3.5 Bard of Battle - Feedback Wanted

[ArcaneGlyph]

Hi All,

This is my 1st shot at making a bard that I want to play.
I will state I am not a fan of mind control, suggestion, and stuff along those lines. What I do enjoy is strategic battle, a well placed buffer and an epic tale at it's conclusion.

Here is what I am Proposing:

Courage (Su): Sing + 5R
+1 Saves vs Fear / Charm
+1 Attack / Damage

Competence (Su): Sing + 5R
+2 to Skill Checks
+2 to Spell DCs

Bolstering Voice(Su): Sing + 5R
+2 to Will Saves
+2 to Dodge to AC

Fortitude(Su): Sing + 5R
+2 to Fort Saves
1d10 temp HP

Celerity(Su): Sing + 5R
+2 to Reflex Saves
+10' to Movement

Greatness (Su): Sing + 5R 1 + 1 ally /3L beyond 14th
+2 to all Saves and Dodge to AC
1d10 temp HP
+10' to Movement

Heroics (Su): Sing + 5R 1 + 1 ally /3L beyond 17th
+4 to all Saves and Dodge to AC
2d10 temp HP
+20' to Movement

Rapid Composition(Su): Activate Bardic Music as a Swift Uses 1 use of Bardic Music

Improved Inspirations Activate Two Bardic Songs at Once Costs Use Per Day Per Song Activated

Class Abilities by Level:
1st Competence (Su): Bardic Music, Bardic Knack, Versatile Performer
2nd
3rd Bolstering Voice(Su):
4th Courage (Su):
5th
6th Fortitude(Su):
7th
8th Courage (Su):
9th Celerity(Su):
10th Rapid Composition(Su):
11th
12th Courage (Su):
13th
14th Greatness (Su):
15th
16th Courage (Su):
17th Heroics (Su):
18th Improved Inspirations(Su):
19th
20th Courage (Su):

So how does this sound game balance wise?
Keep in mind he will still have the bardic casting per normal.

[ArcaneGlyph]

Over 50 views and no input? is it really that horrible of a design?

[Yitzi]

I'd be wary about boosting DCs.

[sengmeng]

I don't like bards all that much, but I'll see if I can help you here. The format is an eyesore (the playground loves tables) and I'm not sure what you mean exactly in some points. Does courage keep increasing at every level you mentioned it? I think that's what you're trying to say and it's not too bad. I'm not sure about the bolstering, fortitude, and celerity abilities. The AC, hitpoints, and movement boosts are all nice in minor ways, but they're really pretty equal, so why come at levels 3, 6, and 9? Or rather, why that particular order? I think the bard should be able to choose which order he gets them.

I'm not sure why raising a DC 2 points is so scary. I think there aren't enough ways to do that.

I guess I still wouldn't want to play this bard, but I'd prefer him on my team than the regular kind.

[Yitzi]

I'm not sure why raising a DC 2 points is so scary.

Because a extra 10% chance that your Finger of Death will hit is quite nasty.

Casters are too powerful anyway, no reason to make it worse.

[ArcaneGlyph]

I would have used a table, but I had no idea how on here so I made it as pretty as I could.

I will keep in consideration the DC increase implications, maybe decrease that to +1 instead of +2. I just felt like the physical classes were gaining way more than the caster ones from the buffs, was trying to even it out so they wouldn't feel shunned.

Yes the courage boosts are cumulative, so they max out at +5 at level 20.

The level 3 6 9 pacing was just to keep the leveling process feeling like there is something to look forward to instead of there being big dead levels in between.
The idea of choosing which feat to use is a good one I'm sure any DM would allow.

My biggest issue to over come with this build is watching how this class interacts with some races (Silverbrow) and feats (Dragon Fire Inspiration) and some spells (Harmony and two others I cannot recall off the top of my head from SC and S&S) . I don't want to over OP myself and in turn mess up the party ECL tuning to badly on the DM.

This reasoning is also why I applied non stacking bonuses to the greatness and heroics to avoid stacking abuse.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not too far off the mark guys!

[sengmeng]

I've always thought that an effective caster level boost was a good but not broken way to help out casters.

[ArcaneGlyph]

I went for DC boost over Level boost to avoid all the level dependant numeric increases on spells.

[sengmeng]

I went for DC boost over Level boost to avoid all the level dependant numeric increases on spells.

Um, that's the POINT of boosting CL level...

Edit: if no one has helped you make tables yet, they look like this

something|something else|another thing
the first thing| the second thing| third thing


if you change the word "tabel" to be spelled correctly, the above "tabel" becomes the table below.

{table]something|something else|another thing
the first thing| the second thing| third thing
[/table]