3.5 Build Help Needed

[TheLastSane1]

So my fiance is going to be gaming this Saturday with her old group. This group tends to optimize for dmg and the DM plays a bit of favorites for the Storylines. Well she has not played with them in months and they have been her friends for awhile. I told her not to play with them but she wants to bring a powerful character to the table to show them that she doesn't need to sit in the background.

The class she wants to play is Bard and likely 5th level.
it seems to be only CORE, the Complete Books, and Races of Books.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

...she wants to bring a powerful character to the table to show them that she doesn't need to sit in the background.

The class she wants to play is Bard and likely 5th level.
it seems to be only CORE, the Complete Books, and Races of Books.

Making a powerful bard is going to take more books than that. Something along the lines of this bard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333513#12) is what I would bring in this situation. Barring that, optimizing Dragonfire Inspiration such as this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333765#12) would be the other way of making a powerful bard. Maybe as an alternative to those you can use this variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bard) with Bloodline level (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) abuse and make a superpet build with Natural Bond and Exalted Companion, with a Celestial Fleshraker that has Vow of Poverty.

For a powerful character without PH2 or SC or MIC or LM, a Druid is probably your best course of action. Obligatory Druid Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1354.0).

[Red Fel]

Making a powerful bard is going to take more books than that. Something along the lines of this bard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333513#12) is what I would bring in this situation. Barring that, optimizing Dragonfire Inspiration such as this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333765#12) would be the other way of making a powerful bard. Maybe as an alternative to those you can use this variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bard) with Bloodline level (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) abuse and make a superpet build with Natural Bond and Exalted Companion, with a Celestial Fleshraker that has Vow of Poverty.

For a powerful character without PH2 or SC or MIC or LM, a Druid is probably your best course of action. Obligatory Druid Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1354.0).

Biff knows freaking awesome Bards. Trust Biff.

Also, trust Dictum Mortuum. Obligatory Bard Handbook (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2011/08/bards-handbook.html).

And that's basically it. Bard is mostly tactical, not "powerful" in the traditional sense, in Core. It takes a lot of splat to get a Bard into "powerful" territory. Really the only "powerful" characters in Core, the ones who never have to take a back seat, are Wizards, Clerics, and Druids. By expanding book selection, you better enable other roles (e.g. Bards, Rangers) to take a more dominant position.

The splats beyond your limits offer a lot of fantastic options for Bards. BoED has Nymph's Kiss, ToB has Song of the White Raven, and so forth. If you want a Fear-build Bard, Heroes of Horror has the Dread Witch PrC, which actually allows you to overcome immunity to fear.

But yeah. Within your stated limits, I'd go with Biff's suggestions.