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I had this concept for a Bard who could use Kiirin(sp?) style and Bardic Knowledge together to ace knowledge checks and thus more-or-less permanently coast by with +2 to saves and +8 damage 1 / rd (double int).
I liked the concept of the super genius character who hurt enemies with his BRAINS, too.
Student of War seemed to be a perfect match, but unless I am really missing something the abilities just sort of suck (a +1 bonus to attack and damage? Really?).
Am I missing anything good about this PrC? Flavor is perfect, but I don't want to spent a swift action and a PrC level for a +1 to hit and damage (and lose spells, bardic knowledge, etc etc).
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well know your enemy starts at +1 but it finishes at +3 and you can gain it to atk/dmg or ac/saving throws, or cmg/cmd. It is sort of an anything you need ability. you get 3 bonus feats, ability to reduce dr, and it caps with getting to crit most non critable enemies. As long as you can make the knowledge checks, this seems like a pretty decent prc.
your main problem is the overabundance of swift action abilities open to you. bardic song, arcane strike, activating a style, know your enemy, etc. might be hard to fit all that into 1 encounter.
IDK - 10 levels to get to a +3 seems pretty weak compared to, say, any given magic user or Paladin smite...
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well paladin smite only works against evil targets a limited number of times per day. This can be used as often as you want. it is more comparable to weapon training or barbarian rage or maybe arcane strike.
bardic song is similar which is why this feels particularly weak. If you could activate know thy enemy as a free action, you could still be using other abilities on your turn.
though I would also like to say that the ability is strictly inferior until you hit the 7th lvl of the class. before that point it takes a move action to activate the ability which is pretty bad.
Yeah, he's an archaeologist bard so he gets a better bonus for that, plus the style itself...