.

It may not be the BEST archetype to take, but I like it more than Arcane Strike and Combat Casting (Mostly I cast Cure Light Wounds and Animate Rope out of combat). There are other people who will always build damage dealers, and other people who will be casting in combat. I feel my best actions as a Battle Herald are to taunt as many enemies into going after me as I can and if one slips past, try and push or pull them off my allies.

I will say though that Rallying Cry would be nice to have early levels (stupid Yeth Hounds), but past level 5 most of my party doesn't need the Will save buffed by my Intimidate, fear happens much less often than Dominate and Hold Person, or any of the other nasty Enchantments higher level monsters use now. And you aren't getting to the coolest part of the Arcane Duelist: Bladethirst which is super cool if you are staying a bard.

And maybe a better choice for a CC Tank is a Stalwart Defender but I really feel that Cavalier/Bard/Herald is still tanky enough to take a beating, and a target that GM's will decide to go after despite being the tank.

Grand Lodge

What do you think of a human (silvertongued) Herald Squire 2/ Evangelist 3 (travel). This has a 50ft movement speed without buffs and would be killer with deplomacy plus granting you 2nd level spells. Although it does loose tactitian.


I have been playing with a Battle Herald in PFS. I used the Spellscar Drifter for the first 4 level which give me a boom stick. With the musket, it really make me relevant even at higher level as a fighter.


I was wondering how effective it would be, to take the archetype "Duettist" for bard, since it would enable you to use bardic music (with your familiar) and have the ability to use the battle heralds "Inspiring Command" together with your familiar performing an "Inspire Courage"?

Dark Archive

So I just hit battle herald at level seven. It's PFS so I GMed through level one and came out as a cavalier (standered bearer) 1/bard (arcane duelist) 1. I put four more ranks into bard to get me to cav 1/ bard 5, this gave me access to a third second level bard spell as well as the Arcane Duelists bonded weapon which is great for getting a super-awesome-war-death-weapon, which I will attach to the banner of the ancient Kings.

What I want to know is can I use a move action to give everyone a inspired command, I'm thinking of going with inspired hardiness (cause who doesn't love DR/-), and then let it linger for three rounds while I use my standard to inspire courage, which will essentially put everyone at a +5 to attack and damage rolls (flagbearer), +3 saves on fear and charm, and plus 2 saves against mind-affecting effects? Basically a melee fighters wet dream.

My other question is are we overlooking shake it off? That's a huge bonus for when we're getting hit with high level mind effecting spells. And none shall fall looks pretty good too, possibly at battle herald 5?


Your dr will end if you start your bard performance


lingering performance will assist here.
arcane bond can be achieved with E.heritage as well, at a cost of 2 feats.

what i wonder, is Bard 1 Vs Bard 4 Vs cleric 1 or 4 option ?
you are a melee buffer (and \ or debuffer), not the main damage dealer.

first, lets see the Bard Vs Cleric area :
if taken a single level only, a Bard will add a lot more skills, and some nice spells like messege for quickly adding the bard boosting.
a cleric offer a single domain, that, some like Repose, Chaos, Madness and travel have AMAZING level 1 powers added to your kit.
also, the ability to cast at full plate Vs light armor is really handy.
all and all, the 1 level arcane Vs divine? the divine win even if by a minority.

level 4 bard VS level 4 cleric is a whole new story :
cleric added little more than the level 1... level 2 list is nice but not great. charisma is a better stat than wisdom to you, and versitile performance is GREAT 2 in 1 kit. you will need a feat to cast in medium armor , so at least you mirror image works.
still, Repose or Madness can "put a fight" as adding a strong attack to your arrenal.

Cavalier 1 Vs 4? it's down to 2 Q's:
1. do you want a mount and are small race? if so, horse master for the win, than bard 1, than BH rest. your spells suck, your buffs start late - but order of the dragon + honor gaurd + halfling + helpfull trait + bodygaurd on you AND your dog? you share full plate AC worth all around ....take swift Aid feat , and you can, with the pet, add infinite bonuses.
also, tactition is WAY better.

so.... thoughts?
BARD VS CLERIC?
1 VS 4 ?
for a front liner character. it's just seem to me , giving up the mount with horse master - like a HUGE loss...

Silver Crusade

A few thoughts based on the last post:

"you are a melee buffer (and \ or debuffer), not the main damage dealer."

I don't agree with this. You are definitely a buffer, but in your first 15 levels, you are only getting, at max 4 levels of spellcasting. You lose one point of BAB. Your buffs take at most a standard action (later a move or swift action) to activate. You have martial weapon and heavy armor proficiencies and at worst, four levels with d8 instead of d10 hit points. You need (at most) a 14 Wisdom or Charisma to get all your spells per day. Why can't you be a main damage dealer again? Now, you won't outdamage a barbarian who you are buffing but if you include your buffs, you should be able to stack up pretty well against a barbarian or fighter who is not getting your buffs (and that's a perfectly adequate main damage dealer in most parties) except at level 6 where that one point of BAB really sets you back.

If you didn't want to be a main combatant, why didn't you just stick with bard or cleric? They get more and better buffs with their magic and their inspire courage will always be at least one level better than yours. If you want to be a secondary combatant in addition to your buffs it's pretty easy to build that onto either the bard (especially arcane duelist) or evangelist cleric chassis.

One level vs 4 levels of your inspiration class? Since your main schtick is that you get nearly full bardic inspiration on a (nearly) full BAB chassis, and you have to take the BAB hit regardless of how many inspiration class levels you take, it seems like 4 levels of your inspiration class is the way to go. That said, you might be able to make a case for something like Cleric or bard 1/cavalier 1/Weapon Master fighter 3 as an entry point. Weapon Mastery would make you significantly more smashy and might be worth losing three levels of inspiration for.

Bard vs cleric at the spellcasting lvl 4 is going to come down to which spell list you like better and what you like to do.

Cleric seems like an obvious choice initially. You get some channel energy which is useful healing for a while. You can cast any of your spells in armor and there might be a useful domain ability (you give up one domain for the evangelist archetype) and an exotic weapon proficiency out there. However, upon closer inspection, I think that bard actually offers slightly more.
A. A lot of the cleric abilities will peter out in usefulness. Channel energy 1d6 (you give up 1 die for the evangelist archetype) is nice at level 1-4 but by level 8 you'll only use it to save wand of cure light wounds charges and it won't even save many of them. Bull's strength is a nice spell when you get it but by level 6 or so, you're probably buying a belt of strength. Divine favor with fate's favored seems good (especially if you take a trait for a caster level bump and can get +3 out of it at level 6) but you're not going to be able to quicken it without a rod. But that's about all you're going to get out of your cleric level past 7 or so and it costs a standard action at the start of combat which you will often want to use attacking. Even at +3/+3, it takes a while for the bonus to outweigh the standard action you sacrificed to get it.

A1. Also as an evangelist cleric you are stuck with spontaneous casting for command and enthrall. That's fine for a single class cleric, but not very useful for a battle herald who probably won't have decent DCs so you probably won't be doing any spontaneous casting.

B. By contrast, a lot of bard spells retain their utility into the high levels. Mirror image can be effective in a lot of fights to the end of your career and the same is true for heroism, bladed dash (swift action: inspired command, move action inspire courage, standard action: Bladed dash and still get your attack in), gallant inspiration, etc.

Also, a lot of the bard spells you want (gallant inspiration, bladed dash, etc) either have no somatic components or have long durations that enable you to cast them then put your armor on (heroism). So, even if you plan to wear fullplate, you can still make good use of your bardic spell abilities.

If you're going cleric, I think you have to get a lot of long duration milage out of your deity's favored weapon and domain in order for it to be a good choice.


I agree on most .
With 1 level cleric of luck add 5 times a day of re roll all checks to one ally. That's a strong buff on another melee ...
Bard indeed is a rounder package. Skills and versatile performance are both handy. Saving finnale is a super lvl 1 spell.
That work on full plate .

Level 1 vs 4 is a tougher choice than you wrote.

With horse master feat, 4 cavalier adds a mount. Even a dog add bodyguard feat and aid another. For huge buffs. With monstrous mount it can be a flyer.

Even if going dex build, 4 levels of cavalier can add 4 damage with precise strike and dazzling display with standard actions.
2 Level 2 spells a day is nice... But.. Seem the cavalier add a bit more.

I think the best is cavalier 4 Bard 1.
Either small on a dog , mounted for mobility a d double aid . (cavalier no archtype Or houndmaster)
Or human daring champion for dex scimitar knight. Fast moving and fencing.
Very nice... Will post some full builds soon


I think 5 levels of cleric is ideal for battle herald. Cavalier-2 (cockatrice)/Cleric-5 even better. First round debuff through intimidate and swift action divine favor (metamagic master and magical lineage) make divine favor quickened at level 7 (plus add in a drawback and get fates favored for even more goodness.

or buff party and yourself first. debuff optional. Thats before even stepping foot into battle herald


well.... i also found a weird option.
there is a bard Dervish of dawn, that X2 all the bard songs but they reflect only to self.
so......
bard 4, cav2 of cockatrice than battle herald.
lvl 2 spells, free dervish dancer feat, +2 bard song, +4 at level 7.
+6 at level 13.

you can choose to really self buff , or buff a little less but all your allies. it's a nice selfish knight, that work great as solo as well as in a party.
good skills as well, and if 1/2 orc or 1/2 elf - also great saves .

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