New character for kingmaker.

[Anium]

Hi, i'm going to start a new campaign, the kingmaker and not knowing what my team will be made from i decided to try the bard.

The concept is to be a predator, both in the wilderness and in the court.
Neutral evil guy starting at level 1.

Here is what i though:

Catfolk Bard

Str 14
Dex 18
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 6
Cha 16
20 point buy(race mods already in place).

Taking scent and maybe climber as alternate racial traits.

Traits: Milita veteran( +1 survival, and it's class skill) + 1 Kingmaker trait(don't know wich one yet, open to ideas)

Skills : perform oratory, perform comedy, survival, perception, use magic item, Stealth, Acrobatics.
Feat : Point blank shot.

Might be interested in taking some kind of archetipe, but never played a bard and i don't know wich one would suit my skill monkey/face archer build.
My first versatile performance would be oratory( diplomacy and sense motive).
Thoughts?

[MightyPirate]

I know that Arcane Dualist, Dervish of the Dawn, and Archeologist are popular choices for archetypes but they all give up versatile performance and the dervish is melee focused. Personally I might just go with animal speaker and be done with it. It's probably not as strong of an archetype but the flavor is excellent and it eventually gives the ability to talk to a few different types of animals. I don't know Kingmaker creatures you'll meet but maybe your GM would allow a Know Nature check on before you select your animal friend type. I just think it would be cool to talk to cats if you're a catfolk bard.

Replacing the wisdom penalty on sense motive with versatile performance is a smart move. I'd shore up that wisdom weakness further with your other trait. Bastard is nice the will save bonus and you could potentially overcome the penalty to charisma checks, good character growth option. Alternatively Pioneer is really nice for a small bonus to perception, everyone needs this skill and you will probably be pretty bad at it which especially sucks for an archer.

[Iwasforger03]

Depends, are we trying to super optimize, optimize without going outside the character idea you want (Catfolk Bard), or did you just want to make sure this character is not underpowered?

A super optimized Bard would probably be Human because your favored class bonus seriously improves Bard Spell casting. That, or half elf Magician Bard, because again, eventual spell casting power. And that skill focus can go into one of your perform skills.

With Catfolk? I think you picked good skills thus far, and I'm unfamiliar with Kingmaker Traits. Catfolk does seem an odd choice for a political intrigue/court politics/etc campaign, if I understand Kingmaker correctly. The unconventional nature of it could work to your advantage, catch folks off guard. It could also be used against you by the DM, because people will have worse starting attitudes to you for being so exotic/different.

I'm not one for playing evil characters, but that's a purely personal choice, it just means i don't have any useful comments off the top of my head for your alignment choice.

Be aware part of your build, the nature's hunter/survivor part, could be seriously undermined by a party member who takes levels in a class better suited to wilderness survival, such as Druid or Ranger. This could leave a significant portion of your character idea fluttering in the wind with no uses. I'd try and find out/make sure nobody else is going to make something that renders part of the point of this character moot.

[Anium]

I want to optimice all i can within my role, i don't exactly know what the other players are playing, but he insisted skillmonkey was needed, and divine-arcane were taken, so scouting-face is probably my role, but being a bard i can do everything.

[Kudaku]

A predator equally at ease in the woods and in civilization? Kind of screams Slayer to me. Urban Ranger could work with the right traits.

[Iwasforger03]

You can also check out one of the class guides for Bard. Otherwise, i generally recommend Human or Half-elf for Bards. Half elf can get Paragon Surge AND human favored class bonus, it can get a will save bonus, and skill focus can go into one of your perform skills.

Whips are good weapons for bards. Trip enemies, alot. All the time. seriously. Buff spells and debuff spells, distractions, etc. All of these are things for bards. that you can also do wilderness survival with this set up (catfolk) is good, if that's what you want. Since that seems to be what you want, stick with it. Whips, again i say to thee. Trip enemies. Buffs and debuffs, distractions. And inspire courage. It will effectively make up for your gaps in BAB, amongst other things.

[Anium]

I checked, but the bonuses of the catfolk help in the jungle place(climb speed and scent, the +2 in survival, perception and stealth), ranger would probably lose in the face facet, but i can't seem to find slayer, is it a prc? where is it?

[Kudaku]

Slayer is an upcoming class due for release with the Advanced Class Guide in August, but the play test version is available for free and PFS-legal. It can be found here (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/advancedClassGuide).

The Slayer is basically a sinister mix of Ranger and Rogue. It gets full BAB, 6 ranks per level, good Fortitude and Reflex saves, slayer talents (mix of rogue, fighter and ranger stuff), sneak attacks and some other things.

It's a great baseline for building a stalker or bounty hunter, which I think could be related to what you're trying to do. The downside is that he doesn't really get very many social skills compared to a bard, but you can pick up Diplomacy and Intimidate via traits.

[Anium]

I looked at it, but i think i'll keep it bard like this. Thx for the input, looking through the archetipes i didnt find anything worth, as the ones i'm interested in the most would be lost or i don't really care for the things i get.

[Iwasforger03]

I recommend going with whip as weapon instead of bows. You can kick ass from the mid lines with a whip, because of its reach, and you can, as noted, Trip. Trip is awesome. One of the best early debuffs available and you CAN get a lvl 1 bard build that's going to be fairly ok at Tripping. He'll get better over time, and it's a really good way to contribute in combat besides dmg.

As you lvl, you'll get some amazing spells. For now? Grease. Grease. Grease. Did I mention Grease? Grease.

[icefractal]

Catfolk does seem an odd choice for a political intrigue/court politics/etc campaign, if I understand Kingmaker correctly. The unconventional nature of it could work to your advantage, catch folks off guard. It could also be used against you by the DM, because people will have worse starting attitudes to you for being so exotic/different.There's not a lot of court stuff in Kingmaker, actually. You start out doing mostly wilderness stuff, then wilderness stuff interspersed with kingdom-phase stuff (where your character abilities mostly don't matter). Eventually, you do run into other kingdoms, so there's a bit of diplomacy, but there isn't (for instance) anything with manipulating politics in Brevoy (or even going there at all) unless your GM adds it.

Abilities that help in the kingdom phase:
* A decent stat bonus (in Charisma, if you want to be King).
* Someone in the party having magic that contributes toward construction. Exactly what magic isn't important; it gives you an abstracted discount.
* Leadership can help you fill an empty court slot, but it's not necessary, there are lot of NPCs you could recruit.

The campaign has (by default, at least) a lot of downtime, so having a way to take advantage of that can be nice.

[Firechanter]

It is generally annoying not to know the rest of the party composition when making your own character, and in Kingmaker it may be even a bit worse than usual. Every PC is expected to take a job in the administration of your domain. For instance, a Cleric is expected to become the official High Priest of the Realm. Note that there are certain ability rolls depending on your job, but usually you have the choice between two attributes.
For the Ruler however, Cha is the only relevant stat, so as a Bard you'd be rather predestined for the job, or at least tying with any Cavalier or Paladin or the like. If you want it, that is. Anther option would be Head of Secret Service, or whatever it is actually called.

(In our KM game, the Ruler is a Paladin who doesn't really want the job - neither ingame nor outgame. It's a bit frustrating. The character has Cha 18 or something but the player acts more like a Cha 8.)