Suggestions for a first time bard in a nautical themed campaign?

[Minwaabi]

Hey folks,

I am planning on playing some sort of Bard for a nautically themed campaign. I'm still in the initial brainstorming process. I've never played a Bard before and I've never really seen one played in Pathfinder and I wanted to find out how it works and what they could do in actual play. I sort of like the idea of a traveling minstrel floating from port to port taking different stints on different ships and just collecting stories/songs and just spreading that sort of thing. Sort of like Thom's personality from Wheel of Time. (Thom's personality/barding style not his fighting style.) Also, before people ask, the party will have 5 players including someone who is new to our group/possibly pathfinder in general. We'll likely have a rouge, cleric, hunter, bard (me), and some sort of fighter - probably a swashbuckler.

So any tips for playing/ building a bard for a nautical themed campaign?

[Wartex1]

Is your DM using Cerulean Seas by any chance? I think there might be a Bard archetype for naval campaigns in there.

In Vanilla, there's the Buccaneer archetype. Also, just sing lots of sea shanties for your bardic songs.

[Geddy2112]

You are looking for the sea singer/ (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo-bard-archetypes/sea-singer/) bard, which is actually really good. Sea shanty is a major upgrade to countersong. The other performances are a bit of a trade off but very useful if you are on a boat. Sea legs protects against far more common things than well versed.

The big sell is that it nab's you a familiar, which is bonkers good. You lose versatile performance, but since you have a party rogue you don't need to be as much of a skillmonkey. You also lose out on bardic knowledge, and the knowledges you get bonuses to are things the party will have covered. Put a rank in the bonus ones and call it good, and then pick up any orphan knowledges that fall through the cracks(arcana, planar, or religion, whichever the cleric does not grab).

Since you have a familiar, pick up improved familiar at level seven.

[Minwaabi]

I forgot to mention, we're starting at 4th level.


Is your DM using Cerulean Seas by any chance? I think there might be a Bard archetype for naval campaigns in there.

In Vanilla, there's the Buccaneer archetype. Also, just sing lots of sea shanties for your bardic songs.

Nope. It's a homebrew campaign. Different world than Golarian, but a similar pantheon. Described as being "somewhat low magic." We can expect to find simple magic items and whatnot, but teleport and planar travel may not even exist in this world.


You are looking for the sea singer/ (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo-bard-archetypes/sea-singer/) bard, which is actually really good. Sea shanty is a major upgrade to countersong. The other performances are a bit of a trade off but very useful if you are on a boat. Sea legs protects against far more common things than well versed.

The big sell is that it nab's you a familiar, which is bonkers good. You lose versatile performance, but since you have a party rogue you don't need to be as much of a skillmonkey. You also lose out on bardic knowledge, and the knowledges you get bonuses to are things the party will have covered. Put a rank in the bonus ones and call it good, and then pick up any orphan knowledges that fall through the cracks(arcana, planar, or religion, whichever the cleric does not grab).

Since you have a familiar, pick up improved familiar at level seven.

I've never played with a familiar. What makes them bonkers good?

Also, thoughts on the Undine class variant Water Singer?

[RocksInMyDryer]

Crack open the Stormwrack book for some good race/feat ideas.

[Geddy2112]

I've never played with a familiar. What makes them bonkers good?
You basically get a second character-a second set of eyes for perception checks, a really stealthy scout, and you both get the alertness feat for being next to each other. You can target it with any spell that has a target of "you", plus a small bonus on a skill. For you, a parrot can speak, meaning it can trigger spell completion items that have a trigger word, like a wand. So the parrot can hold a wand in its foot as it flies around and can cast things like cure light wounds, faerie fire etc etc. Familiars also use your skill ranks in place of their own, meaning that once you get a high UMD, they can start using other things. Likewise, you get a really high perception etc etc. Familiars start with 6 intelligence, which is stupid by human standards but it is an animal capable of speaking and using humanoid logic. A parrot can fly, making it a good scout-you can read empathy on it for up to the minute stuff, but then it can come back and tell you everything it saw

Once you get into improved familiars things really get zany. The best ones have formal hands for item usage, most have pretty awesome spell like abilities, namely the ability to commune once a week. There are tons of others, like lay on hands, invisibility, most fly, etc.


Also, thoughts on the Undine class variant Water Singer?
It is an okay choice. You trade out some situational performances for some other situational performances. Most of the time you are better off inspiring courage, but if you are creative I could see the water manipulation thing coming in handy, particularly when you are surrounded by it. Adding a bunch of free spells to your spell list is cool, but none of them are really all that great. Being an undine in a aquatic themed campaign is really good; the hydrated vitality and amphibious alternative race traits are must takes. They boost dex which is good, but also wis which bards can dump, while dumping strength which is fine so long as your not going for a str based bard.