After many years, creating my first PF bard, and am going to create an Archivist for PFS. Did not notice this at first, but after toying with different types of builds, it dawned upon me that a Archivist, having traded out the Versatile Performance ability, really has no need to have a high perform skill. There is not a DC for any of the Bardic Performances, simply the ability to be heard if the performance is based on audio, or seen if it is a visual performance. Since a bard, especially an archivist is skill point starved with all the different skills they need to be proficient with, it seems a bit ironic that the skill that can be skimped on, is the one iconic skill that is associated with bards.
Am I wrong in my observation? I may still max out one bard performance (one that requires an instrument, so I can get the +2 Masterwork bonus) for earning some extra money. But it seems foolish to waste more than 1 point in singing, and 1 point in dance, to be able to fulfill the requirements of Bardic Performance. And I am not even 100% sure that a single point is required to accomplish that.
Counter song and distract. Both still his abilities.
Very true. Still, very circumstantial. Almost worth the risk to skimp on the perform points, at least at early levels when I need to get his knowledge scores respectable...and UMD and Intimidate...
Well, pretty much every archetype that trades out versatile performance is in the same condition (barring some weird abilities that likely exist- not going to go hunting).
Honestly, I mostly view the bard as a casting class that simply uses mnemonic and such as a substitute for ... whatever complicated wizards use (maths?). Obviously, this is limited and mostly just works for the kinds of magics that affect a creature's natural rhythms (buffs that 'boost the amplitude', illusions and enchantments that force others to follow your 'beat'). But this is just me randomly assigning some flavor to something that has little real explanation in material.
Thematically, mnemonics are fantastic for characterizing archvists, who specialize in using knowledge skills to ID things. “Red on yellow, kill a fellow; red on black, venom lack"- that is your knowledge (nature) check to ID a snake. There is little to art to that, but maybe it sounds authortative enough to either get the person to feel confidence against a venomless snake (boosting attack) or make them extra cautious against a deadly threat (boosting AC).
Unless you want the Perform for your role playing, there's not a lot of reason to have much or even any points go there.
The Archivist isn't really a traditional bard in the sense of a musical entertainer anyways (not that a core bard has to be a musical entertainer but that's a separate argument); the archetype gives up most of the things relevant to performance in exchange for more academic abilities.