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Mauril Everleaf
2010-04-05, 04:50 PM
So my group has allowed me to turn my character's raven friend (not an animal companion or familiar) into a cohort on the singular condition that he be a bard. So I've taken up the challenge, but I'd like a little help from the boards making him effective.

Due to his size, I've got him focused on non-instrumental perform skills, starting with dance and oratory, adding sing later and then percussion (using a small bell).

His stats are (after being Awakened):
Strength 2
Dexterity 17
Constitution 11
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 15
Charisma 10

Yes, he has a 10 charisma. With stat boosts and items, it ends up being an 18-20. He'll also have an 18 dexterity and a 22 intelligence.

Over the 16 levels of Bard that he'll take, he'll have 19 hit dice (one base and two from being awakened). The skills I have pretty well mapped out, but I'm trying to figure out his feat selection. I've read through Treantmonk's guide to bards and since the raven can't really fulfill any of the three combat roles as listed, I'm struggling a bit for how to best use his feats and moreso his actions in combat.

His current feat selection over his Bard levels is Extra Performance, Skill Focus: Oratory, Weapon Focus: Bite, Dazzling Display, Dodge, Metamagic Quicken, Skill Focus: Percussion, Toughness. I'd like to keep most of his feats in Pathfinder Core, but will consider some feats from elsewhere. The closer to core the better.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the most optimal use of his feats. I'm thinking his best use will be to focus on buff/debuff/conditions in combat and to use his plethora of skills outside of combat. Anyone want to help?

nedz
2010-04-05, 07:05 PM
Why are you taking :-
Skill Focus: Oratory and Skill Focus: Percussion ?
These don't help with bardic music AFAIK
Weapon Focus: Bite ?
For Combat ? For Touch spells you'de be better with Weapon Focus: Touch spells

You should focus on feats which improve his music or spells.

For spells: He should probably favour buffs though you could go for some debuffs.

You should probably re-read the guide, possibly a few times :)

Mauril Everleaf
2010-04-05, 07:49 PM
The two skill focuses are to further boost Versatile Performance and Weapon Focus is to qualify for Dazzling Display (area of effect Demoralize that stacks with other fear effects).

Bardic Performance (except for the two countersongs) are entirely divorced from the perform skill, yes and the whole perform mechanic has changed from 3.x but due to Versatile Performance, perform skills are still very useful for a bard.