Reworking a character, opinions appreciated..

[drragun]

So my DM offered me to remake my character since I wasn't havin much fun playing music the entire battle with my bard. He tries to put in social roleplay so I can shine in the group...but cause of the group itself, I never get the chance haha. At the moment we have a Samurai (from the oriental book), Fighter, Ranger, Wilder, and I'm the bard.
Problem though, he said I couldn't change my race or ability scores, so my options are a bit more limited.

Race: Kobold (I like playing kobolds lol..)
Stats: Str- 10
Dex- 18
Con- 12
Int- 16
Wis- 13
Cha- 18

I was debating between spellthief or soulknife perhaps. With spellthief we could retain somewhat of a skillmonkey...kind've. Though with soulknife we wouldn't have any skill-based characters and a bit less utility the way I see it. Just wonderin what your guys' opinions are, oh and I probly should have mentioned we are all level 5 at the moment.

[Feralventas]

Soul-knife is a rather meek class in terms of what it's capable of. It's not unusuable, but it's key class ability is that it has a weapon. All the time. Whenever it wants.

(Pst, so does everyone else you'll be dealing with in some fashion or another.)

I'd suggest avoiding that one unles you mean to cheese the hell out of it or can get it house-ruled to full BAB and a few more class skills.

Spell-thief can work well enough as a skill-monkey, and incorporating minor spell-casting and stealing buffs should make you useful in combat, though not as a damage dealer. It seems like a pretty good choice for what you're trying to do.

High charisma on a non-solid 'caster might make it worthwhile to dip a level into Battle Dancer; it'll give you unnarmed damage as per a Monk, and Charisma to AC. Put on a Monk's belt and you'll get Wisdom to AC as well and your unnarmed damage goes up a tic, though with your Dex as it is, seems like you might want to use Ranged combat instead of punching things.

[drragun]

Hmm. True. I did like how spellthief looked and I was thinkin bout dippin into spellwarp sniper perhaps, do sneak attacks with ray spells. I am open to other suggestions as I'm tryin to find somethin that will help out the party and be a lil bit more than a one trick pony. All I did with my bard for every encounter so far was play dragonfire inspiration lol. Gets pretty boring pretty fast. An obvious choice that comes to mind would be cleric, but with how my scores are...eehh...

[Mystify]

Spelltheif has the debilitating condition that its main class feature only works if you are fighting a caster. If there is a mage in the party you can offset it by taking their spells, and hence grant them an action economy boost, but you don't even have that.

[hex0]

Spelltheif has the debilitating condition that its main class feature only works if you are fighting a caster. If there is a mage in the party you can offset it by taking their spells, and hence grant them an action economy boost, but you don't even have that.

Trickster Spellthief has access to summoning spells to steal from as well. And much better casting.

[Feralventas]

Hmm. True. I did like how spellthief looked and I was thinkin bout dippin into spellwarp sniper perhaps, do sneak attacks with ray spells. I am open to other suggestions as I'm tryin to find somethin that will help out the party and be a lil bit more than a one trick pony. All I did with my bard for every encounter so far was play dragonfire inspiration lol. Gets pretty boring pretty fast. An obvious choice that comes to mind would be cleric, but with how my scores are...eehh...

There are 3 major Mage/Thief mixed PrC's that come to mind when aiming for that combination.
If you go mainly 'Caster and then a dip in a precision damage class (sneak attack, sudden strike, skirmish, etc.) then Spell Warp Sniper is your friend.
If you are mainly a thief with a little 'casting, Unseen Seer is the way to go.
If you're somewhere in the middle, maybe 3/3 of each, Arcane Trickster's a good path to keep that up.

It might be easier to accomplish the thief/mage with a multi-class set of levels rather than with a single MC-in-a-box like Spell-thief. That's not to say it can't be done, but that the mix would be more potent than the distilled version.

Cleric can work as a buffing character to, and tends to need a few rounds to pump itself up before it joins in as well, so if you're looking to avoid a support character, I'd advise you look elsewhere.

If you're looking for a utilitarian character, taking a primary 'caster and picking up obscure or situational spells exclusively can probably make for an interesting and viable tool-kit. Animate Rope, Tenser's Floating Disk, Perfect Summons and Sepia Snake Sigil to name a few.

Another I'd suggest you take a look at is the Eidalon from Ghostwalk. It's got full BAB and some decent skills, but the Ghost Feats let it mitigate the need for a lot of thief-ish abilities or facilitates them otherwise. Walking through walls, a local dimension door, easy disguises, illumination, small telekinesis, etc.

[Eldest]

If you want to stay in Bard, I would like to point you to Snowflake Wardance and the fact that your preformances last for several rounds after you start them, if I remember correctly. So if you start the battle off with dragonfire insperation, then it lasts afterwords even if you stop concentrating on it.

[Ellrin]

Have you taken a look at Beguiler (PHBII)? It'll give you roughly equal footing with the Bard for skills, not to mention trapfinding, which your party doesn't seem to have. It's got excellent casting progression and spontaneous casting from a huge list of spells known, plus some useful free metamagic feats and the ability to be particularly sneaky when casting. The main drawback with the class is damage--you've basically got zero damage potential yourself unless you really cheese things; but you've got a bunch of versatile spells, and cloaked casting + surprise casting are an awesome combination.

And you'll still have glibness, so you can still lie your way through anything.

...though it is an Int-based class, I suppose, and your stats are more set up for a Cha-based one.

[hex0]

The main drawback with the class is damage--you've basically got zero damage potential yourself unless you really cheese things;

Beguiler has decent damage potential by picking up Hunter's Eye by dipping Unseen Seer.

[Telonius]

Those stats would be perfect for a Sorcerer. Since you're going for kind of a skillmonkey, possibly a Sorc/Rogue to Arcane Trickster? If you lose a couple caster levels, you wouldn't overshadow some of the other characters. (Of course, if you want to cheese it up, you could get the levels back through Draconic Rite of Passage etc).

The stats would also work decently for a Warlock. That class is kind of sub-par for damage (unless you go Hellfire, and even that's not spectacular). It also doesn't give you trapfinding, which it seems like you want.

Beguiler is also an excellent choice.

[hex0]

Beguiler 1/Wizard 4/Ultimate Magus is pretty classic and hasn't been mentioned yet, so there is that.