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View Full Version : Yet Another Bard Optimization



transonic
2007-06-13, 02:52 PM
:: warning - long post ::

I've been lurking quietly and reading all I can on bard optimization on this board, as well as others. I keep going around and around trying to figure out my bard build. I've played bards before (its my favorite class) but not in 3.5. I can't seem to get where I want to go so I thought I'd post here and see if I can get any advice.

I'm playing in the Living Greyhawk campaign so most of the options in most of the WoTC books are available to me. Right now my level 4 bard looks like this...

STR 14
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 8
CHA 15

Its a 26-point build with the extra point for 4th level in CHA.

Current Feats: Combat Expertise, Melodic Casting, Deadly Defense

He's human, but was raised by gnomes. Never quite fitting in during his childhood, he wanders and adventures to ... well find himself. :smallbiggrin: I see him as mainly a melee combat bard, partly because I want to prove to myself that it can be done. However I want to do that without sacrificing too much on the casting and/or music aspects.

I expect that as I go up in levels I will enter combat doing the following: spending the first 2-3 rounds casting a swift spell and then a regular spell while using a music effect (Melodic Casting) and then wade into melee after that. Right now I start an inspire courage while casting improvisation and I use swift invisibility to get where I want to be on the battlefield without provoking AoO's. I love both of these spells. They're so versatile. I can use the improvisation points to buff attacks, skill rolls etc. and swift invisibility is essentially either a way to add +2 to my attack or as a defensive spell, depending on whether I use it before or after my attack.

Sooo.. I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm almost positive that at level 11 I want to take sublime chord. For pure damage dealing seeker of the song is probably better but I like my roleplaying and I like the versatility that comes from bards and their bard songs. Versatility is a must in LG anyways because I end up playing with a different set of people each game. I've already played several AR's where I was the primary fighter, primary spellcaster, primary cleric, and primary thief. As is usual for bards, I don't do any of those well, but I usually get the job done.

Since sublime chord is level 11 at the earliest and LG maxes out at 15 and at 15 sublime chord can cast 7th level spells, I'm sure that I want levels 11-15 to be either sublime chord or PrC's that add caster levels to sublime chord. And I'm bard 4 now. So really I need to figure out what to do for levels 5-10. My only requirement is that I have to be able to cast 3rd level spells by level 10.

One one hand I'm tempted to go Bard all the way. That way I don't lose spell progression and I can get to inspire greatness at 9th. That way I can seriously buff myself and be almost to fighter level with attack and hp when I wade in. But I feel like I'd like to branch out a little. I'd love to get a few more spells known, because there are a lot of great bard spells and I just don't have the slots. Additionally I'd like to add a few fighter feats like combat panache and two weapon fighting. I'm thinking of craft wondrous item so I can have better access to magic items and get them cheaper. I've also thought about Leadership so I can have a cohort to buff while I'm buffing myself. And adding some other classes might let me put some ranks into spot, search so I can see what's coming like the others in the party.

I think one of the biggest problems with bards (if you want to call it that) is that there are so many ways for them to do the same things. I can bluff with points or glibness, buff fighters with inspire courage, inspire greatness or heroism, haste etc, and on and on and on. I think I could do most of what I wanted if there was a bard PrC that allowed normal spell progression, normal music progression and tossed in some generic feats. I'd be willing to give up some skill points, bardic knowledge progression and even BAB for that. But unfortunately I don't know if one of those exists. Most of the PrC's for bards will add their own bardic music options, and also give you extra uses, but so far only the Fochlurian Lyrist allows you to progress on the base bardic music options, and that PrC has some considerable multiclassing requirements.

Finally in my list of wants I keep thinking of having the song of arcane power from Sublime Chord with the Captivating Melody feat from Lyric Thaumaturge. I could potentially buff up an illusion spell by +6 using both those effects.

I know I'm trying to do too much here. The question is how might I go about getting as much of the above as I can, using magic items, skill points and a judicious selection of classes? I've seen some great advice to others on this forum for bards, there are obviously some bard-lovers who know more about the options than I do. I hope to hear from you.

Rob

cupkeyk
2007-06-13, 06:17 PM
you already have melodic casting, so why not get lyric thaumaturge?

why get redundant spells when you have so few to get? do not get glibness since you have more skills than spells. Do not get heroism if you will get heroism anyway. Any effect you can get from a class feature or through skills, do not get it with your spells. If you want, offensive power or defensive buffs or mobility, get that. Lyric thaumaturge improves Sonic spells and Enchantment/Illusion spells, so focus spell selection on those, keeping buffs as spells, and skills as skills.

If you are getting item creation feats, get craft wand since you can access metamagic spell trigger to maximize/empower/sculpt wand effects. You will need those feats too though.

Not very song versatile: Bard5/Mindbender1/LyricThaumaturge4/Sublime Chord10