Sublime Chord entry ASAP or not

[Agahnim]

Hi GitP,
I'm currently playing a Aasimar Swashbuckler 1 (inspired blade) / Bard 7 (archaeologist). I'm really good with a rapier and I can cast bard spells. I'm using fate's favored and the (grand-) master performer feats to boost the Luck bonus. My only real headache is swift action economy.
I'm considering several options for advancement, and I would like your opinion on them (or other suggestions).
- Bard +2, then straight into sublime chord (level 11 is the earliest possible entry). This gets me higher level spells as soon as possible. The problem is that Bard 9 is a dead level, so I would like to swap it out for something else (open to suggestions).
- Delaying sublime chord until bard +5 (12). Bard 10 gets me 4th-level spells, bard 11 improves my Archaeologist's luck (which is the core of my concept), bard 12 gets me an advanced rogue talent and another luck increase thanks to Aasimar FCB.
Now by the time I get to bard 12, I could have reached level 6 spells if I had entered sublime chord ASAP.
The other thing that worries me is that the sublime chord's chassis is worse than the bard's (lower HP, BAB, reflex, skills, not to mention huge waste of skill points to enter). Furthermore, staying in Bard for a bit longer allows me to learn lower-level spells, because as soon as I enter sublime chord I will stop learning spells below 4th level. And I feel that there are a lot of good 3rd-level spells.

What do you think? Is it worth it to give up this much for early access to powerful spells? Thanks a lot for the advice!

[stanprollyright]

Since 3.5 PrCs are obviously on the table:

Sublime Chord ASAP, then into Virtuoso to advance Sublime Chord casting. Virtuoso has a higher hit die and more skill points, and stacks your Inspire Courage progression as well as performances per day, so your Archaelogist's Luck should scale with that. Usually you take the first level of Virtuoso before Sublime Chord so you don't lose any casting levels.

So something like Swash 1/Bard 8/Virtuoso 1/Sublime Chord 2/Virtuoso 2-9 (Song of Arcane Power is a really good ability).

You won't have many 3rd level spells, this is true, but a) higher level spells are obviously superior, and b) you can still get wands of 3rd level spells.