Hey I am looking to build a flag bearing bard with a banner of ancient kings that just gives all kinds of massive bonuses to everyone. Any suggestions on what I can do to max out the bonuses from inspire courage and from the flag bearer feat? He will sing to the sounds of his enemies screams and the cracking of their skulls will keep time.
The Aasimar Favored Class Bonus will increase Inspire Courage. An Aasimar with Angel or Azata blood is also perfect for a Bard, depending on which way you build it.
Are you planning to actually wield the thing for full benefit, or fight 'sword-and-flag', holding the banner high in a (light shield) hand while wielding a weapon?
Depending on your plans, taking a single level of Lore Oracle to gain (mithral) medium armor and use your charisma for AC is a very useful option. As much as losing a Bard level sucks, it's incredibly useful to be able to go high strength and charisma and still have very solid AC.
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Consider going with Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard, along with the Halfling trait Helpful, the Arcane Strike feat, and Gloves of Arcane Striking. You can use Bodyguard at reach to add +5 to +9 to your ally's Armor Class.
That's easily the difference between being hit by an extra iterative. Add Blur and later Displacement to your Bard's spell list, and you'll basically be vastly improving your melee guy's survivability, along with boosting their damage potential through Inspire Courage and banner bonuses.
I was actually looking at using Flagbearer a while ago on an Evangelist Cleric, since they operate as Bards for Inspire Courage. The fighting style would be the 'sword-and-flag' thing I mentioned crossed with Cleric power.
Marshall of the Light
Evangelist of Sarenrae 10/ Fighter 1
Aasimar; Deathless Spirit, Immortal Spark: 14STR, 12DEX, 14CON, 10INT, 14/16WIS, 13/15CHA. (Deathless Spark means that you could be middle aged without any real penalty for the bonus attributes; some cry massive cheese though).
Traits: Fate's Favored, Magical Knack
Domain: Glory/Heroism
1C. Flagbearer
3C. Extra Performance
5F. +Channel Smite / Guided Hand
7C. Power Attack
9C. Extra Performance
11C. Persistent Spell
Weapon: +1 Keen, Grayflame Scimitar. Grayflame spends a use of Channel Energy to add 1d6 bonus damage to a weapon and increase it's enhancement by +1, including stacking with Greater Magic Weapon.
Armor/Shield: Full Plate, Light Shield (protecting the banner-hand).
Besides the bonuses from Flagbearer and the banner, you can cast Divine Favor on yourself. Heroism doesn't stack with Flagbearer for attack, but it does help with saves and skills if needed. The Aura of Heroism power at level 9 works as Heroism for the group - extremely useful if your flag bonus suddenly gets turned into a lost-flag penalty.
To increase your effect on the battlefield even further, cast Archon's Aura or Persistent Archon's Aura to lower enemy attack, AC and saves.
Put your flag on a Totem Spear
The feats Master Performer and Grand Master Performer will increase your performance in +1 each.
The feats Master Performer and Grand Master Performer will increase your performance in +1 each.
Yep! Master performer is also on the Feat Ladder to Verbose Performer, which causes all of your Bardic Performances to double in range. So, 60 feet instead of 30. Very nice.
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One issue with sword and flag, is not having a spare hand for spellcasting. Spiked Gauntlets and flag may work better, but not look as cool.
Alas, "sword and flag" does not work with the Banner of the Ancient Kings. It only works with Flagbearer. You must wield the long spear in two hands for the Banner of the Ancient Kings to function.
I also have an evangelist cleric on the banner track. The banner will not buff as good for a cleric as when in the hands of a bard (the bard's Inspire Courage gets +4 effective levels whereas the evangelist cleric does not). However, you have really good extra buffs that are available to use.
Yeah, not having a spare hand in combat is annoying; two-handing the banner with weapon sheathed at the start of a battle is useful to gain initiative anyhow, but after the weapon is drawn casting basically requires a move to sheathe first. It depends on how much casting a character plans to be doing when actually fighting. As mentioned, Arcane Duelist is a great solution on the Bard side of things. Quickdraw is also helpful in some situations.
As far as the Banner of the Ancient Kings in one hand goes, it loses it's initiative and saving throw bonuses when carried in one hand but still grants it's other bonuses so long as it is 'carried', so the major combat buffs still apply.
Fortunately as far as Evangelist and Bard levels go,
This ability is similar in all respects to bardic performance as used by a bard of the same level (including interactions with feats, spells, and prestige classes)
so the Evangelist is considered to be a Bard as far as anything that affects Performance.
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Consider going with Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard, along with the Halfling trait Helpful, the Arcane Strike feat, and Gloves of Arcane Striking. You can use Bodyguard at reach to add +5 to +9 to your ally's Armor Class.
That's easily the difference between being hit by an extra iterative. Add Blur and later Displacement to your Bard's spell list, and you'll basically be vastly improving your melee guy's survivability, along with boosting their damage potential through Inspire Courage and banner bonuses.
Hello there,
I probably missed something as I do not see how to aid another at reach? Please explain?
Aid another + Helpful, that's +4, arcane strike that's an additional +2 (at level 7 for example).. the rest come from benevolent weapon/armor?
Loving the idea btw ! My flagbearer halfling will receive much love.
A 1-level dip into Standardbearer Cavalier will give you Banner, and Challenge so you can enter Battle Herald later.
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Consider going with Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard, along with the Halfling trait Helpful, the Arcane Strike feat, and Gloves of Arcane Striking. You can use Bodyguard at reach to add +5 to +9 to your ally's Armor Class.
That's easily the difference between being hit by an extra iterative. Add Blur and later Displacement to your Bard's spell list, and you'll basically be vastly improving your melee guy's survivability, along with boosting their damage potential through Inspire Courage and banner bonuses.
Hello there,
I probably missed something as I do not see how to aid another at reach? Please explain?
Aid another + Helpful, that's +4, arcane strike that's an additional +2 (at level 7 for example).. the rest come from benevolent weapon/armor?
Loving the idea btw ! My flagbearer halfling will receive much love.
Well, your arcane strike scales with caster level, up to +5 at level 20, though yes, you can push things higher with benevolent armor/weapons.
IOW: use a reach weapon. Reach will enable you to aid at a distance.
It takes two hands on the banner to get all of the bonuses
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I like Bard 7/ Dragon Disciple 4
20 point buy something like this:
str: 16, Dex: 14, Con: 13, Int: 10, Wis: 10, Cha: 15
Human w/ Focused Study Grab Combat Reflexes and Skill Focus. (Your choice...if your using versatile performance then pick your best one) Use a Longspear.
Trait: Magical Knack-Bard
Feats to pick up:
3: Flag Bearer
5: Power attack
7: Improved Initiative
8: Skill Focus- Survival
9: Eldritch Heritage- Orc (Touch of Rage)
9 (bonus from Dragon disciple): Great Fortitude (your weakest Save)
11: Improved Eldritch Heritage- Orc (Strength of the Beast +2 Str scaling)
Enjoy the Major Str boosts +6 (or more) , D12 HD, Claws, Bite, Breath weapon, +3 NA, Resist 10 (your element), and Touch of Rage. with only 4 Levels in DD and Magical knack your casting at full CL.
Should your campaign go higher you can choose to take more Bard levels or more Dragon disciple levels up to 8. ALso should you go higher I recommend if your DM allows to take Quicken SLA feat for your Touch of Rage. That way you can swift action touch of rage (which gives a +5 moral bonus). Use a wand of moment of greatness and it is instant profit. You can swift action touch of Rage, Move action perform, and standard to use Moment of greatness.
Arcane Duelist has an ability at level 5 which allows you to treat yourself as having a free hand when wielding your bonded weapon so you can do the whole combat reflexes/reach weapon thing and still cast. You lose a lot of Bard abilities with the archetype though.