Birgitte Silverbow - 6 Bard/5 PDK/29 AA

[Ford Prefect]

There are a ton of AA/monk builds on the wiki, and some of them are pretty good... ...and some of them are pretty old! <wink> So I decided to post my build. I only post proven builds, so I had to hold off for a bit, and while I was waiting to demi this gal, a couple updates went in. So.. this is the build I demi'ed, PLUS a few perks from the latest update. There are TWO ways you can build this toon, as the starting stats are impacted by whether or not you're rolling the toon from scratch or reincarnating a demi toon. If you've recently demied your vanilla AA, and are looking to try something a little different, you'll have to adjust your starting stats a bit to avoid being bit by an anti-exploit. (The anti-exploit will prevent you from getting your demi bonus stats from the pillar of light if your base charisma is below 12)

Gender Female
Race Elf/Erinyes
Class 6Bard/5PDK/29AA
Alignment Neutral Good

Starting Stats [if reincarnating as a demi]
st 15 (+3) [15]
dx 18 (+4) [18]
in 12 (+2) [12]
co 10 (+0) [8]
wi 8 (-1) [8]
ch 12 (+1) [14]

after Erinyes mod

st 15 (+3) [15]
dx 24 (+8) [24]
in 12 (+1) [12]
co 12 (+1) [10]
wi 12 (+1) [12]
ch 10 (+0) [12 ]

1 Blooded Bard levels 1-6
3 Mounted Combat (req for PDK)
4 STR+1(16)
5 Intimidate+1,listen+2,persuade+1,ride+2,spot+2 (PDK req)
6 Power Attack (req for Over.Crit)
7 PDK levels 7-10
8 STR+1(17)
9 Cleave
11 AA levels 11-39
12 STR+1(18) Imp.Crit:Longbow
15 Great Cleave
16 STR+1(19)
18 Called Shot
20 STR+1(20)
lvl stat feat notes
21 Great STR 1(21)
24 STR+1(22) Great STR 2(23), Epic Prowness Bonus AA Feat
27 Great STR 3(24)
28 DEX+1(25) Over.Crit Bonus AA Feat
30 Great STR 4(25)
32 DEX+1(26) Dev.Crit Bonus AA Feat
33 Great DEX 1(27)
36 DEX+1(28) Great DEX 2(29), Great DEX 3(30) Bonus AA Feat
39 Great DEX 4(31)
40 Disc+43 PDK level
40 DEX+1(32)
42 DEX+1(33) Great DEX 5(34)
44 DEX+1(35)
45 Great DEX 6(36)
46 DEX+1(37)
48 DEX+1(38) Great DEX 7(39)
50 DEX+1(40)
51 Great DEX 8(41)
52 DEX+1(42)
54 DEX+1(43) LWF:Longbow
56 DEX+1(44)
57 LSA:Tumble
58 DEX+1(45)
60 DEX+1(46) Great STR 5(26) (or Armor Skin)

The level 60 feat was a tough call... that extra Great STR evens out your STR and gives you one more point of damage on most AA bows. The Armor skin would add to AC... Pick your poison, YMMV. I also contemplated dropping 2 G.Dex feats and picking up some other feats to improve the utility/flexibility of the toon. But that would have cost me both 1 AC and 1 AB (although with an AB of 101+d20, you could afford to loose that 1 point), and the PDK racial feats are great. Pair this build with a STR bard and even when the nasty random Male spawns on you in the coil, you'll still be standing AND able to run to the middle of all the KD'ed folks and with a single action haul everyone to their feet.

[MightyKhan]

Apart from the anti KD trick, are any of the bardlike party/player buffs worth using with a base charisma of 10[12]?

also: 5+6+39=50
so i guess you either mean 29 AA or 49 AA

[Ford Prefect]

Doh! Got the "39" typo.

With a base cha of 10 (assuming the worst case (worst for cha, not necessarily worst for the toon) scenario and +12 from gear, you end up with the following:

PDK Fear - Target looses (hit dice including LLs + 1)/8 AC (non stacking with bardsong) for 6 (my cha modifier) *2 (because I'm over lvl 41) = 12 rounds. That means at level 60, the target should loose 7 AC for 72 sec. Most mobs don't take more than a minute to kill, but if you end up with one really tough critter (holy crap! the Ravening Male in the back didn't get cursed and the bard is Amni'ed!) you can help a little bit.

PDK Rallying Cry/Bardsong falls into a similar category in that it does last for 72 sec, which is plenty long enough to help out when you're dealing with a tough random or a particularly nasty spawn.

PDK Oath of Wrath Crit Immune doesn't care about CHA
PDK Inspire Courage Fear Immune/remove fear doesn't either

PDK Final Stand mini-UUU/PickMeUp has a large radius (5.0) be default, and gets bumped up to 6.0 with a CHA modifier of 6. Honestly, when a PF is chewing on your face and your party is flat on their back, I'm not calculating the radius and measuring out how far I'll be able to get people up. *I* am trying not to piss my pants while I wade through all the KD'ed folks to where the bard is with the "real" UUU before I fire off Final Stand. If the Bard is amni'ed, then I'm just going to waddle to the middle of the KD'ed folks and get up whoever I can with a Final Stand and then a PT2 or three.

PDK Heroic Shield Dodge AC buff is a little limited due to the cha, as the duration is only 36 sec with 6 CHA bonus. I suppose that makes this a great booster shot in the arm right after someone's died, until the bard can sing for them, and it does stack with bardsong.

It's certainly not a bard replacement, but it does have some nice features that help even out some of the tougher fights.

[Yomi]

My only problem with calling this a recommended build on the wiki is that this build is not what got demi'd. It was a 30 AA, 9 Fighter, 1 Bard, which seems like a completely different build. You've played the 5 PDK version in Hells etc.?

Reincarnation makes the decisions on recommended builds tough, since so many people are now making builds that start life as level 60 multi demis with a full set of gear, so there really isn't any idea how it plays while leveling up or on a first trip through Hells without artifact/ego level gear.

[MightyKhan]

Aug 25, 2009 19:15:49 GMT Yomi said:

Reincarnation makes the decisions on recommended builds tough, since so many people are now making builds that start life as level 60 multi demis with a full set of gear, so there really isn't any idea how it plays while leveling up or on a first trip through Hells without artifact/ego level gear.

perhaps an additional highlight for builds like that?
ie green for good open subrace builds
blue for builds that were leveled up to 60 and then demied
gray for archived builds
pruple/pink for builds that need demigod status, or have been reincarnated once demigod (granted - some of those builds will do perfectly without demigod status, but some do)