Level 6 Half-Orc Bard
STR: 18 (16+2)
CHA: 18 (17+1 at 4th)
DEX: 14
INT/CON:13
WIS: 11
INITIATIVE: 8
HIT POINTS: 42
AC: 16
F/R/W: 5/8/6
DAMAGE:: 2d4+6 (Unbuffed, no Power Attack) | 2d4+12 (Unbuffed, Power Attack)
FEATS: Arcane Strike, Improved Initiative, Power Attack
TRAITS: Reactionary, Into Enemy Territory (We're playing Second Darkness, have to take one)
ALT RACIALS: Sacred Tattoo for Orc Ferocity
SPELLS:
1st: Grease, Saving Finale, Vanish, Hideous Laughter (or Silent Image or Lock Gaze)
2nd: Blistering Invective, Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Hold Person (or Allegro)
Gonna be using a Falchion. I want to be a support/buffing/debuffing Bard (in that order of importance) with some melee to back things up, as that's what my team is missing. I don't need so much crowd control, as we have a Wizard who is good for that. My spells are not set in stone and I'd be open to more buffing suggestions, since right now what I have are a lot of utility/control spells. I'm going to grab wands of CLW, CMW, and Mage Armor to supplement. Also thinking about switching ability scores around to give me a 16 DEX and 16 CHA. I want DCs to be fairly high, but I don't know if I need them to be that high.
I think this is solid for right now. I don't know what to add in later. I'm thinking, as far as future feats:
- Discordant Voice
- Improved Critical
- Spellsong (Maybe?)
- Harmonic Spell (Maybe?)
I could definitely use more suggestions. What do you guys think about all of this right now?
Well, it certainly looks like a melter bard to me... It would make a good paladin as well.
If you aren't aiming for combat expertise you might want to push some int into con and/or dex -- and there's nothing good for you off of combat expertise.
Allegro is going to disappoint. It doesn't play well with the finale spells and your wizard friend is probably going to be casting haste. And if he doesn't you will next level. I don't know the AP, but I'm inclined to avoid the person spells on spontaneous casters because of their limited scope. I'd consider instead blur or silence. Blur is HiPS and sneak attack immunity rolled into one because it gives real concealment. Silence will make casters miserable.
For cantrips you want message and prestidigitation. Not taking prestidigitation when it's on your list is like self flaggelation and message allows party coordination over a distance so you can split the party without splitting the party. You can relay information through the wizard if he has it, but you need to have it yourself to relay inspire courage or inspire competence.
Discordant voice is practically mandatory.
Improved Critical is going to improve your damage by 15%, which is probably worth it if you don't have anything else you want.
Spellsong is going to eat your performance rounds for not very good benefits. You don't have a lot of concentration spells that aren't illusions and the illusions are more subject to GM interpretation than any other branch of magic.
Harmonic Spell adds performance rounds, but if you're not wasting them you should be fine.
You might consider Furious Focus as a fairly bland offensive boost.
Medium Armor Proficiency might be worthwhile as well when mithril armor comes into budget as chain shirt to mithril breastplate is +2 AC.
As a spontaneous caster you may wind up on dispel duty and in that case Dispel Synergy might come in handy.
I can't put more points from INT anywhere. These weren't done off of point buy, but off of rolls.
My DM just informed me that I can't play a Half-Orc. Rats. So I'm thinking I'll play Human instead. What should I do for weapons? Take Martial Weapon Proficiency and keep the Falchion? Take Exotic Weapon Proficiency to back things up with a Net? Or should I just stick with a Rapier, which won't hit as hard as the other options but would allow for a Buckler?
Other racial ideas are accepted too, but note that I can only use the Core Races.
Core-only race but no half-orc? Any time a GM denies a player concept that uses core material, it's a red flag that this may not be a game I want to play.
That said, Be human and just be brutish. Take the Heirloom Weapon trait for falchion proficiency.
Edit: If you don't take Heirloom Weapon for Falchion, you may want to Exotic Weapon Prof Fauchard. Having an 18-20 crit range at reach would be desirable for a melee back up bard.
Well, we can play some of the expanded races I guess but only the ones that are under 11RP. I forgot about that. None of those appeal to me, though.
The reason he's against Half-Orc, though, has more to do with the easily angered Dwarf in our party that despises anything that even resembles an Orc.
The Fauchard seems like a good choice, though. Something with Reach is good. Too bad I can't do Heirloom Weapon with that. This is a tough choice, because the extra feat would be nice...does the +2 CMB bonus from Heirloom Weapon apply to weapons that don't have a CM listed with them? Like if I attempted to Trip or Disarm or anything like that with an Heirloom Falchion, would it still apply?
I might opt for the Falchion and then toss in Lingering Performance as my Bonus Feat, not because I'm worried about Performance rounds, but because it allows me to save two standard actions to cast spells and, later, it lets me conserve move actions too.
Hey, will using a 2h weapon cause problems for me when it comes to things like Perform and spellcasting? I've been looking around and I've read some conflicting reports on freeing my hand for casting when using a 2h weapon. It is a free action right?
With perform, I'm planning on using a lot of the Perform types that don't use an instrument, but if I did decide to use one, I'd need to drop my weapon/put my weapon away I'd imagine.
Would it be better to go with a 1h?
RAW, It's a free action to drop one hand from a two handed weapon to cast a spell and another Free action to grab it again. You can only take a Free Action on your turn, so if you don't end the turn with both hands on your weapon, you can't make Attacks of Opportunity. Check with your GM though, as some GMs consider it a cheese tactic and disallow it.
If you want to use an instrument, it will be really difficult to try to juggle it and a two handed weapon, as you can only quick draw weapons.
There really is no reason you couldn't use Oratory, Singing, or whistling as your performance type though.
With Power Attack and your high STR, you really want a 2hand weapon. If you go one-hander, you will gain some versatility, but lose a lot of offense. If you decide to do that, I might drop Power Attack, Swap STR and Dex, and go Weapon Finesse and Arcane Strike.
Edit you already have arcane strike, doh. Well, keep power attack but still go Finesse. 16 AC is REALLY low if you're going to be in melee.
IMO the hands down best weapon for a melee bard is longspear. Sounds strange at first but if you look at the flagbearer feat and the Banner of the Ancient Kings item. This is +2 attack/damage to you and everyone around you and +4 to inspire. Trumps any other weapon hands down. Now if you don't know or don't think you would have access to that item then this is moot.
I think I could do the banner/flag on a Fauchard too though, no? It certainly seems like it's be long enough.
The AC is something I'm worried about, even with my high hit points. I can switch Dex, though I really wanna keep my save DCs high. I can probably more AC through magic items to make up for it though, yeah?
This is the new thing, with tweaks:
Level 6 Human Bard
STR: 18 (17+1 at 4th)
CHA: 16 (Still don't know about this one)
DEX: 16 (14+2)
INT/CON:13
WIS: 11
INITIATIVE: 8
HIT POINTS: 42
AC: 17 (Chain Shirt and Dex only)
F/R/W: 5/9/5
DAMAGE: 1d10+6 (Unbuffed, no Power Attack) | 1d10+12 (Unbuffed, Power Attack)
FEATS: Arcane Strike, Lingering Performance (don't know if I need it), Power Attack, EWF: Fauchard
TRAITS: Reactionary, Into Enemy Territory (We're playing Second Darkness, have to take one)
NEXT FEATS: 7 - Flagbearer (EDIT: Just realized Banner of the Ancient Kings doesn't increase the ATK/DMG bonuses of Inspire Courage...is it still worth it if I need the money for magic items for AC increases and weapon enchants), 9 - ??? (Suggestions? Something to make spells better would be nice), 11 - Discordant Voice, 13 - Improved Critical, 15 - Critical Focus, 17 - Sickening Critical
Part of me wants to take the Human alternate racial trait to get two +2 bonuses, but I don't know if it's worth giving up the bonus feat. Chances are this game will only go up to 16, if that, so...
modicasolis wrote: The reason he's against Half-Orc, though, has more to do with the easily angered Dwarf in our party that despises anything that even resembles an Orc. So maybe he should be outlawing racist dwarves instead?
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