Approve my bard

[SliceandDiceKid]

Hey everyone! I'm building a bard for a campaign I've been running. My best friend is taking over DMing while I'm in school this summer. I'd love some quick input about things I'm overlooking or could easily do better.

Play style: I've come seeking an artifact one of the players possesses. When I arrive, I fall madly in love with the female bounty hunter in the party and follow her everywhere trying to win her affection. I'm a coward and run from every melee confrontation if it isn't with a human. But in combat I fire arrows into fresh corpses trying to take credit for the kills, hoping to impress her. My primary role will be buffer/minor caster. It's all around the dragonfire inspiration. CHAOTIC GOOD.

Starting at level 5 with a level 4 artificer companion (he had to reroll). I'm dipping dragonfire adept at lvl 2 to gain dragonblood and the diplomacy invocation. I haven't rolled my stats yet, but we're rolling 7d6 then allocating them to our stats. I'm human. I'll be aiming for int 14+ and cha 16+.

Feats
1) force of personality
H) melodic casting
3) dragonfire inspiration
Bard competence) song of the heart
6) words of creation
9) jack of all trades

Skills: knowledge arcana, diplomacy, bluff,spellcraft4, performwind, knowledge nobility 5, sensmo5,UMD
(Numbers indicate that I won't invest more than what is labeled)


Skill tricks
Collector of stories
Social recovery

Spells
0: stick/minor disguise/fine tuning
1: Heroism/charm/inspirational boost
2:holdperson, alter self

As for items, I've boosted my wealth by level's effectiveness through the artificer. I have everything I need.

I'll have
Masterwork horn 2lbs 100gp/lb
+1 chainshirtofinvulnerability3.88k
+2 variable animated crystal buckler 2930gp
Healing belt 259gp

Edit: ill be chaotic good, not chaotic neutral

[ahenobarbi]

LGTM, Approval. ;)


To what level do you think the character will get? If you think it will get significantly above 5th then you should look at prestige classes. War weaver is a good PrC for buffers.

[Vhaidara]

Unless you get permission, no WoC. Exalted feat, have to be good.

[SliceandDiceKid]

Unless you get permission, no WoC. Exalted feat, have to be good.

Oh you're right! I don't know how I overlooked that! Thank you! :)

Changed alignment to chaotic good. This will make things interesting with the rest of the party...

[SliceandDiceKid]

LGTM, Approval. ;)


To what level do you think the character will get? If you think it will get significantly above 5th then you should look at prestige classes. War weaver is a good PrC for buffers.

I think we'll hit about 9 or so. Could keep going, I guess.

[Shieldbunny]

You might want to pick up the cantrip summon instrument, in case you horn gets stolen/sundered/ect.

[SliceandDiceKid]

You might want to pick up the cantrip summon instrument, in case you horn gets stolen/sundered/ect.

Good call. But the masterwork horn adds the +1 to I spire courage, and I've gotten whistling approved as a perform (wind) since somehow that also covers horns.

A mundane horn wouldn't help.
Maybe if I roll high enough charisma, I can claim to have masterwork lips. ;P

[SliceandDiceKid]

Any other input is greatly appreciated.

[Vhaidara]

Heroism is level 2.

[Thiyr]

In all I've read, the ECS trading bardic music for feats thing, it doesn't waive prerequisites, and Song of the Heart requires Inspire Competence, so that's probably gonna be a problem.

[Slipperychicken]

Unless you get permission, no WoC. Exalted feat, have to be good.

Also bear this bit in mind:


BoED pg. 39

A character must have the DM’s permission to take an
exalted feat. In many cases, a ritual must be performed; often
this simply amounts to a character swearing a sacred vow, for
example, in the presence of a celestial being. A character who
willingly and willfully commits an evil act loses all benefits
from all his exalted feats. She regains these benefits if she
atones for her violations (see Sin and Atonement in Chapter 1).




Book of Vile Darkness

Lying (pg 7)- Not necessarily Evil, but Paladins still fall for it.

Cheating (pg 7)

Theft (pg 7)

Betrayal (pg 7) -Does not have to be intentional.

Murder (pg 7) -Killing for a "nefarious purpose", like personal gain, theft, or pleasure.

Vengeance (pg 8)- not necessarily evil, but leads to evil acts.

Worshipping Evil Gods and Demons (pg 8)

Animating or Creating Undead (pg 8) -Even if the undead are commanded to do good, it's still Evil because of negative energy.

Casting Evil Spells (pg 8)

Damning or Harming Souls (pg 8)

Consorting with Fiends (pg 8)- Includes:

Allowing Fiends to exist*
Selling one's soul to Fiends
Summoning a Fiend
Helping Fiends


Creating Evil Creatures (pg 9)

Allowing Evil creatures to "remake fallen foes in their image"


Using others for Personal Gain (pg 9)

Sacrificing another for a boon


Greed (pg 9)- Although not an Evil Act in and of itself (it's not an act at all, but a motivation), it can easily lead to Evil Acts.

Bullying or Cowing Innocents (pg 9)- Includes use of political and magical power in coercion, as well as physical power.

Bringing Despair (pg 9)

Tempting Others to do Wrong(pg 9)

Tapping into Evil Power (pg 77)- Regardless of effects or reason for it, it's Evil. Period. This one's really broad, covering any Evil (Ex)traordinary, natural (when there's no tag), (Su)pernatural, (Sp)ell-like, and so on.


Book of Exalted Deeds


Forcing Anyone to Commit an Evil Act (pg 10)
Using a Poison that Deals Ability Damage (pg 34) Using Drow knockout-poison is not evil.

Killing a Good Creature to Harvest its Parts or Organs (pg 37)

Committing Murder for Money (pg 73)

Notes:
"In the D&D universe... an Evil act is an Evil act no matter what good result it may acheive" (BoED pg 9) -Although the BoED acknowledges that an Evil act might cause greater good, the act remains Evil.

*Note: Although it is not explicitly stated, you could make the argument that a Paladin doesn't allow Fiends to exist in the same sense that a police department doesn't allow illegal drug deals to exist: it does its best to combat them, and by no means approves of their existence, but eliminating them entirely is too impractical to consider

So yeah, tread lightly.


EDIT: Also, a harmonica (Song and Silence) may of interest to you, as the special bardic music ability lets you boost lower-class people's disposition by 1 step, letting you diplomance even harder than before. It's an easy way to take Friendly NPCs up to Fanatic after a good diplomacy roll.

[SliceandDiceKid]

Also bear this bit in mind:




So yeah, tread lightly.


EDIT: Also, a harmonica (Song and Silence) may of interest to you, as the special bardic music ability lets you boost lower-class people's disposition by 1 step, letting you diplomance even harder than before. It's an easy way to take Friendly NPCs up to Fanatic after a good diplomacy roll.

Just curious, how do I get people to the fanatical standing? I see fanatical as what they're willing to do, but don't see it in the PHB as a possibility through diplomacy.

[Slipperychicken]

Just curious, how do I get people to the fanatical standing? I see fanatical as what they're willing to do, but don't see it in the PHB as a possibility through diplomacy.

It's in the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#diplomacy) (from the Epic Level Handbook). You can do so with an absurdly-high Diplomacy check, or you can simply get people up to Helpful with diplomacy, then use the harmonica ability. It will almost certainly get books thrown at you, though.

[SliceandDiceKid]

It's in the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#diplomacy) (from the Epic Level Handbook). You can do so with an absurdly-high Diplomacy check, or you can simply get people up to Helpful with diplomacy, then use the harmonica ability. It will almost certainly get books thrown at you, though.

If its from the epic level handbook, can I not achieve that until lvl 20?

[Slipperychicken]

If its from the epic level handbook, can I not achieve that until lvl 20?

Anyone can try those skill DCs.

[nedz]

A 1 level dip in Marshal is popular with Diplomancers:

Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
Motivate Charisma — Cha to Diplomacy (twice after this)

[Mnemnosyne]

Well, I'm not sure why you need us to do so, but okay:
http://mnemnosyne.com/Misc%20Images/S2RuLM27.jpeg

On a more serious note, Invulnerability does not seem like a good armor enchantment for your chain shirt at all. DR 5/magic is easily bypassed by anything that's a serious threat, and the DR is kind of low anyway to be worth a +3 bonus on your armor. A +1 chain shirt of invulnerability has a base cost of 16,350 gp. A +1 mithril breastplate makes a better base, and you can add more useful enchantments such as light fortification or blurring or ghost ward or death ward, and you can also consider flat price abilities like glamered, quickness, etc.