Help me make the ultimate Cheerleader

[The Kwisatz Haderach]

I recently came across some really cool items for Bard that helped me come up with a rough concept for the ultimate buffer.

The Items:
Dervish Sikke
Banner of the Ancient Kings
Three Reasons to Live

With these 3 items, a level 7 Bard could use his Inspire Courage ability to give a +5 Competence bonus to Attack and Damage. Throw in the Flagbearer feat and you have an additional +2 Morale Bonus. Make a +1 Courageous Longspear to put the banner on, and you have +8 to Attack and Damage by level 7. How can we take this farther? I’m thinking a Crossclass into Barbarian at level 8 gives Rage which is a Morale Bonus to Str/Con, and if the Longspear is upgraded to a +4 Furious Courageous weapon, you’re looking at +5 Competence, +5 Morale, and +7 to Str/Con.

Can anyone think of a better way to do this? Or any way to improve upon it?

[Magda Luckbender]

You can do the same thing with a Cleric(Evangelist) and also be a full spellcaster.

[Temperans]

I'm not sure how the Banner of Ancient Kings and Three Reasons to Live stack since they both increase the effective lv. And courageous may only function vs fear effects.

Using the conservative ruling you have:
+4 competence to Attack and Damage.
+2 (min +3 courageous) morale to Attack and Damage.

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Banner of the Scarlet Rose gives a shield bonus and counts as a shield for feats and class abilities. It also increases competence bonuses by 1, but does not stack with other items that increase competence bonuses (not sure how it stacks with Banner of Ancient Kings).

Fascinated by the Mundane and Extreme Mood Swings each adds +1 to morale bonuses.

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Battle Herald lvs stack with bard lvs to determine Inspired Courage bonus, and can use rounds of Bardic Performance for Inspired Command rounds. At lv 10 you can have both a Bardic Performance and Inspired Command at the same time.

You might want to look this and this treads, for morale bonus stacking.

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Overall if the goal is self buff, than the current plan is kind of meh.

For a AoE buffer, it is slightly better as flagbearer doesn't consume resources or actions. The min +4 Inspire Courage at lv 7 is indeed nice if all the items stack it could get to +6.

[The Kwisatz Haderach]

These are some awesome insights! Thank you! I love Extreme Mood Swings and one of the linked forums mentioned the Imprerious Bloodline. So 7 levels Bard and the rest Drunken Rager would let you drink for extra Rage rounds and abilitities and increase the Morale bonuses. Eldritch Heritage and Improved Eldritch Heritage with the Imperious Bloodline increases the Morale and Competence Bonuses by 1.
So Competence Bonus is +6 to Attack and Damage, Morale is giving +7 to Attack and Damage and +9 to Str/Con while raging. And all by level 11. Not bad. Lol

[Magda Luckbender]

@The Kwisatz Haderach: Great. I've GMd for several mega-buffer PCs like that. Their groups generally ROFLstomp and steamroll all opposition. It's a very effective approach.

Here's an old post about how one might play a similar PC in battle. You're a Bard with a longspear, not an Evangelist Cleric with a longspear, but most of the same tricks apply. It answers the question, "What do I do after I buff my team?"

Considering how lethal will be your longspear (after applying your buffs), do you plan on taking Combat Reflexes? You can easily stab for 20+ damage per hit at 5th level. You'll be feat-starved, so you may not have room.

[doomman47]

Depending on who the rest of the party is you could go monk and hand out unlimited x3 standard actions a round to the party.

[avr]

Courageous weapons were errata'd or FAQ'd to adding to fear saves only.

[Derklord]

"Page 138—In courageous, in the last sentence, after “any morale bonus” add “on saving throws against fear”. Ultimate Equipment Update 1.0 pg 2.

Correct text.