
The Total Package |
We are currently level 12 in our campaign going to level 20. My character just got slayed. I was planning to play a Warrior Muse Bard with a Maestro Muse as well. We are playing FA rules so I will be taking Mauler dedication (for Crashing Slam and was considering Hammer Quake or Unbalancing Sweep) and Rogue dedication for Mobility, Evasiveness and Opportune Backstab. The character will wield a D10 reach weapon, his front line allies are a fighter and a swashbuckler. Backline are two ranged combatants. The plan is to capitalize big on inspire courages big +3 bonus via orchestral brooch and extending it a round by landing a strike. I have three FP's so I may use this twice per fight thus lasting 4 rounds. On that second round of the big bonus I think I would cast a spell and strike. Or maybe I would use Crashing Slam and strike. He would also have vicious Swing at his disposal and courageous opportunity to take advantage of Slam Down. His spells would consist of spells like Slow, Haste, Roaring Applause, Slither, you get the idea, no DMG dealing spells pretty much control only and buffs/debuffs. We have an ally on our team who can soon provide party wide haste. I am certain the spells will be good, I'm unsure if feats like vicious Swing, slam down and Hammer Quake or Unbalancing Sweep (to shove creatures back into the area of the Slither) so our ranged allies can hit the enemy while they are flat footed from the black tentacles.
Can this build be efficient?

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I am currently playing a maestro/warrior and its working fine, even if i am only lvl 4 and have not unlocked more synergies than prolonging inspire courage.
I expect prolonging fortissmio will be really powerful.
Regarding your ideas, i have decided to fight with a shortbow, as i often have only one action left and don't feel like i am stable enough to be a frontliner.
As a melee, even with reach, i would expect you to have to move often.
On the other hand, reflexive courage is a nice combination with a reach weapon. Casting spells you provoke yourself as well, though.

Tridus |
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Short answer: You're a Bard, you'll be useful. :) Bard is a really good class and with the options available to you and a Fighter to buff, you'll be just fine. Fortissimo Anthem is going to cause a Fighter to crit a LOT and every time you made that happen, that's your contributing.
Long answer: The challenge you're going to face with trying to sustain Courageous Anthem with Warrior Muse is that you never go past expert proficiency. Against strong enemies, that is going to make your miss chance larger than you'd like.
The thing working in your favor is that you have the +3 Anthem up, your odds are going to be better. But it can still feel pretty rough at high level enemies where the deck is somewhat stacked against you.
The other issue is you're taking a lot of action intensive things. Slam down is two actions. You need to get Courageous Anthem up in the first place to be able to sustain it. You'll need to move into position a fair bit. You have an extremely powerful spell list that takes multiple actions to utilize.
If your goal with Slam Down and such is to trip things, using a reach trip weapon and boosting Athletics lets you attempt it in fewer actions, and your Trip chance is easier to raise proficiency of since you can get Athletics to legendary, unlike your weapon proficiency. That's also only one action and requires no archetypes.
All that aside? Yes, this will work and it sounds fun! You may find it hard to juggle all the things you want to do and I suspect some of them you just won't get to use that often. When you have access to fight-ending spells like Synethesia that you can pair up with Fortissimo Courageous Anthem, doing a two action Slam Down is really tough to fit in.
If you get to level 18, Eternal Composition is a HUGE help since a quickened action for a composition opens things up massively. If your game is going to this point, you'll probably feel really good at this point.
I know I sounded somewhat negative but it sounds like a cool build and I want to reiterate that it's definitely workable. So if you think you'll enjoy it understanding the action juggling its going to take, go for it!

The Total Package |
Hmm that was also my concern with the two action ability it could be an issue. Perhaps as you recommend a two handed reach weapon that can trip or shove could be better and only require one action to do. Other option is if he's ranged with a bow, but then again he's taking one action to strike from range instead of trip or shove. The trip or shove does sound more useful than a one action bow with this particular comp that do have AOOs?

Tridus |

Hmm that was also my concern with the two action ability it could be an issue. Perhaps as you recommend a two handed reach weapon that can trip or shove could be better and only require one action to do. Other option is if he's ranged with a bow, but then again he's taking one action to strike from range instead of trip or shove. The trip or shove does sound more useful than a one action bow with this particular comp that do have AOOs?
If you've got AoOs, reach weapons are great because you can use them while standing behind the Fighter. Trip also helps the Fighter since they also have AoOs. If you're using a bow then there's no reason for you to be right in melee so there's little point in having AoOs and it significantly changes what you're doing. Lesser Cover from your allies being in the way can also make hitting even harder than with a reach weapon, and you can't get flanking benefits with a bow.
So I don't feel like a bow is really going to get you what you want since it sounds like you want to be up in the action making things happen. Your build idea can do that more readily than a bow can. (If you want to be a primary spellcaster, a bow gives you an easy third action option but it's going to feel very different than what you proposed.)
I had a Bard in my Extinction Curse game use a reach weapon to do this stuff and it worked reasonably well. He also had a lot of things he could do and at high level you have a lot of spell slots with some really powerful options. So if you have two actions, do you want to Slam Down, or do you want to cast a spell that could cripple the enemy like Synethesia or take something out of the fight temporarily with Maze? That's going to be a hard decision sometimes, especially if your campaign only has 1-2 fights a day and thus you have all your best spells always available. The more fights a day you do, the better an option like Slam Down gets.
Action flexibility is the upside of the 1 action trip. Unfortunately that doesn't sustain your songs while Slam Down should if you can land it. So, pros and cons, really. If you want your signature thing to be sustaining those boosted Courageous Anthems, then that changes things because the 1 action Athletics trip isn't helping you as it's not a strike, and it also requires significant skill investment (Crashing Slam means you don't need to invest a lot of skill boosts into Athletics to trip things).
I think they're both workable approaches, its just important to be prepared to have to forego Slam Down because getting a spell off is more important.
I recommend a reach weapon in any case, though. :)