(PF) Sandman Bard: How to Be Sandy and Bardy

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

Had an idea for character that is a Sandman Bard, that draws from the concept of the Sandman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandman) as a Scandinavian mythical figure. I also like the idea of being PF's equivalent of the Beguiler, but with better combat ability.

Background:
growing up in a a fairly idyllic land, he traveled for adventure and and the satisfaction of his curiosity.
After traveling for quite awhile, he eventually made it to a land where the undead rule as a living dead aristocracy. Zombies and Skeletons are used as manual laborers and soldiers, while the living are used as skilled laborers and crafters: basically anything stupid clumsy undead can't do. Humans scrape together livings as farmers in the highlands far away from cities and their undead overlords. However, in these highlands, roaming, feral undead are a common problem.
There, he finds a niche helping the children of small communities fall asleep, even while the undead moan and scratch outside the wooden walls of the hamlets.
Due to obvious reasons, spellcasters with access to any healing spells are restricted with licenses which they must pay heavily for, and even a potion of cure light wounds is restricted as a controlled substance, prescription only.
Also, carrying weapons openly in cities is illegal, and carrying weapons while in a group is even more illegal, thus largely eliminating the threat of adventurers out to destroy undead. However, you can get a license to carry weapons for the purpose of destroying feral undead, which range from wandering zombies to vampires trying to carve a niche for themselves in the highlands, preying on fearful villagers.
So, when he is found casting healing magic without a license, and carrying a weapon, he flees the law of the lands, and takes up with a band of adventurers... though he always remembers the indifferent undead lords and their fearful living subjects, and all the children who can't sleep...

I have played this character (or a similar one) briefly as an NPC in my own campaign, though I would like to flesh out the character more, and actually play it sometime. at the time, only the APG was out, so Id like to see what else can be added to the character.

Half Elf Bard (Sandman)

Ancestral Arms: Scimitar
Favored Class: Bard (+1 rounds of performance/level)

STR 10
DEX 15 (17)
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 10
CHA 14

1 Finesse
3 Dervish Dance
5 Toughness
7 Lullaby of the Ember Ancient (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo---bard-archetypes/masterpieces/the-lullaby-of-ember-the-ancient-sing)?
9 ???
11 ???

As you can see, I have no idea what to do after level 7, and even that is iffy.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[Socratov]

can you take Lingering Song from 3.5? it will help your sleep song last longer

[Corlindale]

Lingering Performance is a Pathfinder feat too, and I agree that it's a great pick.

Looks like you're going for the melee aspect, which can be quite nice to take advantage of Sneak Attack. I have a Sandman in the works myself, but he will be a caster primarily.

At level 8 Dirge of Doom will probably be your go-to performane in combat. For regular bards it's often not worth using, but for you it's pretty cool. Also lets you land offensive spells better, especially combined with Sneakspell.

The spell-stealing should not be underestimated either. Contrary to what the ability implies, I actually think it would be more useful for use on your allies out of combat (they should be able to fail the save on purpose). Then you can "borrow" some of the great, personal only buffs (like Overland Flight, Shield, the Polymorph spells, etc, etc). They don't even lose the spell when you borrow it, so there's no reason not to do it.

I wouldn't use a feat on Lullaby - it still has a HD limit as far as I can see, so after level 10 it will be useless. Plus, you already have Slumber Song (though that one is admittedly not that useful for combat purposes).

You could consider going Arcane Trickster later. Sandman bard is the only way to qualify for that without multiclassing (at level 10). It won't delay your casting and it will progress your sneak attack much more rapidly. Some of the class features are quite handy too.

As for feats, I kinda like Eldritch Heritage for a bard. Fey especially seems quite appropriate (and the greater invisibility power would help with sneak attacks), but Arcane is always nice too.

[ericgrau]

Sleep, deep slumber, dream, nightmare. Nightmare combines well with scrying or other information gathering as a sort of scry-and-cripple tactic. Scry and nightmare both benefit from the same things, getting a much higher DC if you can swipe something from the target. Consider sleight of hand and whip disarming. If you can swipe a lock of hair even better. I think there's a PF feat or ability that lets you snatch unattended objects as a an attack with a whip, so you disarm then snatch it.