So guys i have been thinking about bards lately , both the dervish dancer and the duettist seem quite nice to me , but im having trouble finding out the best way to go about the dervish weapon choice.
The options i know about:
STR build:
1)Go TWF with kukris
2)Spend a feat on exotic weapon and use a fauchard or an elven curved sword.
Problem with the STR build is that i image it has low AC compared to a focused in DEX.
DEX build:
1)Go TWF with kukris , spend a feat on weapon finesse and then make both +1 keen/agile kukris when you can , but it is quite expensive.
2)Go with the scimitar , get weapon finesse then dervish dance to me this seems like a poor choice , having a "dead" hand doesnt suit me
Im quite sure there are plenty of options i dont know about also , so , how you guys advise to build said dervish dancer?
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I would check out the Dawnflower dervish bard archetype if you're thinking about this at all - getting your bonuses doubled is pretty nice. Might make up for that "dead hand". There are some RP restrictions, though.
Also, note that you'll need a free hand to cast spells a lot of the time, making TWF occasionally inconvenient.
As for AC, I've found that elven chain or celestial armor do pretty good work... once you've made it that far. I prefer to use a shield myself, but it looks like you're not especially interested in doing so. ^_^
I would check out the Dawnflower dervish bard archetype if you're thinking about this at all - getting your bonuses doubled is pretty nice. Might make up for that "dead hand". There are some RP restrictions, though.
Also, note that you'll need a free hand to cast spells a lot of the time, making TWF occasionally inconvenient.
As for AC, I've found that elven chain or celestial armor do pretty good work... once you've made it that far. I prefer to use a shield myself, but it looks like you're not especially interested in doing so. ^_^
Who the hell says you need a 'dead' hand?
Sure, it comes with dervish dance, and that is nice and all...but going one weapon/one handed is a waste of that archetype.
The real power is going TWF- as you said, you get double bonuses from inspire courage, which puts them at RAGE like levels, and eventually it makes you comparable to full BAB classes (+8 by the end puts you just a little behind fighters and barbarians with basic attack bonuses). And that applies to each and every hit- ripe for a build with a ton of hits, like TWF or archery.
Now, while you don't have anything as nice as a kukri...daggers suffice, and there is another alternative that solves the 'casting while TWF' problem- the cestus. It is basically a spiked glove that has similar stats to a dagger (19-20/x2) and also does bludgeoning (some interference with fine skills like disable device, but it doesn't mess with casting; brassknuckles are the ones that mess with casting).
So as a dawnflower dervish, you can easily go around dressed like a brawler. And you would be quite good at it.
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Well i do know the dawnflower , it is just that when i compared the two of them , the dervish appeared to me to be the better fighter since he had more skills turned to that when compared to the dawnflower , while i do agree that the dawnflower having a 2x dance is quite strong.
I dont hate shields in general , it is just that in this kind of PC i would prefer to go for a more "showy" style and well , punching people with a cestus isnt something i do often in pathfinder and do seem quite amusing.
Im more tempted towards the dervish overall i admit , so im interested to know if the dawnflower is just very far ahead or are they still close.