Syries
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It's not necessarily a bad idea to dip- i would suggest unchained barbarian instead of urban though, as you have a safety net of temp HP in addition to the untyped bonus to hit and damage with melee weapons.
The issue is that a single level dip only goes so far unless you also invest in extra rage feats. You simply don't have enough rage rounds to last a typical day of fighting.
There is also the whole "no casting while raging" thing she'll have to deal with, but it doesn't sound like she cares so much about that anyway.
I personally would suggest taking arcane strike instead of the dip+extra rage. If she's having trouble with accuracy, maybe retrain twf and take Flagbearer instead? Or simply having that hand free to cast good hope in the middle of combat would be helpful.
She's a bard. If her expectation is to be able to deal the same amount of hp damage as a barbarian, she should have just gone barbarian.
Dervish dancers are great just on their own. I would suggest holding off on dipping barbarian unless/until she starts experiencing a hard time hitting enemies.
Another alternative would be to dip swashbuckler, especially if she finds her attack bonuses acceptable. Parry/riposte is a great way to tack on damage and avoid damage simultaneously, and is way better than a +2 to damage from a barbarian dip.
| BadBird |
Dervish Dancer becomes more powerful as levels go up, but starts relatively slowly. One option that could be legit as a roleplayed 'conversion' (pun intended):
The Dawnflower Dervish Bard (Sarenrae specific) is very similar to Dervish Dancer, but grants double the Inspire Courage bonus. If you're both willing, moving to that Archetype and reaching level 5 would mean a +4 bonus from Inspire Courage instead of the +1 she's got now. At higher levels, the Dawnflower Dervish puts out major damage with TWF - +6 attack and damage to both weapons just from Inspire at 11, and possibly +3 and +1d6 damage from Arcane Strike and Discordant Voice.
Note the spell Allegro - very good for improving combat once a Bard has level 2 spells, and meshes perfectly with the move action starting a Battle Dance.
Anyhow, in general Urban Barbarian is a decent dip choice. Urban Bloodrager is arguably better, and you can get Mad Magic with Bloodrager. One Extra Rage and 14CON is enough for 12 rounds/day, which should be enough to use when it really matters.
Depending on ability scores, a dip in a Sneak Attack class with Accomplished Sneak Attacker plus Bard swift-action spell blinding (Dazzling Blade) could add 2d6 reliable Sneak damage and blinding, but it may require some character 'renovation' to do well. You want pretty good CHA, and you need some Metamagic and maybe a metamagic trait to make sure the blinding is ruthlessly effective. One level of Snakebite Striker Brawler is a good 1-level Sneak Attack dip.