I like to move it, move it

[ImaWallaby]

Greetings, Playground! Seeing as how my optimization skills are lacking, I thought I'd ask for some help from the best. I'll be participating in a new campaign soon, starting at 6th level and anticipated to go through 20th. The rest of the players are usually very serious power-gaming types, and the DM will be looking to me for a little comic relief. So, my concept is King Julien XIII from the Madagascar movies. The rest of the party will consist of a druid, scout, and fighter. Just about material is acceptable with the exception of third-party sources. I'd also like to avoid LA, but will if I have to. Any class/combo will be considered but I'd prefer to stick to the thematics of the movies if possible. So, my good men and women of the forums, where should I be looking?

[jderk]

Try out Bard 20. Or optimize with the typical Bard build of Bard 5/Mindbender 1/Bard 3/Virtuoso 1/Sublime Chord 2/Virtuoso +8. This will get you your 9th lvl spells.

I would suggest, since you're the comic relief, playing support. Do this mainly by optimizing Dragonfire Inspiration (DFI) from Dragon Magic.

OOO!! Idea for the comic relief. Your background could be this. For some reason whenever your character is scared (because you are being attacked by monsters or whatever) and you sing/dance and you use DFI and your allies weapons become fire empowered. And the funny thing is, you have no idea why. Then your party can come up with theories about why and have fun.

Other character quirks could be you have to bath regularly. Usually a party of murder hobos dont care about finding a nice place to eat or having a nice tavern room to stay in. But your King Julien does. He must have these things or he will complain and complain.

Anyway, mechanics! Since you are not big on optimization, I would just keep it simple and go Bard 10/Sublime Chord 10. Very strong, and you will have access to some great support spells.

Race: Glimmerskin Halfling since King Julien is small. Silverbrow Human is best for optimization purpose.
Ability Scores: STR 8, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 15, WIS 10, CHA 16 (Assuming 32pt buy)

Feats:
Flaw - Lingering Song
Flaw - Improved Initiative
1 - Dragonfire Inspiration
3 - Song of the Heart
6 - Words of Creation

Maybe Dragontouched and Draconic Heritage (battle) if you wanna optimize.

9, 12, 15, 18 are open for whatever flavor you wanna add to your character.

Buy a Badge of Valor and Vest of Legends to boost DFI.

Spells: I think it would be funny to play a character who is scared of being attacked and damaged. So pick up spells that give you avoidance in addition to some buff spells

1st - Inspirational Boost (must), Improvisation, Expeditious Retreat, Silent Image
2nd - Mirror Image, Blur
3rd - Blink, Displacement, Haste
4th fun - Ruin Delvers Fortune (life-saver), Greater Mirror Image, Greater Invisibility,
5th - Greater Blink,

Stuff like that.

[Deaxsa]

Feats:
1 - Dragonfire Inspiration
3 - Song of the Heart
6 - Words of Creation


out of curiosity, is this considered cheesy by the playground? i mean, they are 3 multiplier feats that were probably never meant to work together (or at least, not considered when each was conceived)

[eggynack]

out of curiosity, is this considered cheesy by the playground? i mean, they are 3 multiplier feats that were probably never meant to work together (or at least, not considered when each was conceived)
Cheese, like balance, is relative. His party has a druid in it, which is intrinsically cheesier than a bard optimizing inspire courage. Additionally, the melee half of the party will only be made happier by this kind of optimization, so if it's cheese, it's the good kind of cheese. My opinion is therefore that it's not all that cheesy.

[Waker]

Cheese, like balance, is relative. His party has a druid in it, which is intrinsically cheesier than a bard optimizing inspire courage. Additionally, the melee half of the party will only be made happier by this kind of optimization, so if it's cheese, it's the good kind of cheese. My opinion is therefore that it's not all that cheesy.

At worst, it would be dangerously cheesy, like cheetohs. And what kind of gamer doesn't like cheetohs?


Greetings, Playground! Seeing as how my optimization skills are lacking, I thought I'd ask for some help from the best. I'll be participating in a new campaign soon, starting at 6th level and anticipated to go through 20th. The rest of the players are usually very serious power-gaming types, and the DM will be looking to me for a little comic relief. So, my concept is King Julien XIII from the Madagascar movies. The rest of the party will consist of a druid, scout, and fighter. Just about material is acceptable with the exception of third-party sources. I'd also like to avoid LA, but will if I have to. Any class/combo will be considered but I'd prefer to stick to the thematics of the movies if possible. So, my good men and women of the forums, where should I be looking?
So for those of us who never watched the movie, what exactly do you want to be able to do? Did you want to focus on buff/debuffing/summoning/whatever? If you wanted to be some kind of comic relief, you could consider the Jester from Dragon Compendium. It's like a Bard that tells bad jokes.

[Mato]

If you have 6+ levels in Bard, you can swap out Suggestion for Song of Heart per the Eberron Campaign Setting's section on Bards.

Another tweak to jderk's suggestion would be using the Crusader class to replace two of those Bard levels. It's a minor progression loss but you can pick up some of the White Raven Maneuvers to really help the party move it, even when it's not their turn...

[jderk]

I don't think it is cheesy. I think it would be a great way to make that fighter and scout feel like they can be as valuable as that druid will likely be.

[jderk]

If you have 6+ levels in Bard, you can swap out Suggestion for Song of Heart per the Eberron Campaign Setting's section on Bards.

Thanks! Did not know this!

[Flickerdart]

Check out Tasha's Hideous Laughter (PHB) and Jig of the Waves (Stormwrack) for some weaponized comedy/mandatory dancing, and take a look at Snowflake Wardance (Frostburn) for turning your own dance moves into a deadly weapon.

[Saintheart]

Cast Fugue after Sirine's Grace to make the crowd literally nuts from your dance moves. Fugue keys off a Perform check for its results.

[Socratov]

Oh, and when you reach it, Otto's Irresistable Dance is absolutely golden.

Anyway, on to optimization:

1st: DFI is not multiplication, It's an interchanging effect.
2nd: SotH is additive, not multiplication.
3rd: Inspirational boost (or somesuch) from spell compendium: it's a spell, that does what badge of valour does, without being only usable once very day but as long as you have lvl 1 spellslots (unless you are into 15 minute workdays)
4th: you guys have a druid, any arguments to counter optimization of bards are invalid
5th: the above build is good, but not great. Since you don't have a lot of casters (only the druid) take the following: bard 5/mindbender 1/bard 3/virtuoso 2/Sublime chord 1/Virtuoso 8. You lose the Song of arcane power, but you evade the lost casterlevel progression of virtuoso 2, instead pinning it to an earlier class winning you more spells like a wizard.
6th: use perform (windinstrument) with a masterwork alphorn for another +1 to your DFI. (Or have a megaphone-ish thing that counts as windsintrument but attuned to Perform(oratory))
7th: since you traded suggestion for SotH (per eberron campaign setting) trade fascinate for Healing Hymn so you can act as healer should it be neccessary (and be more awesome on the process: you heal people becuase you sing at them while casting)

And there you have it:

one awesome bard, served with crushed enemies and lamentations of their women :smallamused::smallcool::smallbiggrin: