Dwarven Scholar Bard ideas?

[Secret Wizard]

Dwarven Scholar!

Thinking about ideas for a Dwarven Scholar Bard... of course, it'll be a Dwarf.

So far, I'm considering the Chelish Diva archetype to get armor proficiencies up to Heavy Armor, eventually.

Another option would be rolling with the FCB armor proficiency from Dwarf and just work with a bit of a higher DEX.

Now, the real question is what I'll do with the Combat Feats... besides sharing Power Attack, which seems to be the best choice altogether, any other ideas of things that could fit?

I think I'll likely just swing a Heavy Pick or a Battleaxe and use the Bard rerolling abilities to attempt to hit with Power Attack.

[Dave Justus]

Not a fan of that Archetype.

WIS instead of CHR is nice of course. Bonus feats instead of versatile performance, probably a wash. But War Chant seems like a huge downgrade. I can't imagine sharing something like power attack would often be useful since characters that want it will have it, and those that don't won't be using it. Best use I can think of would be teamwork feats, since giving the same feat to everyone seems made for them, but even those are often sort of situational and have to have specific strategies in mind.

Personally, I think I'd prefer a vanilla bard to this archetype, even if I was a dwarf and had to live with 4 or so lower on my spellcasting stat.

[Cavall]

Well, I disagree with Dave. This is a great archetype.

Ok so here's what you COULD do. I see nothing in the abilities that say they have to qualify for the feats to use them. As worded they don't get the feat, they get the benefits of a feat.

So here's a thought. Take the extra feats given, get combat expertise. And hey, why not. You lose shields, you may actually use it.

You now qualify for gang up. And at level 4, out flank. Which means at level 6, you could get that for free and share outflank and gang up for your song.

Now you can hand out flanking wherever people are (say 2 beefy guys beside you and you save in the middle!) And you all get free hits on crits!

Then I'd look into a dwarven helm to share teamwork feats, and by the time (7 level) you can start a song as a move you could share yet another teamwork feat. Say... precise strike? That's a standard for the helm and move for the song and you've given everyone flanks, massive flank bonuses, and 1d6 to flanks.

Through in paired opportunist and theres even more free attacks! Maybe by then another dwarf could do that with his own helm.

Now through in a menacing weapon and flanks (which once again you don't have to flank to do) get another +2. For +6 total.

That should convince your allies to stay with you in a line and crush anyone that tries to hurt you.

Just some thoughts on fun with combat feats.

[Cavall]

Oh and do not forget you can grab MORE teamwork feats and used the spell Shared Training to share them too. Hey, why not.

[Secret Wizard]

You trade down with War Chant, that's for sure. But Versatile Performance being traded for Full-BAB combat feats is supposed to be the upwards trade, in my estimation.

Perhaps share Outflank + Arcane Strike?

[avr]

A level dip in brawler or something else with martial flexibility seems a must.