Help optimizing heavy RP Bard

[Bluuegg]

Hello forums,

I am creating a new character for an ongoing campaign. The roll play is very very heavy here, so much so that the better you do role playing the more bonuses you recieve on actions. It makes for very fun interaction and vividly described combat!

The character I'm building is "Bulvwar Bellydrum". Male Dwarf bard. His musical instrument is a large drum strapped around his waist that he plays with two (insert bludgeoning weapons here). He uses his skills as a bard to inspire the allies around him while joining them in melee combat.

I'd like to make him as useful in combat as I can while staying true to the above fluff. I realize that he will suffer a bit for these choices and I am okay with this. Unfortunately I am not very good at optimizing and my knowledge of the vast amount of material available is equally bad.

If anyone has any ideas on how to get the most out of this character I would appreciate the insight. Thank you.

Level 6
race Dwarf
class Bard / ???
Stats - 18,17,16,15,14,14
material available - All, but keeping the build as simple and basic as possible is preferred by the DM. But please feel free to have at it!

[Extra Anchovies]

If you can't swap the Charisma penalty for something else, don't play a Dwarf or don't play a Bard. I recommend instead playing a Dream Dwarf (Races of Stone p. 89) because A) they're +Con -Dex, which is better than +Con -Cha for your purposes and B) they're cool as heck.

Also, keep a close eye on your DM. Handing out mechanical benefits for "good roleplaying" is sometimes a means of disguising favoritism.

[Red Rubber Band]

If you want to optimise Inspire Courage you only need a max of 16 in CHA, and that's at level 16. With those stats you start with a minimum of 12 in CHA.
A +2 item and some level ups will help with that.

Else try for Dream Dwarf. Oh, and if you're going minimum CHA don't choose spells that offer saves. Because the DC will not be that high.

[Socratov]

While the above options are great suggestions, if you let me I'd like to make a case for a different bard. I don't know about you, but I don't really picture myself a dwarf who stays on the sidelines of combat. Sure, the bard might play an instrument, or do something else to make sure his companions survive the fight, emerge victorious so hje has another tale to tell in the pub enjoying a pint of ale, but I'd most clearly see him fighting along, maybe even leading his friends into battle. The thing is, as is said above, you don't want that charisma penalty. You are a bard that menas you want people to take an instant liking to you. So yeah, dream dwarf it is.

Cue the entry of snowflake wardance. Ok, you will need to take at least 6 ranks of perform dancing. This may seem a silly, but imagine morrisdancing, with full metal boots (mithril of course to keep it light), and an axe. It might look a bit like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gt4CuCmcR0). However, as stupid as it might be (http://oglaf.com/moonshine/) you can't use perform(dancing) to inspire courage. Not that you need it, you will only sink as many skillpoints into dancing as you think combat is going to last.

But before we continue let's see how far we've got:

Dream Dwarf Savage Bard (fort instead of ref save) 6
CHA>STR>CON>INT>DEX>WIS
Prereqs: Perform(dancing) 6 ranks @lvl 3. Perform (Poetry) 9, Concetration 6 @lvl 6

Feats:

1st: N/A
3rd: Snowflake Wardance
6th: N/A

But what to do with the rest of the bard? Well, I'd advise to be neutral good, take Healing Hymn instead of fascination, take Song of the heart instead of suggestion.

This is what your build could look like. (feats free to use as you see fit)

But wait, what if we did it a bit different?

How about a dream dwarf who was fisrt a bard, but became a fierce warrior?

CG Dream Dwarf /Bard 1/Warblade 5
STR>CHA>CON>INT>WIS>DEX


Feats:
1st: Flexible Mind (add Perform(Dancing) and oratory)
3rd: Song of the White Raven (swift action to perform inspire courage (through oratory), move and use manuever and your warblade and bard levels stack for inspire courage purposes)
6th/bonus: Snowflake Wardance/Extra Music


you focus on white raven and diamond mind. Not only because they are frankly good disciplines, but they stand for leadership and stubbornness. At level 6 you take Snowflake Wardance and Extra music. make sure that by level 6 you get Iron Heart Surge for the Fatigue and you've got a winner. From then on you can finish warblade, get more bard or do some fun stuff involving warchanter or some other fun prestige classes. As for maneuvers and stances, use the white raven stances to lead, the diamond mind boosts and strikes to kill and Iron Heart to shrug off effects you don't want (aka IHS away). Fun feats could be Avenging STrike (add cha to to-hit and dmg, untyped so usable with IC andSnowflake Wardance), other nice stuff is powerattack, cleave, vest of legends, Chaos Music (combine these for a total of 29 lvls of part for determining how great your inspire courage is).

Your backstory could involve this:

as a dreamdwarf you were always with friends, making music and dancing away, but when you came of age you had to serve your clan for the two years mandatory military service. The military personell soon saw your potential for leadership and battle and elected you to train in those areas. Years later you emerged from the military as a commander of men and inspirator of hearts. On the battlefieldyou are famous for your sublime tactics, leadership and swift kills. If you need roleplay inspiration on how to effectively portray stubbornness and concentration, go watch Dragon Ball Z for the facial expressions, Braveheart for the rousing speeches and Zorro for the wardancing part (or say you are morrisdancing, but with battleboots and a huge axe in your hands).

Hope this helps!

[Optimator]

A charisma penalty isn't going to make your Bard unplayable. Play the race you want! Don't listen to the nay-sayers.

A Badge of Valor, the Song of the Heart feat, and the Inspirational Boost spell go a very long way making Inspire Courage awesome, so don't fret if you don't want an Exalted character (Words of Creation).

In an RP-heavy campaign I'd say Fascinate and Suggestion are far more important than Healing Hymn (which is pretty damn good). If you want to go into Virtuoso then you can get Fascinate back eventually. A simple Bard --> Sublime Chord 2 -->Virtuoso build retains all the Bard flavor you may want while getting better spell access (and some gem spells levels earlier) and 6 skill points per level.

Going for a party buffer/face/utility caster will be very rewarding while not over-complicating the build--unless you try War Weaver stuff. It all comes down to spell selection and Sublime Chords get all the amazing wizard buffs you could want. You could even do a Wizard-based Prestige Bard.

Fun feats for a RP-heavy Bard are Disguise Spell, Versatile Performer, and Subsonics. Great for intrigue and mischief! They can also be useful in combat by making you seem less dangerous.

[Telonius]

Maybe not so much powerful as thematic (it does lose three caster levels), but ....

Dwarf

1 Fighter1: Combat Reflexes, Two-Weapon Fighting
2 Fighter2: Weapon Focus: Light Mace
3 Bard1: Melodic Casting
4 Bard2
5 Warblade1
6 Bard3: Lightning Mace
7 X
8 X
9 Snowflake Wardance
10 X
11 X
12 X Iron Heart Aura
13 X
14 X
15 X Combat Rhythm


EDIT: If Warblade makes the build too "complicated," ditch it (and the two feats) and focus more on the casting and buffing.

[Bluuegg]

I'd like to first thank everyone for their suggestions on this. I appreciate the time taken by ^_^.

The race has to be Dwarf, which I'm okay with. I see nothing wrong with a 16 CHA score.

The theme for the character is definitely a bard that fights ALONG SIDE of the party, not just singing and spell casting. The last suggestion seems close to what I was thinking in my head. If anyone has anything else please feel free to continue. I'm going to start suggesting these things to my DM and get the overlap okayed

[Gabrosin]

I'd like to first thank everyone for their suggestions on this. I appreciate the time taken by ^_^.

The race has to be Dwarf, which I'm okay with. I see nothing wrong with a 16 CHA score.

The theme for the character is definitely a bard that fights ALONG SIDE of the party, not just singing and spell casting. The last suggestion seems close to what I was thinking in my head. If anyone has anything else please feel free to continue. I'm going to start suggesting these things to my DM and get the overlap okayed

Mixing Bard with a ToB class such as Crusader or Warblade is ideal if you want to focus on martial skills. You get useful maneuvers and stances, good hit dice and saves, and you can use the Song of the White Raven feat to avoid losing out on your inspire courage progression.

[Optimator]

Indeed. Bardsaders and Bardblades are quite awesome. Going light on the Bard and heavier on the initiator is generally considered superior since you get full Inspire Courage advancement but I've made a very serviceable Bard-heavy Bardblade that worked out wonderfully. It was a higher-level campaign and I focused on the few--but potent--Bard gish spells available. Greater Mirror Image, War Cry, Whirling Blade, Resounding Voice (from HoB, to give an entire army sonic damage Dragonfire Inspiration and Inspire Courage), Snowsong, Sirine's/Nixie's Grace, etc. The extra skills helped as well, not that initiators are greatly lacking.

Another prestige class you may like is War Chanter from CW. It's not amazing but it's quite solid and has some great abilities.

[Nifft]

I wanted to chime in and agree with the people saying that Bards don't necessarily need a high charisma.

You can pick buffs, cures, and other spells that don't have a saving throw. In combat, use your voice to maintain your Bardic Music (via Perform: Oratory) instead of casting, and use your hands to stab your enemies in the face with an axe.

The idea of multiclassing with Fighter, Crusader or Warblade is excellent. Obviously, if you're using favored class mechanics, you'd want to keep class levels even if you go non-Fighter, or go into a PrC. As mentioned above, Song of the White Raven (from Tome of Battle) is perfect for a Crusader or Warblade combo.

Sounds like a fun character.

[Gabrosin]

Indeed. Bardsaders and Bardblades are quite awesome. Going light on the Bard and heavier on the initiator is generally considered superior since you get full Inspire Courage advancement but I've made a very serviceable Bard-heavy Bardblade that worked out wonderfully. It was a higher-level campaign and I focused on the few--but potent--Bard gish spells available. Greater Mirror Image, War Cry, Whirling Blade, Resounding Voice (from HoB, to give an entire army sonic damage Dragonfire Inspiration and Inspire Courage), Snowsong, Sirine's/Nixie's Grace, etc. The extra skills helped as well, not that initiators are greatly lacking.

Another prestige class you may like is War Chanter from CW. It's not amazing but it's quite solid and has some great abilities.

If your DM allows Words of Creation and/or Dragonfire Inspiration, a Bard-light character with Song of the White Raven will still be a huge asset into later levels. But I prefer the spellcasting Sublime Chord/Jade Phoenix Mage version. Even though you don't get to learn a lot of spells, you can pick the most powerful ones, either for gishing or for general use, all while preserving both your BAB and your ability to buff the rest of the party.