so my small party decided to switch up at last minute. (less than a week away, first session.)
We have:
Beastmorph/Vivisectionist Alchemist going into Master Chymist.
A Qinggong Monk.
Obviously they are going to be melee buddies, thats totally fine.
I was planning a gunslinger/ranger switch hitter. However, its fairly obvious a melee presence is not needed on my part. So, going to be an archer bard that buffs, and be the charismatic leader of the party. Plus skill points. Using sort of PFS rules: 20 point buy, max level 12.
I need HELP mostly with TRAIT(s) and SPELLS.
Bard Archer:
Human, 20 point buy
STR 12
DEX 16 (18)> 20
CON 12
INT 13 >14
WIS 10
CHA 14
I'd suggest getting yourself slightly more strength, at the cost of a bit of int. I don't see much reason for a human bard to want high intelligence - you've got tons of skillpoints already, and you don't even need to put them into all the skills you need as you can substitute perform for a bunch of other skills.
As for traits, well pick whatever you like really. Something that helps your saves is always good, especially your weak fort-save or your decent but not great will save. The best one is probably latent psion. I would strongly advice you to pick up manyshot rather than lingering performance. By the time you're level 9 you've probably got plenty of performance rounds anyway, and that extra arrow really helps.
As for spells: I'd do some utility and battlefield control type spells, as well as buffs. Prestidigitation is invaluable in any adventure. Grease, vanish feather fall and feather step would probably be my pick at level 1. At level 2, you get glitterdust, which is incredibly useful, and heroism. Everyone in your party will love heroism, as you're all playing characters with a high number of attacks. At level 3 you get haste, which is the best buff spell in the game, and good hope, which is basically heroism for your whole party - good hope doesn't stack with heroism though, and with heroisms longer duration in some cases you might be better off sticking with heroism. Slow is a brilliant debuff, that's especially killing if you're fighting a group of weak-willed fighter-types.
Along the way, there's also several useful illusion spells, which can be a pretty powerful tool to get a strategic or positional advantage in a fight.
If you plan on debuff/attack spells, you need more cha. Glitterdust with a DC14 save at level 4 means 50% chance if you're lucky.
Question... does your GM allow for Aasimar? Muse Touched Aasimar get +2Dex/Cha, get Diplomacy/perform +2 and Glitterdust 1/day as a SLA.
If however, you focus on buff spells only and don't take any that have a save, then you can drop to the 14 cha and be ok.
As the only real "caster" ... you want to make sure that you don't waste the spells by having a meaningless save.
Example: CR 4 creatures, 50% of all listed that would be vulnerable to glitterdust have a +6 or better save. Good will save NPC's will have a 4. Low will save will NPC's or monsters have a +1 or +2.
In the long run you want immediate actions at first level: saving finale, liberating command, featherfall. Stuff that can save lives without eating your standard actions.
Second level has some good stuff. Silence has no save if cast on a location, object, or friendly monk. Blur basically shuts down enemy rogues. Gallant Inspiration might make a good option when second level effects get to be not worth actions in combat.
At third you should have dispel magic, jester's jaunt, and one of good hope or haste. Probably haste, but if the alchemist has save troubles you might want good hope instead.
At fourth you want dimension door and freedom of movement.
At fifth bard's escape, deafening song bolt, shadow walk, and shadowbard will probably serve you well.
At sixth you probably want brilliant inspiration and animate objects and getaway. Not much no-save stuff at that level.
Consider Magician Archetype. You can add a few Wizard spells to your list. Great for control/utility outside the norm for Bards.
Or check out the recently released Faiths & Philosophies, it's supposed to have an Arcane Healer Bard Archetype.
OR, consider the Evangelist Cleric, it gets most of the buffing goodies out of Bardic Performance and still has one Domain.
I'd put Jester's Jaunt earlier in the queue for third level, bumping haste or good hope to the back. You won't cast both haste and good hope in many combats. Jester's Jaunt is quite possibly the most powerful single target attack spell any class has access to.
Calculate the difference in damage output between your front line friend's standard action damage and full attack damage. That's what Jester's Jaunt does. For a well built monk the gap is huge. A strength based temple sword with two handed power attack is at the back of the martial pack, but he's in the pack and any monk's standard action damage is pitiful. Non-pouncing natural attack builds tend to have large standard attack gaps as well since their attacks are all at full bonus rather than the lost attacks being less accurate than the first.
I really, really wouldn't take the magician archetype. No bardic knowledge, no versatile performance, and worst of all, no inspire courage. By that point, you might as well just play a sorcerer, in my opinion.
I'd say your spell list looks pretty good, except that people are probably right that you don't need haste and good hope right away. Since you get heroism at level 2, you're probably better off skipping good hope for a while and getting dispel magic sooner, as that gives you more options, and you probably won't want to cast 2 third level buff spells in a single combat until you are higher level.
I'm still a big fan of slow. It's just so good against multiple enemies that rely on multiple attacks to deal damage. Sure, targeting will save with your secondary ability score isn't great, but if you hit two enemies in an encounter with five of them you've caused your enemies to lose a huge number of actions, especially if your party then focuses fire on the unaffected enemies.
I'd also have a look at shadow conjuration. The effects you can get may be quite weak for a 4th level spell, but it is hugely versatile, and your party has almost no battlefield control type spells otherwise. Shadow conjuration would give you web, spiked pit, aqueous orb, stinking cloud and sleet storm, so that's a lot of options you're suddenly adding to your party's repertoire for influencing a battlefield. Many of these spells have the potential to basically lock half your enemies out of a fight until you've dealt with the other half (in the right circumstances), and that's pretty much the most powerful thing you can do as a caster.
I still reckon you don't need lingering performance at all, and you'd much rather have manyshot at level 9 than 12. But this is the kind of minor decision that might be easier to make once you've played at level 8, rather than before you've even started.
