I'm chewing on ideas for an all-bard team, assuming 4-5 party members. It appeals to me a lot due to the archetypes available and the flexibility of the bard class.
What would be some of the best archetypes for an all-bard team?
My instinct leads me to consider a few archetypes right away:
1. The base Bard has Inspire Courage, which is awesome, and is in no way a bad class. This provides a competence bonus.
2. The Archivist gets to add +1 AC and +1 Attack as an Insight bonus instead of Inspire Courage. This would stack with Inspire Courage.
3. Court Bards debuff the enemy (with no save it appears) with Satire at level 1 and it improves from thereon out, penalizing their attack and damage rolls as well as their saves vs. fear and charm effects. Seems solid.
4. Magicians improve the spellcasting abilities of their fellows. Might be useful in a group full of bards?
5. Having an Archaelogist around gives you a trapmonkey that is also capable of holding his own in melee combat and serving as your frontline. Bonus points if he's an Orc with the Fate's Favored trait and the Sacred Tattoo racial trait.
What would make the most kickass Bard team that could take on any challenge a DM could throw at them? No multiclassing, no prestige classing, just straight-up bard goodness, please.
I'd like to know what feats and spells you'd suggest, too. I imagine with this many bards we'd basically have all the best spells from the Bard list covered with several Gallant Inspirations and Saving Finales thrown into the mix.
An Arrowsong Minstrel for ranged damage I think. I don't think the magician would be that useful, and it is useful having a good archer/blaster.
Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a nice archetype.
What about the Animal Speaker archetype, perhaps in place of the Core Bard? You still get all the greatest bard songs, but you also get your "Druid" stand-in with summon spells for free. Oh, and you summon swarms. Useful, or not so useful?
EDIT: Nix that. Replace the core bard with the Arcane Duelist if anything. Gets to romp around in medium armor and give everyone magic weapons like a boss. I'll drink to that.
Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a nice archetype.
What about the Animal Speaker archetype, perhaps in place of the Core Bard? You still get all the greatest bard songs, but you also get your "Druid" stand-in with summon spells for free. Oh, and you summon swarms. Useful, or not so useful?
EDIT: Nix that. Replace the core bard with the Arcane Duelist if anything. Gets to romp around in medium armor and give everyone magic weapons like a boss. I'll drink to that.
Seems like TWF might be good on the arcane duelist with all the stacking bonuses.
For the lead I suggest the Sorrowsoul archetype, which uses its spells to boost itself rather than its allies. If you have multiple bards then having one that is more powerful than the others might be useful.
Additionally, the Thundercaller makes a fantastic drummer considering the sky is their drum.
I'd probably use those two. The Phrenologist can boost sonic damage if your team stacks that up somehow, but thats probably stupid.
I also like the Ringleader and the Provocateur. However you are probably better off with an Archaeologist (despite him lacking bardic performance).
My team would probably be a Sorrowsoul, Thundercaller, Archaeologist, Arrowsong Mistral, and then the last slot could be anything. Probably court bard to be honest, but anything could fit.
No Skald?
No Skald?
That's the heavy metal band. These are Rockstars.
EDIT: I suppose Skald can be allowed alongside Bard, but nothing else. No multiclassing, no dips, no PRCs - just pure Skalds and pure Bards.
Hakon certainly looks like he belongs in a band.
Four drow bards wielding pistols.