Feats for a Bard - Should I go for a Familiar?

[Pinstripedbarbarian]

First, some background:
I have a level 2 bard about to be level 3. He's focused on buffing through song, debuffing through spells / trip attempts, and being a party knowledge/diplo-monkey.

He has Lingering Performance as his 1st level feat. Eventually he'll take a few masterpieces to expand his options, but that's not for a few levels. He has Grease, Comprehend Languages, and Silent Image so far, and at 3rd he'll probably take Hideous Laughter. Combat usually consists of Inspire Courage first round, Grease second, and either tripping with a whip or using a cure-stick if necessary.

Now, given that info, I'm curious what his 3rd level feat should be. I have

• Skill Focus (Knowledge [something]) -> Eldritch Heritage (Arcane): Something I would love to do with this character is have a familiar. I love familiar shenanigans (aid another, double skill checks, alertness, delivering touch spells, etc.) and it would also open up for Improved Familiar at 7 for a wand-helper like a faerie dragon.

• Weapon Finesse: I have 10 Str and 14 Dex, I use a whip 90% of the time I'm in 'melee' and a rapier the other 10%. It would be +2 to my attacks and, more important, my trip / disarm attempts. Furthermore, it's a very immediate effect.

• Spell Song & Harmonic Spell: Another long-term outlook, these two feats would help my action economy a lot. They do have synergy (saving performance rounds by casting spells, using them to concentrate), but they don't do much right now. I have one concentration spell (Silent Image) and not enough spells per day to make the free rounds worth it.

If there's another feat above and beyond the above options, I'd love to hear them and why they're good. I'd also take advice on anything else bard-wise.

[Sior]

Dotting. I'm also playing a bard and would like to see any suggestions as they come.

[kinevon]

Weapon Finesse wouldn't be bad.
Weapon Focus: Whip would be a step on a path to being able to make Attacks of Opportunity with your whip. The other steps would be Whip Mastery (BAB +1, Weapon Focus: Whip) and Improved Whip Mastery (Whip Mastery, BAB +6)

If you use spells against opponents, Spell Focus and Spell Penetration are feats to consider.

[Mimo Tomblebur]

Have you considered Skill Focus for your primary performance? It's like getting Skill Focus for two skills for the price of one. It can also have combat implications if it ends up affecting your Intimidate or Acrobatics.

Similarly, Prodigy applied to two Performances can give you boosts to four skills.

I have a tenth level bard now, and I find that I never come close to using up my rounds of performance, so I would recommend that you don't worry about taking feats that extend them.

[Farene the Far Traveled]

First off let me thank you for choosing the Bard, you'll find it is one of the best classes to play in PFS.
How do you build one you ask?
The real question that you're trying to answer is: I have my Inspire Courage going...now what do I do? That's the real trick to building an effective Bard.

I've never been a fan of the whip, or "Lion Tamer" Bard. If it's your thing then go for it, but tripping opponents while neat can be a double edged sword if you have ranged characters in your group. The pure spellcasting Bard is also neat but you'll never be as effective as a pure caster, and you'll have the risk of running out of spells if you try to cast to much.

Fortunately for Bard players there are several archetypes you might look into to help make your Bard effective in combat...as a combatant. I present to you the Arcane Duelist from the APG. (The Elf is a great choice for this because of Weapon Familiarity with the Longbow/Elven Curved Blade). This Archetype replaces some "mediocre" abilities and trades them in for a whole lot of awesome! Free feats: Combat Casting, Arcane Strike, Disruptive, and Spell Breaker you also pick up Blade Thirst and Rallying Cry as well as a BONDED WEAPON! Losing Countersong can hurt but doesn't seem come up very often (silly Harpies), Bardic Knowledge, Versatile Performance, and Lore master are also nice but you'll have a good Intelligence and enough skill points to get you by...plus the Borrow Skill Spell.

You need to really look at your stats though, and I suggest not going with a higher Charisma score then 14 (ducks for cover at this point). Why would I ever do such a thing!!! I'm a Bard!! Because it allows you to boost your physical stats, such as Strength and Dexterity to boost your combat effectiveness. The Arcane stike feat you get for free also helps with this. Pick up a bow and some archery based feats like Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Rapid Shot.

Spell selection is also important. Remember that 14 Charisma we took, now the save DC's of your spells are a bit low. Many of the best Bard spell do not involve DC's. Such as; Saving Finale, Heroic Finale, Vanish, Dimension Door, See Invisibility, Borrow Skill, Liberating Command, Feather Fall, Glitterdust, Feather Step, Mass Feather Step, GALLANT INSPIRATION (yes please:), GOOD HOPE, HASTE, Timely Inspiration, Mirror Image, all the Cure spells, (which I highly recommend past Cure Light Wounds). I do recommend taking Lingering Performance because you'll have the Finale spells in your back pocket and both Saving Finale and Heroic Finale are amazing. Glitterdust is an exception but the save only applies to the Blindness effect.

So let's take this down the road a bit shall we?
At level 7 and beyond you can now use Bardic Performance as a Move action, Which becomes a swift action much later.
So first round now becomes Inspire Courage at +2 and then cast Good Hope or Haste, your party will love you for either one.
Second round you can cast the spell you didn't cast the first round. Now you and your party are +5 to hit/+4 to damage, +2 to skill checks, +2 ability checks, +2 saves,(+3 to reflex), +1 dodge bonus to AC, +30' movement and an extra attack on a Full Round action! Don't tell them you're really buffing yourself though, it'll be our secret.
Third round fire away fully buffed with your Arcane Strike feat you'll, be a fine archer and you'll go from saying "Look guys, I tripped him" to "Look guys, I dropped him!" You can even wade into melee for some Disruptive/Spellbreaking goodness, don't forget to pump your AC and HP if you go that route, Toughness is a nice way to do this. You can also heal if necessary because you were smart enough to pick up the cure spells right?

At level 8 you might want to look into dipping into one level of Ranger for the extra saves, extra BAB, and favored enemy, I highly suggest the Trapper Archetype so you can disable those nasty traps...even the magical ones. OH YEA! (as Kool-Aid Man bursts in, fully buffed of course). Now we can do that too. No Rogue, No problem. Plus with the exception of the Fly skill every skill is now a class skill for you.

These are just a few suggestions feel free to take them or leave them as you wish. There are several other Bard archetypes that are great as well, the Archeologist, Animal Speaker, Dawnflower Dervish, Thunderstriker and Sound Striker can all be made into effective Bards as well.

So in short:
Skill Checks...got em.
Heals...Got em.
Trap disabling... check.
Buffs...Can do.
Combat effectiveness...Put me in Coach!
Your party will love having you along just because you're playing a Bard.
And remember, friends don't let friends play wimpy Bards.

[KestlerGunner]

Dazzling Display.
If your team has +2 to hit and the enemy team are at -2 to hit, your team is going to win.

[Matthew Morris]

Not as a bard but Talyn is a fighter/rogue going the improved familar route. MY advice.

Pick a knowlege you're not going to put many more skill points in. (Talyn is spreading the love around, he'll have all the knowleges at one rank, then at two etc.) Not as important for a bard if you have the bardic knowlege thing. If that's the case, then I think knowlege local is your best bet.

Don't forget that you're counted as two levels lower for that familiar. It means that you won't have, say a faerie dragon, until 9th level. So pick an animal familiar you can use. (Talyn took the little dinosaur, his saves are all fair +5/+8/+7 so I wanted the init boost)

Remember that your tactics are going to be different from wizards/sorcerers/witches. Even your normal familiar isn't going to be as squishy. Amulet of natural armor is a must though.

Remember Faerie Dragons aren't normally available. Talyn opened one up, and I'm hoping he'll live to see 9th level to get him.

[Wraith235]

I have a bard Im planning and I made the decision ... yes I will get a familiar ... its kind of rough to do so because it requires 4 feats in the long run

Skill focus (Knowledge)
Eldritch Heritage (Arcane)
Improved Familiar
Celestial Servent (yes its an Aasimar)

I plan to have a Celestial Faerie Dragon as my familiar

only thing Im trying to figure is ... a 2nd trait and the faction

[Pinstripedbarbarian]

I considered going the Whip Mastery tree, but so far I haven't had any trouble avoiding AoO's as I'm usually far enough out of combat to not worry. Unfortunately three feats for making AoO's with my whip is a little much.

I do actually have Skill Focus (Perform [Strings]) from my half-elf adaptability. Lets me have a +14 day job checks, diplomacy checks, and bluff checks. Saved us a couple times already and made me lost of money.

I can't take an archetype because I'm already level 2. No more redoing my character. This isn't from scratch anymore. This character is and forever will be a vanilla bard.
Also, tripping has proven helpful because our regular group of players don't really do ranged much.

Would Dazzling Display and Dirge of Doom stack? I thought they wouldn't, but if they do for some reason I'd definitely consider this; I love fear stacking.

I was curious which of the knowledges were rolled most. I figured it would be either local, planes, or religion based on what I've come up against so far.
As far as taking Improved, the only requirements are 1. familiar, 2. alignment, and 3. arcane caster level. As a bard, I have that part covered, so I should be able to get it at 7. I didn't know Faerie Dragon wasn't accessible though; what ones are, and how would I be able to get Faerie Dragon?

And that brings up another question: is there anything in the new animal archive stuff worth checking out? I can't justify $8 for 32 pages, but I'm curious if there's better options in there.