Post by FunkySwerve on Feb 16, 2008 4:57:59 GMT
Here's a simple, up to date battle bard build. It is designed as a frontline fighter that keeps those next to it upright, and is a dex tank. It lays out the core build and feats, and sets out the options for filling out feats.
Human Shard
Starting stats (Subrace) [Final With Gear and Double Demi]
Str 8 (8) [24]
Dex 16 (20) [66]
Con 12 (16) [32]
Int 14 (14) [30]
Wis 14 (14) [30]
12 (16) [32]
The other alternate startup uses 15 dex, and 14 con. The setup you start with depends on what and how many feats you want.
As far as weapons go, use a monk weapon for the better attack progression. I would recommend nunchukus if you have them, but I'm using kamas.
I would go either dex or wis artifact, whichever you have. Wis is nice for the fear immunity, and taking the pally level to get it is pricey, costing you a point of ac and a point of skill on your bard song. The dex arti offers you both ac and ab, but the immunity is so-so, you can get it simply by packing a spare UR ring, Memnoch's Keeper, which has 3 uses of UEF, if you lack a cleric in your party. Much cheaper than a pally level.
For pandects, I think either Craft Armor, Craft Weapon, or Sneak Attack are all suitable, for either ab, ac, or damage. Whichever you can get your hands on, should help you.
Skills:
Bards have a huge number of attractive skills, including the following:
Tumble
Discipline
Use Magic Device
Taunt
Bluff
Listen
Perform
Parry
Concentration
Heal
Pick Pockets
Craft Armor
Craft Weapon
You can max up to eight of them, or divvy up your points.
I prefer to max out:
Tumble (stop at 60 points at level 57)
Discipline (max at 63)
Perform (max at 63)
Parry (max at 63)
Listen (max at 63)
I would also max either Taunt or Bluff. Bluff, if you want to nerf boss attacks on your party, Taunt if you want to drop acs on pretty much everything. Bluff also works on everything, but I prefer Taunt most of the time, as you usually don't need the added defense against anything else but Pit Fiends and Malebranches, which casters casting bigby's at will want taunted anyway. Since you can only use one or another on a given target at the same time, taking both is a bit wasteful.
That leaves 2 skills left that we can max. I like Craft Armor for the extra bit of ac, since it creates leeway enough in the ac department so that you can take epics. This build gets 134 without girding, and I double demi'd a build that had 4 less and less conceal to boot (no Illus LSF), so it definitely isn't necessary, but it's helpful.
For the last, I split between between taking 34 UMD, 1 point of Pick Pocket, and dump the rest into Heal for Healing Circle regen.
Concentration is nice, but you can simply cast Ghostly Visage and buff in safety if you go down - there's no other reason to cast right next to an enemy, unless you are unlucky with a Healing Circle. I had it on my last bard, and it will play a larger role in tanking in later areas, but for now just isn't worth it, as the only check in the hells (para Lemure) is easily met with the concentration on standard bard gear.
Pick Pockets is also very nice, but again is not of primary importance in deep hells.
Likewise, a few added points of ab from Craft Weapon (you can easily get up to 80) is also nice, but I preferred Heal as being more party-oriented.
Core Feats:
These are the feats you simply cannot go without, in my opinion:
Pre-Epic:
Curse Song
Artist (gets you to the critical 60 mark in bardsong)
Weapon Finesse (the below are all core dexer combat feats)
Weapon Focus
Improved Critical
Two Weapon Fighting
Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Ambidexterity
Epic:
ESkillF Perform (without this you will not hit the needed 120 perform in the hells, especially on deep runs)
Epic Weapon Focus (again all pretty core offense and defense)
Epic Prowess
Armor Skin
Legendary:
Legendary Weapon Focus
Legendary Spell Focus Illusion (use a book to get epic - this is to boost your conceal back to full value in spite of your splash, and also gives the very nice Epic, Possum's Farce)
You should notice immediately that this leaves a lot of leeway in feats, with 14 free.
Most of those should go to maxing out Great Dex at 9 or 10, depending on whether you started odd or even. The rest, you can devote to epics, and possibly Toughness.
I took:
10 Epic Great Dexterity (I used all my bard bonus feats for this, to keep feat selection simple)
Toughness
Spellf, GSpellF, and ESpellFocus in Transmutation (gives Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, a KEY bard epic, as it provides kd immunity - for this build, up to 20 rounds in a fair-sized radius)
I was tempted to drop Toughness and 2 Greater Dexes in order to take a third focus, Enchantment, in order to get +13 GMW and the bard Epic Hear Me Roar, which cancels out silence. At present, however, that epic's primary use is only in one layer of the hells, and I figured I could typically get a +14 off another partymember, so I passed that up.
Progression:
It's hard to screw up the feat progression, honestly. As far as levels, take the pally level pre-epic, and the monk post-epic, to max out ab (monk pre-epic would increase saves, at the cost of 1 ab, but is completely unnecessary on this build. You'll have to align swap from law to chaos and vice versa several times, but that's reletively easy.
When would I start with an odd dex score? Well, if I wanted to drop a GD and take an LSF, maybe. You could drop 3 GD and add an epic (I'd probably go with Enchant) and gain 60 hp from the con increase to boot. You only RARELY need more fort, so that's basically the same as taking toughness. There are a number of ways to tweak it to individual taste.
Final ab: 92
Final ac: 134
level 60 bardsong, UUU and PF
Saves 65f/85r/68w (with max gear)
Listen above 120 with proper eqiupment and Clair (you can self buff)
Craft Armor above 80 with proper equipement
Parry at roughly 110 in my gear, could do better
This build is able to tank even without shunt, though you have to stay on your toes if you find yourself in that situation.
Spells:
Cantrips: All
1st:
Amplify (inflicts vuln even on passed saved), Mage Armor (mostly useless at top levels unless short on dodge and getting hit hard with ac pens), Expeditious Retreat (for extra speed), Grease (still fail 1/20), Balagorn's Iron Horn (KD based on level not dc)
2nd:
Ghostly Visage (key for bards to rebuff safely after dying), Clarity (great in hells), Cloud of Bewilderment (ok for early leveling), Silence (more because I expect it to find broader use later, nothing concrete tho), Cat's Grace (early leveling remnant)
3rd:
Bestow Curse (great for dropping sr for casters), Displacement (great for buffing non-conceal classes like Str tanks), GWM (+10 is better than nothing, and if you decide to take enchant focuses this is a no brainer anyway), Keen (you can keen anything with Trans focus), Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (you can self-buff, even though it's a small bonus, it's what allows you to break the 120 mark on listen
4rth:
War Cry (ab buff), Legend Lore (helps id, soon to be a save buff), Improved Invis (also for buffing non-conceal builds, though I rarely use it), Neutralize Poison (also gives short term immunity if you take the focus), Cure Critical Wounds (nothing left to take, and is complemented by the points dumped into heal)
5th:
Etherial VIsage (your primary defensive buff), Healing Circle (mentioned above, nice for regen or for healing disabled partymembers), Greater Dispelling (to debuff enemy casters), Mind Fog and Summon Creature V round out the list, again no real choices.
6th:
Energy Buffer (nice defensive buff whose importance fades out at the end levels), Dirge (useful vulnerability drop, though I don't use it much since it packs a save), Ice Storm (handy for breaking walls open if nothing else), Mass Haste (in case of future edits)
Hopefully the choices will become more difficult when the new bard spells are added.
Questions welcome. I'll format for easy reading and post a screenie later on.
Funky
Human Shard
Starting stats (Subrace) [Final With Gear and Double Demi]
Str 8 (8) [24]
Dex 16 (20) [66]
Con 12 (16) [32]
Int 14 (14) [30]
Wis 14 (14) [30]
12 (16) [32]
The other alternate startup uses 15 dex, and 14 con. The setup you start with depends on what and how many feats you want.
As far as weapons go, use a monk weapon for the better attack progression. I would recommend nunchukus if you have them, but I'm using kamas.
I would go either dex or wis artifact, whichever you have. Wis is nice for the fear immunity, and taking the pally level to get it is pricey, costing you a point of ac and a point of skill on your bard song. The dex arti offers you both ac and ab, but the immunity is so-so, you can get it simply by packing a spare UR ring, Memnoch's Keeper, which has 3 uses of UEF, if you lack a cleric in your party. Much cheaper than a pally level.
For pandects, I think either Craft Armor, Craft Weapon, or Sneak Attack are all suitable, for either ab, ac, or damage. Whichever you can get your hands on, should help you.
Skills:
Bards have a huge number of attractive skills, including the following:
Tumble
Discipline
Use Magic Device
Taunt
Bluff
Listen
Perform
Parry
Concentration
Heal
Pick Pockets
Craft Armor
Craft Weapon
You can max up to eight of them, or divvy up your points.
I prefer to max out:
Tumble (stop at 60 points at level 57)
Discipline (max at 63)
Perform (max at 63)
Parry (max at 63)
Listen (max at 63)
I would also max either Taunt or Bluff. Bluff, if you want to nerf boss attacks on your party, Taunt if you want to drop acs on pretty much everything. Bluff also works on everything, but I prefer Taunt most of the time, as you usually don't need the added defense against anything else but Pit Fiends and Malebranches, which casters casting bigby's at will want taunted anyway. Since you can only use one or another on a given target at the same time, taking both is a bit wasteful.
That leaves 2 skills left that we can max. I like Craft Armor for the extra bit of ac, since it creates leeway enough in the ac department so that you can take epics. This build gets 134 without girding, and I double demi'd a build that had 4 less and less conceal to boot (no Illus LSF), so it definitely isn't necessary, but it's helpful.
For the last, I split between between taking 34 UMD, 1 point of Pick Pocket, and dump the rest into Heal for Healing Circle regen.
Concentration is nice, but you can simply cast Ghostly Visage and buff in safety if you go down - there's no other reason to cast right next to an enemy, unless you are unlucky with a Healing Circle. I had it on my last bard, and it will play a larger role in tanking in later areas, but for now just isn't worth it, as the only check in the hells (para Lemure) is easily met with the concentration on standard bard gear.
Pick Pockets is also very nice, but again is not of primary importance in deep hells.
Likewise, a few added points of ab from Craft Weapon (you can easily get up to 80) is also nice, but I preferred Heal as being more party-oriented.
Core Feats:
These are the feats you simply cannot go without, in my opinion:
Pre-Epic:
Curse Song
Artist (gets you to the critical 60 mark in bardsong)
Weapon Finesse (the below are all core dexer combat feats)
Weapon Focus
Improved Critical
Two Weapon Fighting
Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Ambidexterity
Epic:
ESkillF Perform (without this you will not hit the needed 120 perform in the hells, especially on deep runs)
Epic Weapon Focus (again all pretty core offense and defense)
Epic Prowess
Armor Skin
Legendary:
Legendary Weapon Focus
Legendary Spell Focus Illusion (use a book to get epic - this is to boost your conceal back to full value in spite of your splash, and also gives the very nice Epic, Possum's Farce)
You should notice immediately that this leaves a lot of leeway in feats, with 14 free.
Most of those should go to maxing out Great Dex at 9 or 10, depending on whether you started odd or even. The rest, you can devote to epics, and possibly Toughness.
I took:
10 Epic Great Dexterity (I used all my bard bonus feats for this, to keep feat selection simple)
Toughness
Spellf, GSpellF, and ESpellFocus in Transmutation (gives Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, a KEY bard epic, as it provides kd immunity - for this build, up to 20 rounds in a fair-sized radius)
I was tempted to drop Toughness and 2 Greater Dexes in order to take a third focus, Enchantment, in order to get +13 GMW and the bard Epic Hear Me Roar, which cancels out silence. At present, however, that epic's primary use is only in one layer of the hells, and I figured I could typically get a +14 off another partymember, so I passed that up.
Progression:
It's hard to screw up the feat progression, honestly. As far as levels, take the pally level pre-epic, and the monk post-epic, to max out ab (monk pre-epic would increase saves, at the cost of 1 ab, but is completely unnecessary on this build. You'll have to align swap from law to chaos and vice versa several times, but that's reletively easy.
When would I start with an odd dex score? Well, if I wanted to drop a GD and take an LSF, maybe. You could drop 3 GD and add an epic (I'd probably go with Enchant) and gain 60 hp from the con increase to boot. You only RARELY need more fort, so that's basically the same as taking toughness. There are a number of ways to tweak it to individual taste.
Final ab: 92
Final ac: 134
level 60 bardsong, UUU and PF
Saves 65f/85r/68w (with max gear)
Listen above 120 with proper eqiupment and Clair (you can self buff)
Craft Armor above 80 with proper equipement
Parry at roughly 110 in my gear, could do better
This build is able to tank even without shunt, though you have to stay on your toes if you find yourself in that situation.
Spells:
Cantrips: All
1st:
Amplify (inflicts vuln even on passed saved), Mage Armor (mostly useless at top levels unless short on dodge and getting hit hard with ac pens), Expeditious Retreat (for extra speed), Grease (still fail 1/20), Balagorn's Iron Horn (KD based on level not dc)
2nd:
Ghostly Visage (key for bards to rebuff safely after dying), Clarity (great in hells), Cloud of Bewilderment (ok for early leveling), Silence (more because I expect it to find broader use later, nothing concrete tho), Cat's Grace (early leveling remnant)
3rd:
Bestow Curse (great for dropping sr for casters), Displacement (great for buffing non-conceal classes like Str tanks), GWM (+10 is better than nothing, and if you decide to take enchant focuses this is a no brainer anyway), Keen (you can keen anything with Trans focus), Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (you can self-buff, even though it's a small bonus, it's what allows you to break the 120 mark on listen
4rth:
War Cry (ab buff), Legend Lore (helps id, soon to be a save buff), Improved Invis (also for buffing non-conceal builds, though I rarely use it), Neutralize Poison (also gives short term immunity if you take the focus), Cure Critical Wounds (nothing left to take, and is complemented by the points dumped into heal)
5th:
Etherial VIsage (your primary defensive buff), Healing Circle (mentioned above, nice for regen or for healing disabled partymembers), Greater Dispelling (to debuff enemy casters), Mind Fog and Summon Creature V round out the list, again no real choices.
6th:
Energy Buffer (nice defensive buff whose importance fades out at the end levels), Dirge (useful vulnerability drop, though I don't use it much since it packs a save), Ice Storm (handy for breaking walls open if nothing else), Mass Haste (in case of future edits)
Hopefully the choices will become more difficult when the new bard spells are added.
Questions welcome. I'll format for easy reading and post a screenie later on.
Funky