Is Fochluchan Lyrist woth it?

[Skjaldbakka]

Or am I better off just playing a Savage Bard with Wild Cohort?

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

I always found the FL's requirements stupidly difficult for such a bizarre pairing of casting classes. I'd say you're better off playing a straight up Druid who invests cross class skills into Perform, but Savage Bard more likely fits the flavor you're after.

[nerulean]

Tada! Everything you need to know about Fochlucan Lyrist.

In short, the answer is it's definitely not optimal and possibly not worth it, but it depends what you want your character to do and how much you care about absolute optimisation, so if you like the flavour then go for it. There are some playable builds on the thread towards the bottom which would fit in perfectly well power wise to any game I've ever played in.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

No, it's not. You have to be level 10, it requires all of your skillpoints, and it advances nothing besides Bardic Knowledge, Music, and the 2 Spellcasting progressions. Which, since you probably only have 1 level of Druid, wouldn't be that good a progression. Get your DM to house-rule Perform as a class skill for Druids, or play a Divine Bard with this variant. You give up far fewer of your Bard powers, and also don't suck nearly as much.

[Ascension]

I love the flavor... the mechanics stink. It's one of my dreams to play one someday, though.

Maybe I should run an "Unoptimized Campaign" sometime and have everybody put together a sloppy-but-fun build.

[nerulean]

Hehe, sounds like my ideal campaign, Ascension.

I have just remembered the prestige class Green Whisperer from a dragon mag I forget the number of. It's pretty much strictly better than Fochlucan Lyrist, but is only five levels.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

I'm pretty sure the Best Fochluchan Lyrist build is going to be something like a Savage Bard/Ur-Priest who made friends with a Blighter and wears a Ring of Evasion.

[Darrin]

Or am I better off just playing a Savage Bard with Wild Cohort?

The full BAB and double caster progression look wonderful and might be ideal for a double-caster-gish, but the shenanigans you have to go through to qualify are insane. The ideal way to get into Fochlucan Lyrist (without resortig to a ring of evasion) is taking two Spelldancer levels for evasion, but with three or four dips into various classes your BAB is too seriously dinged up to do a proper gish. Myself, I prefer the Shape Soulmeld + Open Least Chakra route.

Arcane Hierophant is much easier to qualify for, and advances your animal companion and wildshape. Ok, sure, no full BAB, but on the other hand, "The Dancing Fleshraker Treehugger" = awesomeness on toast.

If you use Green Whisperer (Dragon #311) and Sublime Chord, you can get 9th level Sorcerer and Druid spells:

Druid 3/Bard 2/Green Whisperer 2/Arcane Hierophant 3/Sublime Chord 1/AH +7/GW +2

[nargbop]

SO EXPENSIVE! That is, FL is terribly demanding to get into. Once you get there, you get to continue progressing in a strong caster class (Druid) and a weak one (Bard). PROBLEM! You're level 9 or 10 when you can start taking FL, but have 1 or 2 levels of druid. So, when the rest of your party is off performing Level 6 spells, you're doing level 3 ones.
It's the same problem as Mystic Theurge. You're simply not a top-level character anymore, and can't do the things that a top-level character can do. You can't fight well, you can't play bardic music well, you can't cast well arcane OR divine. It's nice that your animal companion keeps getting stronger, but you're just a weaker character overall than going Savage Bard or Druid-Chameleon.