I Want To Optimized A Female Elf Bard

[Bartmanhomer]

Hey everybody. I want to optimize a female elf (not Drow:biggrin:) bard name Elva Hopperscotch. Here's her sheet: https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2143832 Ok I'm planning to use her for spellcasting and going for the prestige class Sublime Chord from what I heard in other threads that Sublime Chord is a very good prestige class for bards. I added a Leadership Feat for Elva knowing how OP this feat is. So feel free if you have any advice and suggestion to build Elva. I'll love to hear your thoughts on this build. :smile:

[OrbanSirgen]

I can't help with the optimization... I just want to point out that "Elva Hopperscotch" sounds like a gnome or halfling than an elf...

[Rynjin]

I can't help with the optimization... I just want to point out that "Elva Hopperscotch" sounds like a gnome or halfling than an elf...

Are you insulting the great Hopperscotch lineage? Elva's mother alone was alive before your family name was ever even conceived, young upstart.

[Bartmanhomer]

I can't help with the optimization... I just want to point out that "Elva Hopperscotch" sounds like a gnome or halfling than an elf...

Well, I couldn't find a good Elf last name so I make one up. :annoyed:

[nedz]

You seem to be missing Inspirational Boost (Spell Compendium p124) ?

Most Elves are automatically proficient with Long Swords and Long Bows, but you seem to have MArtial Weapon proficiency listed as a feat ?
Maybe this is just a Myth Weavers thing ?

You seem to have taken lots of archery feats. These are sub-optimal, but fine if that's what you are going for.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Always, always, always take the feat Melodic Casting in Complete Mage. With that you'll roll a Perform check instead of Concentration, and you can move those Concentration ranks to a more useful skill, like Use Magic Device. This also allows you to cast spells and activate wands without having to stop your Inspire Courage. You don't need Point-Blank Shot or Precise Shot, your Dex is so low you won't be hitting very often anyway so those aren't really going to do a lot of good. Trade some/all of those Profession ranks for Craft: Alchemy and make tanglefoot bags and alchemist's fire and acid flasks for 1/3 of the normal price. Also put (B) after your Martial Weapon Proficiency feat to notate that it was a bonus feat for being an Elf.

Did you roll ability scores, or use point buy? If point buy you should reduce your starting Con and increase your Dexterity, maybe even take Wis down to 8. If rolled, shuffle around your Dex, Con, Int, and Wis to have Dex 18, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 8 after racial adjustments. With Melodic Casting you won't need to make Concentration checks, and Dex will be better for AC, ranged attacks, and a lot of skill checks.

Switch your armor for a Mithralmist Shirt in MIC, it's handy for giving yourself concealment if you don't want to be the focus of enemy attacks. Make your bow a Dragonbone Bow from the Draconomicon, which counts as a composite bow with an extra 20 ft. range. You should also make that an Elvencraft longbow, found in Races of the Wild. This way it can be used as a quarterstaff or a bow, and you don't need a separate melee weapon. You'll want to make it masterwork three times (both staff ends and the bow), each portion would need to be made magical separately as well but you don't need to put a +1 on both ends of the staff.

Since it's three weapons it should be able to hold three wand chambers from Dungeonscape, so as long as you're holding it you can activate any of the wands it contains, saving the time you would take to get a wand out. The Rules Compendium says activating spell trigger or spell completion items (wands, staffs, scrolls) takes the same type of action as the casting time of the spell being used, so a wand of a swift-action spell is also a swift-action to use. Good wand choices (if you get UMD) include Nerveskitter, Benign Transposition, Command Undead, Wings of Cover, fog/cloud effects, Blockade, etc., just focus on buffs/utility that caster level won't matter for, or no-save spells that create an obstacle or hindrance to opponents.

There are tons of alternate class features for Bards, namely trading a song for a feat (ECS) like Song of the Heart. I would trade your Suggestion song for that, as it increases your Inspire Courage by another +1. You can also trade your Fascinate song for Healing Hymn (CC), which gives a huge bonus to healing spells, including healing cantrips. I also prefer to trade Countersong for Spellbreaker Song (CM) as it's useful a lot more often. There's also Bardic Knack (PH2) which a lot of people prefer to Bardic Knowledge, just be sure to put one skill point (1/2 rank if cross-class) in any trained-only skills you want to use. There's even the Savage Bard (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantSavageBard) variant which may be fitting for a certain type of elf, and it gets a good Fort save.

On the subject of Inspire Courage, you only get +1 on that but Song of the Heart above increases it to +2. Learn the spell Inspirational Boost in SC and use a swift action to cast that (or use a wand of it) before you start inspiring and it becomes +3. Get a Badge of Valor in MIC for only 1,400 gp, and after you start inspiring you spend an immediate action (which takes your next turn's swift action) to activate that, which increases the bonus to +4. Once you hit 8th level it goes up to +5 total.

Dragonfire Inspiration deserves mention, it's in Dragon Magic and trades your Inspire Courage bonus for as many d6's of fire damage. So instead of giving everyone +4 to attack and damage, it adds +4d6 fire damage to everyone's attacks, including ranges weapons, but not spells. You need the dragonblood subtype to get that, a Forestlord Elf in that same book has that, but loses the elf weapon proficiencies. You could get a Forestlord Elf (Savage) Bard as your cohort, and make sure he/she has that feat along with Inspirational Boost and a Badge of Valor, so you'll add +4 to attack and damage and your cohort will give everyone +3d6 fire damage as well. Your cohort can also have Wild Cohort, but Melodic Casting may be preferred as their only other feat.

Consider taking Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) for a war-trained riding dog that can trip opponents. Its natural weapons benefit from Inspire Courage including Dragonfire Inspiration, and you can put light armor on it so it's harder to hit. You won't need to take handle animal ranks with Bardic Knack above, and it can even track things for your party.

Do you plan on sticking to Bard forever, or taking a prestige class later? If you're focusing on spellcasting, Sublime Chord is an obvious choice. Something like Bard 8/ Virtuoso 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso 8 is pretty standard. I prefer going Bard 8 then dipping one level in each of two classes before Sublime Chord, ideal dips are Mindbender 1 if you're not good aligned, Dragon Devotee 1 (+2 Cha, +1 natural armor), Warblade 1 (martial weapon proficiency and utility maneuvers/stances like Wall of Blades), or (Battle) Sorcerer 1 (Nerveskitter, Benign Transposition) with the Dragonblood substitution level to swap Dragonfire Inspiration to sonic damage, if you have it. Sublime Chord should be advanced by another prestige class after its 2nd level, good choices include Divine Oracle 2 or 4 (get the feat prerequisite from the Frog God's Fane), Incantatrix 4 (get the feat from the Otyugh Hole), and Paragnostic Apostle. Consider what prestige classes you'll be taking in the future and make sure you'll meet the prerequisites by the time you get there.

[Falontani]

The guy above me is good at a lot of things, but see if you can swing words of creation from boed to double the maximum of +5 to be +10 hit/damage or with dfi 10d6 additional fire damage/hit
If you have an ubercharger in your party consider a dip into marshal to make then a happy person, or take it for yourself so you can double up on your cha to charisma skills

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The guy above me is good at a lot of things, but see if you can swing words of creation from boed to double the maximum of +5 to be +10 hit/damage or with dfi 10d6 additional fire damage/hit
If you have an ubercharger in your party consider a dip into marshal to make then a happy person, or take it for yourself so you can double up on your cha to charisma skills

Words of Creation requires 15 Int, this character is pretty far from that.

[Maat Mons]

Star elves (Unapproachable East, page 9) get +2 Charisma instead of the +2 Dexterity that typical elves (high elves) get. But they don't get racial weapon proficiencies, and it would be quite unusual for one to worship Olidammara. Lore-wise, they're also fairly prone to being Bards though.

Arctic elves (Unearthed Arcana, page 9) and desert elves (Unearthed Arcana, page 11) both take a -2 Strength penalty instead of the -2 Constitution penalty that typical elves (high elves) get. Dessert elves trade the standard elven weapon proficiencies for proficiency with the scimitar, rapier, and shortbow.

Painted elves (Sand Storm, page 43) and wild elves (Monster Manual, page 104) both take a -2 Intelligence penalty instead of the -2 Constitution penalty that typical elves (high elves) get.