Bard/??/Warchanter

[ACSherman]

I've been playing around with the idea of playing a character with the Warchanter(CW) prestige class for a little while now, and I was hoping to find some input on which of these characters would be more effective or if there's anything I'm overlooking in these characters. I was planning on taking a level or two in Bard, then swapping over for a few levels of another class before swapping into the Warchanter. I'm not looking for an incredibly optimized character, but something playable would be nice.

I've been tinkering around with a Bard/Hexblade a little bit, for a Warchanter who would be focusing on buffing allies and self while debuffing enemies. I've also been looking into Bard/Marshal, for a more buff-based character. However, I'm a bit worried about the lack of BAB in that scenario--Warchanter is a combat class, and I don't want to be relegated to the background while everyone else has all of the fun.

There's no specific campaign/party/game that I'm currently looking to start him off in, but I like to have some character concepts ready if I need one to go. Most of my games start around level 5, so I don't need to be in Warchanter already. I'm just curious about which you all think would be the better building blocks.

Cheers!

[Urpriest]

Warblade (Tome of Battle) is nice for this sort of character. The Song of the White Raven feat lets you stack your Bard levels with it for Inspire Courage, and White Raven maneuvers complement your buffing. Plus, full BAB.

[ACSherman]

Warblade (Tome of Battle) is nice for this sort of character. The Song of the White Raven feat lets you stack your Bard levels with it for Inspire Courage, and White Raven maneuvers complement your buffing. Plus, full BAB.

I'm going to look into ToB and getting it into the game, but which would be a better option outside of it? Or is there something I'm overlooking that could be better? I know they'd be sub-optimal, but I'm just looking for input at this point.

[Keld Denar]

A 1-2 level dip in Fighter can pick up a couple of feats if you are trying to work up a feat tree. 3 levels of Swash gives you Weapon Finesse free and +Int to damage. Rogue or Scout give a small amount of precision damage that can be used to trigger various feats like Staggering Strike.

[ACSherman]

A 1-2 level dip in Fighter can pick up a couple of feats if you are trying to work up a feat tree. 3 levels of Swash gives you Weapon Finesse free and +Int to damage. Rogue or Scout give a small amount of precision damage that can be used to trigger various feats like Staggering Strike.

I considered using Swashbuckler and taking a more pirate-captain-ey route, but I thought it would be a bit too MAD, with INT for Swashbuckler, CHA for Bard and Warchanter, and then the general combat stats. Which would leave WIS to be the closest to a dump stat, even though it controls Will. The other thoughts are interesting, though.

[LTwerewolf]

A level, maybe two in marshall go a long way for someone that focuses cha.

[IdleMuse]

The Harmonious Knight substitution level (CoV WE) (or debateably the feat From Smite to Song) lets you qualify for War Chanter after lvl4, faster than straight Bard entry. A dip into Warrior Skald (RoF) will let you pick up all the Bardic Music effects subject to meeting the perform rank requirements. These can be obtained one level earlier through the feat Primary Contact (Cityscape) which gives you one skill point over the skill cap.

But yeah, Paladins of Freedom make great Warchanters.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Your DM is letting Warchanter advance inspire courage, right?

As written, it does not. In 3.0, IC did not increase w/ level, in 3.5 it does. Warchanter came out right between these two editions, and I think it was a mistake (especially since Warchanter REQUIRES inspire courage!), but it is something you need to ask the DM to houserule.

[ACSherman]

Your DM is letting Warchanter advance inspire courage, right?

As written, it does not. In 3.0, IC did not increase w/ level, in 3.5 it does. Warchanter came out right between these two editions, and I think it was a mistake (especially since Warchanter REQUIRES inspire courage!), but it is something you need to ask the DM to houserule.

She's typically pretty cool about things like that. She did it in our last campaign with my Knight's Challenge DC's, so I'd assume she'd be pretty cool about it.


The Harmonious Knight substitution level (CoV WE) (or debateably the feat From Smite to Song) lets you qualify for War Chanter after lvl4, faster than straight Bard entry. A dip into Warrior Skald (RoF) will let you pick up all the Bardic Music effects subject to meeting the perform rank requirements. These can be obtained one level earlier through the feat Primary Contact (Cityscape) which gives you one skill point over the skill cap.

But yeah, Paladins of Freedom make great Warchanters.

I just finished up playing a Knight/Paladin, so I'm kinda religious-warrior-ed out for the moment. I'd like to play something a little different.