Need help optimizing first round for a bard.

[ignayshus]

I want to get out the following combination in the first round of combat:

Inspirational Boost, Inspire Courage, and Haste

Methods

Use Celerity and Quick Recovery feat (available by level 10)
3 level dip into Swiftblade PRC for Haste as a Free action (available by lvl10)
Use a spell-linked familiar to cast Inspirational Boost and Song of the White Raven to Inspire Courage as a Swift Action (available by lvl 12)
Use a spell-linked familiar to cast Harmony (available by lvl 15)


Any other ideas?

[Keld Denar]

An option is stealth isn't a concern would be to start IC early, or just never stop it. There is no restriction on how many consecutive rounds you can maintain IC, so you could just leave it up all the time. If stealth is a conern, you could take Subsonics, or debatably a Mindbender dip for 100' telepathy would work because the subjects can still "hear" you inside of their brain.

Celerity does work, but unfortuantely there would be an interuption in your performance which would trip it into the 5 round linger (10 with Lingering Song). It doesn't allow you to activate a Badge of Valor, though, which is a standard part of the bardic powerup suite.

Alternatively, have you considered just having your melee folks take "of Speed" on their armor? Its a flat addon for like, 3000g for 3 rounds of Haste per day that works just like Boots of Speed (without the body slot cost). That means that in the first round, they could provide their own Haste, thereby buying you the round you need to throw up IC in the first round and Haste in the 2nd while giving the melee the benefits of Haste through the entire combat. Just a thought.

[ignayshus]

Yeah, I don't get any of the really abusive stuff and sadly magic items are only found, not purchasable (unless you count +1,+2,+3,etc.) so boots of speed are out.

I traded Inspire Competence for Song of the Heart, but Words of Creation, Dragonfire Inspiration, and Badge of Valor (effectively at least) are all banned.

I have Subsonics, and the DM allows that as a tool against Silence, but if I want to persist my bardic performances, I have to make progressively steeper Fort saves against my Con mod after an hour.

Hence I'm really looking for a way to get it out in one round if possible.

I thought I hit pay dirt with Arcane Fusion (DM will still allow me to take it if I want), but Harmony is level 2 and Haste is level 3 :p

[Keld Denar]

You can't trade Inspire Competance for Songs of the Heart. SotH requires Inspire Competance as a prereq. If you trade out the prereq, the feat shuts off. You could trade Suggestion for SotH, but not Inspire Competance.

Also, Sanctum Spell + Harmony would allow you to cast an Arcane Fusion of Haste + Harmony.

[Flickerdart]

Song of the White Raven (ToB): Start Bardic Music as a swift action.
Harmonize (PHBII?): Start Bardic Music as a move action.

You now start three songs on round 1.

[Fouredged Sword]

Is there not a feat that lets you roll two songs into one for a preform check?

Can't remember where it is though, and it may just let you start another song without stoping the first. AFB and can't look it up.

[Coidzor]

Is there not a feat that lets you roll two songs into one for a preform check?

Can't remember where it is though, and it may just let you start another song without stoping the first. AFB and can't look it up.

What worthwhile song is there to mix with Inspire Courage though, especially if dragonfire inspiration was banned? Inspire Greatness on one or two allies?

[Keld Denar]

I can't think of any feats like that. About the only thing I can think of is Lingering Song, which extends the normal song linger time from 5 rounds to 10 rounds, thus allowing you to start a song one round, quit it, and then start a second song in the next round. Still takes 2 standard actions to start 2 songs, though.

The main issue here is that nearly all abilities that give you extra standard actions require you to give up your swift action, which the OP needs for casting Inspirational Boost.

[ignayshus]

Keld, you are one clever sob...

Sanctum Spell (Harmonize) will get the job done with Arcane Fusion.

Would it also work with Spell-Linked Familiar?

Of course I wouldn't get this til very late in the game...

As to the Song of the Heart trade, I know it's not normally allowed, but he allowed it so I'm not going to bring it up ever again :)

edit:
So best bets if I don't want to lose a bard level are either:
lingering song feat + celerity/quick recovery feat (he'd probably ban that combo)
sanctum spell feat + extra spell feat (arcane fusion)
extend spell feat + persist spell feat
some made up feat that lets me cast spells as a move action

[Keld Denar]

Depending on your DMs interpretation of casting and wiz/sorc spells vs sorc spells, you could pick up Arcane Fusion from 1 level in Sublime Chord (ECL11), or like, 6ish levels of Lyric Thamateurge (CL12ish, I think).

One thing that does get a little wierd, though, is spontaneously applying metamagic to an Arcane Fusion'd spell. Doesn't AF specify that the 2 spells you fuse have to be standard actions or less? Sanctum Harmony would be a full round action without either Rapid Metamagic (CArcane, ECL9 minimum), or Arcane Preperation (also CArcane).

I'm not familiar with Spell-Linked Familiar. What book is it in? Or are you refering to Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability?

EDIT: You could go the Bardzilla route. Metamagic Song + Taliferian (Sp) Song + Persist Spell. Persist Harmony would allow you to start music at any time as a move action, but then again, you could just Persist Haste at that point. Alternatively, Persist Harmony is an 8th level spell, so you could cast it at ECL17 normally as a Sublime Chord.

[ignayshus]

Yeah, Sublime Chord is out as well, so I was considering the Lyric Thaumaterge route, but since my IC is so constrained, I didn't want to give up bard levels.

And I thought Talfirian Song only applies the +1 to illusion spells...

I could alternatively do a 3 level dip in swift blade and then two levels into marshal to get back the +1 IC I would be missing, but it'd cost me 3 spell levels :p

edit: Spell-linked familiar is in the phb2 on page 83.
Familiar can cast spells that you grant to it based on your caster level.
09-11: 1 level 0 spell
12-14: 2 level 0, 1 level 1 spells
15-17: 3 level 0, 2 level 1, and 1 level 2 spells
18-20: 4 level 0, 3 level 2, and 2 level 2 spells

[holywhippet]

It would cost a few feats. But if you got rapid metamagic and quicken spell plus some way of reducing the metamagic cost of haste you could cast it as a swift action.

For two songs at once, you need a prestige class like Seeker of the Song or War Chanter which has the combine songs ability.

[Coidzor]

And I thought Talfirian Song only applies the +1 to illusion spells...

Talfirian Song can raise it up to a 9th level spell. It allows a 9th level bard to count as casting 9th level spells. This is necessary in order to use Metamagic Song in order to count as being capable of casting X level spells in order to apply costly metamagic like Persist.

BARDZILLA! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8595585)


I could alternatively do a 3 level dip in swift blade and then two levels into marshal to get back the +1 IC I would be missing, but it'd cost me 3 spell levels :p

Bards are always feat starved, but there is a feat called Chaos Music which helps out in that regard. It's essentially +4 to bardic music level in the same way that practiced spellcaster is +4 to caster level.

It is an Anarchic feat from Dragon 326, though, and gives an aura of chaos like a cleric.