Quote Originally Posted by Frosty View Post
Badge of Valor is from MiC most likely. Can you list the sources for the other stuff? I've never created a bard before and I'd really like to at least know the basics behind a one that's effective in melee and also boosting other peoples' melee.
Song of the Heart is in the Ebberon Campaign Sourcebook. Its available as both a feat and as an alt class feature (giving up inspire competance.....WAY worth it!).

Dragonfire Inspiration converts your +x/+x inspire courage into a straight +xd6 fire damage. Its in Dragon Magic. Alternatively, if you have draconic heratige of some sort (dragonwraught kobald, dragonblooded) then you gain the energy type of your ancestor (steel and mist? dragons are best for sonic type energy damage).

Words of Creation is a feat from BoED which requires you to be an exalted character. If you take xd4 subdual damage (where x is the required ranks in Perform required to use the ability (IE 3 for Inspire Courage). It doubles all of the bonuses from the various bard songs. Most people debate what gets included in this doubling, but I personally think it only applies to base bard song. I honestly don't think this feat is worth the hassle of exalted status (why be a bard if you can't play pranks?). From a purely optimizer PoV, this feat is a must have.

Badge of Valor is indeed in MIC, in the back with the set items. The set is intended for a Bard/Marshall blend, but Badge is great for a pure bard as well. You activate the Badge as an immediate action to increase the effects of your Inspire Courage ability by 1.

Inspirational Boost is a swift action Bard1 spell in Spell Compendium (a reprint from Comp Adv??). Casting it before beginning a Inspire Courage increases the song by 1. The trick with that is to cast Insp Boost, then Inspire Courage, then at the end of your turn, trip the Badge (uses next turns swift action). This nets you a nice +2 to your song enough times per day that it isn't an issue usually.

Another item I didn't mention is the Vest of Legends. Its in DMGII and gives a +5 to your effective bard level to determine your music abilities. This nets you the max rank of Inspire at level 15 instead of 20, although I don't know how it would scale into epics (at level 20, you'd Inspire as a level 25 bard??). It also has some other small benefits such as bonuses to perform checks, which is great with Melodic Casting, the feat that lets you cast while singing and swap perform with concentration checks.