Weapons grade... Bard

[quiet1mi]

I was comparing classes for my warrior campaign and i came to the bard, and i was thinking, "is there any way to "combatise" the bard with out home brew?" so are there any combat skewed Barb builds that don't just dip into bard and leave...
also the max level we can go to is 6 and it is a 25 point-buy (the Pcs use a 28 because i got tired of spoiling them rotten)

[Hal]

Well, there was a bard/paladin thread a few days ago. Not a bad idea.

[Eldariel]

Warflake Battledancer Dervish, while extremely MAD (just means you'll have to stick to 14s mostly), can be very effective, but if you can't go past 6, Dervish loses much of its appeal (you really want all the levels for that class). Really though, do you want melee or range? Both are doable, while not giving up Bard's boosting functions, but you got to know what you're doing (and consequently, we must know what you want to be doing to be able to help).

[Townopolis]

You could take a 1 level dip into Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian, take Battle Caster (Carcane) and make a falchion-wielding, leap attacking PA guy. Take Song of the Heart (if you have access to eberron) get a badge of valor (MiC) use all or some of your 1st level spell slots for Inspirational Boost (SpC) and pick up a vest of legends (DMG2) and your inspire courage will compensate for the BAB loss and give you a boost to damage (multiplied on crits, thus the falchion) and some will saves to boot. You can also take Lingering Song and inspire heroics on yourself for some HD, which can help greatly against certain spells.

Learn and cast Mirror Image (possibly one of the best defenses in the game), Haste, and Improved Invisibility, wear mithral full plate.

The 1 level dip slows your spellcasting and bardic music progression, but it gets you martial weapon proficiency, medium armor proficiency, one rage a day, and leap attack, so It's handy-dandy as long as you don't mind waiting to level 8 for haste.

...I should really make a stickatar for this build, I love it so much.

[edit]If you have access to Faerun (not sure which book exactly) you can look at the Warrior Skald. 10 levels of full BAB, good Fort, and you get ALL the normal bardic music plus some others. You lose spellcasting though, which can be a little painful, since having as many slots as possible for your defensive spells (and haste) is very, very useful. Forgo Battle Caster if you go this route, 1 feat is probably worth more than being able to cast level 0 and 1 spells in armor, you can just forgo casting Inspirational boost.

Also, look at Sound of Silence in Cscoundrel if you think you'll meet many mages. If you're not taking Warrior Skald, Melodic Casting from Cmage is very, very nice. Frees up one skill and allows you to rebuff without losing your song. Potentially less useful if you take Lingering Song. Again, 1 feat is worth more than 1 more skill (generally). Take Shock Trooper instead, or something.

[Eldariel]

Adding to Lord's feats:

Snowflake Wardance (Frostburn): Burn Bardic Music-use to get Charisma to attack for rounds equal to your Perform. That means a long time, and accurate hits. Reduces MAD by a lot. Fatigued for 10 mins, but hey, the opponents are long dead by then.

Dragonfire Inspiration (Dragon Magic): You can choose to add 1d6 energy damage with Inspire Courage for every +1 you'd normally add to attacks and damage. Sure, the hit will be a bit lower, but the total damage potential grows insanely high; with Draconic Heritage, you can even have Sonic or Acid energy type.

Words of Creation (Book of Exalted Deeds): If you can get it, you'll take it. Doubling the effects of all your Bardic Music including Inspire Courage? Yes, please! Then switch it out with Dragonfire Inspiration and while you'll have some trivial nonlethal damage (that heals fast), the party will be doing something like 4d6 extra sonic/acid damage per hit, including you. And with your Charisma and Str/Dex to attack, you'll be hitting a lot even with medium BAB.

Knowledge Devotion (Complete Champion): Max out some Knowledges, pick up Collector of Stories and go to town with something like +2/+4 to attacks and damage against all opponents. Made of pure win.

[Solo]

I hear good things about Ijatsu focus.

[Townopolis]

Words of Creation is always good. If I get to 18, and BoED is allowed, I always take. At that point 3d4 nonlethal nets me +4 or more to my inspire courage.

When using PA with Leap attack, each +1 from inspire courage adds +3 to damage (allows you to PA for 1 more point and still hit) on a charge. With the bonus damage this means +4 damage per point of inspire courage. Having a Keen Falchion means that 1 out of 4 swings will double that. Each 1d6 adds an average of 3.5 damage to a hit. Therefore, if you're using a 2-hander and PA, basic inspire is better.

Snowflake Wardance doesn't work with 2-handers, only 1 handed slashing (and no shield). Still, you can just use a scimitar instead of a falchion if you want to use it.

Now...
If you're going a DW route, such as dervish I believe is, you will most likely want to take dragonfire inspiration. Use one of the draconic subraces from dragon magic (same book as the feat). You can also spend 3 feats to get it all (dragon touched gives you draconborn or w/e subtype and you qualify for draconic feats as a sorcerer. dragonfire inspiration, and draconic heritage lets you make it sonic). Snowflake wardance is also a definite want for this, since it works with your scimitars.

With TWF, OTWF (DW scimitars), Snowflake, and Dragonfire Inspiration, you should be a mean cuisinart. with badge, vest, and spells, you should be getting about +4d6 fire damage on each hit just from your bard (with as few as 3 bard levels). Pair that with dervish stuff to be mean. Take the other two feats from dragon magic if you think you may run into lots of fire resistance.

I'm not really that familiar with how to work a Dervish though.

[Noir-Neko]

I think it was called a Deathsinger... Basically a Necromancer/Bard


Correction, "Dirgesinger" Page 43 of D&D's "Libris Mortis"

[Eldariel]

Words of Creation is always good. If I get to 18, and BoED is allowed, I always take. At that point 3d4 nonlethal nets me +4 or more to my inspire courage.

When using PA with Leap attack, each +1 from inspire courage adds +3 to damage (allows you to PA for 1 more point and still hit) on a charge. With the bonus damage this means +4 damage per point of inspire courage. Having a Keen Falchion means that 1 out of 4 swings will double that. Each 1d6 adds an average of 3.5 damage to a hit. Therefore, if you're using a 2-hander and PA, basic inspire is better.

Actually, Leap Attack doubles everything so +5. However, if you have enough other boosts to hit (such as Shock Trooper), you can PA for full anyways and therefore Inspire Courage-bonuses would just add extra 5% to hit. Also, Inspire Courage is Morale-bonus, so Heroism-spells give the same point bonus, and thus would overlap with Inspire Courage but stack with Dragonfire Inspiration.

TWF has the issue that it's very feat intensive, but with few level feat dips (Martial Rogue, for example), you can pull it off. Of course, Flaws work too.

[Hal]

I'm surprised no one likes Avenging Strike (ToB).

Add Cha bonus to attack and damage rolls? That sounds perfect for a bard. Can be done a number of times each day equal to the Cha bonus.

[Swooper]

I've seen Slippers of Battledancing praised on just about every bard thread I've read, but I have no idea what they do. I can't find them in my MIC - where are they from?

[Draz74]

Thing about Avenging Strike is that it only works against Evil Outsiders.

Slippers of Battledancing are from the DMG II and add your Charisma bonus to your attack and damage as long as you move 10 feet in the round.

[Townopolis]

With regards to 2-handers and Dragonfire Inspiration.

I stand corrected, on the other hand, there are still a few reasons I wouldn't necessarily recommend Dragonfire Inspiration for 2-hander builds.

The problem with using Heroism for the morale bonuses is that it's another thing you're using spell slots for. Bardic Music attempts are much more plentiful.

With a decently-buffed Inspire Courage effect, you raise your final BAB from +15/+(too low to hit reliably) to +20/+15/+(too low to hit reliably) or higher. This is in the case of someone using Shock Trooper. If you're hitting for decent damage, this can easily double your kill rate (or increase it by 50% once you have haste).

And finally, the same complaint that TWF suffers from, it's feat intensive (unless you just take the one for fire damage). You spend 4 feats on your normal ubercharger build (PA, LA, IBR, ST) leaving you 4 more as a human, assuming you're human. There are a number of stand-alone feats that will help you a lot, most of which have been mentioned. Now, if none of these appeal to you, then this last issue is negated, but I still believe a THFer can spend their feats and spell slots better.

~

One thing you may also want to look at is what the rest of the party will be doing, and how much your music will benefit them, since it is an AoE buff. Dragonfire Inspiration really ramps up in effectiveness the more attacks people have, whereas basic inspire maintains a relatively flat trajectory.

[Telok]

Something I've been working on in my off time is a build for a bard that uses the bardic music to power magic while fighting.

Race is human, gnome, or dwarf. Won't need more than a 16 Charisma for the build to get the sixth level spells. First two feats are either Sudden Still Spell and Still Spell or Still Spell and Heighten Spell. The third feat is Metamagic Song from Races of Stone. Then you take a level of Fighter. Actually anything with full armor and weapon proficiency will do, Crusader might do very nicely too.

At this point you can throw off spells wearing heavy armor, if you took Heighten Spell you can toss Blindness at wizards as a 9th level spell. You're using your bardic music to negate the metamagic spell level increases.

From here on out it's just a question of what type of fighting you want to do. Charger build, mounted build, archery. Continuing in bard is a decent choice I think, it allows you to build bardic music and spell levels giving you more metamagic uses and spells.