Ok so I wanted to play a Bard character, because I freaking love Bards and just how cool they can really be.
But with the new VMC I wanted to try tagging on some aspects from the Magus onto the base, and sure it gives up feats but I can handle that I think, Bard only needs a few feats to really bring a type of build online.
So I was thinking of using Human for the Bonus feat. But making that bonus feat amateur swashbuckler for Parry and Riposte.
Well at level three I trade my feat for Arcane Pool, which is nice because now I can work on buffing my sword up and then further buff it by buffing the party and myself up.
At level 7 I can take an Arcana which would be Flamboyant Arcana. At this point I will retrain amateur swashbuckler for Extra Arcana and pick up Precise Strike. At this point I can actually start throwing some very nice damage with my bard while buffing and screwing with people as a bard typically does.
If I didn't go human and we started later I would eat the CR 2 and go Leprechaun which nets me all kinds of ability score bonuses, Improved Initative and Weapon Finesse as bonus feats and loads of Spell-Likes that are just gravy for a Bard to have spares of.
That would allow me to take Fencer's Grace at level 5 taking Weapon Focus at level 1 and bringing on my Dex to Damage plus Precise Strike build a little easier.
We typically do start at level 5, by then I could buy off 1 CR down to being a CR 1 + Class Levels by level 5. But that is just an idea which I thought might be kind cool.
With the now super limited feat progression how can I best build the bard to make use of the deeds, as well as be a great party buffer.