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Last weekend I was playing at a convention for PFS and got a Society Boon, so now, I can play an Aasamir in society.
When looking at what class Aasamir plays best as I was tempted by many, including Mystic Theurge, Cleric, even thought about Crafting a Paladin. Problem is this is my 7th Society Character. So After that many, I already had a Paladin, Cleric, and had done a few other Classes too. But in my almost 10 years of Roleplay experience, I have never played a Bard, and the Aasamir Stat bonuses seem to support the idea somewhat.
I am thinking of using a build for a Two-Handed weapon wielding bard <Going to use a Longsword, and Worship Iomedae> and take the Archetype of Arcane Duelist <Advanced Player's Guide>. Here's where I want some advice. Stat Buy I went with this : 17 Str 14 Dex 12 Con 10 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha. It seems like I can keep pace with the damage of other melee classes and still be able to do the Bard party buffs and some healing abilities. Where I want the advice is on Feat Selection <Past Power Attack and Lingering Performance> as well as advice on Armor/Item purchases, and Spell Selection. As far as Spell and Item Selection the books I have are Core, APG, Inner Sea World Guide, Faction guide, Seeker of Secrets, Pathfinder Field Guide, Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic. So pretty much everything is open.
I don't need to be the "best" at anything with this guy, but don't want him to slouch and not pull his weight in a party either, I was looking towards pumping AC with purchases and Damage output with feats.
Thank you in advance for reading this and helping out as you see fit.
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I have found with the bards I played in the past it's usually better to be a ranged combatant, backing up your allies with bardic music and spells where appropriate.
My main reasoning behind this is that while bards can be competent enough dealing damage in front line combat they lack the defences required to hold up for long. Arcane Spell Failure will greatly limit your armor choices (even for an Arcane Duelist) and light armor will usually not be enough for melee combat. You'll also have a low hit point pool compared to other melee fighters.
If you do decide to go the melee route I strongly suggest a shield and a one handed weapon as well as feat and item selection that focuses on defence, like Dodge.
mithril breastplate is your best 'light' armor (to not interfere with Bard casting), although you need medium proficiency to use it. if you are OK with cheese, i believe the 'asian is better' trope and piecemeal armor rules allow getting better AC out of medium armor (see Ultimate Combat).
shield is a nice spell eventually, and/or stuff like blur/invisibility/mirror image helps your defense beyond just AC. some of that you can cast yourself, or use via UMD. you can get a Familiar to do some of that as well (SLA/UMD) and they can also use Aid Another to help your AC/CMD: they just need to threaten the enemy to do so, so they need to have half decent Reach (Pseudodragons have 5' reach with their Sleep-Stinger Tail).
EDIT: barkskin is also a spell/wand/potion you will like.
EDIT2: a 1 level dip in Oracle may be useful to you... for example with nature mystery you can gain CHA to AC/CMD, and other mysteries have similar abilities.