Taking on Arrowsong Minstrel will be like retraining your class, anything that changes will technically have to be paid to change (unless GM is willing to waive this, as they probably should for a new player experience).
Taking a prestige class is just like multiclassing, you become Bard4/Prestige x (x being a variable number). Only you must qualify for the prestige class with abilities. Often it is better to wait on a prestige class, as you freeze any previous class abilities unless it says otherwise. Also you do not qualify for Arcane archer yet regardless.
The reason they recommend keeping a pure Bard is because they are duration based, and save based casters. Each time you fail to bump your class a level, the saves vs enemies becomes DC of 1 harder, plus you lose out on learning spells, having more slots,and unlocking new class abilities. Bards make excellent dip classes for some builds though.
My advice, if going archer, would be arrowsong minstrel, it would be a very straightforward switch, and you would unlock most of the abilities instantly, including a great spell selection.
You will lose: Rapier, some spell slots, performances.
You will gain: Free feat (precise strike), selfish buffs, much better ranged damage with a bow via buffs, quasi still spell metamagic when wielding a bow (but not a crossbow or gun).
Plus, you can stack arcane archer later if you want (not really certain of the synergy there).
For magic, pure Bard: Pump spells, CHA, and buff with performances and spells (this is far more powerful than straight damage spells anyways). Take a few necessary bow feats (Point blank, precise shot, rapid shot, deadly aim), you will do reliable damage with little investment, and can retain the rapier for melee.
Get a STR bonus when you can (items, or level bonuses), to hit at least 12 for that sweet +1 dmg with a composite bow, or grab arcane strike feat for some instant damage and DR pen boost. You could use a crossbow, but that would require rapid reload, but your str would never have to increase.
Overall, Pure Support Bard would seem the better choice given your party classes.
I have only played a multiclassed Bard before, so my experiences are limited, but multiclassing as a Bard main does hurt a little unless you go pure buffer/archer.
A note on the Arrowsong Minstrel: it actually works just fine with other types of ranged weapons. For instance, if you could somehow get Crossbow Mastery really easily, then you could shrug at your 10 STR and use a Heavy Crossbow instead of a Composite Longbow. It's not what I recommend necessarily, but you could.
(Or Rapid Reload (Rifle) with Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Firearms) would let you do the same thing with the very expensive Rifle that may not be available in your campaign.)
But I'd say that Arrowsong Minstrel is perfectly fine. I'd progress as that. Arcane Archer is nice, but your bard songs and such just get better and better as you level up. Plus, the Bard is one of the most versatile characters in the game.
What build to go on depends greatly on what you want to accomplish in the party. The most effective parties make sure they can cover three rolls in combat: strikers, controllers, and support.
The job of the strikers is to deal damage, pretty straight forward. Controllers work to prevent damage, through things like slowing the opponents down, giving them penalties, creating alternate targets etc. Support buffs the party and hopefully also can deal with removing penalties and conditions that reduce their parties effectiveness.
Most classes can be built for different rolls, depending on the choices you make. However, your Barbarian and Gunslinger are almost certainly designed to be strikers. Depending on spells prepared, stats etc the Druid could easily be built for any of the three, but would probably be most effective for your party if they focus on the controller role.
Bards can also be built for any of the three, but they make exceptional support characters. The inspire courage is obvious. They have haste and dispel magic on their lists among other good support spells, and the have enough healing to at least stabilize a downed companion. A support archer bard would usually spend the first round or two in combat doing their main support job, and then when they didn't have anything critical to do they would join in with the strikers.
The arrowsong minstrel makes a better striker, but not quite as good at support. It is also less effective than a regular bard at out of combat abilities, due to losing bardic knowledge, versatile performance etc.
Multiclassing to ranger just adds more to the above argument, It quite possibly could boost your abilities as a striker, but would wweaken your ability to be the support character. That would almost certainly end up making your party as a whole weaker.
So really, the first step is to figure out what job you are going to be doing, and then the questions of will this build or that build be better become easier to answer.
The Sound Striker archetype is my favorite archetype. It keeps most of the best Bardic goodies giving up only Inspire Competence and Suggestion (better as a spell, IMO) for sonic attacks: One targets objects, the other (Weird Words) produces sonic rays of 4d6+Cha mod damage. Fun and thematic for the bard and not commonly resisted at all. Keeps all the spell-casting and other Bard abilities intact.
The issue with that archetype I feel is that you're not inspiring courage if you use your attack song, so you're not getting use of 1 of your main features.
The issue with that archetype I feel is that you're not inspiring courage if you use your attack song, so you're not getting use of 1 of your main features.
True. You would need the Lingering feat, Tuned bowstring magic item or Spells like Exquisite Accompaniment to keep that bonus.
However, those Weird Words are rays. As such, some weapon feats apply: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Discordant Voice to name a few.So, if you are an Archer Bard, you could be a "Moadhib"-like Bard as well...if you have not seen/read Dune, that is a shame.
If you like the Sound Striker idea, the Thundercaller is basically the Sound Striker's cool metalhead cousin. Start jamming with Lingering Performance, then throw up the devil hand and do the Thunder Call, dealing lots of damage and potentially stunning the enemy for one round. And then do it again the round after. And again. (Arguably, you can even cast it multiple times a round later on, but some people disagree with that interpretation; but at the very least, you could use Thunder Call and cast a mean spell in the same round later.)
Call Lightning and Call Lightning Storm might be pretty good if the weather is conducive to that style of spellcasting, but Thunder Call is just the juiciest bacon you've ever tasted.
I had to go look at Arcane Anthology, find out what Arrowsong Minstrel did. It looks like a very strong archery archetype, the main problem being the reduced spellcasting. A secondary problem is that you don't have another lore person and this archetype gives up Bardic Knowledge.
Bards don't get that many spells per day. At 4th level, you would be going from 4 first and 2 second to 3 first and 1 second level spell. The wider selection helps, but I think you will end up investing in quite a few runestones of power doing this.
Gravity Bow you could probably do via wand. UMD is a charisma based class skill for Bards, so if you have invested in it you should be pretty good, 4 ranks + 3 class skill + 3 Cha = +10.
Bardic Knowledge is almost like free skill points in knowledge skills. The knowledge skills allow you to find out what sort of defenses or offensive capabilities some monster has -- such as DR (reduces damage done) or energy resistances. It gives you a chance of knowing in character if you need to use silver or cold iron weapons against a creature rather than just trying it.
Honestly, with a Gunslinger and a Barbarian in the group, I wouldn't be worried about doing direct damage. Instead, pump their ability to do damage and take spells that allow you to change the battlefield such as Grease or Glitterdust. That way you are doing something that the other characters can't do.
The issue with that archetype I feel is that you're not inspiring courage if you use your attack song, so you're not getting use of 1 of your main features.True. You would need the Lingering feat, Tuned bowstring magic item or Spells like Exquisite Accompaniment to keep that bonus.
However, those Weird Words are rays. As such, some weapon feats apply: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Discordant Voice to name a few.
So, if you are an Archer Bard, you could be a "Moadhib"-like Bard as well...if you have not seen/read Dune, that is a shame.
Lingering feat and whatnot all stop when you start a new performance.
"If you begin a new bardic performance during this time, the effects of the previous performance immediately cease."
You'd need a way to have 2 perfomances at the same time to ever get inspire and wierd words. So every round you attack means no bonuses for the party.
You could look at taking the Flagbearer feat, and buying (maybe with party help) a Banner of the Ancient Kings. You can carry the banner in your offhand with a light shield and still get the bonuses to Flagbearer and Inspire Courage, and still wield a rapier in your other hand - hopefully with the Agile weapon property. With a Banner of the Ancient Kings and an Agile rapier you can really improve your combat ability - and the whole party gets better too (so maybe get them to pitch in on the cost).
You can't cast a spell while holding a rapier and a banner/shield, but you can cast spells before drawing the rapier, or sheathe the rapier and cast a spell. If you take the Quick Draw feat, you can do this quite easily.
If you have decent armor and a light shield, you will at least have an OK armor class. You can cast the spell Cat's Grace for more dexterity, and buy a lesser metamagic rod of Extend Spell to make it last quite a while if you cast it before trouble starts.
Note that a pure bard who does support and then archery can still use most or all of his feats for archery support and be pretty good at this, certainly enough to make a substantial contribution.
If you like the Sound Striker idea, the Thundercaller is basically the Sound Striker's cool metalhead cousin. Start jamming with Lingering Performance, then throw up the devil hand and do the Thunder Call, dealing lots of damage and potentially stunning the enemy for one round. And then do it again the round after. And again. (Arguably, you can even cast it multiple times a round later on, but some people disagree with that interpretation; but at the very least, you could use Thunder Call and cast a mean spell in the same round later.)
Call Lightning and Call Lightning Storm might be pretty good if the weather is conducive to that style of spellcasting, but Thunder Call is just the juiciest bacon you've ever tasted.
And the creator* of that archetype later said it was broken...and it is. Way overpowered to have a spammable Area of Effect sonic attack that scales. But the Player Companion line does not get errata.
*Sean K Reynolds, I believe.
It's strong because of the stun. The actual damage is pretty garbage.
And the creator* of that archetype later said it was broken...and it is. Way overpowered to have a spammable Area of Effect sonic attack that scales.
Possibly on the damage...definitely forgot the stun. Yes, it be broke.
And the creator* of that archetype later said it was broken...and it is. Way overpowered to have a spammable Area of Effect sonic attack that scales. But the Player Companion line does not get errata.
*Sean K Reynolds, I believe.
Sorry for the thread necro, someone pointed me at this today.
I didn't write the thundercaller archetype. I believe it was printed in Varisia, Birthplace of Legends, and I wasn't a designer or developer on that book.
I did say (in a discussion about the sound striker archetype for... Ultimate Magic?) that I felt the thundercaller was broken, and that people shouldn't use the thundercaller as a baseline for what a bard archetype should be able to do.
Good gaming!
If you do decide to take a level in Swashbuckler, take the Inspired Blade Archetype. It loses the ability to regain panache with a killing blow but you get more to start off with. You also get Weapon Finesse Rapier and Weapon Focus Rapier for free with just one level in it, and you can take Fencing Grace for Dex to Damage.
And the creator* of that archetype later said it was broken...and it is. Way overpowered to have a spammable Area of Effect sonic attack that scales. But the Player Companion line does not get errata.
*Sean K Reynolds, I believe.
Sorry for the thread necro, someone pointed me at this today.
I didn't write the thundercaller archetype. I believe it was printed in Varisia, Birthplace of Legends, and I wasn't a designer or developer on that book.
I did say (in a discussion about the sound striker archetype for... Ultimate Magic?) that I felt the thundercaller was broken, and that people shouldn't use the thundercaller as a baseline for what a bard archetype should be able to do.
Good gaming!
Ah, sorry about that. I mistook your comment on it as possibly being the creator of the Thundercaller.
Yes, it was in that Player Companion. Personally, I much prefer your (I hope I am correct that you DID create this one:) archetype Sound Striker. I actually like the Errata as well. Much simpler being Sonic damage.