I do not have any experience with bards, and am looking for advice on this build.
I received the dhampir boon a while back and decided to roll it out as my next character. In preparation I also purchased the "Blood of the Night" book to be able to use the Moroi-Born (Svetocher). Mostly because they remind me of the true Eastern Europe Dracula feel which will be fun to play in the Scarni faction.
The build is a battle field type controller using a whip for disarms and trips, grease spells, bardic music, and general shenanigans. Plan to use bardic music, arcane strike and blade thirst to stack bonuses for combat maneuvers.
So I guess the questions are: is this an effective build for battlefield control? What are possible flaws that can appear in the future? Am I overlooking anything?
Str 16 (+2 race)
Dex. 14
Con 10 (-2 race)
Int. 14
Wis 8
Cha 16. (+2 race)
Whip
Long sword
Long spear
Chain shirt
Small wooden shield
------------
134 gold spent
Acrobatics
Bluff
Diplomacy
Sense motive
Perception
UMD
The last 2 skill ranks will be altered between knowledge skills as he levels.
Feat-
Combat expertise (then the feat tree for trip and disarm)
Spells
0-
Ghost sound
Dancing lights
Detect magic
Read magic
1-
Grease
Silent image
Traits-
reactionary +2 init
Focused mind +2 concentration
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According to Treantmonk's bard guide, you have a decent start at a controller bard. I think he would switch your Int and Con scores, though. You should check out his guide. He only uses core stuff, as his guides are severely outdated, but you can use his guide as a starting point.
Also, from my experience, nets are pretty darn awesome for battlefield control. Enemies either have to waste a turn getting it off of them, or deal with the penalties. Either way, you get an advantage.
Thanks for the link to the guide super helpful!
I need to keep the Int over 13 for combat expertise, but taking your advice and the advice of the guide I will bump the con up to at least a 12 and bring the dex down to 12.
I guess my new question is how much better is the arcane duelist over a straight bard for this build? I don't mind the few extra feats, I like the blade thirst ability, but hate the idea of a bonded item, and hate losing some of the core abilities from the vanilla bard.
Has anyone had any experience with this build, and if so which is generally more fun to play it with?