Gnome Bard Ideas

[Person_Man]

One of my players wants help coming up with a Gnome Bard. But he's not sure about exactly what he wants to do. So I thought I'd ask the board for ideas.

Here are the guidelines:

Must be a Gnome

Must be ECL 14: This is a one shot campaign, so don't worry if the build isn't viable before or after that ECL.

150,000 gp

All 3.5 books are allowed. Though please try to avoid setting specific books like Eberron, Forgotten Realms, etc.

Must primarily be a Bard-centric build. Feel free to use any Bard-ish prestige class(es), but multi-classing should be kept to a minimum.

This is a relatively inexperienced player who will be gaming with a group of veterans. So ideally, the build will be useful and capable of holding its own but simple to manage. The player is particularly worried about being overshadowed completely overshadowed in combat. But he wants to be a Bard, and wants the Skills, spells, and flexibility that it entails.

Thanks in advance for any and all ideas.

[cupkeyk]

How about the Dragonfire Inspiration Dual wielding bard build?

[Darrin]

How about the Dragonfire Inspiration Dual wielding bard build?

Only 3 levels of bard, so that's not really a bard build. Also, while I love ToB, if it's for an inexperienced player, you'll probably want to avoid explaining how maneuvers work and keeping track of all the extra bookkeeping.

I'd suggest a standard sublime chord gish:

Bard 4/Fighter 2/Abjurant Champion 3/Eldritch Knight 1/Sublime Chord 2/Abjurant Champion 2.

(Although the skill requirements make this a bit difficult to pull off without at least a 14 Int.)

Feats:
1. Melodic Casting
3. Snowflake Wardance
6. Combat Casting
9. Arcane Strike
12. Extra Music

[playswithfire]

Paladin 2/Bard 12 with Devoted Performer.

BAB 11, so gets the three iterative attacks

Cha bonus to all the saves and martial weapon proficiency so he can get a Harmonizing crystal echo blade from MIC (+6 damage while inspiring courage and the sword'll sing for him for 10 rounds)

Far from optimal, but he's LG so he can get into Words of Creation and get some nice inspiring happening (toss in vest of legends, maybe).

[Person_Man]

Multiclassing builds aside, its clear that even a Bard 14 can be a melee monster. It's pretty easy for to get 26ish + Cha by ECL 14, assuming you dump all your stat points from levels in it and buy a Cloak of Charisma. I'm guessing there are other spells and items that could probably push it into the 30ish range, though you'd have to be careful about stacking rules.

With Snowflake Wardance, that's +8ish to-hit, on top of your normal Str (or Dex, if you Finesse) bonus to hit.

Inspire Courage + Words of Creation will give you another +6 to hit and damage, which can be boosted to +8 with Badge of Valor and the Inspirational Boost spell.

Now all you need to do is find a source of damage. You can invest in a powerful magic sword. Or you can be a Stonehunter Gnome (or any other Dragonblooded Race) and pick up Dragonfire Inspiration, and trade your +6ish to hit and damage for 6d6ish fire damage to everyone in your party using weapons.

Not uber, but pretty impressive for 3 feats. And he still has all his other Skills and spells, so its not a one trick pony.

[Keld Denar]

Whirling Blade is a bard spell. Any opinions of going bard4/paladin4/dragon discipleX? Jack up str and cha as high as they go (DD adds stats to both) and get a nice 2hander, like a greatsword or glaive. With bardsong and Divine Might including 1.5x str and PA, the damage can be pretty nice. Words of Creation is nice, as is a Badge of Valor and a Vest of Legends. Inspirational Boost also boosts up bardsongs multiplier. Take Mobile Spellcasting to be able to full move to line up shots. Bless Weapon autoconfirms crits and is a nice 1st level pally spell. Get a casting glove with a Lesser Rod of Quicken (or 3) and cast multiple WBs in a round. Buy/Craft a dozen or so Momento Magica 2's to recall your spent WBs after battle.\

Any thoughts?

[Wordmiser]

Rough outline of a simple, flexible Bard build:

Bard 7/Virtuoso (CV) 3/Sublime Chord (CA) 2/Virtuoso 2

Take the Bardic Knack variant (it's one less random class feature to track; just write it down and be done with it.)

Feats:
1:Melodic Casting (CM)
3:Snowflake Wardance (FB)
6:Lyric Spell (CM)
9:Arcane Strike (CW)
12:Song of the Heart (ECS)

Music:
Bardic Music Uses (13/day):
Inspire Courage +4
Fascinate/Suggestion
Countersong
Inspire Competence
Song of Arcane Power

Virtuoso Music Uses (5/day):
Persuasive Song
Sustaining Song
Jarring Song

Equipment:
Badge of Valor and Constitution +4 (MIC) 17,200
Vest of Legends (DMG2) 16,000
+3 Harmonizing Crystal Echoblade (MIC) 34,310
Circlet of Persuasion and Charisma +6 (MIC) 40,500
...other stuff...

A Bard Caster level is intentionally abandoned in order to avoid dealing with two sets of fourth level spells (which would just be confusing).

Even though Virtuoso isn't the best mechanically, the player is new and he wants to play a Bard. This probably means he wants to play the archetype (rather than play as a direct melee combatant). Virtuoso opens some musical options for the player, without severely gimping him.

I would focus most of the spells on group-buffs (Invisibility Sphere, Haste, Mass Fly) maybe tossing in "Assay SR" and an "Orb of Energy" spell.

[cupkeyk]

The idea is less dependent on bards actually.

A kobold or a dragonborn bard with dragonfire inspiration can use the tactic. I am personally not in favor of self buffage.