Bard Spell focus

[Marblz]

So, looking at getting my "Bard" a bit more effective at something. Currently he's a bit of a joke (understatement, Streetperformer archetype is awful for pfs, oh to be able to change that) when other characters are just tearing everything down at the table.

It was recommended to me to spellfocus enchantment and go for save or suck spells. I didn't pay much attention to that at the time but it does seem like a good idea with my characters current stats.

Thing is currently my spell list includes

level 1: Ear-Piercing Scream (evocation), Grease (conjuration, also best spell ever), Silent Image (illusion), Timely Inspiration
level 2: Glitterdust (conjuration), Sound Burst(evocation) was thinking Gallant inspiration but if I pick up spell focus enchantment it would be Suggestion.

so
Conjuration: 2
Evocation: 2
Enchantment: possibly 1

Looking at the spell lists for each school while spell focus conjuration or evocation would have a reasonable immediate pay off, for the future not so much it seems. Evocation does seem to have some alright spells which do damage and debuff, but for pure sos enchantment seems to be the way to go.

21 Cha atm with a headband, level 5. Have been putting feats into improving crossbows, although hitting and then actually doing any reasonable damage is still kinda a shot in the dark.

I could keep putting feats into the crossbow because as a bard I just don't have that many spells per day idk ヽ(。_°)ノ

[VRMH]

Marblz wrote:

Streetperformer archetype is awful for pfs

Is it? I'd have thought you'd be the darling of every Rogue.

Quote:

It was recommended to me to spellfocus enchantment and go for save or suck spells.

:P You're a Bard. Whatever you focus in, someone else can do better. Stay versatile.

Quote:

Conjuration: 2

Evocation: 2
Enchantment: possibly 1

Taking a feat now, to slightly boost two spells and perhaps a few more later? Take Enchantment if you must, but there has to be a better feat out there for you.

Got Arcane Strike? Have you checked out the Masterpieces such as Triple Time? One of the new Racial feats perhaps?

[Atarlost]

It's probably too late if you've been lighting your feats on fire.

You have shortbow proficiency. The only reason to even look at crossbows is if you found a particularly good one, something that may happen in APs, but I don't think is possible the way PFS treasure works.

[Marblz]

The people I play with are usually some mixture of sorcerer, fighter, cleric, paladin. There was a rogue, but they're not able to play so much latelty.

Either way, party is usually pulling ridiculous numbers and fights are over quickly or things are immune to mind affecting (which I guess spell focus enchantment would be a bad idea for) and I'm mostly just trying to plink away with an interesting success rate haha. Oh and the consequences of area silence spells, my god haha

For things like disappearing act I probably need to figure out how it works mechanically with a rogue (and other classes) better.

But yeah, usually the party is being amazing, rather situationally this character seems to do anything particularly useful. Lack of inspire courage/bardic knowledge makes it seem like I should be making up for it in some way, but am falling waaaaay short at the moment.

Have precise shot, point blank shot so far and was going to pick up rapid reload or rapid shot (I'm not really how these differ exactly though). Arcane shot is something I was looking at picking up as well.

Reason for no bow is strength of 7. Other notable stats are Dex 16 I guess. I probably need to pick up a magical crossbow of some sort as my next investment? Ahh, it's all over the place really. Was a first character so newb mistakes I guess, druid is faring a lot better

[Marblz]

Hah, played today in a group of 4 who possibly slightly underleveled the chronicle. Seems my problem was more the party face rolling everything rather than the character itself being useless, got to do a whole bunch of stuff and be generally bad ass.

Anyone wandering in here.

Been thinking of adding holy to the characters crossbow. You just get additional damage against evil and not your usual +2 effect. Currently the crossbow is a +1 one. On hero lab you can't add holy unless it's +1, which makes it equiv to +3 which makes the price 32335, is that correct? Clarifying that you can't have just a holy light crossbow which would be 8335?

[Thazar]

Correct on the holy. Any magic weapon must be +1 first... then you can add the abilities to that. To determine price you add the enhancement bonus (+1 in this case) and then all of the ability bonuses together. (In this case +2 for holy) Then that final number determines price. (In this case a total of +3.) Note a +3 weapon is only anout 18K in gold plus the cost of the base weapon and not 32K.

As a side note your enhancement bonus can never go above +5 to hit/damage and the total bonus of enhancement +abilities cannot exceed +10. Hero lab should do the math for you just fine and as long as you have the PFS setting checked it will let you know if you are legal or not in your selections.

[Corlindale]

Focus on your excellent buff spells, and you can be great party support even without tearing stuff apart on your own.

Gallant Inspiration is great - it actually becomes even better for you, because you don't have inspire courage. Once Haste and Good Hope gets added into the mix you'll be really popular.

Saving Finale is another great support spell, though I don't know if it would work as well for a Street Performer, who often won't be affecting all his allies simultaneously.

I would also recommend against focusing on Enchantment spells. Immunities are common, it's usually all-or-nothing spells and your DCs aren't going to keep up with those of an enchantment sorceror or wizard anyway.

[Marblz]

Hero lab was coming up with 32k for the holy crossbow for some reason. But yeah had just figured 18k going over the books again, good to see it confirmed though c:

Yeah, the game I played today I decided on Gallant Inspiration and Rapid Reload picking up a +1 crossbow. Confirming crits with GI is hilarious.

But yeah, with a not completely op group I had plenty of opportunities to actually use my bardic performances and spells. Never intended to do much damage with the character but was definitely enabling others to do a buttload and swing awkward situations into our favour which is what I definitely wanted to be able to do

Yeah, from what I'm thinking saving finale might not work so well for Streetperformer but some of the others simply because they're immediate actions might be worth looking at with Disappearing Act and even Harmless Performer. Purging Finale is one person affected by the performance being ended which works and Reviving Finale is just anyone in range of the spell so it seems they don't actually need to be affected by it to receive the healing which could be cool.

Ah but ending a performance is a free action which I think has to be during your turn? 2d6 hitpoints for a level 3 spell though, not a first choice. Allegro though casting Harmless Performer a lot sounds pretty nice if there's no haste already.

sorry, sidetracked haha

Thanks for the help