You have an 8 str, 13 dex, 12 con, and want to be front line? That sounds like a recipe for pain. Why so much charisma? If your intent is to be melee, you'll never need more than a 16.
Is that judgmental enough?
He's getting CHA to hit via desna's divine fighting style
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He's getting CHA to hit via desna's divine fighting styleYou have an 8 str, 13 dex, 12 con, and want to be front line? That sounds like a recipe for pain. Why so much charisma? If your intent is to be melee, you'll never need more than a 16.
Is that judgmental enough?
Oh right. Still dumping physical stats to get cha that high means awful AC and hp, so you'll want to stay as far away from melee as possible.
Your Bard won't survive your first swim... can't hold your breath with that Con, can't Swim or Climb out of the water with that Strength.
You'll be sleeping in Davy Jones' Locker by nightfall.
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You are going for the starknife throwing weapon build yes? Here is my advice,-
ability scores:
Str: 12
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 08
Cha: 17 (+2 here)
18 charisma is plenty, especially on 20pt buy. and you can hit 20 at level 4. Thats +4 to hit and damage on star knives. Thats plenty.
The above works better for SURVIVING the early levels before spells can bail you out.
I wouldn't start any lower than 10 strength, as you WILL do a lot of swimming.
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With those dumped physical stats, especially awful Strength, this Bard will be fish food in no time. Strength helps one swim. You'll want to be able to swim.
If you stay with the Starknife build then at least increase STR, DEX, and CON a bit. Reduce your CHA. 20 is too high at start. Way too specialized.
Here's an alternate approach that better suits your planned feats but requires ditching the not-very-good starknife-throwing approach:
Leverage that terrific Flagbearer feat into something even better. First, carry your flag in both hands on the tip of a longspear. That's traditionally how it's done (Bayeux Tapestry: lots of flagbearers armed with longspears). You can still throw starknives, or cast spells, or whatever, with no hindrance. Boost your STR to 14 so you're competent with that longspear. Advantages:
* You're not wasting one arm holding something useless. Instead, both hands hold the flag and it's also a weapon.
* Spear works well underwater and swimming. Starknife throwing does not. You'll spend lots of time in the water.
* You'll have a reach screen. This GM observes that parties with an effective reach screen are flat-out better than parties that lack a reach screen. Be effective during the GM's turn, not just during your own turn. Works especially well for Bards.
* Your buffs make your longspear attacks pretty effective. Inspire Courage plus Flagbearer gets you a flat +2 +2. At first level, with just 14 STR, you'll be +4 to hit for 1D8+5 damage. Even ignoring AoOs that's more effective than throwing starknives.
* Angle to get the magic item "Banner of the Ancient Kings". This enhances both Flagbearer and Inspire Courage! Possible around 7th level. This pumps your buffs into the stratosphere and makes your bard an instant "we win" member of the team.
You can't cast most spells if you have a flag in one hand and a starknife in the other. Dropping a starknife on a ship deck in combat (or underwater, in a swamp etc.) risks losing your precious weapon overboard. Magda's idea works better there. Though stabbing with a starknife works just fine underwater.
If you really want to leverage that CHA score, you could take the NOBLE SCION feat - specifically for:
You use your Charisma modifier to adjust Initiative checks instead of your Dexterity modifier.
Then if you can find a way to get CHA-to-AC you've pretty much done away with the need for DEX. I know there's an Oracle Mystery (or maybe Curse?) that gets you CHA-to-AC, so you could take a 1 level dip there, or even ask your GM if you can play an OCEAN'S ECHO Oracle (Oracle with Bardic Performance) - it's meant to be a Merfolk archetype, but it's pretty fitting for an ocean game.
You could skip Flagbearer, that'll free up a feat. It won't stack with Heroism anyway, so in the long run you're not really losing anything, and you're gaining a feat.
WF requires BAB +1 which is a pain for starting bards. Combat reflexes is the basic reach tactics feat anyway.
Heroism is standard for bards mid-late game, but that takes a while. Bards don't have the most spell slots. Retraining flagbearer for encouraging spell later on might work.
Desna's shooting star looks like it should be great but it's actually really hard to make work well. 1d4 20/x3 works with no fighting style except maybe TWF. Cha-heavy classes which like TWF and have the feats necessary to make that sing...not getting a lot of hits. Some weird multiclass probably.
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Okay, now that the judgement is done, one thing you might want to verify is the legality of Desna's Shooting Star at your table: PFS didn't allow it as I recall, so a lot of tables may have issues with it.
Why isn't Desna's Shooting Star allowed in PFS?
One feat allowing switching the attack and damage to Charisma makes all the other ridiculous X-to-DMG feat chains look as ridiculous as they are?
Nevermind it's one deity, and one weapon... but it doesn't require Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus, some random BS "Grace" feat...
Too good! Ban it! Burn it! Cleanse it with holy fire!
your song choice was rote and uninspiring and while your voice was pleasant, it is still unpolished. That's a no from me dog.
I like Flagbearer, I was just trying to offer an alternative. I do think it's something that will become less useful as you level up though, and the action economy is something you'l have to think about if you need to cast spells with a starknife in 1 hand and a flag in ghe other. Not saying you jeed to change it, just something to think about.
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Okay, now that the judgement is done, one thing you might want to verify is the legality of Desna's Shooting Star at your table: PFS didn't allow it as I recall, so a lot of tables may have issues with it.
Why isn't Desna's Shooting Star allowed in PFS?
One feat allowing switching the attack and damage to Charisma makes all the other ridiculous X-to-DMG feat chains look as ridiculous as they are?
Nevermind it's one deity, and one weapon... but it doesn't require Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus, some random BS "Grace" feat...
Too good! Ban it! Burn it! Cleanse it with holy fire!
I think the major issue is that its just too good for a single feat (or less, since bards can get it in exchange for a versatile performance instead).
Since multiple oracle mysteries offer a 'replace Dex with Cha for AC Calculation' abilities at first level, maybe they just didn't to deal with the sudden influx of 'Tattooed Desna worshiping oracles with really bad Strength and Dexterity scores that insist on melee-ing their foes'...
Previous Discussion On This Topic: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2utlz?Why-is-Way-of-the-Shooting-star-banned#
your song choice was rote and uninspiring and while your voice was pleasant, it is still unpolished. That's a no from me dog.
Oh I get it, coz it's a bard!!
Very clever ;)