Feats idea for violinist bard

[Cycloroms]

Hello all,

For Tyrant Grasp I want to play a bard tiefling pessimistic and depressing on the idea that "This land is doomed, and anyway we will all die, so... Whatever."

I want to go archetype sound striker and dirge bard. Before the campaign he would have been doing funeral oration and this type of job for the deceased.

I'm looking for feats idea, lvl1 and beyond. I've crossed all archery because of the violin that takes my hands. As I'll mostly focus en spells I guess, I thaught about spellsong which could be fun, and school focus for spells. I'm not convince although.

Does it inspires you ? :D

[Temperans]

My initial though was using a tuned bowstring, but that is more of a harp than a violin.

For feats the standard should work but as a Spell focused Bard the Harmonic Spell feat seems like a clear winner. Also the Discordant Voice feat to give allies an extra 1d6 sonic damage.

For magic items you should ask your GM if you can change the instrument since there are no "violin" magic item.

[Cycloroms]

Oh thanks, harmonic spell is really nice indeed. Discordant voice for latter is perfect.

For magic items or feats that are borderline, I think I have a negotiation window with my GM. Feel free to propose them too.

I didn't find magic violin neither...

[Temperans]

Cycloroms wrote:

For magic items or feats that are borderline, I think I have a negotiation window with my GM. Feel free to propose them too.

I didn't find magic violin neither...

Well its mostly lute (tiny guitar) that fits. Maybe with a bit where you can still cast spells while using the violin since it takes two hands (one for the body and one for the bow).

[VoodistMonk]

Dirgesinger's Choir

Source Champions of Corruption pg. 30
Aura strong necromancy [evil]; CL 13th
Slot none; Price 34,000 gp; Weight 3 lbs.

Description

Equal parts grisly and lovely, this unusual harp-like musical instrument is crafted from a corpse, with a bone frame, skin stretched around the soundbox for percussion, and strings of twisted hair. When played, it can summon forth a soul bound to it. Initially, the soul is that of the person whose corpse was used to make the instrument. The spirit manifests in an adjacent square as a translucent, intangible image of the person as he was in life. The image cannot attack or be attacked in any way. It is clearly distressed by the musician’s playing; it wails an eerie, pained accompaniment that nonetheless enhances the music’s quality, granting a +4 circumstance bonus on Performance checks made with the instrument and (if the performer is a bard) adding 1 to the DC of a dirge of doom, frightening tune, or deadly performance played on the instrument.

If an undead is within 30 feet, the musician can command the bound soul to seize it as a standard action. The undead must attempt a DC 20 Will save. If it’s successful, the image dissipates for 1 day; if it fails, the soul rides the undead for 1d4+1 rounds, acting as control undead cast by the musician. If the musician has the bardic performance ability, she can continue playing and spend a round of bardic performance as a free action each round to prevent that round from counting toward the duration of this effect. The soul dissipates for 1 day after the effect ends.

Crafting the instrument destroys the original body; that creature cannot be brought back to life via raise dead. As long as the instrument exists, resurrection and true resurrection can revive the creature only if they’re cast on the instrument itself; doing so destroys the instrument. The instrument cannot be affected by spells that target corpses, such as animate dead or decompose corpseUM.

Construction

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, control undead, ghost sound, creator must be evil; Cost 17,000 gp

[VoodistMonk]

Sorry, that isn't really a feat, at all...

Feats for a Dirge Bard-Sound Striker, in general?

Extra Performance
Master/Grandmaster Performer
Improved/Greater Dirge-O-Doom?
Improved Initiative
Spellsong and/or Harmonic Spell

[Cycloroms]

Thank you, Dirgesinger Choir si interesting indeed, I'll ask latter to my DM if we can make one as a violin.

Master performer is interesting too. I might do something like 1-extraperformance 3-masterperformer 5-harmonicspell 7-? 9-grandmasterperformer 11-discordantvoice... Could be nice :)

I don't feel inspire by dirge of doom, playing on fear doesn't feel like the character... I'll think about it.

I also looked for feats on the theme of sound, but I didn't find any other than discordant voice.

[VoodistMonk]

Expanded Arcana is a pretty decent feat for later in the game, if you don't have anything else to take.

I wasn't sure if intimidation/fear was going to be part of the build, but I figured I would throw in the Dirge-O-Doom feat suggestions in case you were planning on making use of Haunting Refrain.

Sadly, Discordant Voice really is just about all I know about for sonic effects... unless you're a Boggard, then you have all the Sonic/Stunning Croak stuffs available to you.

Harmonic Sage is a fun feat for Bards... ranks in Know:Engineering can also be used for Sacred Geometry.

[Temperans]

For sonic damage you have Concussive spell (sonic spells damage cause an untyped -2 to attack, saves, skills, and ability checks). Also Choral Support (teamwork feat that turns elemental damage into sonic, and sonic damage into half divine).

If you don't know what to pick you can always pick one of the bardic masterpieces, or a fitting general feat (Ex: Toughness and increased saves are always good).

[VoodistMonk]

Dirge Bard trades away Versatile Performance... and thus, trades away access to Masterpieces.

[VoodistMonk]

Concussive spell is good, but [for me] it's kind of a hard sell on a 6/9 caster... even a 6/9 caster with as many sonic spells as a Bard does. As a +2 metamagic, the available spells you can reasonably apply this to are limited to 4th-level spells [without munchkin madness trait shenanigans]. It is an effect better bought with gold, rather than spending a feat for... metamagic rods exist for this exact reason.

Choral Support is awesome. Love it. Don't know if it would help a Dirge Bard-Sound Striker violinist, but it can really help a blaster overcome elemental resistances by converting their damage to sonic damages.

[Temperans]

VoodistMonk wrote:

Dirge Bard trades away Versatile Performance... and thus, trades away access to Masterpieces.

That's not how it works. Masterpieces can be gained by any bard, versatile performance just lets you trade progressiom in versatile performance instead of a feat or spell.

[VoodistMonk]

Temperans wrote:

VoodistMonk wrote:

Dirge Bard trades away Versatile Performance... and thus, trades away access to Masterpieces.

That's not how it works. Masterpieces can be gained by any bard, versatile performance just lets you trade progressiom in versatile performance instead of a feat or spell.

This is good news to me!

[Cycloroms]

Choral support si awesome yes thanks :D
Could be fun to take it during the game depending of our PCs relations.

I'll have a second look at the masterpieces, none manage to stay on my memory last time I checked ^^