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Today I had a bit of free time, and was engaging myself in a thought exercise. Namely: How far can I take buffing?
It's a tricky question, and depends entirely on the kind of buffing one plans to do. I've made my halfling Defensive Fighter, but I wanted to play around with something I'd tinkered with previously: maximizing self-buffing. To that end, I've come up with something that, I think, seems like a fun mechanical exercise.
To start with, we'll be looking at the Bard today. You could easily do this exercise with an Evangelist Cleric (and in fact, it would probably work out better in the long run), but for simplicity's sake we'll take bard.
Of important note is that our bard must be Human. This will become apparent in a moment, but I wanted to clarify that he must be human, or at least part human (this could work with a Half-Elf almost equally as well, and Half-Orc might also be tolerable. Certain kinds of Aasimar with the right traits could also qualify.)
So, we have our bard, and we all know what bards do well: Inspire Courage. But wait! Inspire courage is not a morale bonus! Well, we can't have that, but we ought to do with it what we can. Now, at 1st level, we need to make a rather important decision: Do we want to be a flagbearer? It's a tricky one. We want lots of feats, but flagbearer is also a really good choice for the party, and we're going to get a Banner of the Ancient Kings anyways, but we're mostly concerned with Heroism, which won't stack for most things (you still get the damage). In the end, the damage buff from Flagbearer is probably worth the feat, but you're basically forced into two-handed, reach weapon combat (like that's a bad thing).
So, we're going to assume you go Flagbearer at 1st level, which is just about the best Bard feat there is. Remember, though when I said we needed to be a human? Remember that boring human option that gives you 3 skill focus feats? Well, we're taking it. Why? Because Skill Focus (Perform: Oratory) is a prerequisite for Eldritch Heritage: Imperious Bloodline, of course!
So, the first feat is garbage. Imperious bloodline's basic power gives us basically nothing. However, at level 11 we get access to Improved Eldritch Heritage, which gives us Heroic Echo. At this point, I'm sure you see why we grab the feat. At 11th level, it increases our Morale AND competence bonuses by 1! This means Flagbearer and Inspire courage both get a bump, and we can share that +2 net bump to our allies as an immediate action for MANY combats. But wait, we still have feats leftover!
One of them will, of course, be Encouraging Spell. In fact, it may behoove you to take this one early if you choose to take a trait that reduces your Heroism Metamagic cost by 1, simply because Heroism gets mighty strong, particularly when you combine it with:
The Courageous weapon trait! That's right, for the low, low cost of a +1 enhancement bonus, you get bonuses to so much stuff. Last, but certainly not least, at a higher level we can pick up a Pale Green Prism! Guess what? Competence bonuses from different sources stack! There's definitely more, but let's take a look at our Bard at 1st, 5th, and 11th:
1st: You have flagbearer and inspire courage. Your weapon is up to you, but you have a base +1 to attack and damage rolls, up to +2 with inspire courage. If you have a decent strength score, you can pack up to 1d8+5 with a longsword at 1st level. Not bad at all, considering you're also buffing your whole group and have a few backup spells.
5th: Things have started kicking in, now. At 3rd level you took Encouraging Spell, and now you can have Heroism up for 50 minutes giving you a +3 to everything! You have a +8 to attack, +3 extra damage (Inspire Courage), and that's not including stats or any magical gear at all. A simple +1 weapon and 16 Strength puts you at +12 to hit and 1d8+8 damage. Not much, but again, that +3 you're pumping out to all your allies makes a world of difference, and your Saving Throws are likely some of the best in the party. Your skill checks are DEFINITELY the best.
11th: Man, so much stuff turns on by this point it's crazy. You've just picked up Improved Eldritch Heritage, you probably have a Banner of the Ancient Kings AND a +2 Courageous Weapon (At least), and you might even have your Pale Green Prism ioun stone. You are a mad, mad buffing machine. You get: A +5 to pretty much everything from Heroism itself, a +2 to everything from your Ioun Stone, Flagbearer gives you an extra +4 damage, and your Inspire Courage bonus on yourself goes up to +5. You have a spare feat in the middle where you could take something like Power Attack, and you probably should.
Overall, assuming you have only the things listed here, you have: An Attack routine of +20/+15 (Higher if you have good Strength (not included) and/or a better weapon), an extra +11 damage rider (Higher if you have Good Strength and/or a better weapon and/or Power Attack), not to mention the fact that you can throw out Haste AND inspire courage AND your super-buffed Heroism on the rest of the party. You can even increase the bonuses to Inspire courage and Heroism/Flagbearer as a swift action.
All this not including the fact that you also have about a +7 to all skill checks and saving throws above any other gear you have.
The damage numbers may look small (though, realistically we'd probably assume about a 20 Strength by this level, adding another +5 to Hit and 7 damage, not counting Power Attack), but given how good he is at pretty much everything else, and how much he buffs the party, I'd say he's doing pretty well for himself.
Did I mention that it turns Moment of Greatness into a pretty nifty spell? I don't think I did.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Did I miss out on a critical bonus somewhere? Is a single level of Freebooter ranger REALLY worth taking? I'd love to hear it.
Courageous weapon has been FAQ’d to only apply to saves against fear.
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Courageous weapon has been FAQ’d to only apply to saves against fear.
Shh.... let my cowboy bard ride that nuke man. Just for a minute.
Multiple competence bonuses don’t stack; only the highest bonus applies.
I would be tempted to do a warpriest for the swift action buffs and spells like divine favor.
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If your still interested in super buffing. There is an encouraging metamagic feat.
The cleric list has a lot of different bonus. Evangelist and Wood oracle offer rather large competence bonus.
Divine favor/ power - Luck
Flag bearer (no action), good hope (certain gods), Contagious Zeal Offer morale.
Distruction rage domain give morale to strength and con through rage (free action).
Eaglesoul - Sacred bonus (hour per level swift to get most of the power)
Hunter's Blessing - Sacred to attack and damage (hours per level)
A flagbearer evangelist with the rage domain, could get most of these bonuses up in a round. Pre buff hunter's blessing eaglesoul, free (flag bearer, rage), Swift activate eaglesoul, move inspire, standard divine power.