Bard + Sublime Chord + Lyric Thaumaturge

[Reavent]

How well would Sublime Chord and Lyric Thaumaturge work together? And how would one build a Bard with these two classes? And are there any other good Bard caster Prestiges classes that could be used in said build?

Edit: I have looked into a bard handbook but the one I looked at didn't mention prestige classes.

Thank you in advance

[Beleron]

I believe Bard 6 Lyric Thaumaturge 2 Virtuoso 10 Sublime Chord 2 is considered a good standard build.

[Flickerdart]

Lyric Thaumaturge provides practically no benefits to a Sublime Chord, since it only advances Bard casting. You can get more additional spell slots and spells known just by continuing to advance Sublime Chord casting.

[Urpriest]

Lyric Thaumaturge provides practically no benefits to a Sublime Chord, since it only advances Bard casting. You can get more additional spell slots and spells known just by continuing to advance Sublime Chord casting.

That said, it does enhance your Bard casting itself. It's best taken before Sublime Chord, to allow you to have a more Sublime Chord-like playstyle in the earlier levels.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Right. I think you usually go Bard -> Lyric Thaumaturge -> Sublime Chord -> Virtuoso (advancing SC casting),

[Darrin]

The main problem with Lyric Thaumaturge is Sonic Might doesn't kick in until level 5, and do to the skill prereqs you can't get in until ECL 7. You can do Bard 6/Lyric Thaumaturge 5/Sublime Chord 9 (or Sublime Chord 2/Whatever X), but you only get one 9th level spell slot.

However, if your DM allows feat retraining and/or Dark Chaos shenanigans, you can use Favored/Primary Contact (from Cityscape) to get into Lyric Thaumaturge a level early: Bard 5/Lyric Thaumaturge 5/Sublime Chord 2/Incantatrix 8. I was fiddling around with a build that used Sonic Might to persist an energy substituted born-of-three-thunders flame dagger spell for an all-day touch attack that did something like 6d6 sonic damage + save vs. stun + save vs. prone. But getting all the feats shoehorned into it without resorting to book-hurling levels of cheese got to be a bit too complicated.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The main problem with Lyric Thaumaturge is Sonic Might doesn't kick in until level 5, and do to the skill prereqs you can't get in until ECL 7. You can do Bard 6/Lyric Thaumaturge 5/Sublime Chord 9 (or Sublime Chord 2/Whatever X), but you only get one 9th level spell slot.
Meh. The bard's not really a blaster, even with that. (I guess you could use it in some kind of mailman build with Orb of Sound?). The real attracting on Lyric Thaumaturge is getting all those extra spells known and spells/day, before moving into Sublime Chord.

[Larkas]

Let's see...

(A) Bard 6/ Lyric Thaumaturge 4/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso 8 can work, but you lose a Sublime Chord casting level.

(B) Bard 6/ Lyric Thaumaturge 3/ Virtuoso 1/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso +8 can also work, but you lose bonus spell slots given by Lyric Thaumaturge 4.

Lastly, (C) Bard 6/ Lyric Thaumaturge 4/ Sublime Chord 10 can work, though it's a little bit stale.

Comparing to the "standard" Bard 9/ Virtuoso 1/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso +8:

(A) loses a 9th level spell slot and 9th, 8th and 7th level spells known, which in itself results in a considerable power loss;

(B) gains a couple of low level spells and slots at the cost of a delayed Inspire Courage progression (option (A) also has this cost, but it's not as important as the spell power lost);

(C) gains a few mid level slots at the expense of any Inspire Courage progression.

As I'm very fond of mass buffing the party (specially the party's mundanes), I'd only try (B), and even so, only on a campaign I'd expect to last until reasonably high levels: that 3-level delay in the Inspire Courage progression is a real drag.

[nickia]

Other Bard prestige classes include the Dirgesinger, Warchanter, Virtuoso, and Stormsinger.