The Shooting Sonneter (Bard 32 / AA 7 / Monk 1)

[stonewarrior]

I first decided to try a build such as this after reading thedomicron’s Singing Marksman and chatting a bit with Claus about his version. My version is similar to Claus’ though I have tweaked some feats to get better saves for hell.

Subrace: "Planewalker" (secret UltraRare subrace) - no race requirement
STR -2, DEX +2, CON +2, INT +2, 5% immune to acid, cold, electrical, fire, and sonic, breathes water, able to walk on quicksand, speaks Abyssal, speaks Celestial, speaks Infernal

Other races could also be used and perhaps some might even work better…

Starting stats
Str – 8 (6)
Dex – 16 (20)
Con – 14
Wis – 10
Int – 10 (12)
Cha 16

Level progression: 1-9 Bard, 10-16 Arcane Archer, 17-19 Bard, 20 Monk, 21-60 Bard

01: Bard(1): Toughness
02: Bard(2)
03: Bard(3): Weapon Focus: Longbow
04: Bard(4): DEX+1, (DEX=21)
05: Bard(5)
06: Bard(6): Point Blank Shot
07: Bard(7)
08: Bard(8): DEX+1, (DEX=22)
09: Bard(9): Curse Song
10: Arcane Archer(1)
11: Arcane Archer(2)
12: Arcane Archer(3): DEX+1, Rapid Shot, (DEX=23)
13: Arcane Archer(4)
14: Arcane Archer(5)
15: Arcane Archer(6): Iron Will
16: Arcane Archer(7): DEX+1, (DEX=24)
17: Bard(10)
18: Bard(11): Blind Fight
19: Bard(12)
20: Monk(1): DEX+1, {Cleave, Evasion, Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist}, (DEX=25), *Alignment Change*
21: Bard(13): Armor Skin, *Alignment Change*
22: Bard(14)
23: Bard(15)
24: Bard(16): DEX+1, Epic Weapon Focus: Longbow, (DEX=26)
25: Bard(17)
26: Bard(18)
27: Bard(19): Improved Critical: Longbow
28: Bard(20): DEX+1, (DEX=27)
29: Bard(21)
30: Bard(22): Lasting Inspiration
31: Bard(23): Great Dexterity I, (DEX=28)
32: Bard(24): DEX+1, (DEX=29)
33: Bard(25): Great Fortitude
34: Bard(26): Great Dexterity II, (DEX=30)
35: Bard(27)
36: Bard(28): DEX+1, Epic Prowess, (DEX=31)
37: Bard(29): Great Dexterity III, (DEX=32)
38: Bard(30)
39: Bard(31): Great Dexterity IV, (DEX=33)
40: Bard(32): DEX+1, Great Dexterity V, (DEX=35)

Naked saves at 40
Fort – 25
Ref – 38
Will – 24

Legendary Levels
42: DEX +1, Great Dexterity VI, (Dex 37)
44: DEX +1, (Dex 38)
45: Great Dexterity VII, (Dex 39)
46: DEX +1, (Dex 40)
48: DEX +1, Great Dexterity VIII, (Dex 42)
50: DEX +1, (Dex 43)
51: Legendary Fortitude
52: DEX +1, (Dex 44)
54: DEX +1, Legendary Will, (Dex 45)
56: DEX +1, (Dex 46)
57: Great Dexterity IX, (Dex 47)
58: DEX +1, (Dex 48)
60: DEX + 1, Great Dexterity X (50)

Final Stats
Str – 6
Dex – 50
Con – 14
Wis – 10
Int – 12
Cha – 16

Saves – pretty sure I have calculated this correctly (Gear – 20, maxing abilities – 6, Leg Luck – 3, Leg Fort – 7 (F), Leg Will – (7) and LL – 5). With these saves you should be well equipped for hell.

Fort - 63
Reflexes - 69
Will - 62

You will have enough skill points to max Discpline, Perform, Tumble and UMD through level 40. Continue putting points into Discipline, Perform and Tumle in Legendary Levels. I am not certain you need to continue putting them in UMD…if not use as desired.

This build requires you to change your alignment twice: before taking a Monk level at 20 and then again before leveling at 21 with Bard. Also, you will have an XP penalty during epic and legendary levels.

Peace, John.

EDIT 3/29
-Changed the starting stats (Wis to 10 and Int to 12)
-Removed Luck of Heroes and Legendary Luck and inserted Armor Skin and Epic Prowess (moved some feats around)
-The saves have been adjusted according with the fort and reflex saves going down 4 (no LoH or LL) and Will going down 5 (no LoH, LL and -2 points of wisdom).

[ekstroem]

stonewarrior said:

The only other issue I have reservations about it not taking Armor Skin. I could swap it and another feat in for two Great Dexterity's but then my AB and AC suffers. At this point I will probably keep it as is unless I another feat that would be a great benefit. Though perhaps a skill focus might be benficial (must hit post to stop thinking and typing. lol).

If you spend 2 great dex feats on armour skin and epic prowess instead you'll end up with +1 AC and the same AB (and loose a reflex save point which hardly matters).

Cheers,

Claus

[stonewarrior]

Good point, I totally forgot about Epic Prowess. I will update accordingly.

Peace, John.

[johannhowitzer]

It's up to you whether you want Monk or Paladin (for Evasion and AC or saves, respectively), both require an alignment change, but if you go with Monk, you'd best take it in epic levels and bump the AA levels up to 8 - you lose almost nothing by taking one less Bard level, and you'll gain 1 more BAB. If you go with Paladin, it doesn't matter since Paladin's a full BAB class.

Also, for those like me without UR or BUR subraces, I'd recommend the Daywalker for this build... it's fairly easy to obtain and grants +2 STR, DEX, and CHA, at the cost of -1 CON and -2 WIS.

EDIT: Hm. I did just notice that dropping Bard levels from 32 to 31 gives up a bonus feat...

[illandous]

Forgot to mention that you need to be elf or half elf to get AA lvls

[chainlink]

It would seem that Half-Guardinal would 'Rock' for this build as you can effectively take paladin for saves and still get evasion. I might have to work one up to see.

[bort]

chainlink said:

It would seem that Half-Guardinal would 'Rock' for this build as you can effectively take paladin for saves and still get evasion. I might have to work one up to see.

Goodbye monk AC, in that case.

[chainlink]

My rogue AA has no monk ac and is tagged all the way to Nessus so I doubt thats going to be an unsolveable problem, you'll get a bunch of feats back if you go paladin enabling a load of build tweaking. If the going gets tough then you can always pull a shield out for massively better ac (plus immunities, etc.) than monk ac alone.