I have seen the threads on favorite bard spells and least liked spells
Some of those spells contradict.
My Bard is an Arcane Duelist in Rise of the Rune Lords. The GM has been good enough to let me have the feats Master Performer and Grand Master Performer. With Lingering Performance the only performance I use is Inspire Courage (+5/+5 at 12th level)
Current 4th level spells are: Dance of 100 cuts, Dimension Door and Son of Kyonin.
I am not a big fan of Save or suck spells. Even though my CHA is 20(with item), the saving throw isn't that great.
One spell I have looked at is Secure Shelter and another is Echolocation.
I looked at Virtuoso Performance but that uses up a lot of my performance points.
We are at a point in the game where we have been put in the dark once so that is why I considered the Echolocation. Secure shelter seems like a good idea but we have a large party including a Horse that is practically a party member.
So any ideas would be of great help.
Thanks.
It depends on your group, especially if you have a cleric or not.
Echo location is excellent. Freedom of movement is also very useful. Depending on the campaign Legend Lore is very good (and you get early access to it as a bard!). Greater invisibility is a solid combat buff, Grand Destiny could be useful, shadow conjuration can be ok. Secure shelter isn't all that good unless it's your only option.
For SoS you have mass charm person, dominate person, and hold monster.
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If you can easily buy scrolls or make scrolls within the group then Contingent Scroll is a great pre-combat buff or panic button. Otherwise Freedom of Movement or Greater Invisibility would be my pick. Echolocation and Secure Shelter would be well down the list.
Heroic Finale is another good spell, although you should wait until you can start bardic performance as a swift action (around level 13 if I remember well).
Thanks for your input. We have a Summoner, a multiclassing Wizard (going for Arcane Trickster), Magus and Oracle(our healer though she has a cleric follower via leadership)
I traded out one of the Finale spells once I realized that all I used was Inspire Courage. I realize how well they work, but I am adding much to the party with just the Inspire Courage.
I didn't know the Wizard had scribe scroll and I suspect the player/GM who forgets a lot doesn't know either. BTW, the group has only used scrolls when we got them at low level. If our wizard could have made them....grrr.
I never really thought about Greater Invisibility because I have Vanish and Invisibility and they were only used in one situation while we were in Magnamar.
About the only reason I can think to have it is to cast it on our Unchained Rogue so he can sneak ahead. But he is an insane possibly kamakazee player that will run ahead using his fast stealth thinking nothing can kill him. He would insist that he doesn't need Greater Invisibility.
I like the idea of Legend Lore but the casting time is 10 minutes plus. It's one of those spells you want to make time for when you know you are in a safe place. I suppose it would be great for the next BBEG when we had some time where we were safe like down time. Our GM would be just the kind of guy to have us get attacked by wandering monsters while I am sitting and divining.
Just FYI, I'm not trying to say any of the ideas put forth are bad I am just trying to think through how they might or might not be used by me.
I don't want to pick a spell that sits on the rack and never gets used.
I learned that with Unseen servant. It's a great spell if you don't mind your movement being slowed to 15'. Everyone including my GM thought it was a great spell. He got me a wand of it at some point. I haven't used the wand and haven't got a chance to sell it.
At the moment, I am still leaning towards Echolocation just because I am not sure how much of the game is underground. Greater Invisibility is still a good idea because though the Rogue won't take it, I know at least two other characters who would.
Grand Destiny actually looks pretty cool. I think I would use it for a BBEG fight. The total bonus to hit would be +9(with inspire). Or it could be for saves.
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You already have a suite of combat-focused spells, so I would suggest Dominate Person, for use as an out-of-combat spell. You don't need to need to have sky-high DCs to enchant, say, a servant or guard, and that gives you access to all kinds of places you wouldn't normally get. Plus, giants are humanoids and typically don't have fantastic will saves.
Alternately, Communal Phantom Steed is a great utility spell for transporting your entire party over water or air, and Shadow Conjuration is an incredibly versatile spell.
I've made heavy use of Versatile Performance. It does burn performance rounds like mad though.
Dominate Person sounds good. I think our Summoner has it. Of the times where we have had city time, we never found a reason to use the spell where our Oracle with the awesome Charisma and Diplomacy worked better :)
Also, the giants that we have run up against don't seem to have average will saves. For some reason, they have better than average will saves. They make saves that you would think they shouldn't.
The Communal Phantom Steed is a good idea and a bad one. Very early on in the game (Thistletop I think), we found a horse that was hated by the Goblins and mistaken for the Sandpoint Devil. The Oracle took it as here "companion" and named it after Shadowmere from Skyrim (Shadowmist). Shadowmist has Horseshoes of the Zephyr. I don't know the speed of that horse, but it can't be as fast as the Phantom Steed. Everyone in the group would get a horse except our fearless Oracle. Of coarse we would have to ride slow for her I guess. If I do that, then Communal Phantom Steed is also a good idea.
Doesn't Lingering Performance solve the issues with the Finale spells?