numbersix's page

Factor in the usual, just like everyone else said.
Cover and concealment
Weather
Tanglefoot bags (entangle is nasty against archers)
Smoke sticks
Summoned mooks.

Add and modify the encounters, you need to challenge the larger party.

Just like any PC group, NPCs should try to shut down the biggest threat first.
In the wild, most everything IS difficult terrain and woodlands will have shrubbery for concealment. Darkness and dimly lit areas are everywhere. Your inquisitor may have to cast more to get the melee going.
Prolonged encounters use up resources and the PCs will need to adjust för that.

Going with a STR based hexcrafter bladebound myself at the moment, using Enforcer + rimed frostbites for fun, shocking grasps(lineage) or Brand for damage or melee, and evil eye when nothing else seems appropriate. Fly hex is useful, but not mandatory (you'll be using overland flight at late levels, and can get flight with Monstrous physique, if needed).

You _can_ push power attacking until level 7 and Intensified spells up to level 9 (the difference with damage potential isn't all that significant when compared to monster HP before that), if you need the feats for something else (I'd go for Big game hunter for a nice, fairly generic to hit/to damage boost).

For a decent debuffing experience I'd suggest getting extra traits (spell hunter or metamagic master for fireball) and get that sickening spell for it. Add lingering pain arcana for versatility, and you'll have a nice "negative bard" character targeting pretty much any save you want, with multiple elements in case of resistances. Add those funky [force] spells that magi have, and you can try some maneuvering as well.

A bladebound magus suffers a bit from the smaller pool, and even with that intelligent weapon nastiness to be expected from your GM, it's still worth the trade in my book. If you can pick up both human and elf FCBs, you'll be able to compensate for both the loss of one arcana (elf FCB) and the smaller pool (human FCB).

The thing about hexes is: Every single debuffing hex is a (Su) ability, and as such, not subject to spell resistance (or globes of invulnerability). Even if you take just one or two, you'll have a really good tool for higher levels.

Even when you aren't doing top damage, you'll be saving your party's hide with debuffing goodness.

Oh I am fully aware that a bard won only be performing in combat, its just the concept. It has to be an application of the perform skill, whether its dance, or oratory or whatever, it just doesnt sit with me, and seems rather silly. I know that the bard can and should do other things in combat (use his spells, or provide secondary combat with blade or bow), but the idea that he's doing this WHILE performing in some way isn't a character type I am interested in playing.

Too bad.

I disagree, if your game is all about dps then chances are the bard is a good choice. Its ability to buff can pay some serious dividends in the right group. In my group which is rather large, it would be a very large dps bump if we had a monk. But for the most part no one plays them. For me its about the story side and not the combat side. I dont like the image of the bard, and I really cant get over the whole 'guy who is performing in the middle of combat'. Whether its singing, or chanting, or playing a lute, it just seems silly to me.

I was actually looking at it recently, and really the only way I would play a bard is if I removed the bardic perfromance. Which ofcourse then begs the question...why play a bard in the first place?

Bard IS a damage boost and not a small one at that. My point was that if the players compete by measuring the individual damage dealt (like in some games I know), then a bard won't be shining.

If you think that performing is the only thing a bard does in combat, think again - keeping up the performance is still a free action and you do have the whole round to do stuff. Just think about everything else you can use as a performance - dancing in the melee or shouting (commands/insults/whatever) at people while twanging away with his bow or in between castings. It kinda changes the whole picture.

Still, bards aren't for everyone.

The bard is fine (and pretty damn good with the APG stuff for flavor). It all boils down to the play style - if it's all about DPS and players competing against each other, then a bard probably isn't what you want. If the play is more co-op and/or story involved, a bard will fit nicely in a group of four.

Just get into that support role - you're perfectly capable of buffing the party and taking a mob or two out of combat while the party wipes the floor with the rest of the encounter, but you do need to plan it. And when it comes to the out-of combat play, you can really outshine the damage focused guys.

When planning a bard, you really should plan to fit the party - if it's a "melee" group, you're better off buffing the group and maybe shooting an odd arrow every now and then; if it's "mostly ranged", you'll find your flanking and hindering foes a more important aspect.
You'll want to be _really good_ in one thing, capable of doing most off-combat stuff quite well, and let others shine in what they do best.

Bards still win fights, they just aren't the glory hounds.
A decent bard can be the conjurer's or summoner's best friend (or if you have an evoker, she'll just love you for being the buffs guy), a spokesman for the druids, rangers and fighters, a fairly decent diviner, a skill monkey when needed, you name it. Just don't try to do _everything_ at once.

strength has nothing to do with intimidate skill - you are still trying to convince your opponent about your superiority. Even with displays of strength you're trying to make it look good, not just crazy.