How do I make up for our dead bard?

[Falcii]

Our bard is now gone, (lost at the same time as our draconic front line). I am a Beguiler, so I am probably the most optimal choice to replace him in his utility, but I am not quite sure how to do so. Lists of spells or skill tricks what have you that could help shore up this hole would be great.

Current party is evocation wizard, metamagic bull**** bruiser cleric, and myself.
My current build is Beguiler 6/ mind bender 1/ Beguiler 1/ Shadowcraft Mage 4
Relevant feats include heighten spell, coercive spell, shadow weave spell and I believe spell focus illusion.

Also if it's relevant, I'm semi loaded and have a third arm even though I'm human.

[Inevitability]

What did the bard use to do? Was he a dragonfire inspiration guy? A melee type? Perhaps a sublime chord?

[Falcii]

He didnt really do much that I know of. He took at least a lvl in rogue and vigilante, he mostly did buffs and social stuff and abit of control.

[Falcii]

I can't say I'm familiar with prestige bard, but losing a level of spellcaster for spells known makes me skeptical

[Janthkin]

Kinda funny - my (deceased) Bard was replaced by my Beguiler/ScM. ;)

You can caste Haste. You can cast Glibness. You've already covered everything the Bard was likely to do. Consider carrying around a harmonica or something. You don't have to actually use it.

The major advantage to a Bard is in Inspire Courage optimization & Dragonfire Inspiration; if he wasn't using that, then the Beguiler/ScM chassis is better at absolutely everything. Depending on how you've spent your skill points so far, you MIGHT take a level of Beguiler next, for class skill access to UMD or Diplomacy or whatever.

If you weren't before, do spend a round at the start of battle tossing out Haste (unless the Cleric is covering that functionality). You've got plenty of battlefield control in the various Cloud-type spells that the Beguiler has, plus all of the pseudo-real Walls, Tentacles, and etc. of the ScM.

[Pyromancer999]

Subbing out a level of Beguiler for Prestige Bard covers being a bard, more or less. If you're lacking a skillmonkey, Beguiler already does that pretty well, you might just want to shift up where you're placing your skill points. If you want more Bardic shenanigans, after you're done with Shadowcraft Mage(which I'm assuming your DM houseruled you could get into as a human), you could go Virtuoso for full spell progression and bardic music, or, if your DM also houserules that you can take it despite not being Illumian, you can go into Lore Delver for Bardic Knowledge, Evasion, spellcasting progression, and other goodies. For good social boost, a level in Marshal can add your Charisma to all of your and your nearby allies's Charisma - based skills, or a level in Warlock with beguiling Influence ups the core social skills by 6.

[Telonius]

I can't say I'm familiar with prestige bard, but losing a level of spellcaster for spells known makes me skeptical

Normally, yes, that would be a concern. But unique bard spells are a pretty huge list (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16684876&postcount=4).


Your original question actually intrigued me, and I was curious what spells are actually unique to the Bard, so I threw together a quick list. I think it's complete except for Dragon sources:
Ambient Song, SoSi (3.0), Bard 1
Amplify, SpC, Bard 1
Animate Instrument, SpC, Bard 2
Battlecry, CM, Bard 4
Blunt Weapon, SoSi (3.0), Bard 3
Body Harmonic, SpC, Bard 5
Cacophonous Alarm, CM, Bard 2
Caterwaul, CM, Bard 2
Celebration, SpC, Bard 4
Choir, SoSi (3.0), Bard 4
Combined Talent, CM, Bard 1
Crescendo, SoSi (3.0), Bard 2
Dancing Dragonmark, Drgnmrkd, Bard 2
Deafening Blast, CM, Bard 3
Dirge, SpC, Bard 6
Dirge of Discord, SpC, Bard 3
Discordant Malediction, CM, Bard 5
Disquietude, SpC, Bard 2
Dissonant Chant, SpC, Bard 3
Doublespeak, CM, Bard 2
Drums of War, HoB, Bard 4
Easy Math, SoSi (3.0), Bard 0
False Lie, CM, Bard 2
Fanfare, SoSi (3.0), Bard 6
Fine-Tuning, SoSi (3.0), Bard 0
Focusing Chant, SpC, Bard 1
Follow The Leader, SoSi (3.0), Bard 4
Fortissimo, SoSi (3.0), Bard 2
Fugue, SpC, Bard 4
G'Elsewhere Chant, SpC, Bard 3
Ghost Pipes, LEoF, Bard 1
Ghostharp, SpC, Bard 0
Glossolalia, XPH, Bard 2
Guided Path, CM, Bard 1
Harmonic Chorus, SpC, Bard 2
Harmonic Void, CS, Bard 5
Harmonize, RoS, Bard 2
Harmonize, Greater, RoS, Bard 4
Haunting Tune, SpC, Bard 3
Hymn of Praise, SpC, Bard 3
Immediate Assistance, CM, Bard 1
Improvisation, SpC, Bard 1
Incorporeal Disharmonics, Ghost (3.0), Bard 2
Infernal Threnody, SpC, Bard 3
Inner Beauty, FCI, Bard 4
Insidious Rhythm, SpC, Bard 1
Inspirational Boost, SpC, Bard 1
Interminable Echo, CM, Bard 4
Jig of the Waves, Storm, Bard 2
Lingering Chorus, CM, Bard 4
Love's Lament, SpC, Bard 3
Magic Savant, CM, Bard 2
Minor Disguise, SpC, Bard 0
Nightmare Lullaby, SpC, Bard 2
Nixie's Grace, SpC, Bard 6
Opportune Dodge, CS, Bard 2
Otto's Imperative Ambulation, CM, Bard 3
Otto's Resistible Dance, SoSi (3.0), Bard 5
Painful Echoes, CM, Bard 2
Percussion, SoSi (3.0), Bard 0
Protégé, SpC, Bard 4
Puppeteer, SpC, Bard 3
Rapture of the Deep, Storm, Bard 6
Resonating Agony, CM, Bard 6
Roar of the Waves, Storm, Bard 3
Sculpt Sound, PHB, Bard 3
Snowsong, Frost, Bard 6
Song of the Festerng Death, BoVD (3.0), Bard 2
Song of the Calling, Ghost (3.0), Bard 3
Songbird, SpC, Bard 0
Stone Shatter, SpC, Bard 4
Summon Instrument, PHB, Bard 0
Sympathetic Vibration, PHB, Bard 6
Undersong, SpC, Bard 1
Verraketh's Shadow Crown, RoF (3.0), Bard 3
Wail of Doom, SpC, Bard 5
War Cry, SpC, Bard 2
Wounding Whispers, SpC, Bard 3


That is a lot of versatility for the cost of a caster level. Put it this way: you'll be able to cast more Bard spells than a Bard can.

[Falcii]

I just got the bards build, it was:
5 bard/ 2 rogue/ 4 vigilante

I like the idea of loredelver, it seems like a good fit for me. Sinking that many skill points into perform on a relatively low cha still bothers me.

Is there any way to easily get an equivalent of detect alignment at will? This was really nice and very useful for us.

[weckar]

Pretty sure there's even more unique bard spells than that. I recall Heroes of Battle and Miniatures Handbook having a few neat ones.

[tomandtish]

Cast animate dead. Make sure you wash him well. Dress him in clean clothes. Play some light jazz in the background, and have candlelight to set the mood. Drink some wine (or something stronger if needed). Brush back his long flowing locks and gently lean in and …

I'm sorry. You did say "Make out with", right? :smallwink:

[Hiro Quester]

Everyone is right that you probably have most of what you need already.

But if someone in your position wanted to be able to buff allies through inspiring performances, there is a prestige class that gives you ALL the bard's music abilities, plus some others that grant use of fighter bonus feats, and progresses spellcasting.

I'm talking about Heartfire Fanner (Dragon 314).

Your beguiler probably can't take it, since it has prerequisites of a couple of feats you don't have (skill focus perform and Negotiator), and 10 ranks each in perform and Diplomacy. But it grants a non-bard all the bardic music abilities if they have enough ranks in perform:


Bardic Music: At 1st level, the heartfire fanner gains the bardic music ability as a 5th-level bard if he did not already have it from a previous class. All the bardic music effects (countersong, fascinate, inspire competence, inspire courage, inspire greatness, inspire heroics, song of freedom, suggestion and mass suggestion) become available to him immediately, subject to their usual Performance skill and level requirements (see Bard).