(PF) Bard (Detective) Archetype

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

How would you go about building one of these? It loses Inspire Courage, one of the most powerful abilities of the Bard, and thus I am not certain how to proceed.

Detective (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo---bard-archetypes/detective)

Thanks everyone!

[Ravens_cry]

True Confession looks pretty nice. In fact, it could be down right campaign disrupting in some circumstances.

[Larpus]

Yeah, Careful Teamwork is ok, but Inspire Courage it is not, it's sadly way too limited in design in my book.

But it is a boost for groups who scout ahead often to prepare for encounters beforehand if for the +Initiative alone.

And yeah, True Confession might be pretty plot-breaking...the DM must be very cautious to allow this archetype.

Anyway, your abilities won't be as directly useful in combat as a normal Bard, so I'd say the basis for building a Detective is finding a way to be relevant in combat despite not providing the expected Inspire Courage bonus?

[avr]

It looks like the abilities which the detective archetype replaces are compatible with the gnome prankster archetype and (weirdly) the savage skald. Either of these give you something to do in a fight besides inspire courage.

I think you could have a fair bit of fun with a prankster detective, just remember to prioritise defence so you can get the mock/punchline combo off. Also remember to get plenty of linguistics so that you know the languages of your targets; that's got some use for a detective type anyway.

[Corlindale]

While you lose the best buffing performances of the bard, remember that you still have excellent party buff options in your spell list. Some of them even become better without Inspire Courage (like Gallant Inspiration), because there will be less issue with non-stacking bonuses.

[Psyren]

Combine with Sound Striker, fluff Weird Words as sonic shuriken. You are now a super sound-ninja.

[Roguenewb]

This archetype is...redundant seeming. Bards are already super great in non combat situations, and this makes you...better at that? Normally, my bards use IC OP to generate useful combat power, and spells to be usefully outside of combat, so I guess you could try to swap it around. Spells for combat (and you get to avoid stacking issues), and music abilities for non-combat.

I just...don't see the point. You could just call yourself a detective with the normal Bard powerset.

[Coidzor]

Combine with Sound Striker, fluff Weird Words as sonic shuriken. You are now a super sound-ninja.

Nice, haha.

[Psyren]

This archetype is...redundant seeming. Bards are already super great in non combat situations, and this makes you...better at that? Normally, my bards use IC OP to generate useful combat power, and spells to be usefully outside of combat, so I guess you could try to swap it around. Spells for combat (and you get to avoid stacking issues), and music abilities for non-combat.

I just...don't see the point. You could just call yourself a detective with the normal Bard powerset.

The main reason for taking it is trapfinding; this lets your bard fully fill the skillmonkey role. The other abilities aren't really important.