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The advantage of Harmonic Spell (in my mind) is that you can take a Cantrip like Lullaby or Ghost Sound and cast it every round to maintain a Bardic Performance forever.

One question on that- I thought cantrips were considered Level 0 spells? Maybe I just misunderstood something, idk.

...take a look at the Arcane Strike feat. Its great for a bard with a weapon. Maybe not neccessary at 3rd level, but starts to look better at 5th level. I hope you are using a rapier, either masterwork or +1.

Thanks! I'll definitely write that one down, to take this level or at level 5. I'm using a basic rapier for now (best I could afford with starting money. Once we head back to civilization, I'll most likely have enough to upgrade to something better)

You should look at Harmonic Spell (Inner Sea World Guide 287).

Ooh, that one does look good. I'll need to double-check with our GM, since he hasn't been making me keep track of my performance rounds so far, but switching performances as a swift action sounds great on it's own.

Hello again Pathfinder friends!

(First, I just want to thank everyone who responded to my first post about making a bard. I didn't want to necro it just to say thank you, but it's because of all your advice that I was able to make a pretty solid character who's been a decent asset to our campaign so far. I hope that someday, I will be familiar enough with this game to give back to this wonderful community.)

I wanted to ask about feats. We've had several sessions by now, and I've gotten a bit of a feel for how the combat works, and my own preferred play-style (casting and melee). We just hit level three, which means a new feat- and I want to make sure I get this one right. I still wasn't entirely sure about the game's mechanics when I started out, so I took Weapon Finesse as my first feat. Looking back, I definitely could have done better. There is, uh, a reason I want to make extra-sure to pick better this time. Our group is already small, and on top of that, our Druid is... well, unorganized? He was supposed to be our healer and was built for ranged attacks, but most of the time he gets really excited about trying out a spell that sounds cool, but in the end is completely useless. Then he gets his ass handed to him and I have to use 2-3 turns getting to a spot where I can heal him before he dies. And since our GM is being especially tough with the battles in this campaign, anything I can do to give us an advantage is going to make life so much easier for everyone.

So far, I've been at my best when debuffing. Bardic performance is part of it, but also using spells to distract and incapacitate enemies has to be my favorite thing to do. So as I go through the huge lists of feats, if there are any good ones you guys know of that could help this playstyle/our group in general, let me know! Also, if I should shift my focus to something else aside from casting and occasional melee, given the circumstances.

Again, thank you so much for all of your help so far!

Edit: should probably note that we seem to be sticking to the core game for the most part, so I'm not sure if GM would allow feats from other areas.

If you have Charisma 18 and Spell Focus: Enchantment, then enemies will need to making a saving throw of 16 to not fall asleep when hit by Sleep. If you have Charisma 14 and no spell focus, they'll only need a 13. Typically that might be the difference between a fifty-fifty chance of it working and a two out of three chance of it working.

!!! That sounds really good! There are so many spells to pick from, so I've been struggling with what to go with (since I'm not familiar with all the mechanics yet), but that seems incredibly useful!

mourge40k- (Cool! Looks like Perception is just universally essential no matter what the game) Our party is rather small at the moment since some of our group members moved out of state. The others are a Druid and a Ranger, but I know the Ranger's player really well and she's not going to be happy unless she can do melee. Druid's player said they would be the main healer, so I thought I could be sort of a rogue-ish caster, confusing the enemy and such? If that makes sense to do with what the others are.

Matthew- Thank you!! I didn't know the 1 point per skill rule, definitely need to make some changes. And thanks for clarifying what exactly versatile performance does, I wasn't quite clear on it to be honest ;;

edit: Just fyi, it was really cool to get clear, helpful advice so quickly! This seems like an awesome community, thank you guys so much

Use Magic Device allows you to use magic items you wouldn't normally be able to use. Anyone can use wands that cast spells from their own spell lists (for example, as a Bard you could use a wand of Cure Light Wounds) but you need UMD skill to use wands and scrolls from other classes.

Ohhhhh okay, so it's a sort of "being able to use computers" type of skill. Do you think it's something I need to put points in at level 1?

Hello Pathfinder friends! (I hope I'm posting this in the right place)

As the title says, I'm about to start my first ever Pathfinder campaign. I've played tabletop games for several years now, but so far it's been almost exclusively Shadowrun (not for any particular reason, that's just what most of the GMs/DMs I knew wanted to play.) But the DM from our last campaign has experience in Pathfinder and wanted to try playing that for a change. I was all for it- since I love RPGs no matter what the setting, but I'm a tad apprehensive.

Being a Bard seemed really cool, so that's what I've picked as my class. But our DM, as great as he is, hasn't been quite as helpful as I'd like. He's very into the "pick the skills you like and I'll tailor the game to fit your character" philosophy, and he always says something along those lines when I ask which skills I should start out with. Now, if this were Shadowrun, that would be fine, because I know how that game's character creation works and what skills are essential, etc. But Pathfinder is completely foreign to me.

I've looked at a number of guides and realized that I really need to respec my character from what I had initially, but every guide I can find seems to cover Bards across all levels, and it's really hard to tell what skills I need to invest in straight away vs skills that can wait (and I'm still not entirely sure what Use Magic Device does).

Any advice you guys have, or if you have any newbie-friendly Bard guides you can point me too, would be greatly appreciated! ^_^

(Extra info that might be important?: My bard is a half-elf, at least for now. I have 8 skill points and 130gp to start off with, and my ability rolls were 12,12,13,13,14,16. Also, our DM is scrapping Flat-Footed, if that makes any difference)