Ok, so my girlfriend is playing a Bard in my homebrew campaign and we were looking for suggestions on how to set up her ability scores. We rolled stats oddly enough she rolled 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Her race (which is homebrewed) gets a +2 con, -2 wis, and +2 cha. As of now I put the 15 in str, the 13 in con (giving her a 15 con) and the 14 in wis (giving her a 12 wis). She wants to have a good mix of social ability, spell casting, and fighting (which will probably be a mix of melee and ranged). Any suggestions on where to place the remaining 16, 17, and 18 would be appreciated. Thanks.
EDIT: If it helps, the party is 4th level and consists of a Fighter specializing with greatswords and running around in full plate, a Sorcerer going into Dragon Disciple, a Psion, a Druid, and an Inquisitor using firearms.
Archer bards are pretty good all around, so I would head that direction.
Str 15
Dex 18
Con 13(15)
Int 16
Wis 14(12)
Cha 17(19)
I put the dex highest because I would rather have a +1 to hit than a +1 to spell DC at level 1. At level 4, bump charisma up.
Archer bards are pretty good all around, so I would head that direction.
Str 15
Dex 18
Con 13(15)
Int 16
Wis 14(12)
Cha 17(19)I put the dex highest because I would rather have a +1 to hit than a +1 to spell DC at level 1. At level 4, bump charisma up.
Good call, I kind of forgot the party was 4th level to be honest :P (we haven't played in a few weeks)
Some other things to consider.
Bards actually get a decent benefit from a 1 level dip into Fey Sorcerer.
1. Pick up magical knack to make up for the loss in caster level.
2. +2 to the DC of all Enchantment(Compulsion) spells. Confusion, Lesser Confusion, Hold Person, Hideous Laughter, Dominate Person, Suggestion, etc are all on the bards spell list.
3. You get access to level 1 sorcerer spells that are not on the bard list like true strike, shield, mage armor, etc. Just make sure to pick spells with effects that are not heavily level dependent.
4. Laughing touch is lots of fun as well.
All in all it is not a bad trade off.
You can make any bard awesome with those stats. I prefer melee bards, because I feel the ranged takes too many feats, so:
str 18
dex 16
con 13(15)+1(16)
int 15
wis 14(12)
cha 17(19)
would be what I would do. No need to have cha up that high yet. Honestly, I rarely bring it over 16, but with those stats and a racial boost, its pretty awesome. I would have weapon focus and arcane strike for my feats, personally.
There's actually no pressing need to have Charisma over 16 with a Bard. All Charisma does for them is boost social skills (which they have spells and class abilities that can compensate for), increase DCs (not an issue if you stick to buffs and saveless spells), and increase spells per day (useful, admittedly, but not a major deal).
I've actually seen Bard builds that start with 12 Charisma and just use headbands of alluring charisma to supply the rest. You'll have to be more careful about spells, and your offensive performances will have slightly lower DCs, but it's the buffing performances that are the best anyway. Especially in a large party like yours; inspire courage will actually help everyone in your party except the Psion and the Sorcerer, and even him if he plans to be a melee-oriented Dragon Disciple. It hits the Druid twice (Character + animal companion), too.
There's actually no pressing need to have Charisma over 16 with a Bard. All Charisma does for them is boost social skills (which they have spells and class abilities that can compensate for), increase DCs (not an issue if you stick to buffs and saveless spells), and increase spells per day (useful, admittedly, but not a major deal).
I've actually seen Bard builds that start with 12 Charisma and just use headbands of alluring charisma to supply the rest. You'll have to be more careful about spells, and your offensive performances will have slightly lower DCs, but it's the buffing performances that are the best anyway. Especially in a large party like yours; inspire courage will actually help everyone in your party except the Psion and the Sorcerer, and even him if he plans to be a melee-oriented Dragon Disciple. It hits the Druid twice (Character + animal companion), too.
All depends on style, I like having the extra spells per day and being able to use spells like hideous laughter. YMMV.
That's pretty much what I meant. A lot of people who don't have extremely high system mastery see "Bards use Charisma to cast spells" and immediately equate that to Wizards using Intelligence or Clerics using Wisdom and thinking you have to keep it as high as possible. What I was pointing out is that you really don't. You want Cha 16 so you can cast your max-level spells, but anything above that is bonus, not requirement. It's certainly useful, but (unlike with full casters), having just enough in your casting stat to cast your highest level spells isn't going to cripple your character.
That's pretty much what I meant. A lot of people who don't have extremely high system mastery see "Bards use Charisma to cast spells" and immediately equate that to Wizards using Intelligence or Clerics using Wisdom and thinking you have to keep it as high as possible. What I was pointing out is that you really don't. You want Cha 16 so you can cast your max-level spells, but anything above that is bonus, not requirement. It's certainly useful, but (unlike with full casters), having just enough in your casting stat to cast your highest level spells isn't going to cripple your character.
That's one of the reasons why I have a problem with the bard. It's a charisma class but they don't really need charisma. Or should I say, you shouldn't boost charisma. Something I've hoped the APG should have fixed.
Overall I think the APG, with the exception of the arcane duelist and a few spells, is a bit of a disappointment if you want to play a bard. Especially when you play a core bard.Zurai, if you are reading this. I remember your info that clerics in 1st ed only had level 7 spell?. That's why the cleric spell list is a bit weak at spell level 7 to 9. This wasn't changed by the APG. No real powerful healing spells (I had hoped for a lesser mass heal. Something like dual heal) and no real sexy or fun high level spells. Hey, they even gave the life Oracle mass CCW as a 8 level spell. I guess they couldn't find any good spells....because there were none. .
Ok, so my girlfriend is playing a Bard in my homebrew campaign and we were looking for suggestions on how to set up her ability scores. We rolled stats oddly enough she rolled 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Her race (which is homebrewed) gets a +2 con, -2 wis, and +2 cha. [...] She wants to have a good mix of social ability, spell casting, and fighting (which will probably be a mix of melee and ranged).
Str 18 (17 +1)
Dex 18Con 16 (14 +2)
Int 15
Wis 11 (13 -2)
Cha 18 (16 +2)
After talking with my girlfriend a little more she would rather do a melee build so we're thinking stats like Caineach posted only she wants the 20 charisma for charm and other enchantment spells (I forgot to mention her race adds +1 to the DC of enchantment spells). She's honestly somewhat of a guest character that will be coming and going. I also forgot to mention that she really wanted a familiar so I allowed her to take Obtain Familiar as her 3rd level feat and spend an extra 100gp (making the total amount 200gp) to get a snake that speaks Draconic and goes by Satan. I know it's not the greatest feat selection but, she's really just there to have fun. She'll probably take Arcane Strike as her 1st level feat.
Personally I'd avoid an archer build due to the party. Other than the fighter and the druid animal companion it seems like everyone else wants to stay behind and cast spells or shoot things. Yet another person like that isn't likely to help.
Well, the Sorcerer is the Battle Sorcerer variant from Unearthed Arcana and the Druid took the Weather Domain over the Animal Companion but is more or less focusing on Wild Shape for combat. The Bard is going to be a melee focused bard and possibly even doing a skirmisher type by taking the Spring Attack tree and Vital Strike. Really the only people that stay out of melee are the Inquisitor and Psion.
she would rather do a melee build [...] she wants the 20 charisma
Str 18 (17+1)
Dex 15Con 18 (16+2)
Int 14
Wis 11 (13-2)
Cha 20 (18+2)
She went with Str: 17, Dex: 16, Con: 15 (13+2), Int: 15, Wis: 12 (14-2), Cha: 20 (18+2)