Fiznab's page

We are near the last temple of Orcus. Our current party is performing really well and it is composed by:

-Buffer bard (played by me, stacks well with 4 DPR character)
-Oath of vengeance archer paladin (lots of smite)
-Champion of irori (lots of smite)
-Scarred witch doctor (full caster with high hp! Plus slumber help you survive first levels)
-Musket master (double barrelled musket ownz the world)
-Trapper ranger (trapfinding+damage)

Kill the enemy before they kill you. AND BE CAREFUL. ALWAYS.

Yes please :-D

I have to point out a critical flaw in this build idea. Namely that you can't use the banner of ancient kings and cast any spells.

"As long as the longspear or pole to which the banner is attached is firmly wielded in two hands...."

When using the banner you must hold it in Two Hands to get the effect. This means that you can't cast spells because you have no free hands.

The easiest way to fix it though is to make the guy an arcane duelist.

Pros, cast spells while wielding the flag, blade thirst and mass blade thirst (over some DR and ghost touch), and ability to wear armor.

Cons your skills are destroyed, you have to rely on your own abilities for skills. It also comes with a bunch of useless feats (if your not planning on attacking).

Please note that holding the banner in two hand is only required to get the bonus to initiative. After you rolled it you can hold it in one hand.

@Reynard: you can't use whip and banner togheter. Anyway your performance+ spell selection+dazzling display (or dirge of doo)+ any debuff (slow) should cover at least the first 3 round of combat. In my experience rarely fights last longer. Anyway It's very difficult not to have anything to do.

@Morgan: unfortunately english is not my native language, and in my country the teaching of this language is poor. I am really sorry for every mistake you are finding. However i will correct any you will point to me.

I love the Banner of Ancient Kings. But.

There's no way to keep it from getting sundered. It's cloth. Any creature from a tribal or feudal culture will recognize the importance of morale in a fight, and cut the thing off your spear. Ditto for military opponents. Ditto for anything with enough spell knowledge to recognize the magic item.

One swipe of a blade from some 2-HD mook and your big Flagbearer bonus becomes a debuff for an hour. All the bonuses that you and your companions would normally get from Courageous weapons are gone. And on top of that, it takes a 16th-level casting of Make Whole to fix it, so until your party is leveled that high, you'll pay thousands of gold every time it's destroyed, if you even have a scroll or can jet back to a city.

If you can provide ways around that problem, you will have written a very useful guide.

I will add a section about this, because it is a very important topic. Remember that magic broom is cheap and let you ignore sundering problems

Fiznab wrote:

@Atarlost:
-Combat: I'm not sure what you are saying. If the problem is low CON iI suggested to buy +6 CON belt. If you we're talking about AC I feel that it is te less effective layer of protection you can have. I rated high mirror image for a purpose. Also, a Flying, invisibile, mirror imaged bard it is not so easy to kill. Please note that I played him through floor 1 to 14 in Rappan Athuk.
-INT is NOT used out of combat. Knowledges are fundamental to buff your party in the right way.
-STR is to be dumped, you can alter your carry capacity in many ways.
-Spells: please note that I examinated ALL core and APG, UM and UC spells. I listet only some of them because you can learn only a few ad a bard, and there are not so many useful bard spells anyway.
-guide for a build: have you ever read Kbrewer great guides? Many of them are about a certain build, I liked and get inspired by them anyway.
-Nets: I Agree. Nets are great.

You seem to not really understand gear. You can't rely on high level magic items to overcome a low level problem. You won't live long enough to buy a con belt if you don't have enough con to start with. You won't live long enough to get mirror image if you don't have any AC. Lots of things have true seeing or blind-sight as well. Like pretty much all demons over CR 13 for example. Having only one defense is not adequate. Besides, every action spent on in-combat defense spells is an action spent not doing your job.

Knowledges are already covered. Knowledge DCs scale with CR, not 1.5x CR. There's little reason to more than half-max any knowledge as a bard. That's 6 int you don't need. There are also patterns to monsters. You're not going to get anything useful on high level humanoids so you don't need local and unless you're in a fey themed AP there's nothing important under nature. That's 4 skill points per level you're wasting on knowledges and therefore 8 points too many of int. That's a lot of point buy.

There is nothing you can do...

Thank you to be rude, I won't answer you anymore.

Too much emphasis on gear in my opinion, especially to shore up weaknesses.

Just my take. We play in a lower magic campaign and learned long ago the value of focusing on what you can do rather than what you can buy.

As I wrote before if you can't afford banner of the ancient kings there is no problem, good hope is your friend!

Well, nothing bad with a Kitsune Lotus Geisha Bard.

You loose some, but gain some other.
Kitsune realistic Likeness is one of the most fun roleplaying feats, combine with disguise self.
Kitsune magic helps with enchantments and Lotus Geisha too.
Crank out that nice enchantment controll spells.

If you are good and mean, Peacemaker feat and Mediator trait prohibit any combat with calm emotions or take out individual foes for a while.

Enrapturing Performance is more specific, but it´s a nice solo/one person buff or DC raiser.

Only sad thing is the loss of exotic weapon proficiency whip, which is not replaced by something worthwhile. Fighting fans and sai look awesome, but Lotus Geisha are probably not melee bards.

Nice combo here! But I feel that calm emotion screw you party as well as enemies. Truth to be told it also can resolve many problems.

First of all thank you for the nice advices!

@Taenia: you are absolutely right, FoM for all your party is too good to be missed. This masterpiece will be added.

@Crosswind:
-Blistering invective is ok, I can add it to the guide, and i will suggest to swap it with other spells when you can use dirge of doom together with inspire courage. Problem is that level 2 spell choices are very tights.
-Gilbness is really a Broken spell, but it purpose is different from the one of the buffer bard.
-Same here for sculpt sound

@Atarlost:
-Combat: I'm not sure what you are saying. If the problem is low CON iI suggested to buy +6 CON belt. If you we're talking about AC I feel that it is te less effective layer of protection you can have. I rated high mirror image for a purpose. Also, a Flying, invisibile, mirror imaged bard it is not so easy to kill. Please note that I played him through floor 1 to 14 in Rappan Athuk.
-INT is NOT used out of combat. Knowledges are fundamental to buff your party in the right way.
-STR is to be dumped, you can alter your carry capacity in many ways.
-Spells: please note that I examinated ALL core and APG, UM and UC spells. I listet only some of them because you can learn only a few ad a bard, and there are not so many useful bard spells anyway.
-guide for a build: have you ever read Kbrewer great guides? Many of them are about a certain build, I liked and get inspired by them anyway.
-Nets: I Agree. Nets are great.

Great guide.

I believe that you should also mention the Chelish Diva at the archetype section. It is one of the best archetypes that every bard should consider. It allows you to increase the DCs of your performances, cast in heavy armor and has a no-save single target fear bardic performance. It might not give buffing power, but the seer amound of benefits that come with the archetype compliment nicely a bard focusing on supporting its allies.

You are right, I will add this archetype to my guide. It loses well versed and bonuses to knowledges but the possiblity to control the battlefield indefinitely through Scathing Tirade is really a strong choice.

@Taenia: I will correct the guide, thank you for the imput. I will also add advice about freebooter ranger (I should add a chapter about dips) and about retraining feats.
I do not like to take lingering performance because I prefer using harmonizing armor enchant, so I can use the feat slot for something else, this bard is a little feat starved at the beginning of the game :P.

@Wiggz: First thank you for the imput!
-Healing; I really dislike healing durign combat, and I think out of combat healing should be provided by CLW.
-Gear; While flagbearer and banner of the ancient kings are very important for the build, the buffer bard can live whitout them thanks to good hope (buy a wand!) and heroism.
-Dips; i will add a section about dips ;)
-Damage; I do not feel dealing damage is Buffer's role, but with some archetypes this can be achieved.
-Lotus Geisha; I did not write about lotus gheisha because I do not like them, I found Enrapturing Performance not very useful.

@Chaos effect: Thank you for your advice!
You should note that Pageant of the Peacock needs a standard action to be performed, preventing you to cast a spell in the same round; I do not feel like dumping INT, please note that high int give you more skill point, not just better knowledge, and that Bardic Knowledge gives a high bonus to your skills. However, it's a very good masterpiece, I will add it in the guide and I will update the ability score section accordingly.

I Made a guide to the bard focused on buffing party members in the best possible way. Hope it will be included in the guide to the guides!

LINK

Hello travellers! I've never posted on the messageboard but I'm lurking here for some years. From my experience in a Rappan Athuk campaign I decided to write a guide focused on buffs a bard can provide his party. I hope you like it.

the guide!