12th Level Bard help

[Invader]

So I decided on a bard for my first PF campaign. His story is that he's a well known bard that owns his own playhouse and he uses all his followers (from leadership) as low level bards that go out and gather information for him which he then sells or uses for his own means. His role in the party will primarily be social skills and his performances (in combat). Leadership is pretty set in stone and I was thinking about extra performance and lingering performance so I have enough uses to fuel two performances at once.

If there anything else that would supplement what I'm trying to do feat and equipment wise? My cohort will be providing any combat damage so I don't really need to worry about that all.

Suggestions other than what's floating around in the of bard guide?

[Geddy2112]

Since you are high enough level to qualify, the feat discordant voice is a mandatory take. You need 10 ranks in either sing or oratory, but you should have one or both of those based on your character being a thespian. Few things are resistant or immune to sonic, so the damage stacks up fast. Lingering performance is a great way to cycle performances and save rounds/day; this becomes really powerful when you can start performances as a swift action at level 13. You don't need extra performance-between your bard level, charisma modifier, and lingering performance, you should have no issue running out of rounds of perform a day, even using two at one time.

For your versatile performances, oratory and/or sing, then dance, comedy, or act. All of which are hands free which is critical in combat. You probably want a combination that nets you intimidate, diplomacy, bluff, and sense motive. Dance is amazing because it gets acrobatics, which is a very useful skill in and out of combat.

A few performance spells to look into are exquisite accompaniment, virtuoso performance, and shadowbard. You can get the first two at this level, shadowbard is 5th level. Exquisite accompaniment gives you free rounds of performance with an instrument of your choice, virtuoso starts a second but the 2nd performance consumes 2 rounds per round performance. Shadowbard is a slightly better exquisite accompaniment as it allows you to perform a 2nd performance while it performs for free.

Some other good standard spells are dispel magic, haste, arcane concordance, silence, heroism, good hope, glitterdust, mirror image, silent image, and invisibility.

Past the standard equipment (ring of protection, CHA headband, cloak resistance, amulet of natural armor) consider the bracers of the glib entertainer. They give a +5 to all perform checks which nets as a bonus to a ton of skills thanks to versatile performance, and they allow you to use glibness once a day. You rarely need glibness, and even if you do it is almost always once a day. Great to have in case you need to tell a major critical fib or failing a bluff check could TPK. They are dirt cheap and you probably won't have anything for your wrist slot anyways.

A whip is also cheap and useful for in combat tricks if you run out of other useful things to do. Likewise, carry a crossbow or shortbow just in case you need to do damage. You might never use these, but it helps to have something just in case. Arrows/bolts are great candidates for the spells light and silence-you can cast it on them, and shoot them wherever you need the torch or near a caster to stop their spells.

[CharonsHelper]

It depends what kind of bard you want to be.

Pure support?

Melee?

Archery?

In addition, if it's really your first Pathfinder campaign, I wouldn't recommend starting at 12th level if you can help it. Frankly, 12th is right when the system starts to break down. (Too much higher and the system becomes barely playable in my opinion - and past 12 balance becomes pretty horrible.)

[Secret Wizard]

First advice: define what you want to do in combat. Bards have all the tools they need to succeed outside of combat, their problem is carving a role for themselves when they hit the fray. That's on where you need to spend your resources on - feats, traits, equipment and your choice of archetype.

Second advice: give up Leadership. It's a huge chore to maintain the sheets for each NPC, slows down the game to a crawl. You have a TON of ways to building a network of spies without Leadership, and you should explore those. Remember that your Diplomacy checks to gather information will be SKY HIGH, and so will the ones to improve the attitude of people. You don't need to spend a feat and bother the whole group with tracking tons of NPCs for this. Of course, ultimate decision is up to you.

Third advice: lots of archetypes are super interesting and give up very little. Sorrowsoul, for example, is great defensively and offensively and doesn't give up much. Wit is very good for CHA-based duelists, because it focuses the Bard's talents to CHA-skills, gets a lot of bonuses for acting faster in combat and has a ranged nonlethal blast. The trick to choosing the right archetype is figuring out what you want to give away from your kit.

[Invader]

Since you are high enough level to qualify, the feat discordant voice is a mandatory take. You need 10 ranks in either sing or oratory, but you should have one or both of those based on your character being a thespian. Few things are resistant or immune to sonic, so the damage stacks up fast. Lingering performance is a great way to cycle performances and save rounds/day; this becomes really powerful when you can start performances as a swift action at level 13. You don't need extra performance-between your bard level, charisma modifier, and lingering performance, you should have no issue running out of rounds of perform a day, even using two at one time.

For your versatile performances, oratory and/or sing, then dance, comedy, or act. All of which are hands free which is critical in combat. You probably want a combination that nets you intimidate, diplomacy, bluff, and sense motive. Dance is amazing because it gets acrobatics, which is a very useful skill in and out of combat.

A few performance spells to look into are exquisite accompaniment, virtuoso performance, and shadowbard. You can get the first two at this level, shadowbard is 5th level. Exquisite accompaniment gives you free rounds of performance with an instrument of your choice, virtuoso starts a second but the 2nd performance consumes 2 rounds per round performance. Shadowbard is a slightly better exquisite accompaniment as it allows you to perform a 2nd performance while it performs for free.

Some other good standard spells are dispel magic, haste, arcane concordance, silence, heroism, good hope, glitterdust, mirror image, silent image, and invisibility.

Past the standard equipment (ring of protection, CHA headband, cloak resistance, amulet of natural armor) consider the bracers of the glib entertainer. They give a +5 to all perform checks which nets as a bonus to a ton of skills thanks to versatile performance, and they allow you to use glibness once a day. You rarely need glibness, and even if you do it is almost always once a day. Great to have in case you need to tell a major critical fib or failing a bluff check could TPK. They are dirt cheap and you probably won't have anything for your wrist slot anyways.

A whip is also cheap and useful for in combat tricks if you run out of other useful things to do. Likewise, carry a crossbow or shortbow just in case you need to do damage. You might never use these, but it helps to have something just in case. Arrows/bolts are great candidates for the spells light and silence-you can cast it on them, and shoot them wherever you need the torch or near a caster to stop their spells.

Everything you mention is almost exactly what I already had built down to feats and spells selected so it seems like I hit the major points. Didn't know about bracers of the glib entertainer but they seem like they fit my theme perfectly. Thank you.

[Invader]

It depends what kind of bard you want to be.

Pure support?

Melee?

Archery?

In addition, if it's really your first Pathfinder campaign, I wouldn't recommend starting at 12th level if you can help it. Frankly, 12th is right when the system starts to break down. (Too much higher and the system becomes barely playable in my opinion - and past 12 balance becomes pretty horrible.)


Default Re: 12th Level Bard help
First advice: define what you want to do in combat. Bards have all the tools they need to succeed outside of combat, their problem is carving a role for themselves when they hit the fray. That's on where you need to spend your resources on - feats, traits, equipment and your choice of archetype.

Second advice: give up Leadership. It's a huge chore to maintain the sheets for each NPC, slows down the game to a crawl. You have a TON of ways to building a network of spies without Leadership, and you should explore those. Remember that your Diplomacy checks to gather information will be SKY HIGH, and so will the ones to improve the attitude of people. You don't need to spend a feat and bother the whole group with tracking tons of NPCs for this. Of course, ultimate decision is up to you.

Third advice: lots of archetypes are super interesting and give up very little. Sorrowsoul, for example, is great defensively and offensively and doesn't give up much. Wit is very good for CHA-based duelists, because it focuses the Bard's talents to CHA-skills, gets a lot of bonuses for acting faster in combat and has a ranged nonlethal blast. The trick to choosing the right archetype is figuring out what you want to give away from your kit.

I actually had a more thorough paragraph written first but switched computers and forgot to add all the information before I posted. I'll address thi gas in order.

1. Role is purely support, I'm not worried about doing damage in combat at all.

2. The campaign is already at 12th so I don't have much choice. I have pretty good system mastery of 3.5 which I've been playing for years and years so I'm not really worried about mechanics or knowing how to play, I was really just looking for advice as far as PF specific feats and equipment go.

3. Leadership is already set. For the scale of operation I'm running it's needed and my cohort will be filling in for me for combat hence why I'm not worried about along with the fact it's not a very combat heavy campaign.

4. I looked quickly through the archetypes but I didn't really see anything that seemed to fit the spymaster/information peddler theme I was going for.

[CharonsHelper]

For pure support you should grab the Flagbearer feat along with the Banner of the Ancient Kings longspear to wield. (combos nicely with Flagbearer)

Whether someone else is also support casting will change which spells you could snag.

[Invader]

For pure support you should grab the Flagbearer feat along with the Banner of the Ancient Kings longspear to wield. (combos nicely with Flagbearer)

Whether someone else is also support casting will change which spells you could snag.

Yup I was planning on going exactly that route.

[GreyBlack]

I just really want to point this one out, but if you can grab the Legato Piece on the Infernal Bargain (i.e. if you can spare 11 skill ranks for Strings), then you should take it. Being able to summon a Planar Ally without use of spells is always great.