Help me Build the Best Bard

[TabletopGamer]

Ok so I wanna prove Bards can be very powerful and can be built with a lot of care and make them powerful but also loads of fun.

Ok so all Core books (Players Handbook I and II, DMG, MM I-V) and the complete books and maybe some of the Dragon Magazines if I can get copies of the PDF or own the copies. EDIT: Races of, Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compendium as well

Any race, but no LA would be best, but if a LA exist I will carry the burden but no more then maybe LA 1 (Most of the time I can get that LA waved)

This needs to be a 1 - 20 build, step by step because more then general builds are beyond me. Any specialty items or stuff I need to save for please note it specially.

[Seerow]

Wait you can get access to Dragon Magazine, but not the Races of series, Spell Compendium, or Magic Item Compendium?



That aside, it really depends on what you want the Bard to be good at. The Bard can be specialized in any number of different ways, and being good at one of them usually involves a trade off in not being as good at another.

[TabletopGamer]

Well the best Generalist might be good for me, but the diplo and bluff specialist is good

My bards tend to be very good at talking the pants off people.

Also thanks for the reminder I edited those in. I completely forgot about them.

[Optimator]

The "best" Bard would have to be, objectively, a wizard -->prestige Bard.

More to the point, the best caster Bard would be a Sublime Chord that uses another PrC like Virtuoso to advance the SC casting. I like Bard 6 Lyric Thurmatuerge 3 Virtuoso 1 Sublime Chord 2 Virtuoso 2-9.

For melee either a Bardblade or Bardsader work well, with or without Dragonfire Inspiration. You can make a deadly melee bard without the ToB utilizing Dragonfire Inspiration as well. Hell, even Snowflake Wardance builds can be good, or even normal Bard 20 Inspire Courage optimization --> Power-Attacking away the bonuses with a two-hander can contribute meaningful damage, especially with a Harmonizing Crystal Echoblade greatsword.

A fun build A friend of mine made (with my help) was a Bard Dirgesinger (house-ruled to have casting advancement) Stormsinger. Role-played it like an Emo rocker. Used the spell research rules to get some fun undead-creating spells onto his list.

If a generalist is what you're after, do Bard 18 Seeker of the Song 2 and pick up things like Song of the Heart. Grab a goon Int bonus, choose your spells wisely, and you'll be a fantastic generalist/buffer.

Check out the Bard's Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8284). Poor spell selection section but everything else is gold. Just have fun with it!!

[Nihilarian]

Who are you trying to prove it to? The bard is an extremely versatile class that can specialize in a number of roles.

Do you want a caster? A buffer? A melee guy? They can even specialize in healing.

[TabletopGamer]

How does your first build work? Does it stack with Bard casting or SC casting? So if you took 2-9 Virtuoso after the SC levels would it stack onto that?

[Optimator]

The Virtuoso levels add to the SC casting. The first Virtuoso level doesn't advance anything so it can come before SC.

If your goal is to prove Bards are strong, the Sublime Chord might not be the best after all since all it really does is show how a toned-down Sorcerer with Bardic Music is good.

[TabletopGamer]

Well it gives access to more spells so he can keep up with casting if he needs too. We normally do not have a party with loads of magic so a bard with more magic is kinda nice.

So a Buffer with diplomacy and bluff skills is very nice.

I am I reading right that your first build has 19 levels or spell casting?
Is there a way to make up for that dead Spell casting level?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Is there a way to make up for that dead Spell casting level?
You could drop Virtuoso for another level of Lyric Thaumaturge and the full ten levels of Sublime Chord.

[Nihilarian]

Inspire Courage (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9830.0) is a fantastic buffing ability.

The War Weaver (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5881.0) (Heroes of Battle) is good for spreading buff spells around.

[Kennisiou]

Honestly I'd suggest that the best generalist bard would probably still be the bard/sublime chord/virtuoso combo recommended before, but with some inspire courage feats. It's just going to get you the buffing power, out of combat casting power, and skill points you want to really be a good generalist. Sure you won't quite be as effective a melee fighter but that's usually something that you want to be specialized in at least a little before attempting it in high optimization games, and in low optimization environments I've seen a wizard cast greater magic weapon and greater mage armor on themselves and smack a dude up to pretty good effect, so a sublime chord would pretty much have to be better than that (meaning it's more than good enough).


I'd suggest taking the healing hymn acf, since you don't need suggestion to qualify for either prestige AND since Virtuoso actually gives you suggestion as a feature a second time, meaning you get it back and effectively nab healing hymn for free.