Dawnflower Dervish, feats and so :)

[Quatar]

So I'm going to make a Dawnflower Dervish Bard, who will be mostly focused on melee combat and buffing herself, and only secondary on buffing the rest of the party. Yes horribly selfish, I know. :)

Obviously will be using a Scimitar and have a high dex, to make use of the Dervish Dance feat I get for free. (Btw, this one does ignore prerequisites right? Don't need Weapon Finesse this way?)

So I'm looking into feats I can take for this, and an obvious one is Power Attack of course. However I really have no need for Strength aside from meeting the prereq for it, is that really worth it for a character like that? I don't have full BAB and the feats that require Power Attack also don't seem to be very fitting.

I also looked at Arcane Strike which is also very nice. Only a +1 damage instead of +2 (i can only one-hand wield my scimitar), but no -1 to attack either.

I know it's not an either/or choice, I could take and use both.

Weapon Focus of course is on the list for the future as well. Again not sure if PA or that wins in direct competition either.

But I'm sure these aren't the only good feats for a melee bard, so what other ideas to do you have?

[Phasics]

Quatar wrote:

So I'm going to make a Dawnflower Dervish Bard, who will be mostly focused on melee combat and buffing herself, and only secondary on buffing the rest of the party. Yes horribly selfish, I know. :)

Obviously will be using a Scimitar and have a high dex, to make use of the Dervish Dance feat I get for free. (Btw, this one does ignore prerequisites right? Don't need Weapon Finesse this way?)

So I'm looking into feats I can take for this, and an obvious one is Power Attack of course. However I really have no need for Strength aside from meeting the prereq for it, is that really worth it for a character like that? I don't have full BAB and the feats that require Power Attack also don't seem to be very fitting.

I also looked at Arcane Strike which is also very nice. Only a +1 damage instead of +2 (i can only one-hand wield my scimitar), but no -1 to attack either.

I know it's not an either/or choice, I could take and use both.

Weapon Focus of course is on the list for the future as well. Again not sure if PA or that wins in direct competition either.

But I'm sure these aren't the only good feats for a melee bard, so what other ideas to do you have?

Piranha Strike is the Power attack equivalent for light weapons

[Quatar]

Phasics wrote:

Piranha Strike is the Power attack equivalent for light weapons

That's true, but there are two problems:

a) Scimitar is not a light weapon, it's one-handed
b) Piranha Strike needs Weapon Finesse which I don't have

[Take Boat]

Piranha Strike doesn't work with scimitars, they're still considered one-handed even if you have the Dervish Dance feat.

There's also the Dervish Dancer archetype (annoyingly similar, I know) that gives you some cooler stuff at high levels, but you don't get the feat for free. If you use one of the other dances it gives, you could pick up the Flagbearer feat later on, you're allowed to hold a flag in your off-hand, it just doesn't stack with inspire courage. Also, you can twirl the flag.

If the campaign looks to be going past level 9 or so, I'd go with the Dervish Dancer over the Dawnflower Dervish.

[Petty Alchemy]

Keep in mind that the Scimitar is not a light weapon, however. It would take houseruling to use Piranha Strike with it.

Having 13 Strength isn't a bad idea even with Dervish Dance, if your group tracks carrying capacity.

Perhaps Combat Casting could be of use to a melee bard. Lingering performance is also nice.

[ashern]

Weapon focus, power attack, lingering performance are all good. If you're rocking a bard variant that gets dirge of doom then the shatter defenses line is good as well. Just depends on what all you want to do.

[Silent Saturn]

I'd say go with Arcane Strike and forget about Power Attack, unless you see something else you like that uses PA as a prereq. Weapon Focus is good too, as is Combat Casting.

Since you're focusing on Dex, Combat Reflexes would be pretty cute too.

[Jon Otaguro 428]

Lingering performance doesn't work with battle dance.

I would recommend taking power attack unless you are set on playing a small size bard (where getting a 13STR on a point buy is a serious amount of points).

[jyster]

1 level of Bard, then go Magus

[twells]

jyster wrote:

1 level of Bard, then go Magus

I did this and have never looked back.

[Quatar]

Can you elaborate on that a bit, please? Bard and Magus don't seem to interact that awesomely well from what I see.

[Umbranus]

You get a magus with additional self buffs, with access to cure light wounds and get dervish dance for free without having to invest 2 feats.

[Quatar]

Does casting a spell with Spell Combat count as wielding a weapon in the offhand (because Dervish Dance doesn't like that) ?

I have to look into that, but it might actually be something.

[jyster]

Quatar wrote:

Does casting a spell with Spell Combat count as wielding a weapon in the offhand (because Dervish Dance doesn't like that) ?

I have to look into that, but it might actually be something.

Spell strike or spell combat does not count as a weapon, casting a spell does not count as a weapon.