I need assistance on Bards please

[ghostfreak24]

Good afternoon


I am creating this post to ask if someone would be willing to help me create a proper bard, one that can not only be a benefit to the party. But also if need be then stand on his own two feet.


Banned Books
All of the Tomes
Unearthed Arcana





Everything else is fair game. But basically I am in a campaign where me and a selected few people are chosen by the gods themselves to fix a mistake they overlook. To summarise it eight powerful lich's decided to work together to take over Faerun, but the only thing stopping them was their phylacteries. Which is their greatest weakness, so to bypass this they decided to be of one mind and combine their bodies and powers. In doing so it created a shard, but little did they realise the shard would attain sentience of its own. The shard was so powerful that it took over 80% of the world, so four gods stepped down to deal with the situation.


They could not kill it so they did the next best thing and locked it up and sealed it away. But Corellon felt uneasy about the whole situation and basically thats where me and my fellow party members come in. We all have a brand on our back's that glow to indicate we are the chose of the god's to either seal it away once again or destroy it once and for all. Though their are some stipulations with the mark but if any wish then I will gladly post it; its both a blessing and a curse. Our DM is a clever bastard and I have to give him credit for an amazing idea.


But yes so far our party consists of a half-elf ranger, dwarf paladin, half elf cleric, half orc barbarian and me a silverbrow human bard. The reason I picked a bard is because of the setting in which the story takes place and you can never know when you need to talk your way out of a situation. An me wanting to try something different. So far I managed to talk a wererat who was 12 levels ahead of us from killing our cleric. (The cleric was saved from drowning by the wererat and was given mouth to mouth, in full plate armor. He's based on Pepe Le Pue and tried to sweet talk her but she used some choice words that did not please him, so he kicked her back into the sea.)


My party was panicked by the action so I crossed my fingers and talked him into fishing her back out. Even with seven or so of us, at level two I knew taking him on was not a smart choice of action. At the time our swim checks were non-existent and our DM just grinned at us evilly to try and pull a woman in full plate out of roaring waves. Not only did he do that but he also gave us a map which had all the locations of the traps marked and a short cut to the encampment we were looking for.


At the moment I am Lv6 and the rest of my party members are Lv5. The reason why I am level 6 is because at the time I was level 4, my team and I was charged with looking into the disappearance of some guards. The last place they were last seen was at a crypt, so we went to investigate. No traps, no monsters, nothing. Which did not sit well with me at all. Almost like were being expected to come. For a crypt it was far to clean and well taken care of. We went deeper into the crypt into a large low lit chamber and their before us were the guards, all of them in full plate armour. Three in the front had shields drawn and flails while the two in the back with crossbow bolts readied for the slightest provocation.


The guard in the middle looked me directly in my eye and even though his mouth was moving, a woman's voice came out and asked me to accept her terms. My friends are to back out of the room and leave me and as a show of good faith three of the guards would be released. They took an huge exception to that but I warned them that we don't know what else was lurking in the room and if its possible to avoid a fight I would gladly take it. So they stepped out of the room as asked and just as the voice said three were released; two with flails and one with a bow. A woman steps out of the cloak of shadows, staring at me intently. She bid me to step closer and I did, while at the same time she released the other two and they ran past me in fright. The door slammed shut behind me and mystically locks itself.


I rolled a arcana knowledge check, made the dc and my DM smirks at me. She's a +9 charismatic NE vampire he says, and she's very upset with you. Through dialogue I later found out she is the mate that fate chose for me and the reason why she was upset was because I slept with a half elf druid/warshaper/master of the many forms who saved the lives of me and the party. She even admitted that the only other reason why I was still even alive was because I did not "Finish inside that half-elf whore." The DM considered that an encounter because it could've ended really horribly if I said or did the wrong thing. She was designed to fight and kill off 9 of us need be. But because I talked my way out of it he threw me a level, and the other level I got through a really difficult boss battle after completing that mission. More drama ensued.



My DM has been nothing short of amazing to me and knows my struggle with still getting used to 3.5 and a new class. My last class was a ranger for a drow game but that did not end well, due to forces beyond my control. So he threw me a bone and gave me permission to change my feats and the two levels I gained come next game, I just have to show it to him to verify and be prepared. My current build is as follows.



Silverbrow Human/ Bard Lv6

Feats
Melodic Casting
Song of the Heart
Haunting Melody
Doomspeak


I seriously need assistance on playing a better bard because he did warn me that thing were going to get tougher from here on out and I have seen and experienced it first hand. Our next mission is to take on an undead dragon that's guarding a staff that is destined to one of our party members, and he has friends. I've read a little about the Bard Handbook that was on another website and some of the info was really helpful, but I'd really like something else. Like experienced advice from people familiar with bards, what items should I shoot for, what should I do inside of combat (outside of inspire courage) example builds when tackling a bard, etc. I managed to purchase me an echoblade after loads of saving on my end.



Any and all help would be deeply appreciated.
Ghostfreak24


P.S. If anyone would want me to go more in details about our campaign to be a bit more clear, then please don't hesitate to ask. I'm sorry if my post was extremely long but I am in desperate need of assistance.

[Keltest]

Going after crenshinibon eh? nice. Well, I think no matter what the first question you should ask yourself is how do you WANT to play the bard? Party support, right, but is he going to be up in the middle of the battlefield tossing heals left and right, or staying back and playing crowd control, or what? What role do you see yourself playing?

[Gün]

I see that your party lacks an arcane full caster. I don't really understand about playing bards but maybe if you go sublime chord and access higher level spells it might help your party. Thought if you stop before reaching level 11 what say here becomes irrelevant.

[Pluto!]

Song of the Heart is Eberron.

Personally, I'd probably go Lyric Thaumaturge with Knowledge Devotion instead of spreading thin with alternate Bardic musics for that party, but YMMV.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Song of the Heart only appears in the Eberron Campaign Setting, and you listed Eberron among what's banned. If you can take that feat, you can trade out your Suggestion song for it instead of spending a feat on it.

If you're good aligned, get Ancestral Relic to do the Ancestral Relic Runestaff (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?267805-Sorcerer-Handbook#4) trick. Make it an Elvencraft (Composite) Longbow in Races of the Wild and it counts as both a quarterstaff and a longbow. You'll need to buy masterwork three times for it, but it can also have three wand chambers from Dungeonscape. Put wands of choice spells in that and you'll always be considered to be holding them whenever you're holding that weapon.

I would strongly recommend taking Words of Creation in Book of Exalted Deeds if you have the required Int score and are good aligned and can maintain an exalted status. It would also be a good idea to get Dragonfire Inspiration so you're adding +Xd6 fire damage to everyone's attacks instead of just +X to attack and damage. With the spell Inspirational Boost, a Badge of Valor in MIC, and Song of the Heart you'll be giving everyone +4d6 fire damage, or with Words of Creation it will be +7d6 (since the Badge of Valor is always added last). At 8th level that will go to +5d6 without Words of Creation, or +9d6 with it.

Consider grabbing a single level of Sorcerer with the Dragonblood Sorcerer 1 substitution level to get Draconic Heritage instead of a familiar, which can change your Dragonfire Inspiration damage to something like sonic, which is amplified if you cast Creaking Cacophony in SC. That will also enable you to use wands of sorcerer spells, namely Wings of Cover in Races of the Dragon, and it's still an immediate action to use a wand of that per the Rules Compendium as long as you're holding it already. Put that in a wand chamber in the above Elvencraft bow, and you'll be able to use it to protect yourself and your party members from harm. Other good spells to have as wands include Command Undead (turn mindless minions against their creators, then have them let your party destroy them), Benign Transposition, and Web.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Haunting Melody is also Eberron content. Not to mention that you really don't have the bardic music uses to keep up everything. Your build will also depend on how you want to contribute beside bardic music. Do you want to melee, cast or deal ranged damage?

Not only do you need to plan for several encounters per day, you'll also need to consider that anything you do beyond round 2 or 3 is very likely going to be mopping up, so there's no point getting a whole lot of standard-action abilities if you're never going to use half of them.

Your first round is probably going to be taken up entirely with Inspire Courage. Get a Badge of Valor (MIC, 1400gp), a Masterwork Horn (S&S, 100gp) and the spell Inspirational Boost (SpC, Bard 1) if you don't already have them to make that action as worthwhile as possible. Now your IC adds +4 to attack & damage instead of +1. If you can also get Words of Creation (BoED) to double everything except the Badge bonus.

You can also get Dragonfire Inspiration (along with Dragontouched and a Draconic Heritage for non-fire damage) if you want more damage at the cost of attack (and a bunch of feats).

Your second round depends on what you want to do and what the rest of the party has already done in round 1.
BFC is probably already in place (and your spellcasting is lagging behind anyway). Doomspeak is nice against big single enemies, but not that helpful against mooks. Find something to do here (music, spellcasting or dealing damage).

Third round and on: unless you're in a boss battle this is mopping up. Grab a shortbow or whatever melee weapon you're comfortable with and help out, your IC should be enough to let you contribute.
In harder battles you'll spend your time after the first round throwing out things like Inspire Greatness, debuffing spells or short-term buffs like Haste if no-one else can do those.

If you absolutely have to do damage (because you're alone or whatever) spend a feat on Wild Cohort and/or get a Summon Monster spell on your list (Chronocharm of the Uncaring Archmage costs 500gp and lets you summon up to SM 3 as a standard action 1/day).
Those profit from your music, act as meatshields and are better at dealing damage than you will be unless you focus on it. And then you wouldn't need to be a bard.

[Hiro Quester]

Seconding sublime chord. The casting will be awesome for you and needed for your party.

A bard/SC can be very fun to play (I played one to level 20). Note the prerequisites (incl ranks in profession (astrologer). A commonly recognized as optimal way to do this is Bard8/Virtuoso2/Sublime Chord 2/Virtuoso 8.

A few spells and items will be your friend, and take advantage of your high (I presume) CHA bonus. It's one of the most milkable stats, in terms of converting it to useful bonuses. check out the X stat to Y bonus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?125732-3-x-X-stat-to-Y-bonus) thread.

Some highlights:

Bard 4th level spell Sirine's Grace adds CHA bonus as a deflection bonus to AC, as well as +4 to Cha and DEX, plus free movement underwater and water breathing.
Gauntlets of Heartfelt Blows add CHA bonus in fire damage to every melee attack.
Ruin Delver's Fortune spell: immediate action add CHA bonus to any saving throw you REALLY need to make.
Inspiration spell: get twice your CHA bonus in points you can spend on bonuses to skill checks (max 1/2 your cha bonus at a time).
Thunderlance (4th level spell) creates a lance of force that expands instantly up to 20 feet (giving you 20 foot reach) does 3d6 damage, and uses your CHA bonus to hit and damage. Also x3 crit, plus it can sunder mage armor and shield spell.
Snowflake Wardance feat is great if you want to melee. Add your CHA bonus to attack rolls for a bardic music. But there are probably more important things to do with a feat.


The feat Doomspeak is one of those better things to do with a feat. It's probably the single best debuff in the game. Use bardic music to insult one enemy and make him -10 on all saving throws, skill checks and attack rolls until your next turn. Make sure your party knows how it works and is poised to attack that one victim with everything you have that round; get them to delay attacks until after your turn.

An essential spell for you to know and cast regular before encounters is Harmonize (2 level spell). Lets you begin bardic music as a move action, so that you can both begin a bardic music effect and cast a standard action spell in the same round (synergies well with melodic casting). It's essential for taking advantage of doomspeak yourself, to make him -10 to save against the standard action save-or-suck spell you cast in that same turn.

Make sure you keep a scroll of Joyful Noise on you, to counter the Silence you will inevitably have thrown on you.

Get a Vest of Legends for +5 to diplomacy and perform, plus your bardic music is treated as though you are a bard 5 levels higher.

Check out the Breaking Down Inspire Courage (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9830) Handbook for more hints on ow to get the most from this class feature. If you can sing IC for a good bonus for melee attacks, and cast haste for extra melee attacks in the first round of combat, your party members will love you.

If you are getting a Badge of Valor (you should), consider also the rest of the regalia of the hero (MIC). The horn of resilience will grant your party tank a bonus 50 temporary hit points if you use it to play Inspire Greatness. This is gold.

Diplomacy and perform should be maximized. Learn the Glibness spell for a huge +30 to bluff, and keep bluff and diplomacy high.

Do things to improve your initiative. Everyone benefits if you go before them and make them faster and better at hitting stuff. High dex is exxential for you (it and Con should be your secondary stats). A Belt of Battle gets you extra actions and generally improves your initiative.

Lastly consider a Wand of Heroics to get temporary access to fighter bonus feat for 10 minutes.

[ghostfreak24]

Wow, I honestly did not believe I would get such a speedy reply. Thank you very much everyone who went out of their way to read my thread. It is deeply appreciated. I checked with my DM said that yes Eberron is allowed, it was an error on my part. Now referring to the question about how I'd like to play my bard, I am basically filling in what my party is missing at the moment. We already have melee with the barb, dwarf, rogue and cleric, and range with the ranger and myself. I can see myself being a support that gives his allies that extra oomph they need to get the job done. Sure I would like to be like everyone else and get in the mix, but my HP is not high enough and I know that a light breeze would pop me like an unwanted zit.


An what has really pushed me to do this is because I want to do my best not to fall in battle. As it is its a really high pressured situation, but basically if me or any of our party members fall in battle, we have a 20% chance of willing ourselves back to life. This was implemented by a deal brokered between Nerul and Corellon, but if we fail the chance our child's lives are taken in exchange to bring us back. An because of the nature of the mark it makes us extremely potent. All of us have actually slept with our destined mates one way or another, though in my case I slept with my chosen and the druid/warshaper/master of many forms who is a near and dear friend of the princess who told us the deal. Before meeting my destined one, I have seen members of my party barely will themselves back to life when originally it was only 5%. (We had to broker a deal with Nerul himself to increase the chance as it was way to low, and the chances of doing that right was non-existant.)


An one or two of them did lose their firstborns and even though we all know its good story telling and its copying harsh realities of life. I admit that I had to step away from the table because of how hard it hit me, especially when I see the look on my comrades faces when they realised the situation. I am the only one who have yet to have fall in battle and I am willing to do whatever it takes to either keep it that way or take precautions to make that possibility as low as possible. Another interesting incentive our DM designed is if our destined mates are not with child, or for the females if they are not pregnant and we die again. Our mates die instead.


When I found that out I was deeply horrified, especially considering that I had honestly hoped that Shiva would be my destined mate because we get along really well and she has on more than one occasion pulled my ass our of the frying pan. Especially when I tried and failed to do practice solo games with my DM when I get the chance to get a better understanding of combat and other nuances of D&D. You would think that would be the worst part of it all, but its not. Because our destined mates have all been dreaming about us from since they were little children and are basically supposed to be our rock in the coming storm that's about to come. They know the challenge we face and understand the risks involved and decided to shoulder the burden with us anyway.


In the case of Isis, my mate, she realised that she would not live long enough to see me because I was not born yet at the time. So she had an idea, a dangerous and extremely drastic idea and willingly gave up her humanity to become a vampire. Served the person who turned her and as a reward for her 60 plus years of service was given her own free will, and she wasted no time in creating an undead army and had only been biding her time for me to come to her. Shiva is unaware of any of this and I honestly do not know how to break the news to her. Because she is an act first and think about it later sort of character, so I have to be careful with what I say or things can go drastic real bad, real fast. A scene played out where I asked her how much about my brand did she know, she never really noticed it and just assumed it was just a sexy tatoo. So she read it for the first time and everything went from 100 to 0 in a hurry, turned into a water elemental and nearly drowned me.


Thankfully my hands were free so I cast tongues on myself and convinced her to let me go. She asked who else knew about this and I did not answer, she asked if the princess knew and I couldn't bluff her because her sense motive was to high. slowly she began to put two and two together, realising the princess; the woman we work for knew but did not say anything to her about it despite them being childhood friends. In moments she literally showed me the meaning of fearing nature's wrath and I felt helpless to do anything and I was the one to blame.


Were it not for the Shard who interjected on my behalf and turned back time an hour, before I made that horrible mistake Shiva would be tried for treason because she attacked the princess, who was making love to the ranger in my party(She basically said earlier on that she would not force her people do something that she would not do,and would shoulder the burden we face and put her life on the line.) turning into a black widow, won the grapple check, pinned her and poisoned her. Then turning into a yeti and improve grabbing the both of us, the guards rolled a Nat 1 when they tried to assist, so they fell on a crease in the carpet and watched on helplessly. I rolled a Nat 20 and reasoned her to calm, but the damaged was already done. She realised what she had done in the eyes of so many people and gravity of the situation finally hit her, she was panicked and scared beyond all reason and I couldn't help the guilt that filled my stomach like an unpleasant meal. Her death and the death of my child would've weighed heavily on my conscience My DM ended the session with the time stop.


All the shard asked of in exchange for its service, was that it would come to me with a deal. All I had to do was listen and I can disagree if I don't like it, I agreed without hesitation. Especially considering that its time reversal drew the attention of the inevitables and he popped them like they were nothing. While still sealed mind you and severed the telepathic connection Isis had established with me. Its alot of events going on because its a character driven story and my DM likes to hit you in the feelings so I am expecting him to pull out all the stops. If people want I can when able give a better description of what is going on exactly so others can get a better understanding.



I don't have very much experience with D&D, so I don't know if normal games are supposed to make you feel an authentic range of emotions. Last time I checked only The Last of Us ever made me feel this bad. But yes I will look into everyone's suggestions because some of these items and feats I have never heard of before and others I believe I've heard of before but did not know what they do. Words of Creation sounds like a definite plan, same with Ancestral Relic(Though I will have to save up gold to make that work.). I have absolutely zero experience with Sorceror's so I do not know what familiar to take, or how do they work. Except for the part where if they are killed then you lose a level or something of that sort. So what would be a recommended level to access Sublime Chord or Lyric Thematurge? An is there anything else I should be made aware of?