I'm making a half-elf multiclass bard and I'm wondering what's the better second class. My max Bard lvls will be 8 so I will start either ranger or fighter to 2, then 8 bard, then back to the martial class.
Fighter = feats; ranger = skills.
any suggestions?
Personally I think Bard/Bard is the way to go. Srsly - you'll nerf the growth of your abilities by multiclassing outside of Bard.
Just take feats, skills, and flavor that makes your Bard "seem as much like" either a Fighter or Ranger without multiclassing. If you stay full Bard, your Inspire Courage will keep your to-hit/damage at essentially the same level you would have if you multiclassed. You'd gain a few Feats but at the long-term expense of Spellcasting. Bards get skill points, so that's not a great reason to go Ranger unless your party really needs and lacks the Ranger's special tracking abilities.
However, if you are committed to multiclassing, I'd say go Fighter. Use your Bard levels for the skill points, and Fighter will give you Feats and some other things, with more flexibility than Ranger. With 8 levels of Bard, your Ranger Animal Companion would be more of a liability than a benefit anyhow.
Not that PF Rangers are bad, but PF Fighters seem very good.
I'll check out the Battle Herald.
Straight Bard is cool, but I prefer multi-classing because it allows for better and more unique character customization IMHO.
For ranger I was looking at a trapper/guide build.
I think Ranger/Bard would be the better choice if you're looking to boost the party's damage and attack rolls. I suggest going Aasimar to get the CFB which is "Choose one bardic performance; treat the bard as +½ level higher when determining the effects of that performance."
Go Bard lvl9 and get the Flagbearer feat alongside a Banner of the Ancient Kings(http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b /banner-of-the-ancient-kings). This way you get +4 on your Inspire Courage performance and a +2 morale bonus from Flagbearer/BotAK which results in a +6 bonus to attack and damage rolls. Then you can consult your GM if you can get the Master Performer and Grand Master Performer feats that net you a flat +1 bonus that stacks on performance numerical bonuses for a total of +8. 6 of which are competence and 2 which are morale. Then stack that with the Ranger's FE bonuses that allow him to share half of them with his party and an Instant Enemy wand and you'll be giving your party something along the lines of a +16 bonus to attack and damage rolls on each hit. Pick Discordant Voice and give them an extra 1d6 of sonic damage that stacks with other elemental damage from their weapon on every attack and you really are the ultimate party booster. If you're going Epic you should also ask your DM if he could allow you to get 3.5 feats. There are some crazy feats on that edition. The ability to trade your Inspire Courage bonus with a 1d6 for EACH + you have on it if you have dragon blood in you or the ability to literally double its bonus with one feat. The bard can do some crazy s!!+. Not to mention all those bonuses also work for you so if you have optimised for archery(a very easy thing to do with Ranger) not only would you be an insane party booster but also a very good DPR source with your full-round attacks.
What are you wanting to get that more bard isn't giving you? That would be the best indicator of where to go.
Aasimar CFB was nerfed to 1/6th. Its utter trash now.
P.S.
Bard is basically a "multiclass" between Fighter and Sorcerer anyway.
Anyway need more info on what you want out of the multiclass before giving tips.
I'll check out the Battle Herald.
Straight Bard is cool, but I prefer multi-classing because it allows for better and more unique character customization IMHO.
For ranger I was looking at a trapper/guide build.
I'm a fan of multiclassing but when it comes to stuff like Bard its a difficult choice. Bard is already an in-between of melee, support, and control. Multiclassing does really well for martial characters because you can generally strike a fun balance of class features to have a fairly unique and interesting experience if done right (if done wrong then at least you'll know what you did wrong for the next character).
When it comes to mixing magic though the multiclassing system isn't very friendly to it and outside of a few exceptions its hard to impossible to pull off. As a result Pazio basically has come up with a bunch of classes that strike varying levels of balance between their spellcasting and melee.
High Martial/Minor Spellcasting: Bloodrager, Paladin, Ranger
*Each capping at 4th level spells and having a full BAB
High Magic/Mid Melee: Oracle, Cleric
*Caps at 9th level spells, 3/4 BAB, but not much else to support their martial side (a few oracle mysteries do help this though).
Mid Magic/Mid+ Melee: Bard(with arechetypes), Warpriest
*3/4 BAB, being a little more capable with melee, (bard moreso with archetypes)
Mid Magic/Mid- Melee: Summoner, Bard(base)
*3/4 BAB, all around not much of anything to boost their own melee ability, but between their spellcasting and other class features it makes up for this.
And then there's magus who does a really strong mix between both magic and melee, but as a result there's not much wiggle room in their builds so they're very archetype-dependent to see massively differing builds.
Aasimar CFB was nerfed to 1/6th. Its utter trash now.
So you can ask your DM for a Vest of Legends along with the Banner and Aasimar CFB for a total of +10 levels when it comes to your Bardic Performances and you can stop leveling bard at 7 so you can get right into the action with Ranger. Not that 2 levels matter because you won't go 15 for the 3rd FE bonus.