So I had previously looked at making a tactician fighter based arund an old soldier who would tell tales of heroism, perhaps true perhaps not. The crunch of the feats made him a twf shield basher with ray shield and step up and other anticaster feats.
Well the party thats frming lks t be heavy on the hitters and light on the buffs, and the concept works with arcane duelist, so why not give it a shot?
I want to keep ray shield for 11th, but what fighting style to use? Twf or just the shield and a one handed weapn? I will be doing a lt of up frnt anti caster wrk, so step up is a good idea. Given i wont have a free hand for them, material compnents in combat are no good. I will be at least middle aged.
I'll come back later and post more ideas when I have a keyboard proper with a working O.
Thanks!
Free hand shield bash. Don't water down your already med BaB. Shield bash as your primary attack, and maybe multiclass fighter/ bard for some extra punch.
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Arcane Duelist can use his chosen weapon as his somatic component.
Arcane Bond (Ex): At 5th level, an arcane duelist gains the arcane bond ability as a wizard, using a weapon as his bonded item, allowing him to cast any one addition spell that he knows once per day. He may not choose a familiar or other type of bonded item. He may use the hand holding his bonded weapon for somatic components. This ability replaces lore master.
I am doing this right now with longsword-buckler combo and it works pretty well. Another thing you might consider later is the Dance of 23 Steps (Masterpiece) which works wonders for your AC, if you want to stick to lighter armors. However it doesn't look like it fits very well with your concept.
Yes, its true I can use it for Somatic components, but not materail.
Here's the original fighter:
Tactician
1. TWF, ISB
2. Power Attack
3. Shield Focus
4. Step Up
5. Missile Shield (Teamwork: Outflank)
6. Shield Slam
7. ITWF
8. Step Up
9. Disruptive
10. Spellbreaker
11. Shield Master
12. Ray Shield (Trade Step Up for Pin Down)
13. Teleport Tactician
And here's a few ways I could trim that down to a bard.
1. Shield focus, Missile Shield (Acrane Strike)
2. (Combat Caster)
3. Step Up
5. Combat Reflexes
6. (Disruptive)
7. Bodyguard/Lingering Performance/Spellsong/Spell Focus: Enchantment
9. In Harm's Way/Lingering Performance/Spellsong/Spell Focus: Enchantment
10. (Spellbreaker)
11. Ray Shield
13. Teleport Tactician
-OR-
1. TWF, ISB, (Arcane Strike)
2. (Combat Caster)
3. Shield Focus
5. Missile Shield
6. (Disruptive)
7. Step Up
9. Combat Reflexes/Shield Slam/ITWF
10. (Spellbreaker)
11. Ray Shield
13. Teleport Tactician
Eitherway I'll probably use a longsword as my bonded object.
The team looks like it will be composed of a Barbarian, probably a Ranger, an Oracle (flame or heavens), and what I pick. There's another player on the fence who usually plays monk or rogue. We begin at level 4. With two potentially heavy hitters, I think a bard would go over very well.
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As a bard, my character rarely uses spells that require opponents to make saves, so I never took Spell Focus. Spells that were a must were timely inspiration, heroism, and haste. As for the shield, because I have a buckler, it leaves a hand free to manipulate material components. Step up will work very well. Of course you are looking for something which you would like to bash with which is going to remove buckler as a choice.
Maybe get one of those quickdraw shields so that you can slip the shield on and off when you need to cast, though this may be intrusive.