Bard that can buff, heal and tank for (sneak attacking) rookies

[ExLibrisMortis]

I would suggest a bardsader. You'd get more tanky and party-defending stuff that way, including such useful abilities as Iron Guard's Glare and Covering Strike.

Here's a barsader build I made a while back. It assumes a few non-standard rules are in effect, most importantly LA buyoff and lack of alignment restrictions for bards/Chaos Music (or RKVs drop the Wee Jas requirement, then you can be CG). The build starts at ECL 4 minimum, ideally 6+ (due to the LA), unless you use template classes with LA buyoff (which is more cheesy than it already is). The custom magic items aren't required, but that masterwork natural horn is pretty neat (Song & Silence, 3.0 content). And I might've forgotten some other details, just let me know if that's the case.

Spoiler: Barsader

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LG half-battle dragon human
divine bard 4/crusader 1/knight of the raven 5/ruby knight vindicator 10
29/10/16/16/10/16 (32-point-buy, increases in strength)

1) Dragonfire Inspiration
h) Extra Music
3) Song of the Heart
6) Words of Creation
9) Chaos Music
12) Song of the White Raven
15) Lingering Song
18) Extra Granted Maneuver


Equipment
Masterwork natural horn of use-activated inspirational boost and harmonize

Custom item (1 × 1 × 1.5 + 2 × 4) × 2 × 2000 + 100 = 38 100 gp
3 pounds

Vest of legends and +5 resistance

25 000 + 16 000 = 41 000 gp
1 pound

Nightstick

7500 gp
5 pounds

+1 ornate restful lightweight heavy fortification reinforced segmented mithral full plate

6 × 6 × 1000 + 500 + 500 + 1200 + 300 + 9000 + 600 + 1500 = 49 600 gp
20 pounds

+1 ornate swarmstrike white raven razor sharp adamantine greatsword

3 × 3 × 2000 + 1000 + 3000 + 500 + 50 = 22550 gp
8 pounds

+1 soulfire tiger claw (pouncing charge) bracers of armour and +4 dexterity

25 000 + 16 000 + 15 000 × 1.5 = 63 500 gp
1 pound

Inspire Courage
+3 from 14 effective bard levels (4^bard + 1^{crusader, Song of the White Raven} + 4^{Chaos Music} + 5^{vest of legends})
+1 from Song of the Heart
+1 from masterwork natural horn
+1 from inspirational boost
×2 from Words of Creation
+12 total
+12 Dragonfire Inspiration

3d4 nonlethal damage per use from Words of Creation.


Tactics

Round 0	swift standard move	Cast inspirational boost Cast haste Move into position and draw weapon
Round 1	swift swift full-round	Inspire Courage Divine Impetus: Dragonfire Inspiration Fight, or cast creaking cacophony and move
Round 2	swift swift full-round	Command raven Divine Impetus: initiate boost Fight
Round 3	full-round	Fight

I hope it's got some ideas you can use for your character.