Dervish Dancer Bard, how badly am I screwing myself over?

[Aasimar]

Hey, I've just joined a new pathfinder game, set in the Greyhawk north around the rising of Iuz and stuff.

I decided to make a Bard Dervish dancer, and opted to go for a longspear and a strength focus.

I decided she's a tiger nomad, escaped from virtual (or, in fact, actual) slavery as a trophy wife/bodyguard, trained in some courtly rituals and dance fighting with a spear (spear-dancing)

Anyway, I see her as strong, smart and confident, but not particularly outgoing (especially for a bard). She does have some social skills, but they are something she had to learn, not something she has a natural drive towards. (I kinda see her as being introverted, but practiced at certain kinds of communication), she's also not particularly thoughtful or insightful.

My plans for how she fights are ambitious. I see things like Spring Attack/Whirlwind attack, Power attack and Improved Trip in her future. Lots of feat requirements. But I'll get there eventually.

She'll use spells to enhance herself and allies, and sometimes for illusions. (I see her using ghost sound and Silent image for things like background noise, props or (whispy cartoonish) characters to play off in a dance performance.

My biggest concern, bar none, is that she is the most 'frontline fighter and tank' in the entire party.

And she's not a frontline fighter or tank, even a little.

We have an arcanist, a druid with an animal companion (a bear, who is my only assistance in melee), a ranged rogue and a dwarven alchemist.

I'm thinking we're pretty screwed the moment we run into anything significant, unless the arcanist goes into summoning pretty heavily, or the druid and alchemist go far more in a melee direction than they have been.

Anyway, here's my build.

Am I completely forked? Any advice?

T’sial CR 1/2
XP -
Female Human (B) Bard 1 (Dervish Dancer archetype)
CN medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses perception +3
DEFENSE
AC 16, Melee 17, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +2 Dex,+1 Dodge, +1 Melee)
hp 13 (1d8+5)
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +2 (+4 vs fear)
OFFENSE
Speed 30
Melee longspear +3 (1d8+4 / x3) or spiked gauntlet +3 (1d4+3)
Ranged shortbow +2 (1d6 / x3)
Space 5, Reach 5 (10 with longspear)
Special Attacks battle dance 6 rds/day (countersong, distraction, fascinate, inspire courage +1), fleet +10
Bard Spells Known (CL 1st)
1st (2/day) - expeditious retreat, silent image (DC 13)
0 - dancing lights, detect magic, ghost sound, prestidigitation
STATISTICS
Str 17, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 15
Feats Dodge, Toughness
Skills craft (painting) +5, bluff +8, diplomacy +7, intimidate +8, perception +3, perform (dance) +7, spellcraft +5, stealth +6
Language Common, Old Baklunish, Ordai
Combat Gear potion of cure light wounds; Other Gear studded leather, longspear, spiked gauntlet, shortbow with 20 arrows, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, dancer’s outfit, flint and steel, ink and pen, iron pot, journal, rations (5), soap, torches (10), waterskin, 108 gp, 9sp

Note: She gets: a +1 bonus to AC against melee attacks, a +1 bonus to perform dancing and diplomacy, a +1 Insight bonus to Fort and Will, a +2 Competence bonus to Bluff, a +2 Morale bonus to saves vs. Fear and a +2 Competence bonus to Intimidate, because of DM background stuff. (we had to prepare and write backgrounds and he gave us some bonuses for that.)


I know I won't be winning any powergaming trophies here, and not looking to, but suggestions and advice are well appreciated.

Not dying is a pretty fun thing to do, if at all possible.

[Footman]

Outch, a Bard as a Frontliner? Your Arcanist should really go into Summons, the Druid can also summon a bit, you need something that Soaks the Damage. At later Lvls he could also go into Undead (Animate Dead: bloody Skeletons), so that you have some Meat Puppets as Shields. The problem is at Lvls this low, they will run out of Spells very quickly, meaning in your case Meat Puppets, which could take a turn for the worse for the whole Party. In General your Party, should try to avoid Combat if possible, why not befriend these Goblins? Maybe you can impress the with a Performance that involve Spear dancing through Fire? Be not afraid to use hit and Run Tactics, play smart, sneak up on foes. If some Orcs would absoluty Destroy you in and open Fight, don't take them in an open Fight.

I would switch around the ability Scores for a bit, you should never Dump Wis, as it governs your most importend save. Also get yourself at least 14 in Constitution, you will need it.

On Spells:
You should use your Spells to improve your Defenses. Definitly get yourself the "cure light Wounds Spell" for Healing, as well as a Wand as soon as you can get one. "Saving Finale" is a very good Bard Spell allowing either yourself or allys a reroll on a failed saving Throw. Lastly the "Sleep" spell is very strong at low Lvls, and can take out an entire enemy group.

I would advise you to drop strength and focus more on Dexterity, since you can only wear light Armour. Going into Spring Attack/Whirlwind Attack is actually a good Idea later, but i will eat a lot of Feats, so you won't get there till halfway through the Game.

If you really want to go into the whoole "Spear Dancer" concept, i advise the Feat
"Bladed Brush Combat."
I also advise the Feat: "Piraneha Strike" (it's Power attack for Weapon Finesse)
If you can skip the spear, you could just take "Weapon Finesse", and then "Dervish Dance" at second Lvl.

The Problem is you need three Feats for that to Work (you need Weapon Focus for Bladed Brush Combat).
The only way to get that would be to be a Human Fighter. After your First Lvl in Fighter, you could go straight into Dervish Dancer Bard, and stay with him.

Also, please avoid tripping. Combat Manauvers are very hard to pull of in Pathfinder, i'd even go so far, that the only one who can pull the off reliably is the Fighter, and he has to invest his entire build into one Combat Manauver.

If your DM lets you, take the "Combat Stamina" optional rulesystem, it will provide you with a nice to hit Bonus, and more Combat options.
Another way to fulfill your Character Concept would be to start out as a Fighter, with the Tactican Archetype (with Weapon Finesse and Weapon Focus and bladed Brush Feat), with the VMC (Variant Multiclassing Bard.) The Archetype will give you enough Skill Points to spend, and the classic bard abilities after a few Lvls, and enough tankiness to survive on Meele. With the Fighter you got the Feats to go into the Whirlwind line early, while still beeing a Bard with the VMC. I would advise picking a few Traits, to get the Charisma Skills as Class Skills.

Also, if she doesn't have to be a Bard, be sure to check out the Swashbuckler Class, for someone who charismaticly and daringly dances around in Combat.
I hope i could help you a bit. This is a great character Concept, but a bit hard to realize.

EDIT:
All of that being said, your current Concept doesn't look too weak to play, but you should really look for ways to improve your AC, a buckler would be a way for example. Also if your Party can, they should get thier hands on some Tanglefoot bags to disable Opponents. Your Alchemist should get himself some Alchemists fire. If all of that Stuff is too costly, just buy a bunch of "Pint of oils", (they cost 1 sp each), and have your Alchemist throw them. Your Arcanist can then ignite them with the Spark Cantrip setting Enemies on Fire, when thier Spells run low.

[Geddy2112]

You can frontline as a bard, but you just have to be careful. I understand why you took toughness, but you have much higher feats as a priority. Combat reflexes, even with just 14 dex, is a very good thing for your longspear build. You can use your reach and speed to prevent from being attacked in the first place. Once you have mirror image and other defensive buffs you will be good. I would get spring attack online as soon as possible, and use it+reach and speed to not even be attacked. If you are going to spring attack+power attack, furious focus is a really good call. Since you will be maxing/decent at intimidate, pick up cornagun smash as well. I am not sure how useful whirlwind attack is-in theory, it is great with a reach weapon, but you have to be able to full round attack and in practice is not all that good. It also requires a whopping 5 feats, including the awful combat expertise feat. Likewise, going into tripping is another 2 feats, and taking the whirlwind 5, improved, and greater trip are 7 of your 11 feats over your career. By the time you even get that kind of trip online you are probably against a lot of things immune to it, or so hard to trip you simply can't keep up. This would let you decrease your int to 10-12, increasing a more important ability score in the process. Another feat to consider is the flagbearer feat, once you have the charisma. At higher levels, the banner of ancient kings and flagbearer feat on a bard are very very powerful.

You have the gold to spare, so bump your studded leather to a chain shirt and damn the armor check penalty. You need all the AC you can get early on.

I would put your favored class bonus into HP and not skills. If you are covering the face skills, then you have precious few to spare. Good call letting the arcanist/alchemist/druid cover their knowledges, and both the arcanist/alchemist/druid can cover spellcraft. The rogue can be good at everything else. I get a rank for the class bonus, but you really can only afford to max the social 3, stealth, dance, and perception, floating your human rank around.

If you want the battle dance, consider the dervish of dawn over dervish dancer. Most of the higher level performances the dervish dancer gets are crap;you would never use them over inspire on yourself, except maybe as shadowbard or a 2nd performance when you can do that at higher level. The dervish of dawn lets you keep a lot of your secondary performances and other bardic abilities, and still gives you battle dance, but it gives double the bonus. Getting a +4 to concentration checks is useful for a frontliner, and the medatative whirl is not great but it makes a cure spell worth learning as a bard. It also lets you keep versatile performance, allowing you to save skill ranks.



I would switch around the ability Scores for a bit, you should never Dump Wis, as it governs your most importend save. Also get yourself at least 14 in Constitution, you will need it. I agree getting a higher con is important, but you can dump wis as a bard since it is a strong save. As crazy as it sounds, I would consider swapping CHA and CON. Your build won't be using a lot of spells that target enemies so saves are not a big deal, and performance rounds increase with level. You only need your charisma high enough to cast spells of 6th level, so 16 charisma could carry you through the entire game.


On Spells:
You should use your Spells to improve your Defenses. Definitly get yourself the "cure light Wounds Spell" for Healing, as well as a Wand as soon as you can get one. "Saving Finale" is a very good Bard Spell allowing either yourself or allys a reroll on a failed saving Throw. Lastly the "Sleep" spell is very strong at low Lvls, and can take out an entire enemy group.
I agree on the wand, but I would not use a spell known to get cure light wounds. The druid or alchemist can prepare it, but you don't have the spells known to spare it. It is not an in combat spell anyways unless you need to save somebody from death. Also second saving finale because it is amazing.

Overall your build is not bad as is, and at level 1 everyone is squishy. A stray arrow can instant kill you, just the way it is.

[Demonique]

I rolled up a Pole Dancer and was quite pleased with it.
From what i can see it's based upon the Dervish archetype.
If you can convince your GM of (quarter)staff / 10' pole interchangeability, there are some nice feats to be had.
And the little line about a 10' pole being treated as a "one-handed piercing weapon" lends itself to other goodies (duelist / swashbuckler)
-Demi-

[HamaYumi]

Opinions in OP's case the following plans to help ease into this tank/frontline role? Toughness as a feat; rush first either mithral breastplate or Belt of Mighty Constitution +2. Probably level 1 feat and level 4/5 you can get the belt and level 6 the breastplate. breastplate option would require multiclassing or using a feat slot to gain proficiency :(

[Florian]

I think this´ll be a horrible, bloody mess. TWF dervishes can make for a passable rogue replacement, but they can´t tank and they´re a weak support for a party. The logistic problem is that the Battle Dance uses a Move Action to get started and is shut down by wearing medium armor. So either you waste song rounds to pre-buff, or you´ll have a hard time reaching the frontline in the first round(s).

I think you can more or less gain the same fluff with a Skald, which will make a better frontliner and synergy well with summons.

[Aasimar]

Thanks for all the advice folks.

The game has started already, so I was never going to implement huge changes, won't be changing class or archetype, but the GM did allow me to switch out Toughness for Combat reflexes, I'm happy with that choice I think.

It's a tough choice, but I want a lot of feats and I'll only get so and so many total. Toughness will help me survive early, but it'll impede me later on.

We're on slow progression though, so there's no telling if I'll live to level 2 :p

Oh, and those backstory bonuses we get are replacing traits, so I don't have traits :/

No worries, I'm still going to play a skirmisher, not going to squeeze a bard into a paladin shaped hole.