bard pfs build - duettist worth it?


Advice


HI folks,

some advice please - building a bard character with an emphasis on buffing, but also wanting to be able to pull his weight.

pitborn tiefling lvl 2 (last remake)
s 16
d 14
c 14
i 10
w 8
ch 16

feat - flagbearer (going with the buffing idea)
traits - chain fighter (+2 to trips)
maestro of the society (+3 rnds bardic performace)

would i be better off just getting reactionary?

duettist - lose bardic knowledge gain a familiar. is this worth it?
im thinking a protector - combat reflexes and bodyguard at the cost of alertness.
thrush +3 diplomacy is sub-optimal i know but i like the talking and it feels a lot more flavourful and logical than a scorpion that helps with the performing arts!

any other suggestions appreciated.


Stats seem to be okay. Although you get good Will Saves, unless you plan to dip 2 levels into Paladin for Divine Grace (which is a great investment IMO), I wouldn't be dumping Wisdom. You do get a lot of skills as a Bard (6 + mod), unless you want to be an all-encompassing Skill Monkey, dumping Intelligence would be better, and you don't technically lose any skill points if you use your Favored Class Bonus for it. Although you lose Bardic Knowledge (meaning you have to manually invest in more Knowledge ranks if you want that to be your forte), you still have Versatile Performance, and this is something both you and your Familiar get (though to be quite honest, all it will give you, at-best, is an Aid Another bonus from your familiar) that you can sub out for your other day-to-day skills.

Your basic character outline is that you want a fairly self-reliant Bard that can also provide buffs. Being 3/4 BAB and only D8 Hit-Dice (without any really cool powers), combined with your buffs (both spells AND performance), will make you only as effective as an unbuffed Flurry of Blows Monk on the front lines, and that's being generous. Although you might be able to hold your own melee-wise in the lower levels, I would personally consider trying to consolidate your stats to be less MAD to provide more for your party in the later levels; finding a way to go a pure Dexterity to hit and damage would go a long ways, since you can dump Strength to 16 (sparing you 10 point buy), giving you more skills, more Will Saves, more Dexterity, or more Charisma. Hell, you don't even need to find a way to get Dexterity to damage, since you can specialize in Aid Another (via Weapon Finnesse), and pump those bonuses through the roof, and you can invest in Crowd Control spells so your other more squishy party members don't get overrun from mooks that come later in the fight.

So to sum up:

I'd change the traits to Reactionary and Indomitable Faith (cookie cutter, I know, but it's the best set-up for basically everyone). +2 to Trip Attempts will become obsolete later in levels (because your BAB and buff scale won't compare to enemies who have higher BAB and similar or better buffs), and the +3 rounds becomes invalidated with Lingering Performance feat (which basically every bard should have, and is doubly true with effects that cost multiple Performance rounds, which a Duettist has).

Duettist is great because it provides you with a familiar that, if chosen right, can be resourceful, such as dropping Acid Flasks and such onto enemies (though this too becomes obsolete in the later levels), and providing Bardic Performance benefits from two different locations (this puts your familiar at risk, and becomes invalidated with the Shadowbard spell).

Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard are great investments, but I would shore up your defenses greatly if you were to go this route, as this requires you to be next to allies (usually your melee friends) to be useful. In other words, you better be planned to get attacked if you use such a tactic. Methods to increase your defenses would include maximizing your Dexterity, increasing your AC through other means (buffs, items, etc.), as well as your Saves (2 levels Paladin is an awesome investment for this, in my honest opinion). Other effects such as Blur/Displacement, Mirror Images, are great ways to make yourself an invincible target.

If you are going to be using Versatile Performance, using a feat like Thrush (or whatever) for an enhanced Diplomacy won't apply if you're using Performance to mimic a Diplomacy skill check. I would instead choose the Prodigy feat, since this applies to 2 separate performance skills, this means up to 4 skill checks that you mimic with a Performance get a +2, increasing to +4 by 10th level, an overall net gain in comparison, since you're basically getting a +8 skill increase (going to +16 by 10th level) at the cost of a +3 skill increase feat slot (going to +6 by 10th level).


Shalin wrote:

HI folks,

some advice please - building a bard character with an emphasis on buffing, but also wanting to be able to pull his weight.

pitborn tiefling lvl 2 (last remake)
s 16
d 14
c 14
i 10
w 8
ch 16

feat - flagbearer (going with the buffing idea)
traits - chain fighter (+2 to trips)
maestro of the society (+3 rnds bardic performace)

would i be better off just getting reactionary?

duettist - lose bardic knowledge gain a familiar. is this worth it?
im thinking a protector - combat reflexes and bodyguard at the cost of alertness.
thrush +3 diplomacy is sub-optimal i know but i like the talking and it feels a lot more flavourful and logical than a scorpion that helps with the performing arts!

any other suggestions appreciated.

I've pointed out in other threads about this archetype that if you want the familiar, but don't want to lose Bardic Knowledge, you could use the Sage Archetype to give your familiar a lesser version. This works if your intended goal of the familiar is not directly melee combat related (e.g. take the Sound Striker archetype and let your familiar blast opponents while you take other actions). The familiar being able to do performance also saves you a standard action until 7th. After that it's probably just easier to use a move action to start and maintain it yourself. The familiar also can't take advantage of feats like Lingering Performance, so you really just need to stock up on rounds / day to make the most out of it. All that said, I think you're best served if you want to take Improved Familiar at 7 to do things like UMD (and the Improved Familiar can maintain the Sage archetype).


Heya,

thanks for the advice - i am a bit resistant to the cookie cutter traits...

i think i'm also a bit short sighted, I do PBP and speccing characters to be effective in lots of levels time seems so far away. hence i like immediate balance and variety. Maybe once i've got a few characters to higher levels i'll see what people mean (and repent my decisions!)

none the less thanks for the advice - i really appreciate the community here, really helpful.

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