Seeking Input on Bard / Argent Dramaturge (for PFS rules)

[RickDias]

I've been trying to branch out from my usual mix of straight-class Sorcs and full-BAB martials, and decided to try my hand at a buffing/healing based bard. More buffing than healing, as I'm aware of the math behind 'primary healer' not being able to keep up with incoming damage. Nonetheless, the idea is a support character.

Could I get some folks to look over the following and offer input on whether it's good, whether it needs improvement, etc.?

PFS Legality Required, 20 point buy
Human, NG Align, Deity is Shelyn
Bard (Arcane Healer) 6 / Argent Dramaturge 5

Str 8
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 17

(All level-up bonuses to Cha)

Racial Feature Swaps/Replacements: None so far but open to suggestions.

Favored Class Option: Generally going to new spells.

Skills omitted for brevity, but going for strong Diplomacy and such.

Traits: Maestro of the Society (+3 rounds of bardic performance) and Reactionary (+2 init)

Feats: I strongly suspect I've overlooked something. Any better ideas on these?
L1: Steadfast Personality (Human bonus feat), Extra Performance (L1 base feat)
L3: Improved Initiative
L5: Skill Focus Perform/Sing (required for Argent Dramaturge)
L7: Spellsong
L9: Lingering Performance
L11: Discordant Voice

Argent Dramaturge ability selections include: Heartening Song, and Masterpiece (Battle Song of the People's Revolt to grant the Escape Plan teamwork feat.) Am open to suggestions on replacing these two selections.

Equipment would mostly be a Shortbow and backup melee weapon, but this character is primarily a buffing/healing/spellcasting/social platform.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Penumbra Bard]

I have some advice for you, if you're still interested. It would be useful to know at what level you are starting out at. In my view, there are several problems with your build as is. Firstly, if your spells are mainly buff spells, then there is no need for charisma to be higher than 14. Afterall, your allies generally don't try to save against your buffs.

Secondly, you have little to offer except buffs and minor healing during a fight. The bard spell list has nice status removal spells, but for healing hitpoint damage, you only have Cure spells and 3d6 channel energy twice per day at lvl 11. It's not going to heal much. You could take the feat Extra Channel Energy for two more channel energies.

However, in combat healing is generally regarded as not worth the effort, other than to heal a downed companion or certain extremely specialised builds. Most bards end up spending the first 2 rounds of a fight buffing the party, then the remainder helping to mope up the enemy forces.

In a melee (or doing archery) you're unlikely to be as good as a dedicated fighter, but that's not the point. All the bard needs to do is to be competent, i.e. contribute a respectable amount of damage. If you decide to go down this route, dedicate ~3 to 4 feats on one combat style. For archery: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Arcane Strike, Multishot. For sword and board: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Arcane Strike. You get the gist.

Unfortunately, Argent Dramaturge doesn't advance bardic performances, so your Inspire Courage will never improve. I'd recommend Bard 7/Argent Dramaturge 4 so that you can use Inspire Courage as a move action.

Your trait selction is good, but you can drop the Extra Performance and move Lingering Performance to it's spot. You'll have plenty of performance rounds. Since you need Skill Focus as a prerequiste, taking Half-Elf is equivalent to Human mostly so you may consider it; you may see some options you like.

All together, if I were doing your build, it would look something like this. Brad 7/ Argent Dramaturge 4, Str 16 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 10 Cha 14, all level increases in Str, either Human or Half-Elf. I'd have similar traits as yours. Bonus feat: Skill Focus; Lvl 1: Lingering Performance; Lvl 3: Arcane Strike; Lvl 5: Power Attack; Lvl 7: Furious Focus; Lvl 9: Great Fortitude; Lvl 11: Discordant Voice. You might replace Great Fortitude with Extra Channel Energy if you feel like it. Argent ability selection would be down to personal taste; I'd prefer Sudden Competence and Reactive Performance, because immediate actions are great.

This build is a sword-and-board buffing bar with immediate action status removal spells. Must have spells are Haste, Heroism, Good Hope, Mirror Image, Saving Finale, and Reinvigorating Wind. Coin Toss is a neat new spell that gives a firearm-like attack; I would take it for cool points and to handle distant opponents. Bladed Dash is also good for melee bards to teleport up to your foe.

Ina typical combat, I'd spend the first 2 rounds buffing the party. Before lvl 7/8, I'd Inspire Courage round 1 then Heroism the Rogue or Fighter and move up during the second round. Above lvl 7, I'd Inspire Courage and Haste round 1, then Heroism or Good Hope and move up round 2.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ignore or change anything if you disagree or dislike.

[RickDias]

Sorry for replying like a week later, I legitimately had no idea anyone posted in here after a few days. Thanks for your advice! These are good thoughts, and I plan to respond to them tonight (being called in to work right now, so it'll be several hours)...

One thing I want to note, and I should have mentioned it up front, is the character is admittedly a specific concept; looking at a benevolent 'celebrity singer' sort who isn't all that much in a fight on their own, but is able to support, misdirect, debuff, etc. to make up for this. Ideally, I'd want them to be a viable part of a PFS table despite this 'low capacity for violence'. Not 'no capacity' (I know a truly disarmed pacifist build just does not work), but 'low capacity.' Their major focus is social skills, buffing, healing, debuffs, and anything else is a secondary concern.

Would that change much in your advice?

Of note, I dig the 'Brad' (sorry, typo amuses me) 7 suggestion. Losing 60 foot radius on Argent performances and Breath of Life kind of stings from a flavor perspective, but the change might be worth it. I will think this over.

[Penumbra Bard]

Hey! Gald to hear my post was helpful. It seems you're building a jack-of-all-trades kind of character, except for damage dealing. Well, bards do have social skills, buffing and debuff curing built into them. Many bards spend some resources into melee or ranged combat, because they naturally buff themselves when they buff the party and there's little sense to cast new buffs when the fight is wrapping up. Also, whenever you deal damage, you have a chance of applying one of the most devestating debuff conditions: dead :)

However, a crowd control bard may need to specialise in order to be effective, especially at later levels. General choices are enchantment (takes alot of specialisation), specific spells (like Glitterdust or Sonic Burst) or performances. The masterpiece Dirge of the Torn Sail is an easy way to get an area crowd control effect, however, I believe in PFS you can have only one performance or masterpiece active at a time, so you can't use Inspire Courage at the same time.

Debuffing is even harder. There aren't many great debuffing spells on the bard list. You could try and apply shaken by with Dazzling Display or sicken with Distressing Tone, but this isn't an easy thing to be good at. There are some bard archetypes with debuffing performances, like Court Bard, but again you can't buff with Inspire Courage in parallel.

In short, there's only so many things you can be competent at all at the same time. Bards are especially feat-starved since Discordant Voice (and perhaps Lingering Performance) ought to be class features, considering how often they are picked.

One build I was mulling over in the past was a 'red mage' like build. It had the Arcane Healer and Flame Dancer archetypes, Extra Channel, Dirge of the Torn Sail, Glitterdust and some melee feats. He had decent melee ability from feats + buffs; great buff, status removal and skills from base bard + Arcane Healer; good crowd control with Glitterdust, Dirge and Flame Dancer; and decent fire damage with the Fireball spell and a Lesser Empower Metamagic Rod.

[RickDias]

You can totally do a Final Fantasy style Red Mage, I had a build working around Bard 1 (Dawnflower Dervish) / Magus 10 (Hexcrafter) a while back. Or you can run it Magus 11 (Hexcrafter) if you're willing to lose the social skills and just keep the 'sword plus healing plus blasting' aspect of the Red Mage.

Anyway, I thought about what you had to say and I came up with this. Could I get your thoughts on this 'celebrity performer supporting Good causes' idea?

Stats
Human, NG Align, Deity is Shelyn
Bard 7 / Argent Dramaturge 4
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 18 (16 + 2 human)

Level-ups to Cha.

Racial Feature Swap: Silver Tongued (+2 Diplomacy, +2 Bluff, can improve relations by 3 steps with Diplomacy instead of 2). Replaces Skilled.

Skills: Omitted for brevity.

Traits
Maestro of the Society (3 more rounds of Performance per day)
Reactionary (+2 init)

Feats:
L1: Steadfast Personality and Point-blank Shot
L3: Precise Shot
L5: Improved Initiative
L7: Skill Focus Perform/Sing (go into Argent Dramaturge next level)
L9: Lingering Performance
L11: Discordant Voice

Weaponry: Mostly revolves around a Shortbow.

Argent Dramaturge Masterpieces: Heartening Song, and Battle Song of the People's Revolt (grants Escape Plan as a Teamwork feat to nearby allies). Open to suggestions for better choices. You suggested Dirge of the Torn Sail but it's not PFS legal (though it is amazing).

Spells: Using human favored class bonuses to get more spells than usual... [b]I welcome advice on this list too![/i]

Cantrips: Daze (retrain to Mending later on), Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Grasp, Light, Prestidigitation, Read Magic, Spark, Summon Instrument

L1: Aspect of the Nightingale, Cure Light Wounds, Ear-Piercing Scream, Timely Inspiration, Saving Finale, Solid Note, Unbreakable Heart, Vanish

L2: Calm Emotions, Cure Moderate Wounds, Disrupt Silence, Enthrall, Glitterdust, Heroism, Mirror Image, Sound Burst

L3: Inveigle Person, Conjure Carriage, Cure Serious Wounds, Good Hope, Haste, Slow

L4: Cure Critical Wounds, Hold Monster, Song of Kyonin

(End of build)

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[Penumbra Bard]

Looks pretty good, only have a few minor things. First, try to have 10 Str; its easy to get in point buy, gives you +1 damage with bows and your carrying capacity will be higher at lower levels before Handy Haversack makes this irrelevent. Second, swap the positions of Lingering Performance and Steadfast Personality. Lingering is most useful early on in your career. Third, maybe replace Steadfast Personality with Rapid Shot? Finally, for spells, why not have Silence at level 2, very good against mage bosses, and perhaps ditch Cure Serious and Cure Critical, at these levels a Cleric can easily out heal you.

Regardless with what you choose, have fun with your character!

[RickDias]

Thanks for keeping in touch on this, I appreciate it! Won't list the complete rebuild, but will show what I changed since I think this is basically a feature-complete character.

Stats: Dropped Cha to 17 (15 + 2 human) to get Str 10, bumped Con to 13. Will do +1 Cha at L4, +1 Con at L8.

Feats: I mostly agreed with your ideas. It's now...
L1: Lingering Performance and Point-Blank Shot.
L3: Precise Shot
L5: Steadfast Personality
L7: Skill Focus Perform/Sing
L9: Improved Init (I know one might suggest swapping this with Steadfast Personality in the acquisition order; I have my reasons for disagreeing even if I grant it's a well-founded idea)
L11: Discordant Voice.

Traits: Unchanged from last post.

Spells: Replaced Cure Critical Wounds with Dimension Door.
Replaced Enthrall with Silence. It's true that a Cleric will outpace the character's healing, but you can't always guarantee a Cleric will be present so I kept Cure Serious Wounds.

Masterpieces: The teamwork-granting one now gives Friendly Fire Maneuvers, to help make their own bow attacks (and those of allies) hit. This replaces the Escape Plan granting masterpiece.

At this point, unless you see any major oversights on build quality or PFS legality, I'm good to go. Thanks again for all your thoughts!