Blood, Blades, and Babes.. the Bard+Ranger [PF]

[Strormer]

Right, so as the title suggests, I'm working on making a multiclass Bard/Ranger in Pathfinder. The PrC that comes to mind is the Fochlucan Lyrist, one of my favorites, but that's not exactly what I'm working towards and that needs a Druid, not a Ranger.
So here's the question. Does anyone know of established examples of Bard/Ranger MC builds or of any worthwhile Bard/Ranger PrC's?

The plan so far: Twin Sword singing bard with a bandore on his back and a mug of ale in his mind.

[Coidzor]

any worthwhile Bard/Ranger PrC's?

As far as I know... there are none except for using Fochlucan Lyrist to progress Ranger casting and getting Druidic through a non-Druid level source.

If you've got access to 3.X material, you're better off going as a bard and optimizing inspire courage over breaking up your spell and song progressions to have ranger levels and their full BAB. That and Sublime Chord.

About the only use I can see for Ranger is to grab 2 levels for a combat style that grants either TWF or claws.

[Spiryt]

The vagabond brawler who also performs music all around where he travels is pretty obvious and attractive concept for D&D style of adventure...

With 3.5 Pathfinder, after a few level of multiclassing, you would have a dude with a lot of minor and unrelated spells and stuff....

[JadePhoenix]

Harper Agent and Harper Paragon both kind of work for Bard/Ranger.

[Darrin]

Right, so as the title suggests, I'm working on making a multiclass Bard/Ranger in Pathfinder. The PrC that comes to mind is the Fochlucan Lyrist, one of my favorites, but that's not exactly what I'm working towards and that needs a Druid, not a Ranger.


The sticking point with Fochlucan Lyrist is the "speak druidic", although there are ways around that if you have a cooperative DM. You can start things off as a Druid and add Prestige Ranger later, but that mostly gets you Ranger spells added to your Druid list (which may be awesome enough for it's own sake).

Actually, you might want to consider:

Divine Bard 4/Fighter 1/Prestige Ranger 15

(but I'm not sure how to get calm animals in there... maybe Savage Bard and Divine Bard can be combined into Savage Divine Bard?)



So here's the question. Does anyone know of established examples of Bard/Ranger MC builds or of any worthwhile Bard/Ranger PrC's?


There's two other PrCs that advance both arcane and divine spellcasting: Arcane Hierophant (RotW) and Green Whisperer (Dragon #311). Arcane Hierophant is much easier to get into: just pick up trackless step (via Wildrunner or Bamboo Spirit Folk). Green Whisperer is sort of a mini-Arcane-Hierophant (5 levels), but explicitly only advances Bard and Druid casting, so it won't work for a Ranger.

If Mystic Ranger (Dragon #336) and Sword of the Arcane Order (Champions of Valor) is available, then things get a little more interesting. Pick up Bardic Music from somewhere (Bard, Prestige Bard, Virtuoso, Warrior Skald, etc.) and you can get into Sublime Chord, then finish off with Fochlucan Lyrist. Actually, if your DM allows feat retraining/psychic reformation/Dark Chaos shuffle, you can use Favored/Primary Contact from Cityscape, get into Fochlucan Lyrist early, then take Sublime Chord, and finish off with Fochlucan Lyrist:

Race: Magic-blooded Frostblood Half-Orc
Bard 2/Mystic Ranger 7/Fochlucan Lyrist 1/Sublime Chord 1/Fochlucan Lyrist +9
Feats:
1) Shape Soulmeld: Impulse Boots
3) Favored
5) Endurance -> Sword of the Arcane Order
6) Open Least Chakra: Feet
9) Primary Contact
[Note: Pick up Speak Druidic via Pearl of Speach (MIC) or retrain Favored/Primary Contact into Shape Soulmeld: Soulspeaker Circlet and Open Least Chakra: Crown.]

[Strormer]

Coidzor: Thanks, but I'm not really concerned with the optimization as if there is anything that exists at the moment that combines the bard and ranger effectively.

Spiryt: Yeah, though I was planning a bit less vagabond and a bit more wild.

Jade: I had forgotten about the Harpers, thanks! Although, where is Harper Paragon from? I have the Harper Agent, Scout, and Master PrCs in my collection, but I don't remember seeing a Paragon.

Darrin: That's not a bad build idea, but I was looking more for a combination of the two base classes, either trough a PrC or a few feats, etc..

[Coidzor]

Coidzor: Thanks, but I'm not really concerned with the optimization as if there is anything that exists at the moment that combines the bard and ranger effectively.

That's just it, there isn't, really. Hard to combine their ability sets without looking like a gestalt when they're already both skillful, second-class citizen casters. That go in different directions. And no theurge-ish classes exist to give progression on either end's non-casting component or retain status as skillful aside from Fochlucan Lyrist.

The only reason Fochlucan Lyrist remotely qualifies is that it's a skillful, full BAB class that progresses the casting of both sides and IC, and that's about it. Non-Mystic Ranger casting is kind of a mug's game though, so that's even worse of a deal than it initially sounds.

No combat style, no evasion, no camouflage. No useless songs that can be traded out for feats.

The Harpers might be a good option though, since they are for skillful characters, but probably your best option is the Mystic Ranger + Bardishness > Sublime Chord idea. Though that's got a lot of MAD issues (even if you allow dragonlance material and grab Dynamic Priest to make your Ranger casting CHA-based, you've still got MAD).

And then until Sublime Chord kicks in you're mostly just fueling a dip with items. And then you switch tracks completely to sorcerer light.

[Strormer]

Thank you. I think I know what I must do then.