What should my bard cohort look like in a Kingdom building campaign

[duboisjf]

We use the Kingdom building rules from Ultimate Campaign to have our mining colony we founded growing into a city. We switch between normal adventuring and downtime in wich we take decisions about the Kingdom.

I want my character to have maximum influence on the kingdom so I decided to take leadership and give a role to my cohort.

To make it short, each PC can apply one ability modifier to one of the kingdom attributecan by fulfilling a role (ruler, general, high priest, etc) and vacant role can be fulfilled by cohort or other NPC.


So I began by listing what I expect from my cohort and after that I'll build it.

So I'm looking for opinion on my expectations

- Cohort will be used mostly out of combat because other players don't optimize much so having my character and my cohort in combat would spoil their fun.

- Focused on charisma cause party is low on charisma and many kingdom role are charisma-based

- Crafting is ok but not focused on it : DM would not allow that

- Spellcasting to minimum without losing access to the spell list (crafting purpose)

- Fighting to minimum (if any, focused on defense)

- Skills focused on Knowledges and Charisma-skill

[Aergoth]

You've not given us a lot to work with here. It's hard to construct a suggestion on a build if we're not really sure what you're allowed to use. I'm running Kingmaker with the Ultimate Campaign's update for the kingdom building rules, for the record.

So assuming anything on the SRD is free game:

Build your bard using one of the following archetypes (if you can combine two of these you're ahead)

Songhealer (support spellcasting)
Demagogue (Ideal for rallying your people with their class abilities
Archivist (More knowledge checks, identifies items)
Negotiator (Not bad if this guy takes the grand diplomat position and your DM will let you use his performance ability to get bonuses)

There's a few things you could do on top of this:
Masterpieces: These are basically souped up bard performances that deliver extra power at the cost of taking a while. If you key your main performances on something like Perform (Oratory) there's a number of really great masterpieces that you have access to, in addition to being able to take advantage of versatile performance with that build. These generally take up a spell known or a feat so that covers your desire to reduce spellcasting.

Play to the crowd: The Demagogue archetype replaces some performances with those geared to go at things literally mob-handed. This is the guy you want addressing the populace on behalf of the king if you can manage it. Just try to avoid an evil vizier type situation and you'll be fine.

Grand Maester: Archivist works well here, so does Songhealer but they're not compatible. You wind up with a character who is responsible for making sure that you have knowledge checks to hand when dealing with situations as well as make sure that the court doesn't die. Focus on spells that remove conditions and healing, divinations in case you want to be really sure about stuff.

General: We're moving away from things here but assuming you use mass combat rules Savage Skald and Songhealer are compatible. This is the character that gives the rousing speech to the troops before leading them into GLORIOUS BATTLE. Think Aragorn storming the gates of Mordor.

One note after all of this. Check with your DM regarding Leadership. The feat, RAW does not let you build a character to spec. It lets you recruit and NPC which arguably the DM builds and controls.

[duboisjf]

Thank You, I didn't ask for that much.

First, my DM Will let me build the cohort and will adjust if he think it's needed.

Second, I'm thinking abuot using the archivist but with INT as the highest stats. Knowledges will be more useful for what the cohort will be used for. It will also not be a problem to give him a role where INT is the ability used. There is a least two role using INT so no conflict with our wizard.


I'll take a look in guides for races, feats and spell selections and present the results for critics.

P.S.: No mass combat involved right now and don't think DM will go that way.