Hard-Rock Bard (57bard/2pally/1monk)

[arek]

This isn't my first attempt at making a bard (it's actually my 3rd), but I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to making and/or playing bards. That said, Fallenwizard gave me the idea to make an "tank/epic" bard, so here's my build idea. I hope you like it. :-)

Race/Subrace:
Half-Elf/Shard OR Elf/Shard

Stats (Creation/Boat/60/+14):

• Str: 16/16/26/40
  
• Dex: 12/16/26/40
  
• Con: 10/14/14/28
  
• Wis: 10/10/10/24
  
• Int: 14/14/14/28
  
• Cha: 14/18/30/44

note: Creation stats include any applicable modifiers.

Level Progression: 17 Bard, 2 Paladin, 1 Monk, 40 Bard.
Stat Progression: All Pre-LL points go into CHA. All LL points go into STR.

Feats:

• Pre-Epic:
  • Artist
    
  • Curse Song
    
  • SF: Enchantment
    
  • SF: Illusion
    
  • GSF: Illusion
    
  • SF: Transmutation
    
  • GSF: Transmutation
  
  
• Epic: (*=bonus feat)
  • Great Dexterity I
    
  • Great Dexterity II
    
  • Great Charisma I*
    
  • Great Dexterity III
    
  • Great Charisma II*
    
  • Great Dexterity IV
    
  • Great Dexterity V*
    
  • Great Dexterity VI
    
  • Great Dexterity VII*
    
  • Great Dexterity VIII
    
  • Great Dexterity IX*
    
  • Great Dexterity X
  
  
• Legendary
  • GSF: Enchantment
    
  • ESF: Enchantment
    
  • ESF: Transmutation
    
  • ESF: Illusion
    
  • Epic Fortitude
    
  • Armor Skin
    
  • Legendary Artist
  
  
• Tome: Necro
  
• Pandect: Craft Armor
  
• Arti: Speed

Skills are: Tumble, UMD, Perform, Discipline, Taunt, Craft Armor and Heal (if you go Half-Elf). Extra points go into Lore.

This build is a party-support tank/bard. It does not melee, it tanks (i.e. takes swings for those who can't). The spells you should have available are restorative, party-support spells. Your DCs won't generally be high enough to hit mobs with DC-Based spells, and your spell penetration, frankly, stinks. As such, it goes with Elf/Half-Elf for sleep immunity, 2 Pally levels for Fear immunity, and a Monk level for passable AC in Robes.

According to Shard's Build Tool (and my calculations regarding Echoes), AC should be 116 using Robes/Torch, or 129 using Echoes and a BUR Large Shield (no girding). Saves should be 75f/79r/71w (not assuming Dim Mak robes here). AB is not relevant, since this is a Tank bard, not a true Melee bard.

About the Race/Subrace/Class choices:
- Elf and Half-Elf both give you Sleep immunity, which is useful in some areas. The difference is that Half-Elf gets an extra skill (heal), but the DEX bonus on Elf makes your stats better if you're going for the 2xD modification (listed below). It does cost you a skill, tho, so either Elf or Half-Elf works (for now).

About Spell Penetration: Yes, it would be nice to have at least Epic (maybe even Legendary), but you have to sacrifice something to fit it in. Here's how to do it, tho:

• Nondemi: Just use the Spell Penetration tome instead of the Necro tome. I don't recommend this, but if you're determined to have some Spell Penetration, dropping Necro is your best solution here. Drop Epic Fortitude if you want LSpellPen.
  
• If you're reincarnating a Demigod: Exchange 2 CHA for 2 DEX at creation, and drop 2 Great Dexterity feats in exchange for SpellPen/GSpellPpen, and drop Epic Fortitude or Armor Skin for ESpellPen.
  
• Reincarnating a 2xDemi: If you're really adventurous, you can actually gain both ESpellPen and an additional Epic by dropping 4 CHA (and 2 CON if Half-Elf) at creation for 4 DEX, then exchanging 4 Great Dex feats, Epic Fortitude, and Armor Skin for another Epic and ESpellPen. You can even get LSpellPen this way if you drop your Monk level (thus gaining another epic bonus feat), but I only recommend this if you have 2 sets of Echoes of Creation and/or Chorus of the Damned (one to wear, another for backup), and even then only reluctantly, since you'll lose your monk AC and Evasion, which hurts.

Speaking of build options, you can easily do this with Human/Shard. Starting stats are identical, you take Curse Song at L1, move GSF: Enchant to Pre-Epic and free up a Legendary feat. Using that feat, you can take Blinding Speed, Epic Will, LSF: Illusion, or (using some creative feat shuffling) an extra Epic or ESpellPen. I don't recommend doing this, tho, unless you have a decent item with Sleep imm on it, since you lose your racial immunity to Sleep.

And now you're probably wondering: Why Epic Fortitude? The answer: PoM, Elysium, and Rona. All of these places (can) make you Evil, which negates your CHA bonus to saves. Epic Fortitude means you still have a 58 Fort save (at 60) in these areas. You'll still only have 54 Will, but that can be remedied with either Robes of Lanatir (Uro) or Robes of the Dim Mak Master (BUR), bumping that to 58.

Thanks for reading this. Gonna let it sit for a day or 2 before I reinc my Bard into it. Constructive Criticism would be greatly appreciated here.

--Arek

Edit 2/10/11: Changed Persuade to Taunt, which is probably better on this kind of tank/bard, and added a build option for Human, with the caveat that you lose sleep immunity by taking it (thus needing an item).

[redbeard]

Many tanks that don't have good AB have a problem with getting aggro. I don't think persuade affects aggro like Taunt does. Moving monk to 41 and taking another bard pre-ll would give you another +1 AB which might help keep the mob's attention. Then again, my bard finds curse song does a pretty good job of getting aggro, even when he doesn't want it.

I've seen a lot of recommendations for concentration for tanks to avoid checks in LL areas. 20 is usually recommended.

I think you lose your monk wisdom bonus if you're using a shield. Or does Shard's tool consider that?

[arek]

I'm aware that Persuade doesn't draw aggro like Taunt. Taunt is always an option, and may be a better option for this than Persuade is. I simply chose Persuade in order to be able to get the SR of critical mobs down a bit more/more quickly.

Moving the monk level to 21 (not 41, lol :-) ) does indeed grant +1 AB, but at the cost of 1-2 points to your Fort and Will save. Granted, Saves are in the 70s with the Paladin levels, but there are areas where you have to do without such saves. +1 AB on this means absolutely nothing, given its already crappy 73ish AB, so I consider it to be better to take monk Pre-Epic than Epic.

Shard's build tool is among the best I've ever used, and yes, it does take into account that you don't get your Monk AC with armor+shield. Monk does grant other benefits, tho, even when wearing Armor+Shield (Evasion, Movement Speed increase).

Thanks for the heads-up on Concentration. I'd forgotten about that. For now, just drop 20 points into it instead of Heal (half-elf) or perhaps Lore (elf). If you drop Lore, however, you might not be able to Max it...will have to do the math. :-)

--Arek

[chirality]

Actually, although Evasion does indeed still function regardless of your equipment setup, monk speed doesn't.

Well, according to my testing and the NWN documentation I've read, at any rate. It's been a while since I've tried testing it however so I could be wrong on this...but I'm 99% sure that "monk speed" is lost along with other special abilities when you equip armor or a shield.

[arek]

Hmm...that's something for me to check out in the Chamber (it should be obvious if I take a few monk levels then toss on some armor), but it won't affect the build in the long term (the utility of extra AC when unarmored and Evasion really will help). Thanks, Chirality. :-)

--Arek

[chirality]

Err..I got sidetracked and forgot to finish my thought along the lines of: Yeah, regardless of monk speed, evasion alone is in my opinion surely enough to warrant a splash...I also like the save boost as well.

[Yojimbo]

According to NWN Wiki you do not get Monk Speed while wearing armor and/or shield.
nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Monk_speed