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Quantumplation
2010-06-08, 01:34 AM
So, my character died in todays session. I'm feeling kind of melancholy about the whole thing, as I was really liking my Rogue, Sorcerer, Master of Masks build, whom the DM was just about to Gestalt into artificer/miser. It's an aberrant campaign, so resurrection isn't looking likely. (On a side note, the DM is letting them attempt to resurrect me, with a very good chance it's going to fail horribly and I can play for a level or two as my character rebuilt into a "Oozebound" hero. :D That's always fun.)

Ah well, things are what they are.

In the next week or two, I have to come up with what I want to play next. I want something new and creative.

So, my challenge to you: What's the most creative class you've ever played or seen? I'm playing in the Pathfinder rule set, but your suggestion doesn't have to be. It will still provide some entertainment. :)

I'd like something which will provide years of reminiscence. "Oh man, remember ____'s awesome _____ that did _____? That was crazy."

Well, good luck, and may everyone have a good laugh. :)

Keld Denar
2010-06-08, 01:44 AM
In light of recent doubtage....play a bard.

If its Aberrant, play a Silverbrow Human take Aberrant Blood, Inhuman Reach, and Deepspawn, along with Songs of the Heart and Dragonfire Inspiration. Reach out and touch people with your elongated flaming dragonfire tenticles of doomy doom!

Quantumplation
2010-06-08, 02:07 AM
Haha, that does sound fun. More so, we're against aberrant though, not PC aberrant. I'll play that in my next campaign. :D

One thing that I wanted to figure out how to do, but my DM refuses to even work with me, is play a gnome bard, and find a way (flaws or something) to effectively infuse myself inside of a shield. Reduce movement speed to 0, but gain a +X to AC, and have someone else in the party carry me. I'd be a singing shield. :smallbiggrin:

Keld Denar
2010-06-08, 02:18 AM
Shield thing, I'm not sure about, but there are rules for Exotic riding sadles in the PHB. You might be able to rig something up, as long as you don't try to use Mounted Combat with another PC...

Bards are pretty awesome, provided you have access to enough sources. A pretty cookie cutter casty bard looks like:

Bard5/Mindbender1/Bard+2/Virtuoso2/SublimeChord2/Virtuoso+8

This starts you off as a pretty standard bard, with Mindbender giving you 100' radius telepathy (which can be used for the Mindsight feat on pg 126 of Lords of Madness). When you hit Sublime Chord, you instantly transmute from a bard into a sorcerer, with all of the high level spell shananiganery that comes with that. Starts strong, finishes stronger, solid all the way through.

For more reading, google Optimized Inspire Courage, or Inspire Courage Optimization for a list of horribly obscene and rediculous things you can do with IC. Pick between 1/2 and 2/3 of them, integrate them into your character, and have a ball. Don't go all the way, or you might get a book thrown at you, and those suckers are POINTY!

If you need any more help, just let us know!

Quantumplation
2010-06-08, 02:39 AM
One thing that comes to mind as being an interesting idea is a "bardtificer". Does this work well (a google search turns up a tiny discussion on it, but nothing overly concrete)? or well enough to just be plain cool without necessarily being powerful?

Also, After your last post, I'm guessing I'm a pretty unseasoned D&D player. ^.^ I've been in roughly 8 campaigns, so I considered myself intermediate, but most of what you said went over my head, and the few things I read on Optimizing inspire courage... well, I guess I'm just missing the significance of it. Can you point out an example and how it ends up being super powerful?

Keld Denar
2010-06-08, 02:52 AM
Bardificer? Sounds like a bard that crafts gear, since an artificer that attempted to make music would be....awkward.

Bards don't make great crafters, due to the fact that their spells known are rather limited. Now, if you take crafting feats, other casters in your party can donate spells to the manufacture of magic items, but then again, any other caster could take the feats as well, so its nothing specific to the bard.

Inspire Courage is a strong ability. Its probably one of the best a bard gets. On the surface, it looks pretty crappy, due to the fact that the bonus is rather low, and the ability scales rather slowly. Luckily, if you look hard enough, there are a TON of feats, spells, and items that boost your effective bard level to the superhuman region. Its not terribly difficult to push a bard's Inspire Courage into the +5ish range at level 4, or the +12ish range at level 20. Just stack up enough effects and you can push the realm of the absurd.

Just think...giving your whole party +5 to hit and +4 damage at LEVEL 4! Most level 4 characters are gonna have a +4 BAB tops, often less. On the least dedicated melee, this will increase their chance to hit by a factor of 2, and on the most dedicated, its still a +50% boost. Thats significant. If you took the feat Dragonfire Inspiration, you'd convert that bonus to a +5d6 fire damage bonus PER HIT. You'll vicariously be responsible for over 50% of your ENTIRE PARTYS DAMAGE OUTPUT. Just by yourself. Well, yourself plus them. Bards are a force multiplier. Think of it this way...4 PCs by themselves are effectively 4 PCs. Add in an optimized bard, and those 4 PCs (plus the bard) fight like 10 PCs. Now replace 4 with 6, or 8, or all of the commoners in your villiage. You see how this works?

Also, maintaining Inspire Courage, unlike many of the other bard songs, is a free action that requires no concentration. The only stipulation is that you can't cast spells or use spell trigger items like wands (wuupsseee, take Melodic Spellcasting from Complete Mage and this problem goes away!). Even without Melodic Spellcasting, you can still attack to your hearts desire while maintaining Inspire Courage, so you get the best of the boon yourself!

So go on, read a bit about Inspirational Boost, Songs of the Heart, and the Badge of Valor. Even read up on Words of Creation, Song of the White Raven, or the Vest of Legends. All of these are potent tools in the hands of a bard.

Quantumplation
2010-06-08, 08:41 AM
O_O

Wow, that's... Beautiful. Incredibly subtle, too.

Going to sleep last night, I decided on the style of bard I'm going to play, most likely. Instead of song, my bard speaks out puns which damage my enemies. ;) (purely flavor wise, of course). Gives me lots of roleplaying goodness, especially since our DM absolutely hates puns hehe.

We've got a dwarf fighter that's going some kind of "stone dwarf" build, (not sure on the specifics) but when he kills something I'm going to say something along the lines of "We will, we will, rock you."

If you have any other ideas for juicy bardic puns, feel free to share. :)

Foryn Gilnith
2010-06-08, 08:53 AM
Words of Creation

Given the extreme roleplaying restrictions demanded by Exalted feats, I find this particular element (despite its power) the most useless part of Inspire Courage optimization.
Your mileage may vary, naturally; I just felt compelled to chip in about my bardic experiences.

Keld Denar
2010-06-08, 09:03 AM
My thoughts exactly, but everyone else on the forums seems to love it, so I included it for the sake of thoroughness. I don't like any feat that restricts my RP opportunities.

But thats me.

Optimystik
2010-06-08, 09:23 AM
It doesn't get much more creative than Binder; They can do just about anything.