Heartfire Fanner?

[Bad Wolf]

Came across this, thought it was a good class. Tips on optimizing this? I was thing of going in with gestalt Sorcerer//Warlock. Not sure if I'm taking a prestige class on the warlock side yet...

[prufock]

It looks good, and is only 5 levels long, but it gives some pretty standard benefits for a bard PrC - casting, new songs, stacking bardic music. Some of the songs are quite good. Magic Flare is a MM reducer (and you count as your own ally, remember). Take the Melodic Spellcasting feat, of course, so you can cast and sing at the same time. Metamagic song can do the same, but only at 1:1, whereas Magic Flare gets you 2:1 at level 4 - and as far as I can tell you can combine them.

Inspired Fight is pretty cool, but the Heroics spell does much the same thing; you're just burning BM instead of spells. That's good, though, since you're likely to want to conserve your spells for other things and will have at least 13 daily BM uses by then.

Bolster Courage works well with Words of Creation and all the other usual ways to improve Inspire Courage (google it).

I'm not seeing a LOT in the class itself that can be optimized, but it does give a bard a nice boost, especially if multiclassed (since you gain all bard songs dependent only on ranks in perform). It comes online at level 8, so something like Bard 7/Heartfire Fanner 3/Sublime Chord 2/Heartfire Fanner +2/Virtuoso 6 would be all right.

One thing that occurs to me is that you can get songs a level early by taking Favored in Guild and Primary Contact feats, which actually give you a bonus rank above your normal max.

[Hiro Quester]

I played this. It was a lot of fun.

This was the first 3.5 character I played, so I learned along the way. Played this as Bard 10/Sublime Chord 2 then used HFF as the prestige class to extend SC casting.


We were playing a very superpowered game, all books open, the gods (DM) bestowed many bonus feats and ability increases to try to keep the game fun for the lower tier players. But I had a few more feats than typical, too. And a charisma in the high 30s.

So the DM allowed me to take the Fire souled template that the HFF association (Brotherhood of the Burning Heart?) bestows (from the same Dragon issue), it was slowly acquired as I gained HFF levels, adapting HFF to make it an 8 level PrC the progressed casting and songs as standard HFF does.

So at 20th level I gained the Fire subtype, and +4 to my already sky-high Charisma (modified slightly --took out Leadership and one other ability). Haste self as a swift action. it was pretty sweet for the gishy bard I was playing.

The same issue and organization created the Gantlets of Heartfelt blows which fit the fire-bard character thematically; add your CHA bonus in fire damage to melee attacks.


The Song Inspired Fight that grants a bonus fighter feat is really good. My party members were asking for that song a lot. (I got a wand of Heroics for myself since I liked the ability so much and the song only gives the feats to others). Fighting invisibles? Here, everyone take blindsight. etc. The advantage over Heroics spell is the mass effect. the disadvantage is that it only lasts as long as you sing and then 5 (or 10 rounds).

And the Inspired Fight 2 song at third level that grants two fighter feats is fantastic, since you can take a feat and its prerequisite feat (as long as you meet other ability criteria). E.g. I sing the song and all the front line takes TWF and ITWF, then I sing dragonfire inspiration to give them all an extra 8d6 to each of those extra attacks. That worked wonders.

The capstone song Inspired Fight 3 that grant temporary use of three fighter feats is pure win. All of a sudden your frontline fighters can acquire the use of an entire feat tree for ten rounds. Now they can have feats with prerequisites for free (TWF, Greater Weapon Specialization, Great Cleave, Spring attack, Manyshot). They will love you for this.

The Bardic music that grants free metamagic isn't bad. Take at least one +1 metamagic feat (Extend spell is good, and leads to persistent spell which is fantastic). I never used the +2 metamagic one, because neither I nor the party Wizard had a good use for it.

In terms of optimizing it, there are a couple of feats that get good mileage from the class (but for any bard type these are good). One is Lingering Song. Enables any barding performance to have effects for ten rounds after you finish singing. A harmonizing echoblade will continue a song for you for 10 rounds, but it will switch songs if you start another, which is a limitation.

The other feat is Melodic Casting, which lets you make a perform check instead of a concentration check (being able to ignore concentration and focus on perform was gold, since you need to max perform to get the most out of the music anyway). The best part is being about to cast spells and activate magic items (not wands) by command word or spell completion while using a bardic music ability.

The 2nd level Bard spell Harmonize (Races of Stone) enables you to start a bardic music as a move action. 10 minutes/level. With that spell active, each round you can both start a new bardic music and cast a spell. (e.g. in the first round sing the 2 fighter feats song and cast haste; the beatsticks will love you for that).

One problem with Sorcerer/Warlock entry is the requirement for ranks in Perform. You'd need a way to get perform as a class skill.

Anther way to play this is to take bard 9, then take a PrC that doesn't advance spell casting its first level (Swiftblade fits well for gishy bards), then SC2, then mix up HFF5 and Swiftblade3, and Abjurant Champion1 in whatever order attracts you most.

[Bad Wolf]

Thanks for the advice guys. I was thinking of getting one of the Apprentice feats for preform. A bit feat-taxing, but I like the class.

Does anyone know some sort of magic item or feat that can quicken up bardic music? I want to be able to use it in battle.

[DarkSonic1337]

I don't really think of this as a bard prestige class, but rather a prestige class that allows other casters to get bard stuff. I think this because the very first level says if you don't have bardic music, treat yourself as a bard 5+heartfire fanner levels for bardic music.

Factotum 1/Wizard 6 with able learner can meat the prereqs and be even more of a party helper. Combine with War Weaver and some inspire courage optimization and turn an army of commoners into a real fighting force.

[Bad Wolf]

I don't really think of this as a bard prestige class, but rather a prestige class that allows other casters to get bard stuff. I think this because the very first level says if you don't have bardic music, treat yourself as a bard 5+heartfire fanner levels for bardic music.

Factotum 1/Wizard 6 with able learner can meat the prereqs and be even more of a party helper. Combine with War Weaver and some inspire courage optimization and turn an army of commoners into a real fighting force.

Going with gestalt Sorcerer//Warlock, with Heartfire Fanner on the Sorcerer side, but thanks for the advice.

[Hiro Quester]

Thanks for the advice guys. I was thinking of getting one of the Apprentice feats for preform. A bit feat-taxing, but I like the class.

Does anyone know some sort of magic item or feat that can quicken up bardic music? I want to be able to use it in battle.

The bard spell Harmonize does that. Enables starting a bardic music as a move action. Then you can start singing and cast in the same round (if you have taken Melodic casting feat).

Edit. That's a second level spell. For a 16000 gold (Spell level (2) × caster level (4) × 2,000 gp) you might be able to make acustom magic item that gives you a continuous effect of Harmonize. My bard persisted this spell all day at high levels.

[Bad Wolf]

The bard spell Harmonize does that. Enables starting a bardic music as a move action. Then you can start singing and cast in the same round (if you have taken Melodic casting feat).

Edit. That's a second level spell. For a 16000 gold (Spell level (2) × caster level (4) × 2,000 gp) you might be able to make acustom magic item that gives you a continuous effect of Harmonize. My bard persisted this spell all day at high levels.

Okay thanks. I might be able to do that at twelfth level (Imbue Item), but I guess I'll just get a wand for now.

I was thinking of this sort of combat style; start up inspire courage, attack with Snowflake Wardance, cast a spell or two, repeat. What be the best way to optimize this?

[Troacctid]

Aren't you doing more damage more accurately and more safely just by firing off Eldritch Blasts from range? Why invest the feat for Snowflake Wardance?

[Bad Wolf]

Aren't you doing more damage more accurately and more safely just by firing off Eldritch Blasts from range? Why invest the feat for Snowflake Wardance?

I see everyone talking about it when it comes to bards, and it looks good. Unless I read it wrong..

[Troacctid]

It's fine for Bards who want to be in melee combat, sure, but do you really have a reason to be in melee combat dealing 1d8+4 damage or whatever against regular AC, as opposed to standing back and firing off Xd6 damage against touch AC?

I mean, maybe the answer is "Yes, I totally have a good reason that I haven't mentioned," but it is certainly a question that does need to be asked.

[Bad Wolf]

It's fine for Bards who want to be in melee combat, sure, but do you really have a reason to be in melee combat dealing 1d8+4 damage or whatever against regular AC, as opposed to standing back and firing off Xd6 damage against touch AC?

I mean, maybe the answer is "Yes, I totally have a good reason that I haven't mentioned," but it is certainly a question that does need to be asked.

Mmm. I guess its better to stick with Eldritch Blast then....either that, or go with plan B: be a Sidhe scholar druid instead of a warlock.

[Hiro Quester]

SFWD can be a very viable option, if you want to get all gishy. If you milk a few ways to take advantage of your high charisma, there can be a very good reason to go into combat with SFWD.

There are a few ways to get cha to damage as well, if you want to up your damage. SFWD adds to your to-hit. Gauntlets of the Heartfelt blows (a Heartfire Fanner's item if ever there was one, also made by the Brotherhood of the Burning Heart) add your Cha bonus in fire damage.

Plus dragonfire inspiration adds several dice to each weapon's damage. If you are playing a sorcerer, it should be very tempting to get a dragon ancestor such that DFI is a strong option.

Also, slippers of battle dancing can be a good item (if expensive). They replace STR with CHA for attack and damage rolls. Since SFWD's bonus stacks with the strength bonus, and the slippers explicitly replace the strength bonus, they should stack.

Now you have 2x cha bonus to attack and to damage. That can be better than what you'd so with ranged spells. Plus it saves spells. (The trick with the slippers is you need to be able to move 10 feet and still get a full round attack. A belt of battle will do this for you by granting an extra move action 3/day.)

If you do that, don't forget Sirine's grace (4th level spell) that adds +2 to your dex and cha, and adds your cha bonus to AC (plus free movement underwater and water breathing). You will want to cast that spell a lot.

Plus get a wand of heroics (10 min/level duration) to give yourself TWF and GTWF. Then you can really take advantage of the high bonuses to hit and to damage, by getting many attacks each round.

If you do use SFWD, get yourself a wand of lesser restoration to remove the exhaustion that happens afterwards.