So I wanted to draft up a character. The concept is pretty much a gnome that wants a life worth writing a novel about. So he is all about experiencing life, and being generally adventurous (page taken from desnan faith).
As for the build, I'm not looking for purly optimised DPR, I'm just looking for a good build to keep this gnome viable.
As for restrictions, its just 20 point buy, and level five (any combination of fighter and bard, but must have both).
Thanks for the potential help.
Out of curiosity, why both bard and fighter?
The idea, thematically, behind the character is that he started out telling these grand tales of heroes, and singing songs of their feats, and then decided he wanted to become the hero that he's always sang of. The bard level represents the obvious, and the fighter level is supposed to represent the time he spent training to prepare himself for his adventures. The concept is still pretty fresh and I haven't fleshed out any REAL backstory yet.
This character is supposed to be a little more on the flavor side of things and I know fighter and bard have little synergy. If fighter would hinder this concept then I'm open to other classes/archetypes. (The only restriction on the other classes is nothing from the ACG, they just rub me the wrong way).
Heck maybe even just straight bard might be better than splashing a martial class, I just want to stay true to his concept.
Oh and delaying casting is no issue with me.
I see your point on the battle herald, but that makes him come off as a militaristic type of person. Unless I'm wrong on the flavor of the class.
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Class is not synonymous with flavor. Class is just a bundle of rules mechanics that let you have certain abilities. How you present those abilities and how you roleplay your character have nothing to do with any "flavor" assumed by the class.
Since you seem to want to play a primary fighter, I would suggest ignoring the bard levels altogether, and just play a Lore Warden fighter. You started to learn all the tales, but instead of telling them you used that knowledge to go out and make your own story.
Ausk, I like the fluff for your character, I may have to steal that in the future.
I agree with Imbicatus though, you don't need to multi-class to change the way the character acts/ responds.
Another option to the Lore Warden is to play the bard, as they are good fighters, and also gives you other options if you want to move outside the normal comfort zone.
To transition from braggart to fighter, you can even use a feat to add a weapon proficiency or weapon focus to get the +1 to hit. That would be enough to show he is now a fighting mentality.
As for other feats, gnomes while awesome suck in damage as they use small weapons, and have minuses to strength. Instead I would consider the Butterfly Sting feat which adds to the overall annoyance of the character.
As others have said, daring champion cavalier or swashbuckler synergize well with martial bards - that said, fighter 1 is perfectly serviceable insofar as you get weapons, some feats, etc. (Fighter or daring champion gets you med armor Prof, which qualifies you for mithril breastplate, swashbuckler gets you panache, but you won't have anything spectacular to do with it).
Either way I would recommend a 1 level dip, 2 max. If you go the first route, use finesse to pick up fencing grace or equivalent. It's feat taxy but as a small & low str bard you don't get much out of pursuing whip focus which is a common strategy.
Don't discount your spells as a martial bard - the bard spell list is amazing and will dramatically (heh) improve your combat abilities.
I would start with as high a dex as you can afford, possibly 8,17,14,12,8,16 (after racial), or 6 str if you don't want to lower wisdom.