Character Help: What can I do in combat that isn't just hitting things?

[Malaqai]

As a bit of background, I'm looking at building a MoMS Monk 1/Dervish Dancer Bard 8 for my campaign. She's built around using the Panther (first two feats because feat starved) and Snake styles (full tree), in conjunction with the mirror image spell, as her main form of combat. As you can guess, she's MAD as hell (20 pt buy, Human 14/14/12/10/15/13 before gear), but in my low-op group she should do comparatively alright damage when enemies are using their AoOs on her.

The trick is that her ability to contribute to a combat plummets when people aren't swinging at her, and my party often faces "intelligent enemies" who might cotton on to the fact that they're better off ignoring my character and letting her prance around the battlefield on her lonesome. So, playgrounders, what are some of my character's options for staying relevant in combat when hitting things isn't a real option (CRB, APG, and most of the Ultimates)?

[avr]

You're nearly up to a normal bard's casting, and while you won't have the spells/day to rely solely on that (especially with cha 13) you can pick up some useful buffs for the rest of the party. Vanish for executing combat maneuvers against flat-footed CMD is useful too.

If the enemy totally ignores you and there are any soft targets you can try for those. Obviously this carries the risk of being separated from the rest of the party and surrounded/crushed.

With a few props and/or illusions and use of the bluff skill you might be able to convince the enemy to stay away from somewhere when that's useful.

[Geddy2112]

Second having utility buff spells-casting haste on the party is probably the most important thing you can do in a combat, and knowing dispel magic is a very good just in case spell. Carry a wand of cure light wounds in case anyone drops and needs emergency healing. Grease and silent image are incredibly useful 1st level spells. You can use the unnatural lust spell to draw enemies close to you if they try and hide. Blistering invective is an incredible debuff/damage spell and is much better than just intimidating a single target.

With the stats/proficiency, get a compound shortbow so you can chip at flying enemies or long range targets. You can go with a crossbow or just a shortbow if you are cheap.

I question the need for your wisdom. Monks lose their AC bonus when wearing armor, along with fast movement and flurry of blows. However, as a master of many styles, you don't get flurry of blows. As a 1 level dip, you don't have any fast movement or extra monk level AC either. Wis powers nothing you need as a bard, will is a strong save for monk and bard, and armor will do you better in the long run. I suggest dumping wis and boosting your other stats, namely charisma and dexterity.

[Malaqai]

Hi all, thanks for the advice. I like the idea of using spells to lock down an area of a battlefield. I'll also grab a 2-hander to whip out and beat on the other side's wizard.



I question the need for your wisdom. Monks lose their AC bonus when wearing armor, along with fast movement and flurry of blows. However, as a master of many styles, you don't get flurry of blows. As a 1 level dip, you don't have any fast movement or extra monk level AC either. Wis powers nothing you need as a bard, will is a strong save for monk and bard, and armor will do you better in the long run. I suggest dumping wis and boosting your other stats, namely charisma and dexterity.

Unfortunately 15 wis is a prereq for the panther style feat chain. I first came up with this character about a year ago prior to the MoMS errata; prior to that, she only needed a 13 wis to qualify for everything. Alas. To make use of her attribute allocation, this character doesn't actually wear armor (this happened, coincidentally, around the time the Brawler enchantment got nerfed to hell; paizo, why do you hate my characters?). If she has time to buff before battle she'll throw on Mage Armor and Shield (via wands) putting her AC at 23, and at higher levels that'll actually hit 30; otherwise she relies on casting and recasting mirror image to keep safe. I may also pick up a level of Barbarian and a furious cestus later in her career to make up some for her low physical stats.

[Waker]

You can do a bit of BFC with Shadow Conjuration. Just rely more on spells that don't deal damage or summons that lose effectiveness if the enemy realizes they are "fake". Stinking Cloud is a great example.
It's more feats, but you could also try out Dazzling Display for an area debuff.