I need help with a character

[XxPhantomBoomxX]

Okay, so I made this support guy who focuses on his animal companions for combat and he supports his allies. This character has one-too-many feats and I don't know which one to get rid of. He has three levels in divine bard, two in druid, and one in beast master, so allow for me to show you the feats, along with a brief summary of what their purpose is.
1st off, Natural Bond, this allows for your character to cross-class up to three levels without your animal companions lacking progress in the progression chart.
2nd, Wild Cohort, this gives you an extra animal companion that is tracked on a different scale.
3rd, Improved Initiative, this gives your character a +4 to initiative.
4th, Skill Focus - Perform(Sing), this gives your character a +3 to whatever skill you chose this for. (this helps with his bard spells)
5th, Skill Focus - Handle Animal, this is a prerequisite for the Beast Master prestige class. So he can't get rid of this.
6th, Mysterious Magic, this makes the spellcraft DC to identify your casted spells increase by 5 and the spellcraft DC to dispel your casted spells increase by 2
7th, Scribe Scroll, you get to make magic scrolls. He's not getting rid of this. Never.

And here's some basic things

Ability Scores
Str: 13
Dex:16 (he has a magic item that gives +2)
Con:10
Int:16
Wis:16 (he has a magic item that gives +2)
Cha:16 (he has a magic item that gives +2)

Armor Class: 16
Touch Armor Class:13
Flat-Footed Armor Class: 13

HP:37

Initiative:+7

[Doctor Awkward]

At a glance, Improved Initiative is never necessary... and Skill Focus is generally a bad choice unless it is a prerequisite for something (in which case it's almost always referred to as a "feat tax").

What bard spells are improved by Skill Focus: Perform?

[ComaVision]

What spells are you using that require Perform checks? Is +3 making any significant difference? Nix it.

[Jiece18]

2nd, Wild Cohort, this gives you an extra animal companion that is tracked on a different scale.
How powerful is your second animal companion going to be and what are you choosing for your first? It might be best to focus on one animal companion and use summon spells to add to your forces.


3rd, Improved Initiative, this gives your character a +4 to initiative.
Improved Initiative can be hit or miss depending on your DEX mod. I personally enjoy it simply for the fact there have been many times I just beat a foe's Initiative roll by just 1 or 2.


4th, Skill Focus - Perform(Sing), this gives your character a +3 to whatever skill you chose this for. (this helps with his bard spells)
If your using this to boost your bard abilities, it is a good choice to keep. If your not going to be using the bard class features as much, It can be tossed.


6th, Mysterious Magic, this makes the spellcraft DC to identify your casted spells increase by 5 and the spellcraft DC to dispel your casted spells increase by 2
I take it your using this for charm spells and the like. It is going to be a bit more situational in its effectiveness than most of your other feats.


7th, Scribe Scroll, you get to make magic scrolls. He's not getting rid of this. Never.
Never used this feat myself. Are your sure your going to get plenty of millage out of it?

[Darrin]

3rd, Improved Initiative, this gives your character a +4 to initiative.


This is a "nice to have" feat, but I don't see that it's absolutely necessary to the build. You can get a better bonus by enchanting a gauntlet with the Warning and Eager properties (MIC).



4th, Skill Focus - Perform(Sing), this gives your character a +3 to whatever skill you chose this for. (this helps with his bard spells)


I think you may have this backwards...? There are plenty of spells that will buff your Perform checks, as well as a masterwork instrument. I think you may mean bardic music, but with only 3 levels of bard, only countersong and fascinate require Perform checks. Countersong is something you might use once in your entire career, if ever... it doesn't come up that often. Fascinate might get more use, but you can only affect one person, and at best you can sacrifice your standard actions to keep them occupied for 3 rounds. Of all your feats, this is the one you need the least.



6th, Mysterious Magic, this makes the spellcraft DC to identify your casted spells increase by 5 and the spellcraft DC to dispel your casted spells increase by 2


How often does the DM bother to roll spellcraft on your spells? Increasing the DC to dispel sounds slightly useful, but again, how often does your DM bother to cast dispel magic on your spells? I don't see a really compelling reason to take this feat.



7th, Scribe Scroll, you get to make magic scrolls. He's not getting rid of this. Never.


Useful, I suppose, but I'd consider changing it to Planar Touchstone (Planar Handbook) or Touchstone (Sandstorm) feat. Pick up a few touchstones for the Catalogues of Enlightenment. When you want to do some scribing, switch your touchstone link to the Rune domain for Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat. When you're done, you can switch the domain later by visiting the Catalogues of Enlightenment, swapping out the Rune domain for the Time domain (which gives you Improved Initiative) or something else.

[XxPhantomBoomxX]

This is a "nice to have" feat, but I don't see that it's absolutely necessary to the build. You can get a better bonus by enchanting a gauntlet with the Warning and Eager properties (MIC).



I think you may have this backwards...? There are plenty of spells that will buff your Perform checks, as well as a masterwork instrument. I think you may mean bardic music, but with only 3 levels of bard, only countersong and fascinate require Perform checks. Countersong is something you might use once in your entire career, if ever... it doesn't come up that often. Fascinate might get more use, but you can only affect one person, and at best you can sacrifice your standard actions to keep them occupied for 3 rounds. Of all your feats, this is the one you need the least.



How often does the DM bother to roll spellcraft on your spells? Increasing the DC to dispel sounds slightly useful, but again, how often does your DM bother to cast dispel magic on your spells? I don't see a really compelling reason to take this feat.



Useful, I suppose, but I'd consider changing it to Planar Touchstone (Planar Handbook) or Touchstone (Sandstorm) feat. Pick up a few touchstones for the Catalogues of Enlightenment. When you want to do some scribing, switch your touchstone link to the Rune domain for Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat. When you're done, you can switch the domain later by visiting the Catalogues of Enlightenment, swapping out the Rune domain for the Time domain (which gives you Improved Initiative) or something else.

I have absolutely no clue what a touchstone is, if it involves psionics than it doesn't exist in the given world, but also domains are only for clerics and while I may end up eventually taking a single level or possibly two, I don't plan to do so yet, do the Scribe Scroll feat is left alone by those remarks, as for improved initiative and the comment you made on that I have no clue what that would cost so that's kind of left undisturbed as well, when it comes to Skill Focus - Perform(Sing) that feat, while I was wrong about its assistance with spells, is more or less also for miscellaneous reasons because I plan on this character being a distraction of sorts and the group's singer/ entertainer, and finally with Mysterious Magic you made a great point to be honest, thanks for your input!

[XxPhantomBoomxX]

[QUOTE=Jiece18;22820536]How powerful is your second animal companion going to be and what are you choosing for your first? It might be best to focus on one animal companion and use summon spells to add to your forces.


Improved Initiative can be hit or miss depending on your DEX mod. I personally enjoy it simply for the fact there have been many times I just beat a foe's Initiative roll by just 1 or 2.


If your using this to boost your bard abilities, it is a good choice to keep. If your not going to be using the bard class features as much, It can be tossed.


I take it your using this for charm spells and the like. It is going to be a bit more situational in its effectiveness than most of your other feats.


Never used this feat myself. Are your sure your going to get plenty of millage out of it?[/QUOTElets
1. For the Druid animal companion I chose tiger, for the Beast Master animal companion I chose tiger, and for the Wild Cohort animal companion I chose tiger. The point of this guy is to be someone small with a BUNCH of huge animal companions(even though a bunch is 12 and he can get, at a maximum, 6 or maybe even 7)

2. They have a +3 Dexterity modifier, so to be honest, this guy could change that out for a feat that lets him use ranged spells at a distance

3. He's gonna be using them a lot

4. Meh, kind of, he's mainly gonna be boosting his allies and animal companions

5. I find that he will be getting lots of millage from this. He can sell them and his caster friends that can use scrolls can cast the spells from them. So about 500 miles before it stops working and I replace it with another one

Thanks for your input! It is much appreciated!