Melee bard vs archer bard?

[Ender730]

Is it at all possible for a melee bard to dish out as much damage as an archer bard? No archetype, just plain vanilla bard. Right off the bat the archer can pick up Rapid Shot, and later on can get Manyshot. What's a melee bard gonna do to compete?

[Atarlost]

I'm not sure it's possible for a melee anything to deal as much damage as an equivalent archer unless something functionally melee only like sneak attack or wildshape is involved.

[Friend of the Dork]

Duh? High str? Power attack? Two-handed weapon with high crit range? Not very Bardish, but I'm pretty sure these kinds of fighters can outdamage archers.

[Stome]

At low lvls sure. But archers beat melee hands down in mid and late game. The thing is archers can take feats that give them more shots. More shots mean static damage boost are more valuable (Inspire, weapon enchanments, arcane strike and so on.)

More so though is their ability to full attack far more often then melee.

-Edit- To the main topic though there is only one melee bqard build I would say tops archer (unless you want melee because its what you enjoy. Having fun tops all.)

The build is Flagebearer feat with a longspear and banner of the ancient kings.

Now your personal damage might not top the archer build but the boost you provide your team might tip the scales.

[VRMH]

The benefits of Melee vs Ranged are not really determined by the Bard, but by the rest of the party. Only when you have competent "meat-shields" available will an archer truly shine (and out-damage his meleeing counterpart).