Post by Vichya on Dec 11, 2010 14:30:14 GMT
The purpose of this bard build is to provide a high level of party support without sacrificing too much of the tanking ability a true tank bard has.
This build is highly optimized, relying heavily on demi bonuses to meet the requirements below. Therefore playing it at immortal, double demi or paragon levels is slightly different. I will post different versions of this build targeted for these stages in character development.
Alternatives to this build are:
Mighty Divine Ministrel if you rather play an offensive melee bard,
Kleb's Enchanter Bard for an offensive caster bard or
Jazzhorse for another support bard.
Goals of this build:
(Assuming 2x demi and using Echoes of Creation)
Please note: The skill ranks and abilities are optimized for each stage of character development using standard unrandomized gear and full tag bonuses. That means key skills such as Lore and Perform are as high as necessary and abilities like charisma hit the crucial 30 base score for all version of this builds.
Song:
For bard song AB, AC, Damage and Skill bonus are most important, Save bonus can be easily maximized by items. For curse song AB, AC, Saves and Skills drop are most important.
The song configuration I use is listed below
Epics:
This bard build has 6 Epics available, 4 of them are fixed. The last two can be chosen freely, although I recommend two out of Conjuration, Divination and Evocation. My bard picked the Conjuration and Divination Epic, but all of them are useful and it's impossible to say which choice is the best.
Enchantment - Hear me Roar (required):
Prevents deafness and silence for both friendly and hostiles inside the aura.
Required in Nessus and Elysium.
Illusion - Possum's Farace (required):
Automatically resurrects fallen party members.
Necromancy - Dirge of the Deathless (required):
Gives full critical hit immunity inside the small aura, half critical hit damage and fear immunity inside the large circle.
Useful on all run.
Transmutation - Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (required):
One of the key bard abilities, makes all people inside the small aura stand up if knocked down and prevents any further kock downs. It also gives +8 to stat checks concerning knock down effects.
Useful on all end game runs.
Conjuration - Calling of the Heart:
Summons a healing spirit which will resurrect dead party members and cast Restoration on them.
Useful in tough fights.
Divination - Winter is Coming:
Freezes all mobs not immune to this effect in small area.
Most useful in Hell. A lot of bad random spawns can be frozen for a couple of rounds with that epics, including Brachinas and Excruciarchs.
Evocation - Cry of the Heavens:
Undispellable damage cloud with sonic, electric and divine damage. It can add some offense to this build.
Useful on most runs, especially in Cania, Nessus and Elysium.
Abilities:
Assist Other (Player Tool 2):
Pick up any player who is knocked down, even if you're about to activate UUU. It can save precious time and prevent the death of a party member.
Pick Pocket:
With 80-90 Pick Pocket skill you can PP most targets easily. The main targets are mobs with healing potions. You can find those on many runs, like Myco, Illithids and Rona for Legendary Level runs, Rakshasas and Quimath in Hell, Devas, Planetars and Solars in Elysium and Tieflings, Yuan-Tis, Succubi and Incubi in the Abyss.
Taunt:
Maximized Taunt skill allows you to taunt almost creatures in the game, save certain paragon mobs which are annoyingly hard to taunt. Generally you should use Taunt for targets with high AC or to make targets attack you instead of someone else.
Persuade:
Like Taunt a maximized Persuade skill allows you to lower the SR of most mobs. Use it on mobs that have high SR.
Hint: Taunt and Persaude can't be used on the same target, so decide wisely which you use. If a target has low SR then Taunt might be the better choice, and vice versa. Also if you have a Druid in your party who casts Nature's Balance very effectivly then Persuade is most often unnecessary even on high SR targets.
You can toggle between Taunt and Persuade using the "!opt tauntpersuade" SIMtool command. It might be a good idea to put this in a quickbar slot or a voicebind command if you have installed the Additional Quickbats (downaload link, place it in the nwn override folder).
Stillsound (Illithid set item):
The Stillsound book can be used to cast Power Word: Stun (PWS) as a bard. Using this book costs one song but is often very advantages for the party. In fact, a bard is the best PWS caster in the entire module. With a caster level of 60 you can stun creatures up to 3000 hit points and with a spell penetration of up to 80 since you add Perform/10 to it (this build only gets 78 since it doesn't have Legendary Spell Penetration).
Good targets for the Stillsound book are Narzugons (use Bestow Curse first) and Molydei, which are a huge threat with their devestating critical and poisonous instant kill ability.
Spells:(for a detailed spell guide please visit the Wiki)
Level 1 (6):
Amplify
Expeditious Retreat
Insidious Rhythm
Protection from Alignment
Silver Tongue
Sticky Fingers
Level 2 (6):
Deafening Clang
Endure Elements
Ghostly Visage
Iron Grasp
Know Vulnerabilites
Silence
Level 3 (6):
Bestow Curse
Displacement
Gust of Winds
Remove Curse
Remove Disease
Treasure Scent
Please note: Remove Curse and Remove Disease are mostly for end game areas such as Aboleths, Abyss, Elysium and Hell. Greater Magic Weapon and Keen Weapon are a much better choice for leveling.
It is possible to replace Gust of Winds with a different spell like Greater Magic Weapon for example. Just be sure you have Gust wands when playing on runs like Stygia and Cania where there are lots of Arachills. (Please check the posts below for more information)
Level 4 (6):
Legendary Lore
Neutralize Poison
Rainbow Pattern
Shadow Conjuration
Shout
Stone Shatter
Level 5 (6):
Etheral Visage
Greater Dispel
Greater Shadow Conjuration
Healing Circle
Lesser Mind Blank
Wail of Doom
Please note: Greater Dispel and Greater Shadow Conjuration are not really important spells. You could easily swap one of them Mind Fog which could be more useful. (Please check the posts below for more information)
Level 6 (5):
Energy Buffer
Ice Storm
Least Spell Mantle
Mass Clairvoyance/Clairaudience
Mass Cure Serious Wounds
Equipment:
Randomized items make it impossible to give an optimal gear combination. So I'll just give a few hints what to use and let you figure our your personal favorite gear setup.
At all times you should cover physical damage reduction and physical, elemantal and exotic resistance. Since a bard has access to the Energy Buffer spell only physical reduction and physical and exotic resistance has to be taken care of. Additional immunities everyone should have are: Freedom, Death Magic, Mind Spells, Fear, Poison. Most of these are required at a certain stage in the game, such as fear immunity in Hell or Immunity to Death Magic in Illithids. Damage Immunity is less important until you play in end game areas.
At level 40 you should ideally have 15/+10 damage reduction, 15-20 physical resistance and 10-15 exotic resistance.
A bard basically has two alternatives regarding armor. You can use robes and flags and use Ethereal Visage, or you can use one of the three special bard light armors (Aria of the Unfaltering, Chorus of the Damned and Echoes of Creation) and a shield with a total of 0% Arcane Spell Failure and use Displacement to get high concealment. The second option is usually prefered since you can reach a level of AC which is normally impossible for robe users.
However, before you can use one of the light armors mentioned above a robe and flag are the best options you have. Even after getting the Uroboros tag it might be better to use robes than the light armor since there are no 0% ASF shields at that level range.
Once you hit level 60 and get the basic Hell tags a lot of different gear becomes available. Both Chorus of the Damned and Echoes of Creation are significantly better than the Aria of the Unfaltering. There are also three Beyond Ultra-Rare shields with 0% ASF. Additionally Tiamat gear and the Inspiration belt gives a lot of badly needed spell slots.
Once demihood is achieved the Rampart of the Pact Primeval is probably the best Asmodeus Artifact to use, although the Styxwalkers boots are definitely nice to have on runs with a lot of amnesia, such as Stygia, Maladomini and Cania.
For the pure bard build one of the few items with +4 to Strength checks is necessary. The possibilites are The Serpent's Coil, Circlet of Ahralihra Silverpaws and Amulet of Unbroken Balance. Out of these the Helm might be the best option since the amulet slot can be better used for the Amulet of the Pharaoh.
The equipment I currently use is:
Armor: Echoes of Creation
Weapon: Harp of the Axerian Grandmaster
Shield: Rampart of the Pact Primeval
Helm: Circlet of Ahralihra Silverpaws
Cloak: Introweave Cape with 6x +14
Belt: Inspiration
Gloves: Bracers of Many Eyes
Amulet: Amulet of the Pharaoh
Boots: Cloven Hooves of the Goat
Mote: Mote of Silver-Tongued Socialization
Useful items:
Source of Shadows: Epic Dodge can make this bard into a tough tank. Most mobs - even bosses like Mephistopheles and Asmodeus - have problems hitting you when you can combine decent AC, concealment and Epic Dodge.
Grand Signet of Talisid: Useful around Ephasiarch since they have the uncanny ability to cause amnesia in a small area without having to hit you first.
Eelskin Flippers: Being able to stand up on your own is sometimes invaluable.
The Fine Print: use it to save Bios. You'll lose a couple of spell slots using this but since you're not a caster it's not a real problem.
Biorejuvenators: Never hesitate to use them if necessary. It can save the party from a wipe.
Wands: Greater Resurrection, Gust of Winds (if you don't have the spell), Clarity, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Stone to Flesh, Remove Fear
Scrolls: Mind Blank, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Greater Sanctuary
Things to consider when you start this build from scratch:
There are a couple of issues with this build when you start playing it from level 1, so I'm going to give some advice on how to handle those issues.
The Enchantment, Necromancy and Transmutation epic all change to a huge aura with 40 charisma, the Illusion epic gets another charge at 30 base charisma and Ethereal Visage (or Displacement if you use one of the special bard armors) gets a 5% concealment penalty if you have less than 30 base charisma. As you can see you want 30 base charisma at level 60, whether you're a immortal or 2x demi.
The only way to keep this build is either to drop one epic, likely Conjuration or Divination, or to lower strength or dexterity by 4 points and increase charisma by that amount. Lowering strength might be the best option since you won't be able to tank either Pit Fiends or Malebranche for a long time with the ability scores of an immortal character. This however means that you won't be able to tank Pit Fiends at all and will likely fail the strength checks with close to 50% chance so you have to be careful around them.
Run Logs: (Character name is Alyena)
Nessus
Elysium
Azzagrat 3
Thanatos 3
History:
2010-12-11: inital post
2010-12-17: added Mote to current gear, added useful item list, corrected spell name (Mass Cure Serious Wounds), added notes for Greater Magic Weapon and Mind Fog.
2010-12-27: added note for "!opt tauntpersude" command, added description of Stillsound
2011-01-07: added note for abilities when starting this character (30 base charisma at level 60 at the expense of strength or dexterity), added section for things to consider when starting this character as a mortal
2011-01-22: removed the splash build version, added different version for various stages of character development
2011-02-13: changed feats (moved Epic Spell Penetration to epic feats, Greater Spell Penetration to bard bonus feats, thanks to Bazukar for pointing this out)
2011-05-06: added run logs
2011-06-19: updated the song/curse settings after the last update
2011-07-15: updated skills for the 5x demi build (-2 perform, +2 concentration), changed curse song to -18 skill (enough to instant kill Cornugons)
2012-05-14: updated with my current version
This build is highly optimized, relying heavily on demi bonuses to meet the requirements below. Therefore playing it at immortal, double demi or paragon levels is slightly different. I will post different versions of this build targeted for these stages in character development.
Alternatives to this build are:
Mighty Divine Ministrel if you rather play an offensive melee bard,
Kleb's Enchanter Bard for an offensive caster bard or
Jazzhorse for another support bard.
Goals of this build:
(Assuming 2x demi and using Echoes of Creation)
- Good tanking: 130 AC, 80% concealment
- High saves: 60 Fortitude, Reflex and Will
- Resistant to stat checks: 42 Strength and Dexterity to be save from normal enemies.
- Many epic spells: 4 required epics (UUU, DotD, HMR and Possums), 2 optional epics (Healing Spirit, Winter is Coming)
- Many maximized skills: Pick Pocket, Persuade & Taunt, Heal, UMD
Optimized for (All numbers below refer to the final state of the respective build) | Level 60, Immortal | Level 60, 2x Demi | Level 60, 5x Demi | My current version |
Build | Bard 40 | Bard 40 | Bard 40 | Bard 40 |
Race/Subrace | Half-Elf (+1 skill point per level, immunity to sleep effects) Half-Guardinal (Evasion) | Half-Elf (+1 skill point per level, immunity to sleep effects) Half-Guardinal (Evasion) | Half-Elf (+1 skill point per level, immunity to sleep effects) Half-Guardinal (Evasion) | Half-Elf (+1 skill point per level, immunity to sleep effects) Half-Guardinal (Evasion) |
Abilities at character creation (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) | 14, 14, 14, 14, 8, 14 | 14, 14, 14, 14, 8, 14 | 14, 14, 12, 14, 8, 14 | 14, 14, 12, 14, 8, 15 |
Pre-epic and epic ability progression | Intelligence 2 (take these first) Charisma 8 | Intelligence 2 (take these first) Strangth 2 Charisma 6 | Intelligence 2 (take these first) Strangth 2 Charisma 6 | Dexterity 4 Charisma 6 |
Legendary level ability progression | Charisma 6 Dexterity 4 | Dexterity 6 Charisma 4 | Dexterity 6 Charisma 4 | Charisma 10 |
Pre-epic feats Abbreviations: SpF - Spell Focus GSpF - Greater Spell Focus ESpF - Epic Spell Focus | Artist Curse Song Metamagic - Extend Spell Spell Penetration SpF - Enchantment SpF - Illusion SpF - Necromancy | Artist Curse Song Metamagic - Extend Spell Spell Penetration SpF - Enchantment SpF - Illusion SpF - Necromancy | Artist Curse Song Metamagic - Extend Spell Spell Penetration SpF - Enchantment SpF - Illusion SpF - Necromancy | Artist Curse Song Metamagic - Extend Spell SpF - Enchantment SpF - Illusion SpF - Necromancy SpF - Transmutation |
Epic feats | SpF - Transmutation SpF - Divination Lasting Inspiration Epic Skill Focus - Perform Epic Spell Penetration Epic Will Greater Fortitude | SpF - Transmutation SpF - Divination Lasting Inspiration Epic Skill Focus - Perform Epic Spell Penetration Epic Will Greater Fortitude | SpF - Transmutation SpF - Divination Lasting Inspiration Epic Skill Focus - Perform Epic Spell Penetration Epic Will Greater Fortitude | Greater Fortitude Armor Skin Great Charisma I - V |
Bard bonus feats | Greater Spell Penetration GSpF - Divination GSpF - Enchantment GSpF - Illusion GSpF - Necromancy GSpF - Transmutation | Greater Spell Penetration GSpF - Divination GSpF - Enchantment GSpF - Illusion GSpF - Necromancy GSpF - Transmutation | Greater Spell Penetration GSpF - Divination GSpF - Enchantment GSpF - Illusion GSpF - Necromancy GSpF - Transmutation | Lasting Inspiration GSpF - Enchantment GSpF - Illusion GSpF - Necromancy GSpF - Transmutation Epic Will |
Legendary level feats | Legendary Artist ESpF - Divination ESpF - Enchantment ESpF - Illusion ESpF - Necromancy ESpF - Transmutation Legendary Fortitude | Legendary Artist ESpF - Divination ESpF - Enchantment ESpF - Illusion ESpF - Necromancy ESpF - Transmutation Legendary Fortitude | Legendary Artist ESpF - Divination ESpF - Enchantment ESpF - Illusion ESpF - Necromancy ESpF - Transmutation Legendary Fortitude | Legendary Artist ESpF - Enchantment ESpF - Illusion ESpF - Necromancy ESpF - Transmutation Legendary Fortitude LSpF - Illusion |
Paragon level feats | LSpF - Conjuration LSpF - Enchantment PSpF - Conjuration PSpF - Enchantment PSpK - Conjuration Paragon Anchoring | |||
Tome | Conjuration | Conjuration | Conjuration | Conjuration |
Artifact | Tymora's Lucky Charm (Saves +3) | Tymora's Lucky Charm (Saves +3) | Tymora's Lucky Charm (Saves +3) | The Orb of Dragonkind (Con +2, Poison immunity) |
Pandect | Craft Armor | Craft Armor | Craft Armor | |
Abilities (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) including +14 bonus for immortals, +16 bonus for the current version | 32, 36, 28, 32, 22, 44 | 38, 42, 32, 36, 26, 44 | 38, 42, 32, 36, 26, 44 | 40, 44, 36, 38, 30, 60 |
Skills | Concentration 44 Craft Armor 0 Discipline 63 Heal 63 Lore 35 Parry 63 Perform 63 Persuade 63 Pick Pocket 63 Taunt 63 Tumble 60 Use Magic Device 30 | Concentration 40 Craft Armor 0 Discipline 63 Heal 63 Lore 39 Parry 63 Perform 63 Persuade 63 Pick Pocket 63 Taunt 63 Tumble 60 Use Magic Device 30 | Concentration 34 Craft Armor 31 Discipline 63 Heal 63 Lore 33 Parry 63 Perform 57 Persuade 63 Pick Pocket 50 Taunt 63 Tumble 60 Use Magic Device 30 | Concentration 47 Craft Armor 82 Discipline 63 Heal 63 Lore 32 Parry 63 Perform 59 Persuade 78 Pick Pocket 40 Tumble 60 Use Magic Device 30 |
AC | 126 | 131 | 132 | 136 |
Saves (Fort, Ref, Will) | 62, 64, 60 | 64, 66, 62 | 64, 66, 62 | 68, 69, 66 |
Please note: The skill ranks and abilities are optimized for each stage of character development using standard unrandomized gear and full tag bonuses. That means key skills such as Lore and Perform are as high as necessary and abilities like charisma hit the crucial 30 base score for all version of this builds.
Song:
For bard song AB, AC, Damage and Skill bonus are most important, Save bonus can be easily maximized by items. For curse song AB, AC, Saves and Skills drop are most important.
The song configuration I use is listed below
AB | AC | Damage | Saves | Skills | |
Song | 61 (+4) | 44 (+3) | 57 (+8) | 37 (+2/2/2) | 63 (+21) |
Curse | 61 (-4) | 44 (-3) | 22 (-4) | 63 (-4/4/5) | 63 (-21) |
Epics:
This bard build has 6 Epics available, 4 of them are fixed. The last two can be chosen freely, although I recommend two out of Conjuration, Divination and Evocation. My bard picked the Conjuration and Divination Epic, but all of them are useful and it's impossible to say which choice is the best.
Enchantment - Hear me Roar (required):
Prevents deafness and silence for both friendly and hostiles inside the aura.
Required in Nessus and Elysium.
Illusion - Possum's Farace (required):
Automatically resurrects fallen party members.
Necromancy - Dirge of the Deathless (required):
Gives full critical hit immunity inside the small aura, half critical hit damage and fear immunity inside the large circle.
Useful on all run.
Transmutation - Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (required):
One of the key bard abilities, makes all people inside the small aura stand up if knocked down and prevents any further kock downs. It also gives +8 to stat checks concerning knock down effects.
Useful on all end game runs.
Conjuration - Calling of the Heart:
Summons a healing spirit which will resurrect dead party members and cast Restoration on them.
Useful in tough fights.
Divination - Winter is Coming:
Freezes all mobs not immune to this effect in small area.
Most useful in Hell. A lot of bad random spawns can be frozen for a couple of rounds with that epics, including Brachinas and Excruciarchs.
Evocation - Cry of the Heavens:
Undispellable damage cloud with sonic, electric and divine damage. It can add some offense to this build.
Useful on most runs, especially in Cania, Nessus and Elysium.
Abilities:
Assist Other (Player Tool 2):
Pick up any player who is knocked down, even if you're about to activate UUU. It can save precious time and prevent the death of a party member.
Pick Pocket:
With 80-90 Pick Pocket skill you can PP most targets easily. The main targets are mobs with healing potions. You can find those on many runs, like Myco, Illithids and Rona for Legendary Level runs, Rakshasas and Quimath in Hell, Devas, Planetars and Solars in Elysium and Tieflings, Yuan-Tis, Succubi and Incubi in the Abyss.
Taunt:
Maximized Taunt skill allows you to taunt almost creatures in the game, save certain paragon mobs which are annoyingly hard to taunt. Generally you should use Taunt for targets with high AC or to make targets attack you instead of someone else.
Persuade:
Like Taunt a maximized Persuade skill allows you to lower the SR of most mobs. Use it on mobs that have high SR.
Hint: Taunt and Persaude can't be used on the same target, so decide wisely which you use. If a target has low SR then Taunt might be the better choice, and vice versa. Also if you have a Druid in your party who casts Nature's Balance very effectivly then Persuade is most often unnecessary even on high SR targets.
You can toggle between Taunt and Persuade using the "!opt tauntpersuade" SIMtool command. It might be a good idea to put this in a quickbar slot or a voicebind command if you have installed the Additional Quickbats (downaload link, place it in the nwn override folder).
Stillsound (Illithid set item):
The Stillsound book can be used to cast Power Word: Stun (PWS) as a bard. Using this book costs one song but is often very advantages for the party. In fact, a bard is the best PWS caster in the entire module. With a caster level of 60 you can stun creatures up to 3000 hit points and with a spell penetration of up to 80 since you add Perform/10 to it (this build only gets 78 since it doesn't have Legendary Spell Penetration).
Good targets for the Stillsound book are Narzugons (use Bestow Curse first) and Molydei, which are a huge threat with their devestating critical and poisonous instant kill ability.
Spells:(for a detailed spell guide please visit the Wiki)
Level 1 (6):
Amplify
Expeditious Retreat
Insidious Rhythm
Protection from Alignment
Silver Tongue
Sticky Fingers
Level 2 (6):
Deafening Clang
Endure Elements
Ghostly Visage
Iron Grasp
Know Vulnerabilites
Silence
Level 3 (6):
Bestow Curse
Displacement
Gust of Winds
Remove Curse
Remove Disease
Treasure Scent
Please note: Remove Curse and Remove Disease are mostly for end game areas such as Aboleths, Abyss, Elysium and Hell. Greater Magic Weapon and Keen Weapon are a much better choice for leveling.
It is possible to replace Gust of Winds with a different spell like Greater Magic Weapon for example. Just be sure you have Gust wands when playing on runs like Stygia and Cania where there are lots of Arachills. (Please check the posts below for more information)
Level 4 (6):
Legendary Lore
Neutralize Poison
Rainbow Pattern
Shadow Conjuration
Shout
Stone Shatter
Level 5 (6):
Etheral Visage
Greater Dispel
Greater Shadow Conjuration
Healing Circle
Lesser Mind Blank
Wail of Doom
Please note: Greater Dispel and Greater Shadow Conjuration are not really important spells. You could easily swap one of them Mind Fog which could be more useful. (Please check the posts below for more information)
Level 6 (5):
Energy Buffer
Ice Storm
Least Spell Mantle
Mass Clairvoyance/Clairaudience
Mass Cure Serious Wounds
Equipment:
Randomized items make it impossible to give an optimal gear combination. So I'll just give a few hints what to use and let you figure our your personal favorite gear setup.
At all times you should cover physical damage reduction and physical, elemantal and exotic resistance. Since a bard has access to the Energy Buffer spell only physical reduction and physical and exotic resistance has to be taken care of. Additional immunities everyone should have are: Freedom, Death Magic, Mind Spells, Fear, Poison. Most of these are required at a certain stage in the game, such as fear immunity in Hell or Immunity to Death Magic in Illithids. Damage Immunity is less important until you play in end game areas.
At level 40 you should ideally have 15/+10 damage reduction, 15-20 physical resistance and 10-15 exotic resistance.
A bard basically has two alternatives regarding armor. You can use robes and flags and use Ethereal Visage, or you can use one of the three special bard light armors (Aria of the Unfaltering, Chorus of the Damned and Echoes of Creation) and a shield with a total of 0% Arcane Spell Failure and use Displacement to get high concealment. The second option is usually prefered since you can reach a level of AC which is normally impossible for robe users.
However, before you can use one of the light armors mentioned above a robe and flag are the best options you have. Even after getting the Uroboros tag it might be better to use robes than the light armor since there are no 0% ASF shields at that level range.
Once you hit level 60 and get the basic Hell tags a lot of different gear becomes available. Both Chorus of the Damned and Echoes of Creation are significantly better than the Aria of the Unfaltering. There are also three Beyond Ultra-Rare shields with 0% ASF. Additionally Tiamat gear and the Inspiration belt gives a lot of badly needed spell slots.
Once demihood is achieved the Rampart of the Pact Primeval is probably the best Asmodeus Artifact to use, although the Styxwalkers boots are definitely nice to have on runs with a lot of amnesia, such as Stygia, Maladomini and Cania.
For the pure bard build one of the few items with +4 to Strength checks is necessary. The possibilites are The Serpent's Coil, Circlet of Ahralihra Silverpaws and Amulet of Unbroken Balance. Out of these the Helm might be the best option since the amulet slot can be better used for the Amulet of the Pharaoh.
The equipment I currently use is:
Armor: Echoes of Creation
Weapon: Harp of the Axerian Grandmaster
Shield: Rampart of the Pact Primeval
Helm: Circlet of Ahralihra Silverpaws
Cloak: Introweave Cape with 6x +14
Belt: Inspiration
Gloves: Bracers of Many Eyes
Amulet: Amulet of the Pharaoh
Boots: Cloven Hooves of the Goat
Mote: Mote of Silver-Tongued Socialization
Useful items:
Source of Shadows: Epic Dodge can make this bard into a tough tank. Most mobs - even bosses like Mephistopheles and Asmodeus - have problems hitting you when you can combine decent AC, concealment and Epic Dodge.
Grand Signet of Talisid: Useful around Ephasiarch since they have the uncanny ability to cause amnesia in a small area without having to hit you first.
Eelskin Flippers: Being able to stand up on your own is sometimes invaluable.
The Fine Print: use it to save Bios. You'll lose a couple of spell slots using this but since you're not a caster it's not a real problem.
Biorejuvenators: Never hesitate to use them if necessary. It can save the party from a wipe.
Wands: Greater Resurrection, Gust of Winds (if you don't have the spell), Clarity, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Stone to Flesh, Remove Fear
Scrolls: Mind Blank, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Greater Sanctuary
Things to consider when you start this build from scratch:
There are a couple of issues with this build when you start playing it from level 1, so I'm going to give some advice on how to handle those issues.
The Enchantment, Necromancy and Transmutation epic all change to a huge aura with 40 charisma, the Illusion epic gets another charge at 30 base charisma and Ethereal Visage (or Displacement if you use one of the special bard armors) gets a 5% concealment penalty if you have less than 30 base charisma. As you can see you want 30 base charisma at level 60, whether you're a immortal or 2x demi.
The only way to keep this build is either to drop one epic, likely Conjuration or Divination, or to lower strength or dexterity by 4 points and increase charisma by that amount. Lowering strength might be the best option since you won't be able to tank either Pit Fiends or Malebranche for a long time with the ability scores of an immortal character. This however means that you won't be able to tank Pit Fiends at all and will likely fail the strength checks with close to 50% chance so you have to be careful around them.
Run Logs: (Character name is Alyena)
Nessus
Elysium
Azzagrat 3
Thanatos 3
History:
2010-12-11: inital post
2010-12-17: added Mote to current gear, added useful item list, corrected spell name (Mass Cure Serious Wounds), added notes for Greater Magic Weapon and Mind Fog.
2010-12-27: added note for "!opt tauntpersude" command, added description of Stillsound
2011-01-07: added note for abilities when starting this character (30 base charisma at level 60 at the expense of strength or dexterity), added section for things to consider when starting this character as a mortal
2011-01-22: removed the splash build version, added different version for various stages of character development
2011-02-13: changed feats (moved Epic Spell Penetration to epic feats, Greater Spell Penetration to bard bonus feats, thanks to Bazukar for pointing this out)
2011-05-06: added run logs
2011-06-19: updated the song/curse settings after the last update
2011-07-15: updated skills for the 5x demi build (-2 perform, +2 concentration), changed curse song to -18 skill (enough to instant kill Cornugons)
2012-05-14: updated with my current version