Hey guys,
I'm running a Bard Only campaign, and I am wondering if you guys know of any particularly troublesome builds that I should look out for or ban outright.
What combinations do you think would give a disproportionate power advantage to a single character and could become problematic?
I will have six players.
For Bards? Nothing super game breaking.
It is all bard only, no multiclassing allowed? If so, I can't really imagine any problematic builds. Most problematic builds either have questionable rules interpretations or really crazy combinations of different classes.
We might be able to give more precise help after your players have built their characters, as you can post their builds and we can take a closer look at them.
Bard only and all paizo archetypes allowed, all other classes are off-limits for the PCs. No multi-classing.
The NPCs and Villains can use other classes, but the ending event of most content is going to be a battle of the bands in more ways than one.
Yeah, I can't imagine a single broken build if only bard is allowed, even with all resources available to them. Not without some really sketchy rule interpretations anyways. I think you should probably be fine.
The only thing I can imagine to note is that you have to worry about low balling fort saves (since no one has a good one- don't want a total party kill from an AoE fort save that would have been dealt with if half the party had good fort saves).
Also to note- Archaeologist is going to be strong in this. Not game breakingly strong, but it will likely be the main melee character. Cause everyone is going to benefit from at least one person's inspire courage, and the class doesn't have too many alternative attack/damage bonuses. So the archaeologist is going to be doubled up.
Not game breaking- just puts it up to full BAB level for this. It isn't like the dawnflower dervish doesn't do that already with its regular, non all bard party abilities.
Archaeologist, Dawnflower Dervish, Arcane Duelist.
There are actually plenty of choices for a frontliner. Duelist makes a good Archer too, if you wanna go that way.
Problematic?
Well, I feel you should give the bards a break - they should get to use their class abilities.
However, an overly enthusiastic player could potentially make a very nasty fear causing build at higher levels. The dirge of doom tree from the ACG is the root problem. At level ~11 the build can basically auto-cause fear.
I was at one point considering a half-orc bard with the following:
Class: Core bard or animal speaker
Feats:
WP focus (level 3)
Dazzling display (level 5)
Intimidating Performance (level 7)
Improved Dirge of Doom (level 9)
Greater dirge of doom (level 11)
Spells: blistering invective, raiment of Command
Items: maiden's helm.
Traits: Omen