Please advise on my backup character.

[Jiruharudo]

GentleSers,

Thank you for taking your time to look at my Backup Character (lvl 12).

Im playing a noble Deepwyrm halfdrow Bard/Subchord/Virtuoso now, and since my DM isnt the guy that lets Diplo checks roll easy Im going for something less subtle once Gavin Stirling meets his end..

Without further ado;

Race: Human
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Classes: Savage Bard 6 / Mindbender 1/ Lyric Thaumaturge 5
Ab. Score: Str 12/Dex 14/ Con 14/Int 8/Wis 10/ Cha 16 (18 after getting lvls)
Feats: Melodic Casting, Extend Spell, Energy Substitution [Elec], Energy Admixture, Born of the Three Thunders
Will saves: +8,+6,+14, with abscore and items: +10,+10,+14

Items: Light armor (no idea which one) Ring of Thunderclaps, Winged boots of dexterity + 4, Cloak of charisma +4, A custom item: Bracers that allow me to cast Whirling Blade at will. A Keen Greatsword with a Lesser crystal of return. Items that make me immuneish to sonic damage, like Cryistal of Sonic Protection Greater
(Looked at Raiment of the stormwalker for flavour reasons, but doesn't seem worth it)

Spells: Creaking Cacophony, good sonic and electric based spells. Sonic weapon, Whirling blade, Harmony, greater mirror image, greater invisibility, blink, bulls strength.

The point is to start fast so you can control the field by buffing your allies and/or yourself, and casting Creaking Cacophony on the area with Sonic might (3d6 in 40ft) as a start off. Then casting shouts buffed with Sonic might to let the effects double. And thanks to Energy Admixture you can cast Shout, doing 2d6 sonic damage + Sonic might 4xd6 = 6d6 sonic AND 6d6 Electric damage. And again, if this lands in a Creaking Cacophony the Sonic effects should double.
If enemies are immune to Sonic you can change it to electric, of if they are immune to magic you can still swing your Greatsword at them with the Whirling Blade Bracers, damaging them in a 60ft line, using blink to get in position. You can also buff this weapon with Sonic Weapon spell with Sonic might (4d6) which also damages the Sonic double in the Creaking Cacophony. One can also use great invisibility to get a few strikes in, or using Ring of Thunderclaps to do damage (again doubling in the Creaking Cacophony).

In a worst case scenario when you fight something that is sonic or even electric resistant, you still have a decent fighter if you cast Bulls strength on yourself with inspire courage if you find yourself in a situation you need to go old school with your greatsword which can be quikdrawn thanks to the weapon crystal, preferably under greater invisibility or greater mirror image. And you can still try Born of Three Thunders to give your party an edge by stunning and dropping the enemy, even if it doesn't do any energy damage.

As always with Bard, you can be a party face and with telepathy you may be able to do this job safer without any language issues, which is handy since the savage bard does not get Speak Language, and this one wont be very bright INTwise to get a lot of languages. Also useful to get a suggestion in.

Flavour: You basically play a guy fascinated with Thunder & Lightning, everything next to this is how you want to fill it in. In my case If Gavin dies he was a great fan of Ser Gavin, and will now try to bring him back. Or, he blew up a Tavern in a barfight and now is under a Geas to help my fellow adventurers.

What I need help with:
Items that I missed that would compliment this build
What weapon to fling at people?
Feats I really SHOULD have?
Must have spells?
Any other tips/tricks that spring to mind?
What kind of music should he use? (I was thinking whistling)

Opinions?

[Jiruharudo]

Dang, nothing?

[EugeneVoid]

I'm not so good at optimizing, but you don't seem to have mindsight.

[Jiruharudo]

Hey EugeneVoid, thanks for replying

And true, mindsight would be rather useful.

Not sure if my DM is going to allow it, but having a blind-sense where you can gauge someones cleverness is super usefull.

[Troacctid]

Energy Admixture seems terrible on this build. You don't have any spell slots above 4th level and you don't have a way to reduce the spell level adjustment, so you can only use it on cantrips. There aren't any Bard cantrips that deal energy damage, so the feat does literally nothing.

Your greatsword plan also seems pretty bad, given that Bards are not proficient with greatswords, and you're apparently wasting a whole turn to cast Bull's Strength for some reason. I would...not do that. If you're going to use a melee weapon at all, pick one of those special Bard weapons, like a Bow of Songs or a Crystal Echoblade or something, I dunno.

If you're into thunder, I would imagine you'd want Percussion as your Perform skill. (Also, per Complete Adventurer, using masterwork drums to inspire courage gives you an extra +1 to the damage bonus, although personally, I prefer swapping it out for inspire awe, from Dragon Magic.)

Have you considered the Stormsinger prestige class, from Frostburn? It's harder to qualify for (there's more skill prerequisites and a feat tax), but the theme is spot-on. You can use bardic music to call up hurricanes and thunderstorms and tornadoes. It's pretty kickass.

[Evan Epis]

Have you considered the Stormsinger prestige class, from Frostburn? It's harder to qualify for (there's more skill prerequisites and a feat tax), but the theme is spot-on. You can use bardic music to call up hurricanes and thunderstorms and tornadoes. It's pretty kickass.

Stormcaster from stormwrack, although not bard-focused, is easier to qualify and of similar theme.

[Jiruharudo]

Awesome sugestiones on the Stormsinger and Stormcaster! Cant believe I forgot about them.

Did I misunderstood Energy Admixture so badly then? I figured that when even I do sonic damage you add an equal amount of lightning damage to the spell
And I figured since all my sonic spells can do damage Id be able to buff those aswell with Sonic Might?

But yes, An energy admixed spell uses up a spell slot four levels higher than the spell's actual level ruins this ..good point.

Also, I have no idea why I thought Bards had proficiency with Greatswords ..my bad.

In will revise! Suggestions are more than welcome in the meantime.

[Troacctid]

Energy Admixture does make energy spells do more damage, it's just that in the process the spells become impossible for you to cast, so you can never actually use the feat. (An Energy Admixture Shout requires an 8th level spell slot.) By the time you have spell slots high enough for it, you also have no reason to use it, because you can just be using those spell slots to cast actual higher-level spells like Channeled Sound Burst, which naturally deals extra damage without requiring a feat.

[Jiruharudo]

Yes, I totally get what you're saying now, I missed the "4th level spell" bit. The derp is strong with this one. x.x

Still, Im gonna see if I can make this work for me..

[Darrin]

You said you were going Sublime Chord/Virtuoso, but after 12 levels you don't have any Sublime Chord or Virtuoso. If you're not getting into Sublime Chord exactly at ECL 11, then getting 9th level spells is going to be very difficult, if not impossible.

Consider taking the Quick Recovery feat (Lords of Madness). This gives you a chance to shrug off the dazed effect from BoTT with a successful Will save. You don't really have room for it, but Iron Will and Cumbrous Will (Savage Species) can help make sure you make that save.

Weapon: If your bard grew up in Salkiria, he gains EWP: Bola Whip as a bonus feat (Ghostwalk p. 141/errata). So check out the Bola Whip, it's actually a pretty awesome debuffing weapon. If it's not your thing, go Dragonborn of Bahumat and trade EWP for Dragon Tail or Dragon Wings.

[Jiruharudo]

Hey Darrin, that's correct!

But the Bard/virt/subchoir build is the one Im playing now, and the Bard/lyric is the one I may play after this one dies or loses intrest (he's doing quite well so he wouldn't need to adventure)

Still I can use that info for my current build, kudo's!