Creative Uses for perform Dance

[DraxDauragon]

Going into Shadow Dancer Prestige Class. Need to put in 5 skill points into dancing... Which isn't horrible I just would prefer to have an idea of a good use for it. And I don't see my character dancing to entertain anyone...
Wondering if there are any creative uses for dancing or a way for it to be useful in combat. The only thing i can think of off the top of my head is Capoeira, but i'm not a monk so i don't know how useful it will prove.
The character as it stands is a Chaotic Evil Male Human using a spike chain.

[Cambrian]

PF feat but not OP at all:
Dervish Dance: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/dervish-dance-combat)

Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Weapon Finesse, Perform (dance) 2 ranks, proficient with scimitar.

Benefit: When wielding a scimitar with one hand, you can use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on melee attack and damage rolls. You treat the scimitar as a one-handed piercing weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a duelist’s precise strike ability). The scimitar must be for a creature of your size. You cannot use this feat if you are carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, if you were a bard, you could theoretically key your bardic performance to it.

What class(es) are you, anyway? "CE male human with a spiked chain" is lacking some potentially useful info.

[Gwendol]

Dip bard to get inspire courage when dancing?

[Lonely Tylenol]

The stupidest (best) thing you can do with Perform is grab a ring of Undersong, which lets you make Perform checks in place of Concentration checks, and then a single-level dip (at 9th level) into Warblade for the Diamond Mind maneuvers Moment of Perfect Mind, Action Before Thought, and Mind Over Body. Now, you can dance your way away from fireballs, out of sickness, and through mind-affecting temptation!

[Erik Vale]

Cloak dance requires 2 ranks, and can grant concealment/full conceal for a move/full action if your really need it.

[Juntao112]

Snowflake Wardance (http://dndtools.eu/feats/frostburn--68/snowflake-wardance--2671/)

Sneaking around with cat-like tread (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdJg6Duzzf4).

[Vaz]

I believe you can use http://dndtools.eu/classes/exemplar/ to make you a Danceplomancer; ramp your Perform (Dance) through the roof, tell no lies with your hips, shake your money maker, etc, etc, and turn those who watch it love you.

Use Epic Level Handbook, push it to 150+, go into ultimate Universe owning BBEG. Ask for a minute of his time, no more, no less.

Say "Stop! Hammer Time", wiggle your ting for a minute, and you've got a Fanatical follower. Even making it to 50, and you've got it Helpful.

Incidentally, the Exemplar can be used for some very odd combinations of Diplomacy;

Jumplomancer; break the laws of physics to take a longer time to jump 300metres than it takes people to run the 400m final.

Concentromancer; stand there and think really, really hard about something... And people love you.

Move Quietomancer; tiptoe for 1 minute. And they love you.

Professionomancer; Cartography - draw a quick map in the sand for 1 minute, and they love you.

[DraxDauragon]

Chilingsworth
Re: Creative Uses for perform Dance
Well, if you were a bard, you could theoretically key your bardic performance to it.

What class(es) are you, anyway? "CE male human with a spiked chain" is lacking some potentially useful info.

I didn't want to mention the classes because it is a literal cluster ****. To start this is a weird campaign and our dm started us all as rouges and gave us an int bonus, I specked my char to be a fighter. Then at the end of our first dungeon all of us had classes assigned to us and replaced our rouge class but i managed to keep the skill points and sneak attack. I was forced to be a druid with a wisdom mod of 1... But i had a black bear with 2 extra hd. But because of a recent transgression i've lost druid powers and the bear died in combat (a fight our dm set up for all of us to lose....) So i'm taking two levels in fighter to get the feats to be a shadowdancer and take one level in Assassin.

TL,DR; Druid4 with sneak atk, fighter1, going fighter 2, assassin 1, shadowdance 10, dono after that. *edit* I will be trying to find a way to get an atonement spell cast on me to get my druid powers back and try to keep my current alignment. I also am going to find the corpse of my bear and take a piece of it with me so at some point i could resurrect my bear. 2 bonus hd is 2 bonus hd.*end edit*
Ability scores: Str 16, Dex 13, Con 15, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 12


Lonely Tylenol
Re: Creative Uses for perform Dance
The stupidest (best) thing you can do with Perform is grab a ring of Undersong, which lets you make Perform checks in place of Concentration checks, and then a single-level dip (at 9th level) into Warblade for the Diamond Mind maneuvers Moment of Perfect Mind, Action Before Thought, and Mind Over Body. Now, you can dance your way away from fireballs, out of sickness, and through mind-affecting temptation!

This would be very nifty, I doubt my dm would care if i dipped into warblade because it isn't homebrew. The only problem with this is that our dm is very constrictive when it comes to magical items, we've only found 4 so far... And he probably won't allow it to be purchased at the shops in our current location.

[Venusaur]

I believe you can use http://dndtools.eu/classes/exemplar/ to make you a Danceplomancer; ramp your Perform (Dance) through the roof, tell no lies with your hips, shake your money maker, etc, etc, and turn those who watch it love you.

Use Epic Level Handbook, push it to 150+, go into ultimate Universe owning BBEG. Ask for a minute of his time, no more, no less.

Say "Stop! Hammer Time", wiggle your ting for a minute, and you've got a Fanatical follower. Even making it to 50, and you've got it Helpful.

Incidentally, the Exemplar can be used for some very odd combinations of Diplomacy;

Jumplomancer; break the laws of physics to take a longer time to jump 300metres than it takes people to run the 400m final.

Concentromancer; stand there and think really, really hard about something... And people love you.

Move Quietomancer; tiptoe for 1 minute. And they love you.

Professionomancer; Cartography - draw a quick map in the sand for 1 minute, and they love you.

You forgot about the arseplomancer!

[DraxDauragon]

Cambrian
Re: Creative Uses for perform Dance
PF feat but not OP at all:
Dervish Dance:
Quote:
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Weapon Finesse, Perform (dance) 2 ranks, proficient with scimitar.

Benefit: When wielding a scimitar with one hand, you can use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on melee attack and damage rolls. You treat the scimitar as a one-handed piercing weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a duelist’s precise strike ability). The scimitar must be for a creature of your size. You cannot use this feat if you are carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand.

That would be cool... but i kinda wanted to use a spiked chain... :smallfrown:


Erik Vale
Re: Creative Uses for perform Dance
Cloak dance requires 2 ranks, and can grant concealment/full conceal for a move/full action if your really need it.
This could prove useful what book is it from? Would it be worth it if i'm gaining hide in plain sight?


Juntao112
Re: Creative Uses for perform Dance
Snowflake Wardance

Sneaking around with cat-like tread. Also would be useful... if I had a charisma mod...:smallfrown: And i have a strict no musical policy, Don't even like Dr. Horrible.:smalltongue:


Vaz
Re: Creative Uses for perform Dance
I believe you can use http://dndtools.eu/classes/exemplar/ to make you a Danceplomancer; ramp your Perform (Dance) through the roof, tell no lies with your hips, shake your money maker, etc, etc, and turn those who watch it love you.

Use Epic Level Handbook, push it to 150+, go into ultimate Universe owning BBEG. Ask for a minute of his time, no more, no less.

Say "Stop! Hammer Time", wiggle your ting for a minute, and you've got a Fanatical follower. Even making it to 50, and you've got it Helpful.

Incidentally, the Exemplar can be used for some very odd combinations of Diplomacy;

Jumplomancer; break the laws of physics to take a longer time to jump 300metres than it takes people to run the 400m final.

Concentromancer; stand there and think really, really hard about something... And people love you.

Move Quietomancer; tiptoe for 1 minute. And they love you.

Professionomancer; Cartography - draw a quick map in the sand for 1 minute, and they love you. This seems kinda op for diplo situations... And the way my character is developing no one is going to like him no matter how good he can dance. haha:smallbiggrin:

[DraxDauragon]

Lonely Tylenol
Re: Creative Uses for perform Dance
The stupidest (best) thing you can do with Perform is grab a ring of Undersong, which lets you make Perform checks in place of Concentration checks, and then a single-level dip (at 9th level) into Warblade for the Diamond Mind maneuvers Moment of Perfect Mind, Action Before Thought, and Mind Over Body. Now, you can dance your way away from fireballs, out of sickness, and through mind-affecting temptation!

So after skimming it a bit, I think a swordsage would be better because i would only dip into it for 1 lvl. This way i would get an improved initiative and if i can also get shadow hand maneuvers as well as the diamond mind maneuvers I could get weapon focus for my spiked chain. Unfortunately i still don't understand the mechanic and don't know if this is possible, so i gotta do a little more reading.

Also Ruby Nightmare Blade and greater insightful strike with the undersong ring sounds hysterical. This is just getting to ridiculous... Diamond Nightmare Blade: Attack deals quadruple dmg with successful con check....

And after even more reading Shadow hand School has several maneuvers that have shadow ports.... and If i were to put that many levels into any of these classes it would make becoming a shadow dancer pointless... meaning learning to dance in the first place pointless:smallfrown:

[StreamOfTheSky]

Cloak Dance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#cloakDance)

Dervish PrC from Complete Warrior has her rounds of dervish dancing determined by half of her dance ranks. I had a Dervish / Shadowdancer character (though she only dipped Shadow Dancer for 2 levels) that went the "power dancing" route with high str and a reach weapon, built around AoOs, and she was quite good.

Other stuff:

Feat from Dragon Mag #333:
Elusive Dance [General, Fighter]
Pre-req: Perform (dance): 5 ranks
Benefit: During your action, you may designate an opponent who may not make Attacks of Opportunity against you.
If you have the feat Dodge, your designated Dodge and Elusive Dance opponent must be the same creature.

Battle Dancer feat from PHB2, for Bards. It's not that good, though. +2 morale on your attacks basically as long as you are using inspire courage, moving (5 ft step counts), and attacking.

[Lonely Tylenol]

This would be very nifty, I doubt my dm would care if i dipped into warblade because it isn't homebrew. The only problem with this is that our dm is very constrictive when it comes to magical items, we've only found 4 so far... And he probably won't allow it to be purchased at the shops in our current location.

He shouldn't be too stingy about it, since Undersong is a first-level spell that almost any Bard should be able to cast, making it a fairly easy grab as a magic item (just find a second-level Bard who can cast the spell). :smallsmile:


So after skimming it a bit, I think a swordsage would be better because i would only dip into it for 1 lvl. This way i would get an improved initiative and if i can also get shadow hand maneuvers as well as the diamond mind maneuvers I could get weapon focus for my spiked chain. Unfortunately i still don't understand the mechanic and don't know if this is possible, so i gotta do a little more reading.

Swordsage -could- be better, because you get more maneuvers known at first level, but its recovery mechanic is horrible - a full-round action to recover one maneuver (or all with Adaptive Style, AKA the Swordsage Feat Tax), while the Warblade can recover as a swift action following any round they attack without using a maneuver. That's the main reason I recommended Warblade: the recovery mechanic is easier to cope with.


Also Ruby Nightmare Blade and greater insightful strike with the undersong ring sounds hysterical. This is just getting to ridiculous... Diamond Nightmare Blade: Attack deals quadruple dmg with successful con check....

And after even more reading Shadow hand School has several maneuvers that have shadow ports.... and If i were to put that many levels into any of these classes it would make becoming a shadow dancer pointless... meaning learning to dance in the first place pointless:smallfrown:

Yes, it does get ridiculous... And no, I don't recommend doing it if it doesn't mesh well with your concept. If you go Swordsage, go whole hog on the Diamond Mind maneuvers you can pick up easily with a dip (Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Insightful Strike and Emerald Razor being a good way to round out the set at level 9). If you want to make a dedicated build for this sort of thing, go ahead and do so, but if it doesn't fit with the concept you had in mind, don't bother.