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SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 09:52 AM
I'd like to get some thoughts on this character that I start playing this sunday, including the quick and dirty backstory I made for him.

Note: DM ruled we all get one Faerun Regional Feat for free based on our starting region, mine is Cosmopolitan.

Note 2: Stats are done using a modified 4d6-drop lowest.


Jaer'nimavel Connell, or Jaren as he is known around town, is an interesting character. If asked, he would tell you that he is a simple musician trying to find his place in the world. He is much more than that, though. To find out who he is we must first explore where he comes from. Jaren is the result of a tryst between his father Aaron Connell, a merchant sailor, and his mother Tashin'la, a sea elf cleric of Deep Sashelas. His father's ship had crashed on a remote island in the inner sea after a bout of bad weather and his mother was part of an investigative contingent sent by the sea elves to find out the cause of the sinking debris. The two of them hit it off and were romantically involved for the few weeks to repair the ship and set off back to Waterdeep. Nine months later, Tashin'la made a commotion on the docks of Waterdeep as she emerged from the water carrying an infant and asking for the merchant Aaron. He was shocked, to say the least, but accepting to his newborn son.

Young Jaren worked on his father's boat for a short time, he always seemed more comfortable on the water. Not to mention the fact that his superior swimming skills and water breathing made him an ideal ship-mate. He spent most of his time on the deck of the ship looking far off to the horizon playing a variety of musical instruments to pass the hours away.

His mother visited infrequently, but not out of disinterest, it was just a major undertaking to travel from the sea-elf communities in the deep sea to the port city. She loved Jaren very much and was often giving Aaron money to provide for his schooling. As time progressed, however, the visits become further and further apart. Weeks became months, months became years. By his 18th birthday, Jaren had gone 3 years without seeing his mother.

His father did like any sensible man does at his age, he found himself a wife and opened a shop in the merchant quarter of Waterdeep selling supplies for sailing and craft. The sea life was too chaotic for Aaron and he wanted to raise a proper family. Jaren now had a step mother who lavished adoration upon him and a set of twin sisters 8 years his younger. Being different from them never bothered Jaren at all; he was part of the family regardless of his being a half-elf.

After graduating from New Olamn at the age of 20, Jaren has set out to become what all young bards do: the world's greatest musician. He still sends money back to his father's shop to help care for them and he often writes to his sisters to ensure they stay out of trouble.

In a time when there are dragonslayers and mages of immeasurable power, there is only one way to get proper recognition… to go out adventuring alongside them and earn your fortune the hard way. And that's exactly what he did.

-

Half-Elf (Aquatic) Bard 3

Name: Jaer'nimavel Connell (Goes by Jaren)
Region: Waterdeep
Age 20
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 150lbs
Eyes: Aquamarine
Hair: Blue-Black

STR 12 DEX 16 CON 15 INT 16 WIS 12 CHA 17

HP: 20
AC 18 (5 armor, 3 dex), touch 13, flatfooted 14
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30ft / Swim 20 ft (can breathe water)

Fortitude: +3
Reflex: +6
Will: +4

Masterwork Shortbow [Mighty +1] +6 atk 1d6+1 dmg
Longsword +4 atk 1d8+1 dmg

Feats: Cosmopolitan [Regional], Water Adaptation, Versatile Performer

{table]Skill | Ranks | Attribute | Misc | Total
Diplomacy| 6 | 3 | 4 | 13
Use Magic Device | 6 | 3 | | 9
Perform | 6 | 3 | 2 | 11
Tumble | 6 | 3 | | 9
Professon (Sailor) | 1 | 1 | | 2
Knowledge (History) | 5 | 3 | | 8
Knowledge (Local) | 1 | 3 | | 4
Knowledge (Arcana) | 1 | 3 | | 4
Spellcraft | 4 | 3 | | 7
Sense Motive | 6 | 1 | 2 | 9
Bluff | 6 | 3 | 2 | 11
Gather Info | 4 | 3 | 2 |9
Swim | 2 | 1 | 8 | 11[/table]


Spells Per Day: 0 - 3, 1 - 2
Spells Known:
0-
Dancing Lights
Detect Magic
Message
Prestidigitation
Summon Instrument
Stick

1-
Cure Light Wounds
Inspirational Boost: Swift spell: +1 to inspire courage abilities
Ironthunder Horn: 30' Cone, all in area must make reflex save or fall prone.


Item Cost Weight
MW Longsword 315 4

MW Composite Short Bow [+1] 475 2
-Arrows [40] 2 6
MW Chain Shirt +1 1000 25

MW Musical Instrument 100 3
Spell Component Pouch (x2) 10 4
Backpack 2 2
Scroll Case (x2) 2 1
Flask 0.03 1.5
Parchment (4 sheets) 0.8 0
Ink 8 0
Inkpen 0.1 0
Trail Rations (4 days) 2 4
Alchemist's Fire (x2) 40 2
Sunrod (x2) 4 2
Tindertwig 1 0
Artisan's Tools 5 5
Entertainer's Outfit 0 4
Traveler's Outfit 1 5

Block and Tackle 5 5

Scroll of…
Cure Light Wounds [Arcane] x2 100
Expeditious Retreat 25
Feather Fall 25
Joyful Noise 25
Remove Fear 25
Silent Image 25
Comprehend Languages 25
Cure Moderate Wounds [Arcane] 200


Potion Of…
Magic Weapon 50
Protection from Evil 50

Cart 15
Light Horse 75
Feed (5 days) 0.25


(Regional Item: MW Chain Shirt +50gp... I upgraded the chain shirt to +1 for just the 1000gp it would cost)

Edit: Changed to spoiler tags to negate the wall of text.

BardicDuelist
2008-03-31, 10:12 AM
Not bad. I would pick up Joyful Noise as soon as possible, as it is incredibly useful at stopping the only thing that negates you.

Where are you planning to go with it though? Your skill selection eliminates almost all PrCs. If you plan on staying straight bard, everything is good (although I would have grabbed Bluff). If not, you may want to re-work it. I assume the craft musical instruments is for flavor. Personally, I'd drop it, and rewrite it so that instead of learning to craft them, you learned to summon them.

Overall, a good character, with a nice backstory that is reminiscant but avoids too many cliches. The character has clear but open motivation, which is great for a DM to see, as he can write adventures without catering specifically to some part of your backstory but also include things which have potential to develop your character.

It's solid. Not cheesy (which really has to be tried for at third level, admittedly), but not weak. As long as your group makes characters in a similar way, everything will be fine.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 10:20 AM
Yeah, the Craft is for flavor... Same with the one rank of profession sailor.

As for where I'm going, I'll be putting skill points into Spellcraft to get Melodic Casting and step into Lyric Thaumaturge at character level 9 (got plenty of time)

Bluff is also on the list of things to increase.

Is Joyful Noise a spell? I know it negates silence, I just don't know where it's from.

As for the rest of the party (they've played once before, I'm coming in on the second session)... Shield Dwarf Fighter 3, Sun Elf Conjurer 3, Illumian Rogue 1/Dragon Shaman 2, Human Fighter 1/Cleric 2, Human (I think) Ranger 1/Scout 2

It's not the most optimized party... but we tend to mix our cheese with role play quite a bit... and we like trying new things.

BardicDuelist
2008-03-31, 10:32 AM
Yeah, the Craft is for flavor... Same with the one rank of profession sailor.

As for where I'm going, I'll be putting skill points into Spellcraft to get Melodic Casting and step into Lyric Thaumaturge at character level 9 (got plenty of time)

Bluff is also on the list of things to increase.

Is Joyful Noise a spell? I know it negates silence, I just don't know where it's from.

As for the rest of the party (they've played once before, I'm coming in on the second session)... Shield Dwarf Fighter 3, Sun Elf Conjurer 3, Illumian Rogue 1/Dragon Shaman 2, Human Fighter 1/Cleric 2, Human (I think) Ranger 1/Scout 2

It's not the most optimized party... but we tend to mix our cheese with role play quite a bit... and we like trying new things.

Well, I'd spend the skillpoints and go for the Virtuoso/Sublime Chord combo if you're going to go bard for eight levels (lv 9-Virtuoso, lv 10-Sublime Chord, lv 11-20-Virtuoso), as it gives better songs and better casting. LT is still a decent PrC, but it's normally used to fill the gap between Bard 6 (when you get suggestion as a song) and level nine (when you take Virtuoso).

For me, it is basically noted that bard is an eight level class. The other twelve are Virtuoso and Sublime Chord. They are the only PrCs allowed in my group, simply because no-one in the party wanted my bard to change when we decided to ban PrCs.

Also, maybe halving the skills in the two knowledge skills you have now and picking up Knowledge (Arcana) would be a better idea. If it were me, I'd drop both of them and spend the skill points elsewhere because Bardic Knowledge does practically the same thing.

Joyful Noise is a spell. It is on page 127 of the Spell Compendium.

Oh, and ask your DM if being a Half Aquatic Elf can qualify you for the half-elf racial substitution level in Races of Destiny. Soothing Voice is so much better than Countersong.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 10:39 AM
Those are actually the bonuses in the skills, not the ranks... I'd have to pull out the actual sheet to get individual ranks (History has 5 to get the +2 to bardic knowledge, Local also has 5 ranks... for more of the flavor thing)

know (Arcana) is a good idea.

Personally, I don't think Sublime Chord fits the character... I've been looking at it for the past few days and it just doesn't "click" with me.

Virtuoso, on the other hand, was my first choice.

Maybe a mix of Bard 8/Lyric Thaum 5/Virtuoso 7?

Edit: I did take the racial substitution for Soothing Voice... :)

BardicDuelist
2008-03-31, 10:43 AM
If you don't want to go Sublime Chord (I threw the flavor out the window, but I can understand why you wouldn't want to use it), your build is a decent one. It has the advantage (as do most Virtuoso builds) of being very flavorful for almost every bard, and specifically yours. I mean, what bard doesn't want to be the greatest performer ever? You said it (or somthing like it) yourself.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 10:47 AM
Thank you for taking the time to read it, I appreciate the feedback.

I realize I'm semi-gimping myself by not taking the optimal feats and classes... but it's not a game with a ton of optimized people running around and owning everything.

This is against my nature... I feel like I'm doin' it wrong by going with a fully flavorful character. Though I'm hoping to enhance the parties role playing. The fighter and wizard are there to enchance the Roll-playing. :)

BardicDuelist
2008-03-31, 11:08 AM
Thank you for taking the time to read it, I appreciate the feedback.

I realize I'm semi-gimping myself by not taking the optimal feats and classes... but it's not a game with a ton of optimized people running around and owning everything.

This is against my nature... I feel like I'm doin' it wrong by going with a fully flavorful character. Though I'm hoping to enhance the parties role playing. The fighter and wizard are there to enchance the Roll-playing. :)

Eh, I always go with the most optimized I can get with a build and then cut it back for flavor until I find a happy medium. You're not doing it wrong by going with fully flavorful. Characters don't have to be teh uber. Do what makes the game fun for you.

As long as you have a decent spell selection (I do my best to avoid spells that require saves because your DCs will be lower), are creative, and get suggestion as a song, your bard will be powerful enough. Heck, diplomacy can (but isn't always) be more powerful than all class features put together if played by RAW as it is basically an enchantment effect that requires no save.

It's a good character. Now go play.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 11:15 AM
Here are my ideas for the build...

Build 1: Bard 8/Lyric Thaumaturge 10/<Something> 2
Build 2: Bard 8/Lyric Thaumaturge 5/Virtuoso 7
Build 3: Bard 6/Lyric Thaumaturge 4/Virtuoso 10
Build 4: Bard 10/Lyric Thaumaturge 10
Build 5: Bard 10/Virtuoso 10

... All very similar... but very different at the same time.

I think I'll just take it one step at a time... we're only level 3 now and play every other week. It will be a while before I need to decide.

Thanks again!

nerulean
2008-03-31, 11:20 AM
Looks like a nice, flavourful character! Well done for avoiding both dramatic angst in the backstory and ridiculous cheese in the stats.

I can't help but notice you're missing Bluff. That's going to hurt, as it'll severely limit your role as party face which, since you haven't powered up combat or bardsong, is probably going to be the place where you shine the most in the party. I'd suggest losing ranks in Craft (most musical instruments are probably only about DC10 to make) and Swim (since with your strength you only need Swim 9 to be able to swim in stormy seas all the time, as you can take 10 in any circumstance).

Unless your DM always throws enemies at you who know exactly how to counter you, just get a scroll of Joyful Noise. Distort Speech is quite nice mage shutdown and is worth considering. Silent Image is a spell of infinite use with a little creativity behind it.

Scrolls of Feather Fall, Expeditious Retreat and Charm Person both strike me as a little odd, not rules-wise but common sense-wise. Removing Fear probably shouldn't be your job. Get more Prot Evil, it's just good: it more or less makes you immune to mental control.

Check with your DM about the horse and cart. It's useful, but it may get in the way of the adventure and just get forgotten about.

As for when you level up, Melodic Casting is just a plain good feat. Every bard should have it. Think about Song of the Heart too - it's from an Eberron book, but there's no reason it should be setting-specific. Get the spell Miser's Envy. It won my bard an unfair amount of encounters that should have destroyed us.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 11:30 AM
Ok, lower ranks in swim (I do get a +8 racial to it anyway... and have a swim speed... )

Lose the craft.

Put those into Bluff.

Those scrolls were more of a "looking through the list of scrolls and picking ones that would have limited use, but when you need them... you -really- need them"

Is Joyful Noise a level 1 spell? I can switch out the scroll of charm person for it.

nerulean
2008-03-31, 11:37 AM
That's generally a good way of looking at scrolls. For when you get a little more cash on hand, there are lots of little items in the Magic Item Compendium that can help out where you've currently got scrolls doing the job - things like Tokens of Feather Falling that activate automatically when you'd take damage from a fall, and Eternal Wands that let you use a low level spell twice a day and are very cheap.

Joyful Noise is indeed 1st level, and is more likely to save your life, or at least a considerable amount of frustration, than Charm Person. If it's looking useful then Charm should go on your actual spell list, but as BardicDuellist said further up, your Diplomacy check should start doing the job instead pretty shortly.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 11:43 AM
Ok, did a little tweaking... how does this look?

Total Ranks: 54
-
Diplomacy - 6
Use Magic Device - 6
Perform - 6
Tumble - 6
Profession (Sailor) - 1
Knowledge (History) - 5
Sense Motive - 6
Bluff - 6
Swim - 2
Gather Info - 6
Know (Arcana) - 2
Know (Local) - 2

nerulean
2008-03-31, 11:48 AM
That'll probably serve you a lot better in an actual game situation. I really love having flavourful characters, but that's always going to come out more in roleplay than in statistics - and you really haven't sacrificed much there at all, it's still a fun, slightly quirky and very personalised set of skills.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 11:49 AM
I -could- lower Gather Info 2 ranks and put those into spellcraft (just so I can make the rolls at this point)... especially since I get that +2 back from Cosmopolitan.

nerulean
2008-03-31, 11:52 AM
That might work. You'll often find that Gather Information gets boosts from roleplaying if you do it well. You could also drop a point from each of your knowledge skills - you only need 1 to be able to use them as trained, and the difference between +1 on a roll and +2 really isn't that much.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 11:55 AM
Re-do #2.

Total Ranks: 54
-
Diplomacy - 6
Use Magic Device - 6
Perform - 6
Tumble - 6
Profession (Sailor) - 1
Knowledge (History) - 5
Sense Motive - 6
Bluff - 6
Swim - 2
Gather Info - 4
Know (Arcana) - 1
Know (Local) - 1
Spellcraft - 4

(Wow, he's really turning out to be a skill monkey. Hooray for bards!)

nerulean
2008-03-31, 12:29 PM
Skill monkey is the way to go! It's fun to have a little talent in every single situation. If that skillset looks good to you then I wouldn't change it. It's certainly fully functional.

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 12:38 PM
It's bad that the voice in the back of my mind is screaming "TAKE FIVE RANKS IN KNOWLEDGE NOBILITY! PLUS TWO DIPLOMACY!"

I tried to tell it that knowledge of nobility doesnt fit the character... and he wanted to know when that made a difference.

:smalltongue:

nerulean
2008-03-31, 01:15 PM
Hehehe, indeed. There are so many ways to cheese out that skill. Whatever you do, don't google the diplomancer: you'll be overloaded with things your munchkinnier side wants you to do. :smalltongue:

SamTheCleric
2008-03-31, 01:39 PM
Updated the build with the new skills as recomended by nerulean and BardicDuelist.

{table]Skill | Ranks | Attribute | Misc | Total
Diplomacy| 6 | 3 | 4 | 13
Use Magic Device | 6 | 3 | | 9
Perform | 6 | 3 | 2 | 11
Tumble | 6 | 3 | | 9
Professon (Sailor) | 1 | 1 | | 2
Knowledge (History) | 5 | 3 | | 8
Knowledge (Local) | 1 | 3 | | 4
Knowledge (Arcana) | 1 | 3 | | 4
Spellcraft | 4 | 3 | | 7
Sense Motive | 6 | 1 | 2 | 9
Bluff | 6 | 3 | 2 | 11
Gather Info | 4 | 3 | 2 |9
Swim | 2 | 1 | 8 | 11[/table]

SamTheCleric
2008-04-03, 11:13 AM
Well, due to a family emergency on the DM's part, I have an extra two weeks to perfect this.

And maybe find some artwork.

Is Magic of Faerun 3.5? Looking into the various Harper prestige classes... seeing as it seems like every bard in Faerun becomes a harper.

Izar Goldbranch
2008-04-03, 03:31 PM
This is against my nature... I feel like I'm doin' it wrong by going with a fully flavorful character. Though I'm hoping to enhance the parties role playing. The fighter and wizard are there to enchance the Roll-playing. :)

*smacks Sam over the head with his axe*

Look me in the eye when you say that!

(I'm the one playing the Shield Dwarf fighter in the aforementioned home game)

:)

I'm going straight fighter, how in the world is that going to enhance the Roll-playing? :D

I'll power attack and then hope the thing attacks me ;)

Truely, though, this group doesnt need an excuse to Roleplay. We do it even when we're not supposed to..thats why our sessions always run long :)

BardicDuelist
2008-04-03, 08:59 PM
Well, due to a family emergency on the DM's part, I have an extra two weeks to perfect this.

And maybe find some artwork.

Is Magic of Faerun 3.5? Looking into the various Harper prestige classes... seeing as it seems like every bard in Faerun becomes a harper.

Nearly every harper class isn't worth it. Really.

SamTheCleric
2008-04-03, 09:02 PM
I'm noticing that now that I read through them. Silly harpers!

And.. Izar... Fighters Roll Dice!

... But don't hit me with your axe. You have the potential to kill me in one attack. o_O