Rebel7284
2020-11-27, 04:12 AM
INTRODUCTION
I am not currently in any games, but I like to make optimized builds sometimes.
In this post, I will showcase one such build. Note that much of my formatting is stolen directly from Piggy Knowles's Optimization Showcase since it looks good!
In addition we share similar goals:
The goal is (usually) not to show off any fancy new TO trick, but to showcase effective, playable builds and spur discussion. While each of us has a different build philosophy, in general the intent is to create something that can be played in most groups from level 1 to level 20. Again, the goal is discussion, so feel free to discuss the build, talk about other options, make suggestions or tear it all to shreds. Also, feel free to use anything showcased here in any of your campaigns—and let us know how they work out if you do!
In this showcase, we will embrace the power of music and magic to inspire our party to great acts of heroism in defense of righteousness and to destroy the dark forces of Tiamat. Welcome, Nood, the Legend Maker
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/012/756/554/small/mel-eisvogel-nikko-naicar.jpg
Nood, the Legend Maker
The only constant in the world is change.
BACKGROUND
I was always fascinated by the Heartfire Fanner class.
Full caster progression
Access to all core Bardic Music effects
The unique ability to grant your allies feats as a Bardic Music effect.
While a lot of folks have talked about how nice it is to grant fighter bonus feats on demand, the ability also stipulates that your allies can select any feat that you have. Typically this is a niche ability as you only get a few feats, and with Heartfire Fanner having a two feat tax, surely you will rarely have just the right feat that your allies need, UNLESS!
Enter Chameleon with its floating feat! Whatever the day's adventure is likely to bring, we can now prepare by taking the right feat for the job and share it with our party.
While we are using music to grant feats, why not optimize bardic music to grant a number of other interesting benefits?
While I originally considered using Sublime Chord to get 9th level spells, it proved to be unneccessary as the build can get 17 levels of Wizard progression which is just enough for 9th level prepared casting.
The end result is a Wizard with great social skills and nearly full Bardic music including the ability to grant 3 feats and 9 Bonus Hit Dice!
THE BASICS
Race: Changeling
Build Stub: Wizard 5/Chameleon 2/Heartfire Fanner 5/Sacred Exorcist 1/Virtuoso 7
Alternate class features: Combat Wizard, Changing Wizard Substitution Level 1
Alignment: Any Exalted
Special: 13 or 14 starting Dexterity
Nood, the Legend Maker
Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Notes (Click to Expand)
1st
Wizard 1
Able Learner,
(Wiz). Dodge,
Flaw. Skill Focus(Perform),
Flaw. Appentice [Entertainer]
Dual Specialization,
Summon Familiar
Nood is a kind soul and a bit of a nerd, finding time to study Wizardry with a dual specialization while being a precocous performer. Being more active than a typical Wizard, Nood learns to Dodge attacks instead of Scroll Scribing. As a young child, Nood gets visions about a path of much sacrifice that they can take in which they would sacrifice all of their many forms for a true, more magical form to fight the forces of evil.
Mechanically: Taking the first Changing Wizard Substitution level gives us all the skills we need to enter Chameleon later while also giving us extra spells with Dual Specialization. Transmutation and Illusion are fine schools to focus on! Nood bans Enchantment, Evocation and Necromancy. This build is very feat hungry and works best with Flaws.
2nd
Wizard 2
3rd
Wizard 3
Negotiator
4th
Wizard 4
5th
Wizard 5
(Wiz). Mobility,
Apprentice,
Mentor
Nood graduates their apprenticeship and becomes a mentor themselves, getting even better at their own performance as they train their Appentice
While Morphic Familiar is fun, Nood really needs the extra feat. Mentor grants +2 Competence to Perform.
6th
Chameleon 1
Sidestep Charge
Aptitude Focus 1/day
As Nood's power grows, they want to learn a little bit of everything so that they always have the right tool for the job to uphold justice.
Mechanically: Aptitude Focus greatly expands out toolbox at this level, giving us either second level arcane spells from any list of second level divine spells from any list. Sidestep Charge helps our survivability. We also get Use Magic Device as a class skills with our high Charisma stat.
7th
Chameleon 2
Floating Feat
The floating bonus feat is a lovely ability to have. Nood can now use Scribe Scroll during downtime, pick up Bane Magic for just the right creature type, Master new skills each day with Open Minded, and so much more!
8th
Heartfire Fanner 1
Dodge,
Mobility,
Sidestep Charge,
Focused Performer,
Focused Performance,
Song of the Heart
Bardic music,
Inspired fight (1 feat),
Dragonborn Transformation
Embracing passion, Nood joins the Brotherhood of the Burning Heart learning to blend their magic and music in new and powerful ways. With this newfound power, Nood is finally ready to listen to the whispers of Bahamut and undergo the ritual of transformation to become a Dragonborn and dedicate their passions to ending the spawn of Tiamat.
Mechanically: Nood finally get the ability to share feats with their allies. Nood also finally has Bardic Music, including all the core effects. As Nood becomes Dragonborn, it causes their Dexterity to drop, no longer qualifying for the Dodge feat.
If you no longer qualify for a feat due to the transformation, you lose the feat and immediately select a new feat for which you qualify in its place. You must also replace any feat for which the lost feat was a prerequisite.
Because of this, Nood can immediately trade 3 feats for new feats, chosing ones that support the new Bardic Music ability. Of special note is the Focused Performance feat that allows Nood to spend extra uses of Bardic Music to boost their songs.
By spending one (or more) daily use of Bardic Music and making the indicated Perform check, you may
modify your Bardic Music in any of the following ways (though only one for a given use of Bardic
Music):
Accompaniment – spend 3 uses to perform two Bardic Music abilities simultaneously. Each round you
must make a Perform check vs. DC (20 + highest Perform ranks required) or both abilities end
immediately. You may end one of the Bardic Music abilities at any time and continue the other without
requiring any more Perform checks. Usable with all Bardic Music.
Dramatic Pause – spend 2 uses to stop an ongoing Bardic Music ability for 1 round (in order to cast a
spell, attack, etc.) and then resume it as if you had not stopped. Requires a Perform check vs. DC (20 +
Perform ranks required). Usable with Fascinate, Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness, and Inspire
Heroics.
Harmony – spend 1 uses to make a Bardic Music that normally affects one target instead affect two.
Requires a Perform check vs. DC (20 + Perform ranks required). Usable with Inspire Competence,
Suggestion, and Song of Freedom.
Individual Performance – spend 1 use to make a Bardic Music that normally affects multiple targets
instead only affect one (cannot be you). This target receives 2x the normal bonuses / penalties.
Requires a Perform check vs. DC (15 + Perform ranks required). Usable with Fascinate, Inspire
Courage, Inspire Greatness, and Inspire Heroics.
Projection – spend 1 use to make a Bardic Music have 2x the normal area of effect. Requires a Perform
check vs. DC (10 + Perform ranks required). Usable with Countersong, Fascinate, Inspire Competence,
Inspire Greatness, Inspire Heroics, and Song of Freedom.
Rhythm – spend 1 use to make a Bardic Music that you have been performing for at least 3 round last
two extra rounds after you stop performing. Requires a Perform check vs. DC (10 + Perform ranks
required). Usable with Fascinate, Inspire Competence, Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness, and Inspire
Heroics.
Riveting Performance – spend 1 use to make a Bardic Music affect all target in range that can hear you,
even if they cannot see you. Requires a Perform check vs. DC (15 + Perform ranks required). Usable
with Fascinate and Inspire Competence.
The ability to keep two Bardic Music effects going is pretty awesome, but Individual Performance is the real gem here. You can DOUBLE the effect of your music? So with Song of the Heart, that means that Nood can grant 6 HD with Inspire Greatness! At character level 8! Alternatively a huge boost to attack/damage with Inspire Courage.
You also get the Dragonblood subtype, qualifying you for a bunch of Draconic Feats.
9th
Heartfire Fanner 2
Words of Creation
Magic flare (1 level)
With further study of music and Magic, Nood uncovers the secrets of the Words of Creaton. Also, the ability to help their alies apply +1 Metamagic feats for free. What if Nood's allies don't have a +1 Metamagic feat? Well Nood can grant feats, right? :)
Mechanically: Words of Creation allow for another doubling to the effects of Inspire Courage and Inspire Greatness. This means that as a level 9 character, Nood can use Focused Performance to grant an ally 9 HD, likely doubling their targets's HD to 18. You can also grant large bonuses with Inspire Courage. Also 4th level spells come online here.
10th
Heartfire Fanner 3
Bolster courage,
Inspired fight (2 feats)
2 Feat means that you Nood can start granting feat chains! It can be fun with Martial Study/Martial Stance, but the floating feat is helpful for all sort of other combinations
11th
Heartfire Fanner 4
Magic flare (2 levels)
12th
Heartfire Fanner 5
Dragonfire Inspiration
Prolonged passion,
Inspired fight (3 feats)
Nood can now share 3 feats at a time allowing for more nifty feat combinations to be granted to allies on the spot. Prolonged passion is a fairly unique effect. I don't know of any other way to extend an EX ability. How useful it is will depend on Nood's party, but at the very least, extending short duration buffs is nice. At this level, granting 9 HD pushes the target of your Inspire Greatness into Epic
13th
Sacred Exorcist 1
Exorcism,
Turn Undead
Rooting out corruption from among the brotherhood, Nood becomes a Sacred Exorcist.
Mechanically: Turn Undead gives Nood access to a ton of interesting divine feats that can be picked with the the floating feat and shared with allies. Especially helpful if you have divine casters in your party that could benefit from you sharing those feats.
14th
Virtuoso 1
Persuasive song
Nood becomes a true Virtuoso, continuing to blend music and magic
Mechancially: Focused Performance requires a lot of Bardic Music effects, so we want to take a class that progresses that while not costing any more feats to enter. If you can use the 3.0 Virtuoso that doesn't lose any caster levels, go for that one, but even with the one level loss of the 3.5 Virtuoso, we still get 9th level spells.
15th
Virtuoso 2
Free or Practiced Spellcaster
16th
Virtuoso 3
Sustaining song
Sustaining song is bad at this level, but hey, it's free
17th
Virtuoso 4
18th
Virtuoso 5
Free
Jarring song
Nood learns to use the power of music to interfere with enemy spellcasters.
Mechanically: Having a way to stop enemy spellcasting is nice, especially when enemies might be throwing around 9th level spells.
19th
Virtuoso 6
20th
Virtuoso 7
Song of fury
Nood learns to inspire righeus anger with their music. Also, 9th level spells. Their first spell is certainly Shapechange.
BUILD SUMMARY
All told, how does the build end up?
You are a high Int and Charisma Wizard with 9th level spells and 17 levels that progress your bardic music (with a Vest of Legends, that's more than enough to get the full +4 Bonus from Inspire Courage)
You also have great skills including social skills and UMD
Chameleon: 4 + Int
Heartfire Fanner: 6 + Int
Virtuoso: 6 + Int
Your ability to add 6 bonus HD to your party and/or 9 HD to a single target is a great buff in general, and targeting anyone with 12 HD or more with a focused performance will make them into an Epic character! In addition, extra HD works really well when your party selects Martial Study and/or Martial Stance.
And of course, you can add up to three feats at a time to your party, allowing for great flexibility and adaptability.
In-game you should be on a lookout for items and magical locations that grant feats as even conditional feats will often be helpful to someone in your party.
Of particular interest is Heward’s Hall that grants us any Bardic Music feat after a successful performance. This could allow us to get all relevant Bardic Music feats by level 9.
Metamagic Storm which grants a Metamagic Feat for a year is also helpful. In addition to being useful to us as a Wizard, this allows our floating feat to pick up the many other feats that require another metamagic feat as a prerequisite.
FLOATING AND FIGHTING FEATS TO GRANT
There are so many things you can do with this! Each affected character can select their own feats, so some may chose fighter bonus feats, some may chose your feats and some a mixture of the two.
CRAFTING: When you have downtime and want to invest in tomorrow, Crafting is a great way to accomplish this! Most crafting feats are available to you, and unlike most other characters, you can use them for a day or a week and then switch to something else when you are ready to adventure again! Typically you don't need to grant these to other characters. Good choices include: Scribe Scroll, Craft Wonderous Item, Etch Schema, Craft Contingent Spell
Extra Spell: While you can use this to get new spells to scribe in your spellbook each day, it's particularly helpful with spontaneous casters in your party. Grant Extra spell to your Sorcerer friend in combat and they will be able to pick up exactly the spell they need to end this encounter!
Open Minded: 5 extra skill points that your allies can spend in exactly the skills they need has myriad uses in and out of combat.
Practiced Spellcaster: Of course this is helpful to casters, like you, who lost some caster levels along the way, however, even for a full caster, you can them 6 or 9 HD and then grant them Practiced Spellcaster to increase their caster level to 4 higher than it would have been otherwise. Great both for buffing and more powerful in-combat spells.
Ability Focus: Whether it's a specific spell or another sort of special attack, most of your party will likely have something to apply ability focus to.
Bane Magic: Blasting isn't typically optimal, but as a floating feat, this can be nice.
Fighter bonus feats
Martial Study: Maneuvers are pretty great and everyone can take them treating their initiator level as their initiator level + 1/2 their non-initator level. But wait, we can add extra HD and each one counts for half initiator level? So at level 9, after we double someone's HD, they can then select maneuvers as a 9th level initiator. Congratulations, anyone in your party can be a full initiator after two standard actions! This gets more powerful if you already have an initiator around. That Barbarian 1/Warblade 8/Temp HD 9 can pick up 7th level maneuvers AND recover them to use them multiple times. Note that Martial Study can be taken up to 3 times which is helpful for when maneuvers have prerequisites.
Martial Stance: Stances follow the same general rules as Maneuvers. This becomes extra nice once you can grant multiple feats as you can take Martial Study first to get a Maneuver of the correct discipline to qualify for the stance that you want.
Mage Slayer/Pierce Magical Concealment/Pierce Magical Protection: Normally conditional, but your party members can pick these up whenever that condition is met.
The list of figher bonus feats is pretty large and many of them are situational, but when those situations arise, your allies can grab those feats. Whether it's Tunnel Fighting the one time you are all fighting in cramped quarters or Great Cleave when your fighter finds themselves surrounded by mooks, or Exotic Weapon Proficiency when you found that magic weapon that no one can use, grab whateve works!
SOURCES
Focused Performer, Focused Performance (Dragon #338, p.89)
Heartfire Fanner (Dragon #314)
Combat Wizard, Flaws (Unearthed Arcana)
Changeling, Changeling Wizard (Races of Eberron)
Apprentice, Mentor, Vest of Legends (DMG2)
Able Learner, Chameleon (Races of Destiny)
Sidestep Charge (Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 51)
Song of the Heart (Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 60)
Dragonborn (Races of the Dragon, p. 5)
Dragonfire Inspiration (Dragon Magic, p. 17)
Words of Creation (Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 48)
Virtuoso, Open Minded (Complete Adventurer)
Maneuvers, Martial Study, Martial Stance (Tome of Battle)
Craft Continent Spell, Mage Slayer, Pierce Magical Concealment, Pierce Magical Protection (Complete Arcane)
Bane Magic (Heroes of Horror, p. 119)
Metamagic Storm (Complete Mage)
Locations that grant feats (Complete Scoundrel - mostly)
***
And that’s that! Please let me know what you think in the comments
I am not currently in any games, but I like to make optimized builds sometimes.
In this post, I will showcase one such build. Note that much of my formatting is stolen directly from Piggy Knowles's Optimization Showcase since it looks good!
In addition we share similar goals:
The goal is (usually) not to show off any fancy new TO trick, but to showcase effective, playable builds and spur discussion. While each of us has a different build philosophy, in general the intent is to create something that can be played in most groups from level 1 to level 20. Again, the goal is discussion, so feel free to discuss the build, talk about other options, make suggestions or tear it all to shreds. Also, feel free to use anything showcased here in any of your campaigns—and let us know how they work out if you do!
In this showcase, we will embrace the power of music and magic to inspire our party to great acts of heroism in defense of righteousness and to destroy the dark forces of Tiamat. Welcome, Nood, the Legend Maker
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/012/756/554/small/mel-eisvogel-nikko-naicar.jpg
Nood, the Legend Maker
The only constant in the world is change.
BACKGROUND
I was always fascinated by the Heartfire Fanner class.
Full caster progression
Access to all core Bardic Music effects
The unique ability to grant your allies feats as a Bardic Music effect.
While a lot of folks have talked about how nice it is to grant fighter bonus feats on demand, the ability also stipulates that your allies can select any feat that you have. Typically this is a niche ability as you only get a few feats, and with Heartfire Fanner having a two feat tax, surely you will rarely have just the right feat that your allies need, UNLESS!
Enter Chameleon with its floating feat! Whatever the day's adventure is likely to bring, we can now prepare by taking the right feat for the job and share it with our party.
While we are using music to grant feats, why not optimize bardic music to grant a number of other interesting benefits?
While I originally considered using Sublime Chord to get 9th level spells, it proved to be unneccessary as the build can get 17 levels of Wizard progression which is just enough for 9th level prepared casting.
The end result is a Wizard with great social skills and nearly full Bardic music including the ability to grant 3 feats and 9 Bonus Hit Dice!
THE BASICS
Race: Changeling
Build Stub: Wizard 5/Chameleon 2/Heartfire Fanner 5/Sacred Exorcist 1/Virtuoso 7
Alternate class features: Combat Wizard, Changing Wizard Substitution Level 1
Alignment: Any Exalted
Special: 13 or 14 starting Dexterity
Nood, the Legend Maker
Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Notes (Click to Expand)
1st
Wizard 1
Able Learner,
(Wiz). Dodge,
Flaw. Skill Focus(Perform),
Flaw. Appentice [Entertainer]
Dual Specialization,
Summon Familiar
Nood is a kind soul and a bit of a nerd, finding time to study Wizardry with a dual specialization while being a precocous performer. Being more active than a typical Wizard, Nood learns to Dodge attacks instead of Scroll Scribing. As a young child, Nood gets visions about a path of much sacrifice that they can take in which they would sacrifice all of their many forms for a true, more magical form to fight the forces of evil.
Mechanically: Taking the first Changing Wizard Substitution level gives us all the skills we need to enter Chameleon later while also giving us extra spells with Dual Specialization. Transmutation and Illusion are fine schools to focus on! Nood bans Enchantment, Evocation and Necromancy. This build is very feat hungry and works best with Flaws.
2nd
Wizard 2
3rd
Wizard 3
Negotiator
4th
Wizard 4
5th
Wizard 5
(Wiz). Mobility,
Apprentice,
Mentor
Nood graduates their apprenticeship and becomes a mentor themselves, getting even better at their own performance as they train their Appentice
While Morphic Familiar is fun, Nood really needs the extra feat. Mentor grants +2 Competence to Perform.
6th
Chameleon 1
Sidestep Charge
Aptitude Focus 1/day
As Nood's power grows, they want to learn a little bit of everything so that they always have the right tool for the job to uphold justice.
Mechanically: Aptitude Focus greatly expands out toolbox at this level, giving us either second level arcane spells from any list of second level divine spells from any list. Sidestep Charge helps our survivability. We also get Use Magic Device as a class skills with our high Charisma stat.
7th
Chameleon 2
Floating Feat
The floating bonus feat is a lovely ability to have. Nood can now use Scribe Scroll during downtime, pick up Bane Magic for just the right creature type, Master new skills each day with Open Minded, and so much more!
8th
Heartfire Fanner 1
Dodge,
Mobility,
Sidestep Charge,
Focused Performer,
Focused Performance,
Song of the Heart
Bardic music,
Inspired fight (1 feat),
Dragonborn Transformation
Embracing passion, Nood joins the Brotherhood of the Burning Heart learning to blend their magic and music in new and powerful ways. With this newfound power, Nood is finally ready to listen to the whispers of Bahamut and undergo the ritual of transformation to become a Dragonborn and dedicate their passions to ending the spawn of Tiamat.
Mechanically: Nood finally get the ability to share feats with their allies. Nood also finally has Bardic Music, including all the core effects. As Nood becomes Dragonborn, it causes their Dexterity to drop, no longer qualifying for the Dodge feat.
If you no longer qualify for a feat due to the transformation, you lose the feat and immediately select a new feat for which you qualify in its place. You must also replace any feat for which the lost feat was a prerequisite.
Because of this, Nood can immediately trade 3 feats for new feats, chosing ones that support the new Bardic Music ability. Of special note is the Focused Performance feat that allows Nood to spend extra uses of Bardic Music to boost their songs.
By spending one (or more) daily use of Bardic Music and making the indicated Perform check, you may
modify your Bardic Music in any of the following ways (though only one for a given use of Bardic
Music):
Accompaniment – spend 3 uses to perform two Bardic Music abilities simultaneously. Each round you
must make a Perform check vs. DC (20 + highest Perform ranks required) or both abilities end
immediately. You may end one of the Bardic Music abilities at any time and continue the other without
requiring any more Perform checks. Usable with all Bardic Music.
Dramatic Pause – spend 2 uses to stop an ongoing Bardic Music ability for 1 round (in order to cast a
spell, attack, etc.) and then resume it as if you had not stopped. Requires a Perform check vs. DC (20 +
Perform ranks required). Usable with Fascinate, Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness, and Inspire
Heroics.
Harmony – spend 1 uses to make a Bardic Music that normally affects one target instead affect two.
Requires a Perform check vs. DC (20 + Perform ranks required). Usable with Inspire Competence,
Suggestion, and Song of Freedom.
Individual Performance – spend 1 use to make a Bardic Music that normally affects multiple targets
instead only affect one (cannot be you). This target receives 2x the normal bonuses / penalties.
Requires a Perform check vs. DC (15 + Perform ranks required). Usable with Fascinate, Inspire
Courage, Inspire Greatness, and Inspire Heroics.
Projection – spend 1 use to make a Bardic Music have 2x the normal area of effect. Requires a Perform
check vs. DC (10 + Perform ranks required). Usable with Countersong, Fascinate, Inspire Competence,
Inspire Greatness, Inspire Heroics, and Song of Freedom.
Rhythm – spend 1 use to make a Bardic Music that you have been performing for at least 3 round last
two extra rounds after you stop performing. Requires a Perform check vs. DC (10 + Perform ranks
required). Usable with Fascinate, Inspire Competence, Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness, and Inspire
Heroics.
Riveting Performance – spend 1 use to make a Bardic Music affect all target in range that can hear you,
even if they cannot see you. Requires a Perform check vs. DC (15 + Perform ranks required). Usable
with Fascinate and Inspire Competence.
The ability to keep two Bardic Music effects going is pretty awesome, but Individual Performance is the real gem here. You can DOUBLE the effect of your music? So with Song of the Heart, that means that Nood can grant 6 HD with Inspire Greatness! At character level 8! Alternatively a huge boost to attack/damage with Inspire Courage.
You also get the Dragonblood subtype, qualifying you for a bunch of Draconic Feats.
9th
Heartfire Fanner 2
Words of Creation
Magic flare (1 level)
With further study of music and Magic, Nood uncovers the secrets of the Words of Creaton. Also, the ability to help their alies apply +1 Metamagic feats for free. What if Nood's allies don't have a +1 Metamagic feat? Well Nood can grant feats, right? :)
Mechanically: Words of Creation allow for another doubling to the effects of Inspire Courage and Inspire Greatness. This means that as a level 9 character, Nood can use Focused Performance to grant an ally 9 HD, likely doubling their targets's HD to 18. You can also grant large bonuses with Inspire Courage. Also 4th level spells come online here.
10th
Heartfire Fanner 3
Bolster courage,
Inspired fight (2 feats)
2 Feat means that you Nood can start granting feat chains! It can be fun with Martial Study/Martial Stance, but the floating feat is helpful for all sort of other combinations
11th
Heartfire Fanner 4
Magic flare (2 levels)
12th
Heartfire Fanner 5
Dragonfire Inspiration
Prolonged passion,
Inspired fight (3 feats)
Nood can now share 3 feats at a time allowing for more nifty feat combinations to be granted to allies on the spot. Prolonged passion is a fairly unique effect. I don't know of any other way to extend an EX ability. How useful it is will depend on Nood's party, but at the very least, extending short duration buffs is nice. At this level, granting 9 HD pushes the target of your Inspire Greatness into Epic
13th
Sacred Exorcist 1
Exorcism,
Turn Undead
Rooting out corruption from among the brotherhood, Nood becomes a Sacred Exorcist.
Mechanically: Turn Undead gives Nood access to a ton of interesting divine feats that can be picked with the the floating feat and shared with allies. Especially helpful if you have divine casters in your party that could benefit from you sharing those feats.
14th
Virtuoso 1
Persuasive song
Nood becomes a true Virtuoso, continuing to blend music and magic
Mechancially: Focused Performance requires a lot of Bardic Music effects, so we want to take a class that progresses that while not costing any more feats to enter. If you can use the 3.0 Virtuoso that doesn't lose any caster levels, go for that one, but even with the one level loss of the 3.5 Virtuoso, we still get 9th level spells.
15th
Virtuoso 2
Free or Practiced Spellcaster
16th
Virtuoso 3
Sustaining song
Sustaining song is bad at this level, but hey, it's free
17th
Virtuoso 4
18th
Virtuoso 5
Free
Jarring song
Nood learns to use the power of music to interfere with enemy spellcasters.
Mechanically: Having a way to stop enemy spellcasting is nice, especially when enemies might be throwing around 9th level spells.
19th
Virtuoso 6
20th
Virtuoso 7
Song of fury
Nood learns to inspire righeus anger with their music. Also, 9th level spells. Their first spell is certainly Shapechange.
BUILD SUMMARY
All told, how does the build end up?
You are a high Int and Charisma Wizard with 9th level spells and 17 levels that progress your bardic music (with a Vest of Legends, that's more than enough to get the full +4 Bonus from Inspire Courage)
You also have great skills including social skills and UMD
Chameleon: 4 + Int
Heartfire Fanner: 6 + Int
Virtuoso: 6 + Int
Your ability to add 6 bonus HD to your party and/or 9 HD to a single target is a great buff in general, and targeting anyone with 12 HD or more with a focused performance will make them into an Epic character! In addition, extra HD works really well when your party selects Martial Study and/or Martial Stance.
And of course, you can add up to three feats at a time to your party, allowing for great flexibility and adaptability.
In-game you should be on a lookout for items and magical locations that grant feats as even conditional feats will often be helpful to someone in your party.
Of particular interest is Heward’s Hall that grants us any Bardic Music feat after a successful performance. This could allow us to get all relevant Bardic Music feats by level 9.
Metamagic Storm which grants a Metamagic Feat for a year is also helpful. In addition to being useful to us as a Wizard, this allows our floating feat to pick up the many other feats that require another metamagic feat as a prerequisite.
FLOATING AND FIGHTING FEATS TO GRANT
There are so many things you can do with this! Each affected character can select their own feats, so some may chose fighter bonus feats, some may chose your feats and some a mixture of the two.
CRAFTING: When you have downtime and want to invest in tomorrow, Crafting is a great way to accomplish this! Most crafting feats are available to you, and unlike most other characters, you can use them for a day or a week and then switch to something else when you are ready to adventure again! Typically you don't need to grant these to other characters. Good choices include: Scribe Scroll, Craft Wonderous Item, Etch Schema, Craft Contingent Spell
Extra Spell: While you can use this to get new spells to scribe in your spellbook each day, it's particularly helpful with spontaneous casters in your party. Grant Extra spell to your Sorcerer friend in combat and they will be able to pick up exactly the spell they need to end this encounter!
Open Minded: 5 extra skill points that your allies can spend in exactly the skills they need has myriad uses in and out of combat.
Practiced Spellcaster: Of course this is helpful to casters, like you, who lost some caster levels along the way, however, even for a full caster, you can them 6 or 9 HD and then grant them Practiced Spellcaster to increase their caster level to 4 higher than it would have been otherwise. Great both for buffing and more powerful in-combat spells.
Ability Focus: Whether it's a specific spell or another sort of special attack, most of your party will likely have something to apply ability focus to.
Bane Magic: Blasting isn't typically optimal, but as a floating feat, this can be nice.
Fighter bonus feats
Martial Study: Maneuvers are pretty great and everyone can take them treating their initiator level as their initiator level + 1/2 their non-initator level. But wait, we can add extra HD and each one counts for half initiator level? So at level 9, after we double someone's HD, they can then select maneuvers as a 9th level initiator. Congratulations, anyone in your party can be a full initiator after two standard actions! This gets more powerful if you already have an initiator around. That Barbarian 1/Warblade 8/Temp HD 9 can pick up 7th level maneuvers AND recover them to use them multiple times. Note that Martial Study can be taken up to 3 times which is helpful for when maneuvers have prerequisites.
Martial Stance: Stances follow the same general rules as Maneuvers. This becomes extra nice once you can grant multiple feats as you can take Martial Study first to get a Maneuver of the correct discipline to qualify for the stance that you want.
Mage Slayer/Pierce Magical Concealment/Pierce Magical Protection: Normally conditional, but your party members can pick these up whenever that condition is met.
The list of figher bonus feats is pretty large and many of them are situational, but when those situations arise, your allies can grab those feats. Whether it's Tunnel Fighting the one time you are all fighting in cramped quarters or Great Cleave when your fighter finds themselves surrounded by mooks, or Exotic Weapon Proficiency when you found that magic weapon that no one can use, grab whateve works!
SOURCES
Focused Performer, Focused Performance (Dragon #338, p.89)
Heartfire Fanner (Dragon #314)
Combat Wizard, Flaws (Unearthed Arcana)
Changeling, Changeling Wizard (Races of Eberron)
Apprentice, Mentor, Vest of Legends (DMG2)
Able Learner, Chameleon (Races of Destiny)
Sidestep Charge (Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 51)
Song of the Heart (Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 60)
Dragonborn (Races of the Dragon, p. 5)
Dragonfire Inspiration (Dragon Magic, p. 17)
Words of Creation (Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 48)
Virtuoso, Open Minded (Complete Adventurer)
Maneuvers, Martial Study, Martial Stance (Tome of Battle)
Craft Continent Spell, Mage Slayer, Pierce Magical Concealment, Pierce Magical Protection (Complete Arcane)
Bane Magic (Heroes of Horror, p. 119)
Metamagic Storm (Complete Mage)
Locations that grant feats (Complete Scoundrel - mostly)
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And that’s that! Please let me know what you think in the comments