
Nytheal |
Hello,
I was trying to make an illusion/shadow based bard.
I wanted to take the Brazen Deceiver archetype and some spell focus on illusion school.
How would you build it? I like the idea of the bard who can buff his teammates but do you think a sorcerer with the umbral bloodline and archetype might do better?
Thanks for your advice

avr |

Illusions and shadow magic are heavily dependent on spell level, for saves and effects. A bard isn't the best at them. An umbral sorcerer isn't the only option though; there are things like an evangelist cleric going into the veiled illusionist prestige class, or a witch with the shadow patron and hexes chosen for buffing, or a mesmerist with the material manipulator or umbral mesmerist archetypes, or other bloodlines of sorcerer can buff better while simply picking shadow and illusion spells as spells known.

Secret Wizard |

1. Brazen Deceiver is a: Good Archetype. But it doesn't get many shadow-flavored features for quite some time.
2. Shadow Caller Spiritualist comes to mind as a good option too – buffing and illusion are built into the kit, but the illusion side is a bit weak.
3. Shadowbound Curse, Shadow Mystery Oracle stands out as a great mix of everything you wanted – the illusion spells, the buffing kit. You can toss in Pei Zin Practitioner for condition removal too!

MrCharisma |

My GM played a shadow-themed bard before I joined the group. I'll ask him tonight about it. I don't think they got past level 5-ish, but he might have some good ideas.
Alternatively you could try an Occultist with a focus on Illusion. The Resonant Power isn't specifically shadow-themed, but could easily be flavoured that way, and at level 9 you can get a pretty-much-all-day summoned shadow (which is actually really good).