3.5e building a buffer bard after not touching 3.5e for years

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Hello guys, after years I found a 3.5e game to play with some friend and I am really rusty.

I am looking to build a force dragon blooded Bard and get to uber buffing.
We are starting at level 4.

I will like you advice for saving the rust off.

I don't remember how to build 3.5e characters or how to play them.

I choose Bard because I want to do some uber buffing and don't want to take "all spells are 24h" cleric.

I will like recommendations for feats, Prestige class and races.
I prefer no LA.
I will take flaws.

I will go now write my character sheet and probably change it based on this

Thank you in advance.

[Doctor Despair]

Recently did a write-up on some high-optimization bard options (see my sig), but just to clarify: are you more interested in getting buffs from bardic music or spellcasting?

[Anthrowhale]

I believe you want to look at this one (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=12152306&postcount=3).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Use a dragonblood race, there a few in Races of the Dragon or a Dragonblood variant of every PHB race and then some in Dragon Magic. The Silverbrow Human in Dragon Magic is a favorite as they get to keep the bonus feat.

Take two flaws (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (more here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30)) if possible to start with two extra feats.

Savage Bard (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantSavageBard) is a slight improvement due to Fort saves being more important than Reflex saves, plus it opens up Greenbound Summoning if you're into that.

Take one level of Sorcerer with the Dragonblood Sorcerer substitution level in RotD, which gets you Draconic Heritage instead of a familiar. This also allows you to use wands of any sorcerer spell without making a check, namely a wand of Wings of Cover in RotD in a wand chamber of your weapon. Per the Rules Compendium, spell trigger (wand, staff) and spell completion (scroll) items take the same action to activate as the casting time of the spell being used, so a wand of a swift action or immediate action spell is still a swift/immediate action if you're already holding it. Put it in a wand chamber from Dungeonscape and as long as you're holding the weapon, you're holding the wand as well. Sorcerer spells should include Benign Transposition and some other type of utility, don't bother picking damage spells.

Start out (Savage) Bard 3/ Dragonblood Sorcerer 1, get to Bard 8 asap, take one level of Dragon Devotee in RotD, then start taking Sublime Chord in CA. You probably want just two Sublime Chord levels and then use other prestige classes to advance its casting, but that's a long-term goal.

Start with the feats Dragonfire Inspiration, Melodic Casting, and Song of the Heart, plus Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) and/or Point Blank Shot + Precise Shot and/or Obtain Familiar + Improved Familiar if using flaws. And of course your bonus Draconic Heritage from Sorcerer. Greenbound Summoning in LEoF is highly recommended as even a SNA1 can get a greenbound dire rat that immediately uses Wall of Thorns to trap multiple opponents, then spams Entangle for the rest of the summon duration, but keep in mind those spells it uses end when the summon ends, so Ashbound may also be worthwhile.

Get an Elvencraft Composite Shortbow from RotW, which counts as both a club and a shortbow. You need to pay separately to make each portion masterwork, but as two weapons it can hold two wand chambers. Your bow attacks benefit from your Dragonfire Inspiration, as do any attacks your wild cohort or familiar or summoned monsters.

You can begin play with partially charged wands, divide the price of the wand by 50 then multiply that by the number of charges it has when you start playing. MIC has tons of great items: Healing Belt, Anklet of Translocation, Raiment of the Four set, Mithralmist Shirt, etc. There's also the necessary magic items (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) list for a long term goal.

[Doctor Despair]

Start with the feats Dragonfire Inspiration, Melodic Casting, and Song of the Heart, plus Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) and/or Point Blank Shot + Precise Shot and/or Obtain Familiar + Improved Familiar if using flaws. And of course your bonus Draconic Heritage from Sorcerer. Greenbound Summoning in LEoF is highly recommended as even a SNA1 can get a greenbound dire rat that immediately uses Wall of Thorns to trap multiple opponents, then spams Entangle for the rest of the summon duration, but keep in mind those spells it uses end when the summon ends, so Ashbound may also be worthwhile.


If you take the level 1 build Biffoniacus is recommending, you might be well-advised not to take Song of the Heart at level 1; you can take an ACF for your third level in bard (Eberron Bard) to trade out one bardic music (usually Countersong) to get a bonus feat from a fixed list; one of the feats is Song of the Heart.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Recently did a write-up on some high-optimization bard options (see my sig), but just to clarify: are you more interested in getting buffs from bardic music or spellcasting?
Bardic Music buffing over spells :)

Use a dragonblood race, there a few in Races of the Dragon or a Dragonblood variant of every PHB race and then some in Dragon Magic. The Silverbrow Human in Dragon Magic is a favorite as they get to keep the bonus feat.

Take two flaws (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (more here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30)) if possible to start with two extra feats.

Savage Bard (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantSavageBard) is a slight improvement due to Fort saves being more important than Reflex saves, plus it opens up Greenbound Summoning if you're into that.

Take one level of Sorcerer with the Dragonblood Sorcerer substitution level in RotD, which gets you Draconic Heritage instead of a familiar. This also allows you to use wands of any sorcerer spell without making a check, namely a wand of Wings of Cover in RotD in a wand chamber of your weapon. Per the Rules Compendium, spell trigger (wand, staff) and spell completion (scroll) items take the same action to activate as the casting time of the spell being used, so a wand of a swift action or immediate action spell is still a swift/immediate action if you're already holding it. Put it in a wand chamber from Dungeonscape and as long as you're holding the weapon, you're holding the wand as well. Sorcerer spells should include Benign Transposition and some other type of utility, don't bother picking damage spells.

Start out (Savage) Bard 3/ Dragonblood Sorcerer 1, get to Bard 8 asap, take one level of Dragon Devotee in RotD, then start taking Sublime Chord in CA. You probably want just two Sublime Chord levels and then use other prestige classes to advance its casting, but that's a long-term goal.

Start with the feats Dragonfire Inspiration, Melodic Casting, and Song of the Heart, plus Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) and/or Point Blank Shot + Precise Shot and/or Obtain Familiar + Improved Familiar if using flaws. And of course your bonus Draconic Heritage from Sorcerer. Greenbound Summoning in LEoF is highly recommended as even a SNA1 can get a greenbound dire rat that immediately uses Wall of Thorns to trap multiple opponents, then spams Entangle for the rest of the summon duration, but keep in mind those spells it uses end when the summon ends, so Ashbound may also be worthwhile.

Get an Elvencraft Composite Shortbow from RotW, which counts as both a club and a shortbow. You need to pay separately to make each portion masterwork, but as two weapons it can hold two wand chambers. Your bow attacks benefit from your Dragonfire Inspiration, as do any attacks your wild cohort or familiar or summoned monsters.

You can begin play with partially charged wands, divide the price of the wand by 50 then multiply that by the number of charges it has when you start playing. MIC has tons of great items: Healing Belt, Anklet of Translocation, Raiment of the Four set, Mithralmist Shirt, etc. There's also the necessary magic items (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) list for a long term goal.
I prefer not taking the savage bard and the super summoning step on the a little on our fighter so I prefer not taking strong summoning.
I took buffing because I wanted to minmax stuff and I didn't wanted to overshadow the other players.

If you take the level 1 build Biffoniacus is recommending, you might be well-advised not to take Song of the Heart at level 1; you can take an ACF for your third level in bard (Eberron Bard) to trade out one bardic music (usually Countersong) to get a bonus feat from a fixed list; one of the feats is Song of the Heart.
Biffoniacus ?

[Doctor Despair]

Bardic Music buffing over spells :)

I prefer not taking the savage bard and the super summoning step on the a little on our fighter so I prefer not taking strong summoning.
I took buffing because I wanted to minmax stuff and I didn't wanted to overshadow the other players.

Biffoniacus ?

I was referring to Biffoniacus_Furiou, who you were replying to, as he suggested taking Song of the Heart at level 1 instead of getting it at level 3 as a bonus feat.

There are a number of classes that reference bardic music (23 that I'm aware off off the top of my head):



Bard (PHB)
Straight bard offers a little bit of everything. Limited casting up to level 6, decent musical buffing at later levels, and decent ACFs. If you are not doing a super-optimized build, taking bard 20 can be simple, but you may want to take 3 levels at least regardless in order to get the level 3 alternate class feature (Eberron bard) wherein you trade a bardic music for a bardic feat from a fixed list.


Dawncaller (RoS)
A goliath-bard class that introduces some new bardic music abilities (some of them very interesting), and doesn't advance spellcasting. If you don't want to be a goliath, though, it could be difficult to qualify without homebrew.


Dervish (CW)
A heavy melee class that seems to be envisioned as a bard, singing and swinging in battle, that doesn't advance spellcasting. It has heavy entry prerequisites though, and is focused more on dealing damage than buffing allies.


Dirgesinger (LM)
An interesting and flavorful bardic music-focused PrC that doesn't advance spellcasting. However, this mostly deals with debuffs rather than buffs. One ability you may be interested in is the capstone, which allows you to animate a corpse for as long as you perform -- as their type changes to undead, it is reasonable to argue it is the same creature being raised, and as there's no limit to how long you are allowed to perform, it gives you a conditional, temporary True Resurrection of sorts, although hopefully your party members won't be dying often enough to consistently benefit from it.


Dread Pirate (CAd)
A class that offers a similar ability to Inspire Courage, and whose morale bonus explicitly stacks with that of Inspire Courage. It doesn't expand your bardic music, however, so it may not fit your vision.


Dwarven Chanter (web)
A dwarf-specific PrC that both expands bardic music and advances spellcasting. The abilities are pretty lackluster though.


Evangelist (CD)
A PrC (no spellcasting) that stacks with bard for determining uses and strength of bardic music, but offers an alternate music-like system with some interesting abilities. It has some buffs, some debuffs, and the ability to temporarily convert an enemy to fight for you (as of the charm monster spell) without the mind-affecting tag, so it bypasses Mind Blank. I've always thought this would be an interesting class to try out, personally.


Exalted Arcanist (BoED)
A PrC that references bardic music, but only to say that it doesn't advance it. Nonapplicable.


Fochlucan Lyrist (CAd)
A theurge-type class. It's meant to theurge druid and bard levels, although you can use it to advance other divine casting if you use a domination-effect or Suggestion to compell a druid to teach you druidic. It also requires evasion, which is weird, but you can get from an item (or any number of class sources). It is strictly to theurge and advance both divine and arcane casting, however, so it doesn't fit into a bardic music-focused build.


Heartfire Fanner (Dr314)
A PrC that advances spellcasting and expands bardic music. You will want a level in this class. With a one-level dip, you gain all the bardic musics that bard offers (providing you meet the perform/ECL requirements). Since we're probably going to take levels in a prestige class, this will make sure we still get all the bardic songs known. It also stacks with bard to determine the strength and uses of bardic music.


Lyric Thaumaturge (CM)
A bard PrC that is almost exclusively for advancing spellcasting, expanding spells known and spellslots. We'll pass this on a bardic music-focused build.


Memory Smith (Dr311)
An interesting bardic dwarf PrC that modifies spells known with various "free" buffs, as well as advancing spellcasting for 4/5 levels. It stacks with levels of bard for determining bardic music known, uses, and strength, but doesn't expand bardic music, so we'll probably pass it for this music-focused build.


Mourner Dr311
An anti-undead bardic PrC that advances spellcasting. The music it adds is more or less useless if there are no hostile undead around (or the risk of them being raised from corpses near you), so I wouldn't recommend it.


Ollam (CAd)
A dwarven PrC that mimics a modified Inspire Courage and creates a new dwarf-specific music-like ability, but doesn't actually expand or use bardic. Not recommended for this.


Prestige Bard (UA)
As the basic bard, but slightly better at casting some spells and slightly worse at using bardic music. Literally the opposite of what you want.


Purple Dragon Knight (PGtF)
While the class sounds awesome, it is sadly not actually a bard PrC. It specifically doesn't work with bards, as it requires you to be non-chaotic, in fact. It does, however, give you 1-2 uses of Inspire Courage as of a bard. Probably not your ideal choice, but thematic if you like the name, haha.


Seeker of the Song (CAr)
This is probably the end-all-be-all bardic music PrC (and does not advance spellcasting). It lets you use two musics at once, gives you buffs to saves, AC, and eventually DR and Freedom of Movement while performing, and vastly expands your bardic music to include both offensive and defensive options, as well as healing and poison/disease curing. It eventually lets you do short-distance teleports, banish extraplanar creatures, counter enemy bard music, and counter enemy spellcasting. I'd highly recommend this one, although it notably doesn't give the same big damage/attack roll buffs that other PrCs offer.


Stormsinger (Frostburn)
Advances spellcasting and adds bardic music uses/songs, but the songs are very storm-themed and don't really buff allies. Probably not what you're looking for.


Sublime Chord (CAr)
The is the iconic spellcasting bard PrC. If you wanted to focus on spellcasting, you'd look no further than beelining here.


Troubadour of Stars (BoED)
Somewhat advances spellcasting, grants you a lot of anti-evil bardic music abilities, and does give you an extra bardic music ability to buff after 5 levels (as of good hope), and offering allies under fear/despair effects a save using your perform. This is affected by Words of Creation, so it could be OK. It's a bit too flavor-specific for my tastes, and most of the abilities are too specific for my liking, but it could be worth trying out.


Virtuoso (CAd)
Offers an alternate bardic music system called Virtuoso Performances. These have a number of interesting uses, such as diplomacizing, helping allies stabilize, a worse version of the Hymn of Spelldeath from Seeker, helping allies use Rage, dominating folks who are fascinated, and granting true-seeing. It also advances spellcasting.


War Chanter (CW)
A bardic PrC that adds a bunch of ways to buff allies in melee combat. Like Seeker of the Song, it also lets you play two songs at once, as well as debuff enemies. The most notable, iconic feature of the War Chanter is their Inspire Legion ability, which lets you give each ally within 60 feet the ability to use the best BAB among those affected as their own.


Warrior Skald (RoF)
A melee-bard class that lets you cure fatigue in your allies, inspire heroism, and inspire a rage, while also demoralizing enemies and forcing fear/panic on them. The debuffs have a fairly limited range, and the buffs are of medium-quality, but like the Heartfire Fanner, one level of Warrior Skald grants you all the bardic musics (subject to their other prerequisites), so it could be worth taking in that case.



Overall, I'd recommend deciding whether you want to optimize Inspire Courage or not. Your build will look very different if you try to get folks the highest damage/attack rolls possible versus buffing them in other ways.

Based on what you've told me, I'd recommend Evangelist, Heartfire Fanner, Seeker of the Song, Virtuoso, War Chanter, and/or Warrior Skald.

It's also important to know how much early-entry cheese you think you'll be allowed to get away with, as many of these classes get a lot better if you can enter them before you were intended to. I'd assume little to none, as there is a fighter at your table.

With no early-entry, you could do something like:

1 Bard
2 Bard
3 Bard
4 Bard
5 Bard
6 Evangelist
7 Evangelist
8 Evangelist
9 Heartfire Fanner
10 Heartfire Fanner
11-20 Seeker of the Song

There's also a number of feats that reference bardic music to consider, but your class choices have to come first, as we need to know how many pre-requisites we need to satisfy.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I was referring to Biffoniacus_Furiou, who you were replying to, as he suggested taking Song of the Heart at level 1 instead of getting it at level 3 as a bonus feat.

There are a number of classes that reference bardic music (23 that I'm aware off off the top of my head):



Bard (PHB)
Straight bard offers a little bit of everything. Limited casting up to level 6, decent musical buffing at later levels, and decent ACFs. If you are not doing a super-optimized build, taking bard 20 can be simple, but you may want to take 3 levels at least regardless in order to get the level 3 alternate class feature (Eberron bard) wherein you trade a bardic music for a bardic feat from a fixed list.


Dawncaller (RoS)
A goliath-bard class that introduces some new bardic music abilities (some of them very interesting), and doesn't advance spellcasting. If you don't want to be a goliath, though, it could be difficult to qualify without homebrew.


Dervish (CW)
A heavy melee class that seems to be envisioned as a bard, singing and swinging in battle, that doesn't advance spellcasting. It has heavy entry prerequisites though, and is focused more on dealing damage than buffing allies.


Dirgesinger (LM)
An interesting and flavorful bardic music-focused PrC that doesn't advance spellcasting. However, this mostly deals with debuffs rather than buffs. One ability you may be interested in is the capstone, which allows you to animate a corpse for as long as you perform -- as their type changes to undead, it is reasonable to argue it is the same creature being raised, and as there's no limit to how long you are allowed to perform, it gives you a conditional, temporary True Resurrection of sorts, although hopefully your party members won't be dying often enough to consistently benefit from it.


Dread Pirate (CAd)
A class that offers a similar ability to Inspire Courage, and whose morale bonus explicitly stacks with that of Inspire Courage. It doesn't expand your bardic music, however, so it may not fit your vision.


Dwarven Chanter (web)
A dwarf-specific PrC that both expands bardic music and advances spellcasting. The abilities are pretty lackluster though.


Evangelist (CD)
A PrC (no spellcasting) that stacks with bard for determining uses and strength of bardic music, but offers an alternate music-like system with some interesting abilities. It has some buffs, some debuffs, and the ability to temporarily convert an enemy to fight for you (as of the charm monster spell) without the mind-affecting tag, so it bypasses Mind Blank. I've always thought this would be an interesting class to try out, personally.


Exalted Arcanist (BoED)
A PrC that references bardic music, but only to say that it doesn't advance it. Nonapplicable.


Fochlucan Lyrist (CAd)
A theurge-type class. It's meant to theurge druid and bard levels, although you can use it to advance other divine casting if you use a domination-effect or Suggestion to compell a druid to teach you druidic. It also requires evasion, which is weird, but you can get from an item (or any number of class sources). It is strictly to theurge and advance both divine and arcane casting, however, so it doesn't fit into a bardic music-focused build.


Heartfire Fanner (Dr314)
A PrC that advances spellcasting and expands bardic music. You will want a level in this class. With a one-level dip, you gain all the bardic musics that bard offers (providing you meet the perform/ECL requirements). Since we're probably going to take levels in a prestige class, this will make sure we still get all the bardic songs known. It also stacks with bard to determine the strength and uses of bardic music.


Lyric Thaumaturge (CM)
A bard PrC that is almost exclusively for advancing spellcasting, expanding spells known and spellslots. We'll pass this on a bardic music-focused build.


Memory Smith (Dr311)
An interesting bardic dwarf PrC that modifies spells known with various "free" buffs, as well as advancing spellcasting for 4/5 levels. It stacks with levels of bard for determining bardic music known, uses, and strength, but doesn't expand bardic music, so we'll probably pass it for this music-focused build.


Mourner Dr311
An anti-undead bardic PrC that advances spellcasting. The music it adds is more or less useless if there are no hostile undead around (or the risk of them being raised from corpses near you), so I wouldn't recommend it.


Ollam (CAd)
A dwarven PrC that mimics a modified Inspire Courage and creates a new dwarf-specific music-like ability, but doesn't actually expand or use bardic. Not recommended for this.


Prestige Bard (UA)
As the basic bard, but slightly better at casting some spells and slightly worse at using bardic music. Literally the opposite of what you want.


Purple Dragon Knight (PGtF)
While the class sounds awesome, it is sadly not actually a bard PrC. It specifically doesn't work with bards, as it requires you to be non-chaotic, in fact. It does, however, give you 1-2 uses of Inspire Courage as of a bard. Probably not your ideal choice, but thematic if you like the name, haha.


Seeker of the Song (CAr)
This is probably the end-all-be-all bardic music PrC (and does not advance spellcasting). It lets you use two musics at once, gives you buffs to saves, AC, and eventually DR and Freedom of Movement while performing, and vastly expands your bardic music to include both offensive and defensive options, as well as healing and poison/disease curing. It eventually lets you do short-distance teleports, banish extraplanar creatures, counter enemy bard music, and counter enemy spellcasting. I'd highly recommend this one, although it notably doesn't give the same big damage/attack roll buffs that other PrCs offer.


Stormsinger (Frostburn)
Advances spellcasting and adds bardic music uses/songs, but the songs are very storm-themed and don't really buff allies. Probably not what you're looking for.


Sublime Chord (CAr)
The is the iconic spellcasting bard PrC. If you wanted to focus on spellcasting, you'd look no further than beelining here.


Troubadour of Stars (BoED)
Somewhat advances spellcasting, grants you a lot of anti-evil bardic music abilities, and does give you an extra bardic music ability to buff after 5 levels (as of good hope), and offering allies under fear/despair effects a save using your perform. This is affected by Words of Creation, so it could be OK. It's a bit too flavor-specific for my tastes, and most of the abilities are too specific for my liking, but it could be worth trying out.


Virtuoso (CAd)
Offers an alternate bardic music system called Virtuoso Performances. These have a number of interesting uses, such as diplomacizing, helping allies stabilize, a worse version of the Hymn of Spelldeath from Seeker, helping allies use Rage, dominating folks who are fascinated, and granting true-seeing. It also advances spellcasting.


War Chanter (CW)
A bardic PrC that adds a bunch of ways to buff allies in melee combat. Like Seeker of the Song, it also lets you play two songs at once, as well as debuff enemies. The most notable, iconic feature of the War Chanter is their Inspire Legion ability, which lets you give each ally within 60 feet the ability to use the best BAB among those affected as their own.


Warrior Skald (RoF)
A melee-bard class that lets you cure fatigue in your allies, inspire heroism, and inspire a rage, while also demoralizing enemies and forcing fear/panic on them. The debuffs have a fairly limited range, and the buffs are of medium-quality, but like the Heartfire Fanner, one level of Warrior Skald grants you all the bardic musics (subject to their other prerequisites), so it could be worth taking in that case.



Overall, I'd recommend deciding whether you want to optimize Inspire Courage or not. Your build will look very different if you try to get folks the highest damage/attack rolls possible versus buffing them in other ways.

Based on what you've told me, I'd recommend Evangelist, Heartfire Fanner, Seeker of the Song, Virtuoso, War Chanter, and/or Warrior Skald.

It's also important to know how much early-entry cheese you think you'll be allowed to get away with, as many of these classes get a lot better if you can enter them before you were intended to. I'd assume little to none, as there is a fighter at your table.

With no early-entry, you could do something like:

1 Bard
2 Bard
3 Bard
4 Bard
5 Bard
6 Evangelist
7 Evangelist
8 Evangelist
9 Heartfire Fanner
10 Heartfire Fanner
11-20 Seeker of the Song

There's also a number of feats that reference bardic music to consider, but your class choices have to come first, as we need to know how many pre-requisites we need to satisfy.
Inspire Courage sound fun to focus on.

Early entry chess is fine as long as I only chess buffing.

Right now I have:

8 str
10 dex
10 con
20 int
16 wis

Silverbrow Human(force dragon blooded)

Bard 4

Melodic Casting

Song of the Heart

Dragonfire Inspiration

And I took the Inspirational Boost spell

I took 2 flaws:
Noncombatant
Probably: Aligned Devotion

[Dingoman]

This is a pretty good bard guide: https://www.joshuad.net/new-bard-handbook/

With a dragon blooded race you could build for Dragonfire Inspiration and give your melee buddies a bunch of d6s of damage on successful attacks! You can also take advantage of all your skill points and make a pretty good gish with the Knowledge Devotion feat.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You can't take Song of the Heart at 1st level, it has a prerequisite of Inspire Competence which you need Bard 3 to take. You can't trade out Inspire Competence for a music feat per Eberron Bard and still take Song of the Heart. The soonest you can trade a Bard song for Song of the Heart is to swap out Suggestion at Bard 6, but you may as well just take it as your 3rd level feat (or as a flaw feat if starting higher than 1st level) to have it right away. You can trade the Suggestion song for another music feat and then hire an NPC Psion to use Psychic Reformation so you can repick that one into Song of the Heart, and get something different in the general feat slot that it had held since you started playing.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

This is a pretty good bard guide: https://www.joshuad.net/new-bard-handbook/

With a dragon blooded race you could build for Dragonfire Inspiration and give your melee buddies a bunch of d6s of damage on successful attacks! You can also take advantage of all your skill points and make a pretty good gish with the Knowledge Devotion feat.
I know this guide, thank you. I don't think the Knowledge Devotion feat is right for the character, I don't want to attack.

I was referring to Biffoniacus_Furiou, who you were replying to, as he suggested taking Song of the Heart at level 1 instead of getting it at level 3 as a bonus feat.

There are a number of classes that reference bardic music (23 that I'm aware off off the top of my head):



Bard (PHB)
Straight bard offers a little bit of everything. Limited casting up to level 6, decent musical buffing at later levels, and decent ACFs. If you are not doing a super-optimized build, taking bard 20 can be simple, but you may want to take 3 levels at least regardless in order to get the level 3 alternate class feature (Eberron bard) wherein you trade a bardic music for a bardic feat from a fixed list.


Dawncaller (RoS)
A goliath-bard class that introduces some new bardic music abilities (some of them very interesting), and doesn't advance spellcasting. If you don't want to be a goliath, though, it could be difficult to qualify without homebrew.


Dervish (CW)
A heavy melee class that seems to be envisioned as a bard, singing and swinging in battle, that doesn't advance spellcasting. It has heavy entry prerequisites though, and is focused more on dealing damage than buffing allies.


Dirgesinger (LM)
An interesting and flavorful bardic music-focused PrC that doesn't advance spellcasting. However, this mostly deals with debuffs rather than buffs. One ability you may be interested in is the capstone, which allows you to animate a corpse for as long as you perform -- as their type changes to undead, it is reasonable to argue it is the same creature being raised, and as there's no limit to how long you are allowed to perform, it gives you a conditional, temporary True Resurrection of sorts, although hopefully your party members won't be dying often enough to consistently benefit from it.


Dread Pirate (CAd)
A class that offers a similar ability to Inspire Courage, and whose morale bonus explicitly stacks with that of Inspire Courage. It doesn't expand your bardic music, however, so it may not fit your vision.


Dwarven Chanter (web)
A dwarf-specific PrC that both expands bardic music and advances spellcasting. The abilities are pretty lackluster though.


Evangelist (CD)
A PrC (no spellcasting) that stacks with bard for determining uses and strength of bardic music, but offers an alternate music-like system with some interesting abilities. It has some buffs, some debuffs, and the ability to temporarily convert an enemy to fight for you (as of the charm monster spell) without the mind-affecting tag, so it bypasses Mind Blank. I've always thought this would be an interesting class to try out, personally.


Exalted Arcanist (BoED)
A PrC that references bardic music, but only to say that it doesn't advance it. Nonapplicable.


Fochlucan Lyrist (CAd)
A theurge-type class. It's meant to theurge druid and bard levels, although you can use it to advance other divine casting if you use a domination-effect or Suggestion to compell a druid to teach you druidic. It also requires evasion, which is weird, but you can get from an item (or any number of class sources). It is strictly to theurge and advance both divine and arcane casting, however, so it doesn't fit into a bardic music-focused build.


Heartfire Fanner (Dr314)
A PrC that advances spellcasting and expands bardic music. You will want a level in this class. With a one-level dip, you gain all the bardic musics that bard offers (providing you meet the perform/ECL requirements). Since we're probably going to take levels in a prestige class, this will make sure we still get all the bardic songs known. It also stacks with bard to determine the strength and uses of bardic music.


Lyric Thaumaturge (CM)
A bard PrC that is almost exclusively for advancing spellcasting, expanding spells known and spellslots. We'll pass this on a bardic music-focused build.


Memory Smith (Dr311)
An interesting bardic dwarf PrC that modifies spells known with various "free" buffs, as well as advancing spellcasting for 4/5 levels. It stacks with levels of bard for determining bardic music known, uses, and strength, but doesn't expand bardic music, so we'll probably pass it for this music-focused build.


Mourner Dr311
An anti-undead bardic PrC that advances spellcasting. The music it adds is more or less useless if there are no hostile undead around (or the risk of them being raised from corpses near you), so I wouldn't recommend it.


Ollam (CAd)
A dwarven PrC that mimics a modified Inspire Courage and creates a new dwarf-specific music-like ability, but doesn't actually expand or use bardic. Not recommended for this.


Prestige Bard (UA)
As the basic bard, but slightly better at casting some spells and slightly worse at using bardic music. Literally the opposite of what you want.


Purple Dragon Knight (PGtF)
While the class sounds awesome, it is sadly not actually a bard PrC. It specifically doesn't work with bards, as it requires you to be non-chaotic, in fact. It does, however, give you 1-2 uses of Inspire Courage as of a bard. Probably not your ideal choice, but thematic if you like the name, haha.


Seeker of the Song (CAr)
This is probably the end-all-be-all bardic music PrC (and does not advance spellcasting). It lets you use two musics at once, gives you buffs to saves, AC, and eventually DR and Freedom of Movement while performing, and vastly expands your bardic music to include both offensive and defensive options, as well as healing and poison/disease curing. It eventually lets you do short-distance teleports, banish extraplanar creatures, counter enemy bard music, and counter enemy spellcasting. I'd highly recommend this one, although it notably doesn't give the same big damage/attack roll buffs that other PrCs offer.


Stormsinger (Frostburn)
Advances spellcasting and adds bardic music uses/songs, but the songs are very storm-themed and don't really buff allies. Probably not what you're looking for.


Sublime Chord (CAr)
The is the iconic spellcasting bard PrC. If you wanted to focus on spellcasting, you'd look no further than beelining here.


Troubadour of Stars (BoED)
Somewhat advances spellcasting, grants you a lot of anti-evil bardic music abilities, and does give you an extra bardic music ability to buff after 5 levels (as of good hope), and offering allies under fear/despair effects a save using your perform. This is affected by Words of Creation, so it could be OK. It's a bit too flavor-specific for my tastes, and most of the abilities are too specific for my liking, but it could be worth trying out.


Virtuoso (CAd)
Offers an alternate bardic music system called Virtuoso Performances. These have a number of interesting uses, such as diplomacizing, helping allies stabilize, a worse version of the Hymn of Spelldeath from Seeker, helping allies use Rage, dominating folks who are fascinated, and granting true-seeing. It also advances spellcasting.


War Chanter (CW)
A bardic PrC that adds a bunch of ways to buff allies in melee combat. Like Seeker of the Song, it also lets you play two songs at once, as well as debuff enemies. The most notable, iconic feature of the War Chanter is their Inspire Legion ability, which lets you give each ally within 60 feet the ability to use the best BAB among those affected as their own.


Warrior Skald (RoF)
A melee-bard class that lets you cure fatigue in your allies, inspire heroism, and inspire a rage, while also demoralizing enemies and forcing fear/panic on them. The debuffs have a fairly limited range, and the buffs are of medium-quality, but like the Heartfire Fanner, one level of Warrior Skald grants you all the bardic musics (subject to their other prerequisites), so it could be worth taking in that case.



Overall, I'd recommend deciding whether you want to optimize Inspire Courage or not. Your build will look very different if you try to get folks the highest damage/attack rolls possible versus buffing them in other ways.

Based on what you've told me, I'd recommend Evangelist, Heartfire Fanner, Seeker of the Song, Virtuoso, War Chanter, and/or Warrior Skald.

It's also important to know how much early-entry cheese you think you'll be allowed to get away with, as many of these classes get a lot better if you can enter them before you were intended to. I'd assume little to none, as there is a fighter at your table.

With no early-entry, you could do something like:

1 Bard
2 Bard
3 Bard
4 Bard
5 Bard
6 Evangelist
7 Evangelist
8 Evangelist
9 Heartfire Fanner
10 Heartfire Fanner
11-20 Seeker of the Song

There's also a number of feats that reference bardic music to consider, but your class choices have to come first, as we need to know how many pre-requisites we need to satisfy.
I don't like the Evangelist, But I do consider taking 3 levels in bare and level in a PrC with a strong will save in order to get the base +5 will save for the feat Words of Creation.

You can't take Song of the Heart at 1st level, it has a prerequisite of Inspire Competence which you need Bard 3 to take. You can't trade out Inspire Competence for a music feat per Eberron Bard and still take Song of the Heart. The soonest you can trade a Bard song for Song of the Heart is to swap out Suggestion at Bard 6, but you may as well just take it as your 3rd level feat (or as a flaw feat if starting higher than 1st level) to have it right away. You can trade the Suggestion song for another music feat and then hire an NPC Psion to use Psychic Reformation so you can repick that one into Song of the Heart, and get something different in the general feat slot that it had held since you started playing.
I saw a some AcF I was interested in for trade.