Critique my bard

[agentJay]

I am joining a group already playing Jade Regent. The following is the criteria:

11th level.
82,000 gold for gear.
No one item more than 50% of total gold.
+3 item at highest.
15 point buy: I have never done point buy before.
2 traits: one must be from Jade Regent.
Only paizo material: Core, Apg, Uc, Um, etc.

The group is 5 players already.

alchemist: bomber type
ranger: bow fighter
hellknight: rough-rider fighter
cleric: holy vindicator (aka high AC style)
wizard: transmutation
I decided on playing a bard and figured I would post him here to see if anyone had any advice on my choices.

STR 12
DEX 14
CON 13
INT 9
WIS 9
CHA 15

CHA & CON +1 for leveling up. Dex +2 for human. Perform:

Dance
Sing
Wind Instrument

Which apparently can be used for skill checks in acrobatics & fly, bluff & sense motive, and Diplomacy & handle animal checks respectively. Next I bought some magic items.

belt of physical perfection +2
headband of mental superiority +2
+3 cloak of resistance
+3 mithral chain shirt (AC: 7 I think)
+3 adaptive composite longbow
efficient quiver
handy haversack

That brought my stats up to 14, 18, 16, 11, 11, 18.
Next is feats: point blank shot, rapid shot, percise shot, deadly aim, weapon proficiency (longbow), & weapon focus (longbow). I used a feat to get dance of 23 steps.
My AC is (21) which seems to be low comparitively as only the alchemist, bomber type, is lower (18). Not really sure how important AC is for a ranged character. I have about 7k gold anything else I should purchase? Does anyone see anything I missed/should have? How are my feats, magic items, & stats?

Thanks,

+J

[Trogdar]

Might want to stick to a composite short bow. Two feats are fairly hard to replace. Look at a feat called discordant note, way more bang for you buck.

[Fromper]

I agree with sticking with shortbow. The extra 1 point of damage (on average) isn't worth a feat. Weapon focus to make sure you hit isn't a terrible idea, but I'd go with clustered shot instead of the longbow proficiency, if you're putting all your feats into archery. At that level, you'll be facing DR regularly, so it'll help with that.

[kaisc006]

+1 for Clustered Shots. It is critical for any bow fighter. Although people argue it's worthless because you could purchase arrows to deal with all types of DR, my laziness makes Clustered Shots a must ;)

Also, the biggest choice here will be your spell list. It is imperative you have Haste. The first thing you should do in every combat is activate your bardic music and cast haste. At a +4 to attack, +3 damage, and an extra attack with a full-round to each of your allies, you are effecitively raising their level by 3 to 4. This past weekend a bard did this during PFS and we shredded every encounter.

[agentJay]

Trogdar wrote:

Might want to stick to a composite short bow. Two feats are fairly hard to replace. Look at a feat called discordant note, way more bang for you buck.

Can not seem to find a feat called discordant note. I see discordant voice, is that what you mean?

[Byrdology]

If you are wanting bows, have you thought about arcane a archer? It gives some serious punch, and lets you continue your spell casting while upping your to hit and gives you more ranged combat options.

[Trogdar]

agentJay wrote:

Trogdar wrote:

Might want to stick to a composite short bow. Two feats are fairly hard to replace. Look at a feat called discordant note, way more bang for you buck.

Can not seem to find a feat called discordant note. I see discordant voice, is that what you mean?

That's it, inspire courage is a force multiplier, and discordant voice will improve every ones damage output that much more.

[agentJay]

Byrdology wrote:

If you are wanting bows, have you thought about arcane a archer? It gives some serious punch, and lets you continue your spell casting while upping your to hit and gives you more ranged combat options.

I have never looked at arcane archer as I have been told they are weak... Guess I should take a look at it myself?

[Byrdology]

agentJay wrote:

Byrdology wrote:

If you are wanting bows, have you thought about arcane a archer? It gives some serious punch, and lets you continue your spell casting while upping your to hit and gives you more ranged combat options.

I have never looked at arcane archer as I have been told they are weak... Guess I should take a look at it myself?

Somebody lied... Alot... There are certainly arguments for other builds who do it better, but the arcane archer is by no means weak.

[agentJay]

Thank you all for the advice, it was helpful.

[Crosswind]

agentJay wrote:

Thank you all for the advice, it was helpful.

Some important advice:

1.) Discordant Voice, at level 11, is a must-take.

2.) Don't trade a feat for Dance of 23 Steps. Take the human favored class bonus to learn extra spells/level. Trade one of those spells for Dance of 23 Steps. Great Success.

3.) Use the trick in (2) to also pick up Symphony of the Elysian Heart and Triple Time bardic masterpieces.

4.) You're not getting enough mileage out of the mental perfection headband. Specifically, you don't need the wisdom and intelligence, and you barely need the charisma. Trade it for a charisma item, and save yourself 12,000 gold.

5.) Use that 12,000 to pick up: Amulet of natural armor +2 (8k), ring of protection +1 (2k) - now your AC is 24.

6.) +2 for Clustered Shots. In (2), I picked you up a feat. Use it for clustered shots. =)

7.) Using a longbow over a shortbow, mechanically, isn't super worth it. If you want to do it for style, knock yourself out. You're gaining 1 damage per attack per feat. For comparison, Arcane Strike will do better for you.

-Cross