(Offtopic: First post, glad to join you guys.)
I just found out about PF these past few months and immediately fell in love with it. Never done tabletop gaming before, still surprised by how engrossing it all is--and I only know about Pathfinder!
To reach the point, I'm in the nascent stages of my first adventure, level 2 Urban Ranger Half-elf. Of course my whole group is new to it, so classes aren't dead set just yet, so I want to save that class for another adventure (or reroll, should the worst come to pass). Given the opportunity, I'd break the game. I see all sorts of people throwing around minmax builds and crazy awesome optimizations and I immediately identify with them; my approach to gaming is accruing as much power as possible. So, I'm intentionally avoiding Wizard-type casters in the interest of keeping the game fun and balanced for everyone else.
It hit me that Standard Bearer Cavalier/Arcane Duelist Bard/Battle Herald is the perfect solution for my dilemma. I'm still tempted toward optimizing, but instead of taking all the glory, I'd be empowering my friends to do fun stuff and attempt daring maneuvers. Plus I like to play the diplomat and since I have the most interest invested in learning the system, I'm probably better suited to the role of tactician/diplomat/party advisor.
So, the situation:
Level 2 party. Iconics Kyra, Valeros, and Merisiel plus a blaster Sorcerer and yours-truly. We're all new to the game.
I've been looking at a wonderful guide to the class by Salazzar Slaan/Realsorcerer and here's what I'm wondering:
I'm concerned about the party being too squishy. Would it be more appropriate, given party makeup, to do Cav 4/Bard 1 or Bard 4/ Cav 1?
What Bard spells accent this playstyle?
What noncombat feats would you recommend?
What suggestions do you have regarding other classes that function in a similar way to this playstyle?
I'd go as far high as possible with Bard, Arcane Duelist is very good.
Also look into the Inspiring Commander 3pp archetype, i think it's good and also balanced.
You could go Evangelist cleric. It get's bardic performance and channel and cleric spells. It's a really great support class. It buffs and heals and some spells. Plus you can wear heavy armor and have lots of HP and CHA with enough wis for spells and just wade into the fight. Even better, is go halfling and get the feat that lets you share your total defense and fighting defensively bonuses and you just run around defending and boosting everyone.
If you're allowed any third party, the psionic Tactician or martial maneuver Warlord (both by Dreamscarred Press) are excellent classes that do a lot with tactical stuff.
its his first pathfinder group, he's new to table top gaming, and the majority of the party is new too, with a good portion of the players using Pregen characters essentially designed using pathfinder beta from 2008!
I would suggest keeping it simply for the first rodeo.
Play the Iconic gnome bard, Lem or the Iconic Cavalier, Alain.
you want a tactician type character, cavalier has an ability called that.
Don't go bouncing around into PrC and 3PP just yet.
Just play the game and enjoy the already fun to play base line.