Customizing my VMC

[OmniMage]

I'm making a wizard character that I want to be very knowledgeable. The Bardic Knowledge class feature will suit the character well, but I don't want the Bardic Performances that comes later. Could I just remove those? What about substituting class features from other classes? Maybe a few secrets from the lore master prestige class. It would also be nice if bardic knowledge came online at 1st level instead of 3rd.

[OmniMage]

Hmm... I posted in homebrew instead of advice. Maybe that was a mistake.

[Andostre]

OmniMage wrote:

I'm making a wizard character that I want to be very knowledgeable. The Bardic Knowledge class feature will suit the character well, but I don't want the Bardic Performances that comes later. Could I just remove those? What about substituting class features from other classes? Maybe a few secrets from the lore master prestige class. It would also be nice if bardic knowledge came online at 1st level instead of 3rd.

There's no rules that allow that, as far as I know. VMC is sort of all or nothing.

This seems like a question for the GM running the game that you'll play this wizard in.

[Andostre]

Honestly, while Bardic Knowledge may suit the wizard you have in mind, most wizards are not hurting for skill points to put into Knowledge skills due to the bonus ranks they get from high intelligence. I'm not privy to your build, but giving up a feat for Bardic Knowledge seems like adding a redundant bonus to something that a wizard is already good at.

[Azothath]

simply ask your GM to give wizards 2 +2 know +INT skill ranks per level to wizards and you can end the VMC quest. IMO what wizard class should have.

Second is to invest a few ranks in performance.

Third is to dip into Bard 1, a Bard archetype, or Sor archetype. A magical musical class is what you want.

Otherwise take the lumps that come with VMC Bard.

You can search homebrew for a VMC class to give you all you want. Likely, like your request, it is obviously unbalanced. I don't mean to be overly critical, but c'mon. A better solution is the right class with most of the features you want.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Take perform oratory and consider the bardic performances as giving advice based on your knowledge. You don’t recite poems or sing songs you tell the people what they are doing wrong. The versatile performance can also be reskinned as using your knowledge to figure out the right thing to say or what the other person is planning. Basically, you are a teacher.

[OmniMage]

Well, I'm looking for a boost to know skills so I can identify creatures and reveal bits of information on them. You get 1 bit of information for passing the DC, and another bit of information for every 5 you beat the DC by. I'm expecting to get a +5 bonus from this class feature by level 10, and +10 by 20. At least that is what my goal is. I think this would be better than picking a few skill focus feats.

If my goal is to know stuff about monsters, I probably only need ranks in 5 know skills (Arcana, Dungoneering, Nature, Planes, and Religion).

Thanks for feedback. I wasn't sure if there was precedent for what I wanted to do. I'll talk it over with the GM with the knowledge that I'm trying to bend the rules.

A wizard with a bard vmc that is a bit of teacher might work. I'll give it some thought.

[Pizza Lord]

Nothing to be done if you're already locked into VMC. Bardic knowledge will give you your character level as a bonus to Knowledge (thankfully not just bard level like normal for a multiclass) and let you make Knowledge checks untrained after 3rd level. But if the rest of the VMC stuff it worthless, giving up all your feats is pretty harsh.

You could use one for a feat that helps, like breadth of knowledge, but that's only if you're an elf, dwarf, or gnome (and 100+ years old). I don't know what race or age your PC is.

Granted that's not the same as a +5 bonus by level 10, but not losing three feats can certainly compensate that. But you can counter that by taking the favored class skill point instead of hit point.

Dilettante could help you save skill points for Knowledges you only want to put up to 5 ranks into, ones that don't typically involve monster stats (Nobility, Geography, Architecture, etc).

You could take Noble Scion (Scion of Lore) for a boost and then Enlightened Noble for a boost to your Knowledges after 10 ranks.

Signature Skill will open the unchained line of Knowledge for you. You have to pick one of them, but at 5 ranks you'll automatically get an extra piece of information for that type of creature. It's only to one Knowledge, but you can only take it once anyway.

Otherwise, invest in a library on various subjects or join an an academy or something and make checks ahead of time for creatures you hear about, likely during downtime or before heading out to face them (possibly with a bonus for the library's extensiveness). Record your stuff so you can break out the information without needing a roll, and when you witness something in character, write it down so you don't have to ask or roll again next time, you can say that you witnessed it.