I may have bit off more than I can chew [New to the forums]

[Totallyevil1]

I have made this character, a bard. Now firstly, I have made one bard before and rather enjoyed playing as one, but that was many years ago in 2.0 in a Ravenloft campaign. Now this is a 3.5 campaign and in a very desert setting. The DM has allowed most books, but has banned anything psionic, or anything from Tome of Magic. The problem I am having, is that I had a particular goal in mind, to be a total party buffer, so I made my bard take a few levels in marshal. This is where it gets difficult, at least for me. I have no idea how to go about this for feats, I do not want to have this character be a tank, or an off tank, or a melee combatant of any kind, they are to sit in the back and boost the party every turn possible. I am not seeking to truly min/max this either, but I simply have no idea what direction to go in for this type of build, my current set up is as follows

Character Sheet (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=787947)

These items, even if I have made mistakes, are set in stone now, I cannot go back, I simply am asking for help on how to move forward, point me in the right direction as far as feats and spells. I learn fast so I probably won't need a guide all the way to 20. The prestige class I had in mind was the Virtuoso, but I am open to suggestions on this as well. Again, I am not trying to min/max, but I don't want a dud of a character when I know the concept works.

The flavor of this character is an outgoing, flirtatious young woman with an amazing force of personality. So perhaps things that fit that area as well?

P.s. I am really sorry if this is not the right location for this, or if I have done something wrong in my post.

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, you have dropped enough bard to set casting in the back seat... Does your DM allow Tome of Battle? You could make an interesting bardsader, that is a bard / crusader. Yes you become fairly tanky, but you can ignore that. Pick up the feat song of the white raven for stacking inspire courage and go to town.

The other thing you could do if you wanted to hang back is to dip dragon shaman and take draconic auras. Kinda passive though.

That is where my brain goes when I see your build.

[Totallyevil1]

My DM may allow ToB, and it's not that I threw bard out the window, or into the back seat, I just knew I wanted at least 2 levels in marshal so I could get one minor and one major aura so I rushed it at low levels to get that out of the way. I'll be going back to it quite heavily once she can level again. I kind of have to, given the prestige class I am aiming for. Dragon Shaman doesn't seem to bad, it really further's the aura options for this character. I'll talk it over with the DM, at least dragon shaman has feats for their aura, I could have sworn the marshal did too, but I can't find them.

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, I would then pivot and aim for bettering your bard stuff. Go back immediately to bard, and stay there until level level 10. Then go into sublime chord so you get maximum spell levels without worrying about the loss of two levels of bard casting. I think there is a feat that grants the dragonblooded subtype. You can use this to pick up a draconic aura as a feat as well as dragonfire inspiration. This will allow you to have another aura (eventually two) that doesn't eat a class level.

[Sith_Happens]

I don't see your total or exact levels anywhere, but it looks like she's a Bard 3/Marshall 1 so far?

The "standard" Virtuoso build uses most of its levels to advance Sublime Chord (Complete Arcane pg. 60), netting you up to 9th level spells without compromising your music. You'll want your class progression to look like Bard 3/Marshall 1/Bard +3/Virtuoso 2/Sublime Chord 2/Virtuoso +8.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Inspire courage is by far the best way to go about buffing as a bard. The gold standard is to grab dragonfire inspiration feat from dragon magic, song of the heart feat from Eberron Campaign Setting, inspirational boost spell from Spell Compendium, and some amulet I forgot the name of in pine of the item sets in the Magic Item Compendium. The end result is your normal inspire courage bonus at +3 over the norm for your level concerning into an equivalent number of d6s of fire damage. If you can swing it, you can also add the words of crayon feat from the Book of Exalted Deeds to double that bonus.

For the level breakdown, the usual is something like Bard 8/Virtisuoso 2/Sublime Chord 2/Virtisuoso +8. You've got some marshal in there, so just remove two of those bard levels.

Edit: Partial ninja.

[Totallyevil1]

I have asked my DM for Song of the Heart, and Words of Creation got an immediate "NO", her spell list already has Inspirational Boost. Dragonfire Inspiration may be something to look into, and I'll delve the .pdf of the MIC to find that amulet, while this is a world designed to prevent ease of access to powerful magical items, perhaps it is something she can work towards.

Edit: Item is called Badge of Valor