Gnome bard transition to another class

[leegi0n]

Hey everyone. I'll try to make this as short as possible. (this is 3.0/3.5 homebrew setting - Forgotten realms feel) - the game has been going on for just over a year. Other characters are: 1 elven cleric, 1 halfling barbarian, 1 dwarven fighter, 1 human blood magus, 1 human ranger.

I have been playing an gnome bard (level 5 gnome/ 1 mindbender) that has been marooned on an island of dwarven barbarians. There are 3 clans and we were met, many moons ago by the clan of the blue kracken. There is a mist that prevents anyone from leaving the island, once there. Long story short, after many months of resistance to the warring and dwarven clan faction politics, my bard has come to accept where he is, taken a liking to the clan chieftan, priest, and warlords. In fact, he was made 'hand of the blue-kracken chieftan and swore allegiance to the clan.

One of the other clans (Red Dragon) is responsible for much of the troubles of the island such as the multiple assassinations, poisoning of commoners for sacrifice, and summoning some really nasty stuff. My character, on multiple occasions has obtained knowledge/information to expose this clan to the stormlord (basically, the president of the island) and other notable leaders. Each time it has been presented, the evidence was destroyed or someone was killed so that I couldn't prove anything.

This gave rise to the early stages of war. I attempted to forge an alliance between the kracken and purple worm (neutral clan) and the leader of purple worm was assassinated. Then the stormlord was murdered. I was forced to witness the murder of our clan leader at the hands of the Red Dragon's generals and am currently held captive, probably going to be tortured, etc.

This will absolutely lead to all out war.

------- Here's what I'd like to do -----------

I want my gnome to have a massive change of persona because of this life-wrecking heartbreak and current dilemma.

I want him to become something of a zealot or paragon for the blue kracken army. Basically, he will no longer be primarily a bard but rather, a paladin or barbarian or the like and riff on the "inspire" thing in a whole new manner. I want to take up armor and weapons where I have not, up to this point. The DM has agreed to let me have kracken scale armor. I'm thinking I could use a reach weapon (like a halberd, spear, or glaive) and have a rapier/buckler for back up.

1. Would I be able to wield these weapons?
2. Could I still cast spells or buffs with the scale armor?

How do you imagine this looking and functioning? Any ideas are much appreciated.

Thanks everyone -

[Biggus]

What book is kracken scale armor in? And are you talking about the kraken, the giant squid thing?

[Hiro Quester]

A transition to a melee bard is rather easy to pull off, even without changing class. Check out snowflake war dance feat, for instance. Sirine's grace spell gives a boost to Cha and Dex, and Cha to AC. Throw in Ruin Delver's fortune for Cha to saves. Gauntlets of heartfelt blows give cha to damage. Get an crystal echoblade weapon for even more damage.

Learn to Inspire Greatness at Bard 9, and get the horn that is part of the magic item set that also contains Badge of Valor (Horn of Resilience or something like that, from memory?). It enables you to give +50 temporary hit points to a recipient of your inspire greatness (yourself). Now you also have the hit points to melee with the best of them.

You can even tank, if you try throwing around Mindless Rage spell (subject is compelled to attack you with mundane attacks only; great for wasting enemy spell-casters' time).

If you have Tome of Battle available, dip into Crusader and take Song of the White Raven. Now your inspire is a swift action, and your crusader levels stack with bard for progressing inspire courage. you also get martial weapon proficiencies for that glaive or whatever.

I would not dip too far, personally, because the spell casting and such of bard is awesome. (And Sublime Chord is even more so, especially topped off with Jade Phoenix Mage). But adding a level or two of crusader can give you access to some interesting martial mechanics.

Or....

Another interesting personality transformation might be to ignore everything above and consider adding Dread Witch onto your gnome bard/mindbender. Mindbender and Dread Witch complement one another awesomely. Become an incarnation of fear and domination of the enemy. Fear spells can be awesome and the Cha synergy with Bard is excellent.

Plus DW gets massive bonuses to intimidate. You can use a reach weapon to intimidate anyone you threaten in combat. Your whip (which you already have proficiency) is already a reach weapon that can make you a battlefield dominator, even with your small gnome size.

This also opens up Doomspeak feat, easily one of the most awesome debuffs in the game (-10 to saves, attack rolls, skill and ability checks). It requires 8 ranks in intimidate, which is usually cross-class for bard, but in-class for Dread Witch. Bards can't get it until 15th level usually; you could take that much sooner. Now you can literally curse at people and scare their ability to resist your will right out of them. It's rather fun to role-play, too.

Edit: Apologies. It's nightmare spinner, rather than Mindbender, that synergies so well with Dread Witch (I always get those two confused, sorry). Still, Dread Witch is a fun personality transformation for a bard.

[leegi0n]

What book is kracken scale armor in? And are you talking about the kraken, the giant squid thing?

Yes, the giant squid thing. It's not in the books and will probably be a homebrew variant of some other scale. Probably Dragon (blue).

[Biggus]

Yes, the giant squid thing. It's not in the books and will probably be a homebrew variant of some other scale. Probably Dragon (blue).

Er...if it's a homebrew armor, how are we supposed to know if you can cast spells in it?

If it works the same as dragonhide armor, a Bard won't have a spell failure chance if it's light armor, but will if it's medium or heavy, as normal. But really, the person you need to ask about this is your DM.

[Troacctid]

Does your game use Dragon Magazine? I forget if it's #310 or #311, but one of those two issues has some bard prestige classes in it that would be good choices—particularly battle howler, which is full BAB, adds martial weapon proficiencies, improves inspire courage, and gives you a rage ability. Memory smith is the other one, also full BAB and martial weapons, but it adds a bunch of buff spells to your spells known.

[Heavenblade]

You want to become a knight-zealot for vengance? Does making pact with old spirits out of desperation sound like a plan for you?

If yes, you'd be happy to find that a well built binder might actually be your best bet!

The two vestiges you need are andras, and tenebrous.

For the purpose of this build let's say you are a harmonious knight paladin/binder/knight of the sacred seal, starting with tenebrous.


Now, you use the neat turn undead ability you have in order to gain access to all sorts of neat divine feat (divine defiance for counterspells, str/healing devotion for buffs and stuff, anscetral knowledge to become an instant skill monkey...the possibilities are endless!)


You also take the "smite to song" feat + bind andras the moment you can.

Congrats! - you got a mount, a smite, a song, and a weapon. Healing and destruction and many other neat things, all depending on what divine feats you take.

[nedz]

War Chanter (Complete Warrior p87) is possible, but you probably don't have the pre-req feats, which are: Combat Expertise and Weapon Focus

Or you can go for a classic Bardsader

(Bard 6) / Crusader 2/ Jade Phoenix Mage 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Jade Phoenix Mage 8