So I'm really liking the idea of playing essentially a smarter more subtle Alladin type deal. Your friendly neighborhood thieving street rat with class. I really want very little to do with actually fighting... Preferably not directly fighting at all, just buffing, healing, and skill checks. :)
I'm thinking Half-Elf with the alt racial to have +2 cha and another free floating plus which we'll slap in dex for AC and skills.
Str: 9
Dex: 17
Con: 14
Int: 12
Wis: 12
Cha: 16
I really like the arcane healer archetype, channeling might be nice to be able throw out since I don't really want to physically fight at all an would certainly add to my healing repertoire, and maybe busting up some ghouls.
THIS IS A PFS CHARACTER
So any suggestions on being the epitome of the perfect fifth party member?
if you are the perfect fifth
then one of the other four is already a healer/support
So I'm really liking the idea of playing essentially a smarter more subtle Alladin type deal. Your friendly neighborhood thieving street rat with class. I really want very little to do with actually fighting... Preferably not directly fighting at all, just buffing, healing, and skill checks. :)
I'm thinking Half-Elf with the alt racial to have +2 cha and another free floating plus which we'll slap in dex for AC and skills.
Str: 9
Dex: 17
Con: 14
Int: 12
Wis: 12
Cha: 16I really like the arcane healer archetype, channeling might be nice to be able throw out since I don't really want to physically fight at all an would certainly add to my healing repertoire, and maybe busting up some ghouls.
THIS IS A PFS CHARACTER
So any suggestions on being the epitome of the perfect fifth party member?
You know what class sounds like a lot of fun?
The street performer class.Everytime I read the archetype I cant think of the vast possibilities you can do out of combat and in combat of just suddenly making people dissapear.
if you are the perfect fifth
then one of the other four is already a healer/support
Well it's for PFS so it's kind of random who I get to play with, I just wanted to sound dramatic at the end, I'm not ACTUALLY the fifth party member or anything. That's just the stuff I wanna do. Face/skills, healing, and buffing.
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You want the finale spells, Moment of Greatness, and your staples like Haste and Invisibility. I won't be the first to tell you that the Arcane Healer archetype isn't very good.
I would go human and take Focused Study for two Skill Focus feats at 1st and 8th. You need to look at feats like Lingering Performance, Discordant Voice, and Prodigy.
Maybe also think about taking Eldritch Heritage for a familiar, or just go Duettist (if you feel like maybe bardic knowledge is an ok sacrifice, but I doubt it with what you want). The familiar gives you two skill checks for the price of one invest, so it really helps with skills. They can even go social if you take an Improved Familiar.
You can also grab something like Silver Tongue from the Rakshasa bloodline. Just some ideas.
EDIT: Archaeologist is basically a Bard-Rogue. It's also very good, but it doesn't suit your wants.
Grab haste and good hope at level 7 and you should be fine if you don't replace Inspire Courage. The bonuses you'll give your party with those spells are goona be good for the casters and amazing for the melee/archers.
If you like being a street rate my suggestion is to be a Busker
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo---bard-a rchetypes/busker-bard-archetype
Ok, so its not mechanically stereotypical but its a really awesome class for a number of reasons. For the first, you get perma-haste with Lingering preformance. You don't need diplomacy at all because its replaced entirely by bluff. You have tons of neat street-rat esque moves like facinating, suggesting, asking undetectable yes/no questions, gaining access to a personal extra-dimensional space, and most interesting disguising yourself as a statue/paralyzed/dead. Plus you become excellent with throwing weapons and still have access to all your spells.
Give it a look.
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I would never trade versatile performance for very few uses of channel energy.
If you don't want to fight, I don't think I would trade +2 dex for all the benefits you are losing from being a regular half-elf.
Being a 'perfect fifth party member' in PFS, where you don't know your other player's characters and don't even know if you will have 5 others seems problematic as well.
That said, going with the dazzling display feat gives you a standard action area debuff (if you keep skill focus feat and versatile performance this will be a really high skill based debuff.) Generally speaking, giving an inspire courage buff and dazzling display debuff will make you pretty useful to most groups.
If would be tempted to go with the sound striker archetype, as I don't think you lose much and having a damage option for when other things just won't work is pretty good.
Just so you know, I played with a player who played a bard that only used skill checks and sang, and made no attacks and hid when combat started. She annoyed more than half the table and was responsible for a player death.
You can build to buff and use skills and still be effective at combat.
I was hoping to be able to sit back hum a little bardic song and heal well enough to compensate for not ACTUALLY fighting, however if that chanelling thing sucks I probably wouldn't be able to heal everyone quickly enough.
Yeah, I'll be the first to admit that healing in combat often leaves a lackluster feeling of not doing much. At least, personally for me. Add in that arcane healer archetype leaves much to be desired, and it can be... Eh. However, on the few occasions where I'm not going Paladin/Inquisitor/Bloodrager as a player, I can always say that being the background support is a blast for me. Just a base bard is really good at its job of helping everyone out, and the Dazzling Display suggestion above isn't that bad of a suggestion for what to do when you're done buffing, and simply at the maintenance stage.
I would also suggest going with the Chelish Diva archetype, as it both fits what you want your character to be like, and gives some nice extra survivability along the way by upping the armor types you can use without issue. You're still not going to be the fighty type, but in a pinch, you can stand your own.
Just so you know, I played with a player who played a bard that only used skill checks and sang, and made no attacks and hid when combat started. She annoyed more than half the table and was responsible for a player death.
You can build to buff and use skills and still be effective at combat.
I mean, the bard is a 3/4 BAB class who can cast arcane spells with a shield. You should have a better AC than the Magus (A +2 Heavy Shield and +2 Chain Shirt gets you 1 less AC than +3 full plate) so "I'm going to hide from combat" should be off the table, since the Magus isn't going to do it.
Because of the aforementioned AC, I might suggest a strength build instead of a dex build. You need fewer feats in order to contribute to combat (just grab power attack and you're ready to go) and the longsword is a decent weapon. Ranged Builds need Point-blank, Precise, and Rapid shot at least, and Finesse builds are tricky too (in theory you could buff Dex and Int and get Elven Battle Focus for INT to damage at level 7).
mechanically stereotypical bard:
no archetype needed
cast inspire courage and keep it up
cast the occasional buff spell
provide the occasional flank or aid
have high modifiers in face skills
done
Personally?
Don't aim to be a 5th member, that makes it sound like (and makes you see the character as) nothing more than a spare wheel. A backup.
Screw that!
You should be the party's heart and soul. The character they turn to for inspiration and leadership. I mean, you literally have a laundry list of abilities that start with "Inspire".
When the chips are down, you should be the one to rally the troops and remind them what they are fighting for. Your fighting spirit should overflow so much that everyone around you can't help but be swept up in the momentum!
Take Perform (Oratory) and don't be afraid to yell out to the world, WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!
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For a "mechanically stereotypical bard" I'm assuming that you want to retain both bardic knowledge and inspire courage, yes?
ALWAYS CONTRIBUTE
I would recommend that your bard have something he or she can contribute in combat.
Dex builds:
If going for a dex build, take weapon finesse and piercing grace and go to town with a rapier. Or take point blank shot and precise shot and go to town with a short bow. Or use a whip to disarm and trip enemies -- also using weapon finesse.
Str builds:
No required feats! Just take your long sword or spear and go to town. Half-orcs are especially nice for this because they bring in nice weapon proficiencies of their own.
Charisma builds:
UMD a wand of enlarge person. UMD other helpful spells. Then do one of the two options listed above, because you should still be able to fight...
SUGGESTED ARCHETYPES
Here are my suggestions for PFS legal archetypes to consider:
Why this one is good: it keeps EVERYTHING you would want from a bard -- inspire courage, bardic knowledge, versatile performance, and gives you the ability to help the entire party see through mist. UMD a wand of obscuring mist once per scenario and you can give your party amazing battlefield control. (Don't do it more than that though... If you trivialize all combats this will make for unhappy GMs and a banned archetype later on.)
Why this one is good: Curse breaking and silver mastery... Having weapons count as both silver and cold iron without damage reduction? Plus one to attacks with mitrhil weapons? Yes please!
Other PFS legal bard archetypes that don't trade off too much:
Soundstriker -- blast people with words
Animal speaker -- it's a little meh, but the swarm calling and summons natures ally spells are kind of nice. I have one of these in a home Kingmaker game so that I can talk to horses.
Prankster -- Gnome only, but AWESOME
PFS Legal, if you have the boons for them:
Averakan Arbiter -- Teamwork Feats -- Granted by a chronicle that can be applied to any character thereafter
Watersinger -- Waterbending! Undine only, so only with the Undine race boon
I liked these two so much I have one of each in society play...
NO BARDIC KNOWLEDGE, BUT STILL WORTHY
I'd like to mention one other option that does, alas, trade off bardic knowledge but is still pretty nifty:
Duettist Bard -- A familiar that can initiate bardic performances while you do other things? Yes!
I also have one of these in society play. I loooove bards. Can you tell?
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I was hoping to be able to sit back hum a little bardic song and heal well enough to compensate for not ACTUALLY fighting, however if that chanelling thing sucks I probably wouldn't be able to heal everyone quickly enough.Just so you know, I played with a player who played a bard that only used skill checks and sang, and made no attacks and hid when combat started. She annoyed more than half the table and was responsible for a player death.
You can build to buff and use skills and still be effective at combat.
A buffer bard is VERY viable in PFS. I play several. I've NEVER had any complaints and often am obviously the MVC of the scenario. If anything, it can be TOO powerful, especially in its ability to just avoid fights. You want to grab the flagbearer feat early on and a banner of the ancient Kings at level 7 or 8.
Most of my buffers max out Cha and get a fair value out of spells but honestly that is more so I have something to do in my turn than for actual effectiveness. Providing +2/+2 to hit/damage at level 1 up to +5/+5 at level 8 iis huge. Not to mention eliminating a fair few combats by diplomacy or bluff.
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I was hoping to be able to sit back hum a little bardic song and heal well enough to compensate for not ACTUALLY fighting, however if that chanelling thing sucks I probably wouldn't be able to heal everyone quickly enough.
Have you thought about being an Evangelist Cleric? No bardic knowledge and your skill points are pitiful, but you're a powerful caster and can totally channel and buff the party.
Yeah, I've played one of those too. Bards (and classes that can do bard-like things) are my favorites.
Hmm
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Master Performer is no longer PFS legal. A shame, really. I'm not sure why... Was the faction that it was attached to retired?
Hmm
PS Sometimes it feels like there is a bias against support builds, since the main ARG errata changes really targeted oracles and bards. No more uplifts to bardic performance via aasimar FCB! Poor sad aasimar bards... If you want to have +2 to your inspire courage, you have to go flagbearer and carry the flag!
PPS You're right that Savage Skald retains inspire courage, versatile performance and bardic knowledge. I'm not super excited by the archetype because I think most of its goodies hit outside the range of a typical PFS career. Still, I love that tenth level ability, Song of the Fallen!
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If you really want to focus on skills with minimal investment in feats, either go strength and bash things or go the lithe and nimble route with Weapon Finesse.
As soon as possible, set up your weapon with the Agile enchant,letting you dump strength at creation and take some Int in its place.
My personal favorites are going to be Duettist, Silver Balladeer, and Sound Striker for reasons already mentioned.
Glad I don't play PFS! Master Performer banned?! Wait, doesn't that mean no Verbose Performer either because that requires MP?! PFS sure knows how to nerf the bard, don't they? I think Verbose is almost required to really help the Sound Striker shine, myself.
As others have said, the two iconic features to keep on a bard are probably Inspire Courage and Bardic Knowledge (and the Bard should have had Spell Kenning, too--but I will not go any further on that derailment). I love the Sound Striker--favorite archetype in the game. But Street Performer and Busker do sound closer to what you stated you wanted in your character.
The bard has a wonderful spell list, IMO. Most of the Finale spells can be good, glitterdust, heroism, good hope, haste, soundburst, ear-piercing scream, charm person, hideous laughter, grease, timely inspiration, solid note, bladed dash (and greater), blistering invective, pugwampi's grace just to name a "few".
I also love all the sonic spells the Bard has, but one needs a high CHA to pull some of those off effectively.
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Bard 7/ Dragon Disciple 4
Start with a 14-15 Str and Pick up a Long Spear.
A human should look like:
Str: 15, Dex: 14, Con: 13, Int: 10, Wis: 10, Cha: 16
Feats: Improved Initiative, Combat Reflexes, Arcane Strike, (Pick up power attack through Dragon Disciple level 2 feat or you can take it earlier and grab another Feat like toughness or Blind-fight).
If you have more source books beyond CRB the inner sea world guide Has a feat called Flagbearer that combos VERY well with a wand of moment of greatness. The PDF is $10 bucks and the book has lots of cool things in it.
Enjoy a CRB bad-ass Bard who Starts as a party buffer and evolves into A Party buffer AND a Reach Melee Brute that could hold the front lines alone if the NEED arises.
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I've had fun with my gnome prankster bard in PFS.
I put my first versatile performance in perform (comedy) and use it for intimidation to demoralize enemies in battle. Combined with Dazzling Display or Blistering Invective, and you're debuffing groups of enemies pretty effectively.
And the Mock bardic performance is a nice debuff which stacks with shaken, so you can effectively give enemies -4 to hit. Your party will thank you.
He's got other debuff spells, too. Sometimes, he buffs, but he really shines when debuffing things with minds. The last time I played him, he actually saved the party from a TPK with Hideous Laughter, of all things. Half the party was unconscious, and I took the BBEG out of the fight for 3 rounds - long enough for us to heal and go back on the offensive.