Best way to make a Rogue/Bard

[Master Thrower]

Hello playground, I was just wondering what the best use of the combination of levels in rogue/bard would be? What PrC's would you take? What importance would your stats be? what feats would you take?

[flumphy]

What are you trying to do with this character? Deal damage? Be diplomatic and sneaky? Something else?

[Keld Denar]

More bard, less rogue.

[Optimator]

Rogue 4 Bard 16 with the Craven feat perhaps? Nets you uncanny dodge, some sneak attack, good skills, some great spells (Invisbility, Glitterdust, Grease, Glibness, and Blink all come to mind as good for Rogues) and Inspire Courage is full strength, or nearly so. Add in Snowflake Wardance and Song of the Heart and you've got yourself a decent melee rogue with a hell of a lot of flair.

[TwylyghT]

Not knowing anything of goals and by pure instinct, and if it must be both classes...

Bard x/ Rogue 1

Prcs really depends on goals you have for character.

Sublime Chord is good for casting.

Warchanter or Dragon Disciple can be good for fighting.

Factotum and/or Chameleon can be fun flavor for bards.

Bard straight 20 is great too unless you really need sneak attack.

[ericgrau]

All you need is rogue 1 for trapfinding to add another trick to your bardic bag. Rogue 2 is nice for evasion though, and with the extra +2 to your reflex saves on top of your high dex and bard progression you'll get a lot of mileage out of it.

[holywhippet]

I was working with a halfing rogue/bard for a campaign a few years back. The campaign didn't last long enough to get past level 3 unfortunately, but I was basically aiming to make my character a specialist in thrown weapons. Halflings already get a bonus to thrown attacks, I just needed to work my way up to precise shot so I could throw into melee without penalties. Use the first round of combat to trigger a bard song then keep lobbing javelins/daggers/whatever or apply assistance when required.

Other feats to consider - melodic casting to let you cast spells without stopping your song. Jack of all trades to let you make a skill check on any skill. For that matter, consider the bardic knack alternate class feature which lets you make skill checks using 1/2 of your bard level instead of whatever number of ranks you actually have.

[Person_Man]

There is no synergy between Rogue and Bard. The Rogue is a damage based Skill Monkey. The Bard is a Music/spell based Skill Monkey. So you just end up with nerfed damage, or nerfed Music/spells.

[hex0]

The best way is to do a dip of 2 for evasion then go into bard. If you are going to do that though you might as well take Psychic Rogue instead though for two powers to use.

or you could take Spellthief 2 and get some utility out of Steal Spell Effect. But, no evasion.

[holywhippet]

There is no synergy between Rogue and Bard. The Rogue is a damage based Skill Monkey. The Bard is a Music/spell based Skill Monkey. So you just end up with nerfed damage, or nerfed Music/spells.

It's not always a matter of synergy, sometimes you dip into a different class just to pick up a few extra tricks. Two levels of rogue is good for a bard thanks to evasion which works off of reflex saves - bards are generally good at these thanks to it being boosted by class levels and their general requirement for good DEX. You also pick up a bit of sneak attack which is always nice.

[ZombiePunch]

Fochlucan Lyrist comes to mind. Rogue/Druid/Bard

*edit: I second the craven feat

[ericgrau]

There is no synergy between Rogue and Bard. The Rogue is a damage based Skill Monkey. The Bard is a Music/spell based Skill Monkey. So you just end up with nerfed damage, or nerfed Music/spells.

You kinda hit on it. They're both skill monkeys. A rogue dip is a way for a bard to augment his utility options. He can become a full trapfinder that way even though the sneak attack isn't worth much.

[Tvtyrant]

Take Craven so the SA doesn't become totally pointless. Attach that feat that does a knowledge roll to get up to +5 damage a hit. This mitigates the loss of SA by taking Bard as much as I can conceive of.

Knowledge Devotion.

[Coidzor]

Rogue 2/Bard 7/Druid 1/Sublime Chord 1/Fochlucan Lyrist (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050107a&page=2) 9.

Gets you a disposable animal companion for free dinner, 4th-9th level Sorcerer/Bard Casting, 1st-3rd Bard Casting, 1st-5th Druid casting, evasion, and sneak attack so you could take craven if you really wanted to.

Alternatively, you could use Rogue/Wizard, go into Heartfire Fanner (Dragon 314), and then Bard PrC from there on (probably Virtuoso), since Heartfire Fanner makes you a 6th level Bard at ECL 9 or 10, and it progresses the better casting of the wizard. Sorta sets the rogue part on fire there too though.

No PrCs that really combine the SA and bardery though, or at least, none that really give anything to the casting, which if you're losing everything but the casting of bard by PrCing, you really want that casting to be pumped up some.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Spellthief 1/ Bard 8/ Mindbender 1/ Sublime Chord 2/ Unseen Seer 8, with Able Learner and Master Spellthief. Note that Master Spellthief's interaction with Sublime Chord results in some serious caster level shenanigans.

Beguiler X/ Prestige Bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm#prestigeBard) Y

[Optimator]

Spellthief 1/ Bard 8/ Mindbender 1/ Sublime Chord 2/ Unseen Seer 8, with Able Learner and Master Spellthief. Note that Master Spellthief's interaction with Sublime Chord results in some serious caster level shenanigans.

Beguiler X/ Prestige Bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm#prestigeBard) Y

Excellent suggestions.