[PF] Buffer/Blade Bravo Battle Bard Build?

[OverdrivePrime]

Hey gang!

I love bards, but I also love my characters to mix it up in melee, and to date, I've always wound up dissatisfied with my character build. Can you help?

My concept is a talented and dangerous swordsman whose battle songs or recitations of old epics spur his allies to greater heights of prowess. Holding his own in battle is key. Out of combat, I want to downplay my own combat prowess and make my friends famous. This guy loves a good fight and is loyal unto death.

Spells are nice, but the gang I'm running with already has a wizard and a druid. We also have a pally and a fighter/rogue. I'm literally the fifth man.

Available Sources: Anything on d20PFSRD.com.
Starting level 2, probably playing up to level 11.
edit: 25 point buy, thinking of going half-elf with Ancestral Arms.

Can you help? I'm not opposed to dipping into other classes, but Inspire Courage is critical for the character concept. And I'd prefer to stay away from mounted combat, since we tend to spend most of our time in ships, swamps and old ruins with this DM.

Thanks!

[Chained Birds]

Dervish of Dawn Bard does what (I believe) you're asking for. It gives you Dervish Dance which applies Dex to your Scimitar Damage and Attack Rolls. This allows you to focus on just Dexterity and Charisma (And some points in .

Downsides: your inspire abilities only work for yourself but are doubled so its not the worst trade-off. You also lose some of the Knowledge focused aspects about bard. Oh and you must worship the "Goddess of the Dawn", which I assume is Sarenrae but it might have changed.

[OverdrivePrime]

Dervish of Dawn Bard does what (I believe) you're asking for. It gives you Dervish Dance which applies Dex to your Scimitar Damage and Attack Rolls. This allows you to focus on just Dexterity and Charisma (And some points in .

Downsides: your inspire abilities only work for yourself but are doubled so its not the worst trade-off. You also lose some of the Knowledge focused aspects about bard. Oh and you must worship the "Goddess of the Dawn", which I assume is Sarenrae but it might have changed.

So, I really like how Dervish of Dawn reduces MAD on the bard, and I love the flavor of the DoD archetype, but not being able to use IC on my allies kind of drops half of my intention for this guy.

I've got a 25 point buy to work with, so I can afford to go big on Strength.
I was actually originally thinking of going STR>CHA>CON>INT>DEX>WIS.

I was thinking of going Half Elf, and grabbing the Ancestral Arms half-elf attribute, and picking up a falchion. However, I suppose I could instead grab a scimitar and then dump strength, max Dex and pick up Weapon Finesse and Dervish Dance by level 5.

I'm also really keen on the Arcane Strike feat. It definite seems worth dropping a swift action each round to get a scaling bonus to my weapon. Picking up Arcane Strike as a feat seems much healthier than going into the Arcane Duelist archetype, which loses a lot of what I like about the bard in exchange for the dubious prospect of a feat chain devoted to meleeing spellcasters.

[Chained Birds]

With the archetype I outlined, you won't need finesse as Dervish does everything for you (when you use a scimitar of course). So you can go Arcane Strike at Lvl 1 then get the bonus feat Dervish Dance at Lvl 2.

Also, if you combo the Savage Skald archetype with DoD, you can give your allies some bonuses the more awesome you are in battle. As in getting off Criticals with your 18-20 Crit weapon to give an ally temp HP and everyone else a Morale Bonus to attack rolls.

[Karoht]

Soundstriker.
You only give up Suggestion (sounds like you won't be using it much anyway) and Inspire Competence (but not Inspire Courage) and you get two pretty cool abilities. One is a sonic damage attack, the other is Weird Words, which scales quite nicely from your charisma.
At level 6, as a standard action, you can deal (1D8 + charisma mod) *6 bolts. You get an additional bolt every level to a cap of 10. They do slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning damage. As a ranged touch attack. An excellent use of that nice high charisma of yours.

Convince people that you are indeed such a fast swordsman that you are hitting opponents THAT fast.

Talk to your DM to see if Weird Words is right for you.


Other than that, Arcane Duelist doesn't look too bad, and might be right up your alley. Worth a look, maybe.

Get yourself a wand of Twilight Knife (UMD + High Charisma FTW) for some extra free damage.

EDIT:
Seconding the motion for Savage Skald + Dervish Dancer/Dervish of Dawn.
That is an awesome pair of Archetypes.

[OverdrivePrime]

I didn't realize that Savage Skald and Dervish of Dawn work together. That's just about perfect. Like you say, Savage Skald's 'Inspiring Blow' performance helps my allies and thus mitigates my concern about losing Inspire Courage for my allies. That's kind of awesome.

I had originally pictured a charismatic pile of muscles from the northern tribes for this guy, but with a Spinning Skald of Dawn, I can deprioritize strength, kick Dex up through the roof, and get a lot better skill synergy. I'm picturing a dashing bedouin swordsman who just dominates with a scimitar now. Yeah... this is pretty much perfect. Thank you!

What would you suggest for race? I was originally thinking of a Half-Elf in order to get Ancestral Arms and Arcane Training, but I don't really need Ancestral Arms anymore unless I want to pick up composite longbow proficiency. I still think Arcane Training is pretty attractive for a bard, but humans always bring plenty to the table as well.

[Chained Birds]

Human is a great choice due to its Favored Class Bonus of extra spells known and the always useful Bonus Feat. Though you could also not take the Feat and instead get a +2 to two stats instead of one (Though the Feat is almost always better).

Halflings grant you an increase in both Dex and Cha as well as some fun RP Favored Class Bonuses. You'll also benefit from the benefits of being Small with extra AC and To-hit bonuses.

Half-Orc also works as you'll gain Ferocity which is always good in many Melee character builds.

[OverdrivePrime]

So, here's what I've got so far. (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=519727) I like him - I think he'll be a lot of fun to play!

Unfortunately, I can't find a decent character image of a ruggedly handsome scimitar wielder to save my life - even the pictures of Antonio Banderas' character from 13th warrior don't pass muster. :smallsigh:

[Chained Birds]

So, here's what I've got so far. (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=519727) I like him - I think he'll be a lot of fun to play!

Unfortunately, I can't find a decent character image of a ruggedly handsome scimitar wielder to save my life - even the pictures of Antonio Banderas' character from 13th warrior don't pass muster. :smallsigh:

Currently can't check the sheet sadly; will check when I get home.

Image-wise, yes. I do have pictures of dashing characters with scimitars, but all of them are girls. It can be difficult to find a good picture of something specific. :smallannoyed:

[OverdrivePrime]

I think I can manage to track a picture down, or badger one of the artists in my group to come up with something. :smallamused:

It is odd - most of the 'battle dancer' types you find images of tend to be women, or 'bishonen' type dudes. And any drawing of a male with a scimitar I've found tends to look like a reject from Aladdin, or someone grizzled and weary beyond measure.

Thanks so much for your help!

[TheTick]

I just wanted to say, I only clicked on this thread because of the alliteration. Good job, there. :D

[OverdrivePrime]

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w219/mwellenstein/Sci_Fan/NeilTyson-JustDoingMyDuty_zps34a2e5ed.jpg

I love alliteration, and abuse it wherever I can get away with it. I find threat titles are particularly viable targets. :smallwink: