Post by sabregirl on Mar 5, 2008 23:08:58 GMT
There are a lot more options on dex bards these days especially now that they are able to get epics. The nerf to bard song means that bigger splashes on bards are much more viable.
Fire gnome can make a pretty nice dexer bard, almost nicer than some of the secret subraces partly due to gnome’s constitution bonus rather than the penalties, siren and pixie give. There are a number of hard choices to be made when making a gnome based dexer bard and I’ll go over why I’ve made the big choices I did with this build at the end of it all
Base Race: Gnome
Subrace: Fire Gnome
STR -2, CHA +2, speaks Ignan
Starting Stats (After Fire Gnome is applied)
Strength 6 (4)
Dexterity 16
Constitution 16
Wisdom 14
Intelligence 10
Charisma 14 (16)
4 strength means you'd better buy some magic bags!
Stat points
All dex (Dexterity increases your AC AND AB so you want it to be as high as possible on this build)
Feat/Level Progression
01: Bard(1): Ambidexterity (Required for improved 2 weapon fighting, reduces the AB penalty of the offhand weapon by 4)
02: Bard(2)
03: Bard(3): Weapon Finesse
(Required to use your dexterity score for your attack bonus rather than strength)
04: Bard(4): DEX+1, (DEX=17)
05: Bard(5)
06: Bard(6): Two-Weapon Fighting (required for improved two weapon fighting, reduces the dual-wielding AB penalty to -4/-4)
07: Bard(7)
08: Bard(8): DEX+1, (DEX=18)
09: Bard(9): Curse Song
(allows you to use your bard song to penalize monsters with lowered, AB, AC, saves, damage and skills) - make sure you add it to your quick slots ASAP.
10: Bard(10)
11: Bard(11)
12: Bard(12): DEX+1, Metamagic: Extend Spell, (DEX=19)
(Allows your character to use higher level spell slots to double the duration of buff spells)
13: Bard(13)
14: Bard(14)
15: Bard(15): Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
(Gives you an extra attack and reduces the AB penalty for dual wielding by 2)
16: Bard(16): DEX+1, (DEX=20)
17: Paladin(1)*Alignment Change*(You must change from Neutral good to lawful good) To do this, visit the Crypts, level 3 which are next to the docks area where you arrive on the server. Make sure you bring gold.
18: Paladin(2): Greater Spell Focus: Illusion
(Improves the concealment granted by ethereal visage) - concealment is as, if not more important as AC.
19: Paladin(3)
20: Paladin (4): DEX+1, (DEX=21), (4 Paladin levels taken before lvl 20 will increase your AB)
21: Monk(1): Weapon Focus: Kama, (Free Feat=Evasion)
(Weapon focus in kama increases your AB by 1) We must wait until lvl 21 for this feat because it requires monk proficiency and taking a monk level before 21 will hurt your AB.
22: Bard(17): *Alignment Change* (you must change from lawful good back to chaotic or neutral good)
23: Bard(18)
24: Bard(19): DEX+1, Armor Skin, (DEX=22)
(Armor skin increases your AC by 2)
25: Bard(20): Improved Critical: Kama
(Improved critical adds to your critical hit range and makes it more likely for you to land a critical hit)
26: Bard(21)
27: Bard(22): Lasting Inspiration
(Lasting inspiration multiplies your bard song duration by 10x)
28: Bard(23): DEX+1, Great Dexterity I, (DEX=24)
(Great dexterity feats increase your base dexterity by 1 each)
29: Bard(24)
30: Bard(25): Great Dexterity II, (DEX=25)
31: Bard(26): Great Dexterity III, (DEX=26)
32: Bard(27): DEX+1, (DEX=27)
33: Bard(28): Great Dexterity IV, (DEX=28)
34: Bard(29): Great Dexterity V, (DEX=29)
35: Bard(30)
36: Bard(31): DEX+1, Epic Weapon Focus: Kama, (DEX=30)
(Epic weapon focus is required for legendary weapon focus and increases your AB by 2)
37: Bard(32): Great Dexterity VI, (DEX=31)
38: Bard(33)
39: Bard(34): Great Dexterity VII, (DEX=32)
40: Bard(35): DEX+1, Great Dexterity VIII, (DEX=34)
Legendary Feats
Epic Prowess (Increases your AB by 1)
Great Dex 9 -10
Legendary Weapon Focus (Increases your AB by 3)
ESF Illusion
LSF Illusion
LSF Enchant
Skills
Max Discipline, Tumble, UMD, Perform - up to 40 once you hit Legendary levels you'll get enough skill points for three additional skills - Craft Armor, Listen and Parry.
Put a point in Pick Pocket just in case and stop putting points in tumble at lvl 57. Put remaining points into concentration.
When you get a spell focus book I would recommend Enchantment. Possibly transmutation if you go with a non-slashing weapon but the epic is mostly for the hells. ESF enchant will give you a +13 gmw and LSF will make that +14 enabling you to buff your own weapons and the rest of the party.
Spell Selection -at lvl 40+
lvl 1 Mage Armor, Expeditious Retreat, Sticky Fingers, Insidious Rythm, Joyful Noise
lvl 2 Clarity, Ghostly Visage, Endure Elements, Deafening Clang
lvl 3 Bestow Curse, Remove Disease, Displacement, Keen Edge, Greater Magic Weapon
lvl 4 legend lore, war cry, shadow conjuration, improved invisibility cure critical wounds
lvl 5 Healing Circle, Ethereal Visage, greater shadow conjuration, greater dispelling, improved heroism
lvl 6 Mass Clairaudience & Clairvoyance, Shades, energy buffer, Mass eagle's splendor
A lot of these spells are not critical choices, several are more useful in the hells than elsewhere, but most are useful everywhere.
Comments on Choices
Shield vs. monk level
Shield based dex bards are more viable although primarily due to the added gear, however you lose out on the extra attacks given by wielding two weapons as most dexer bards do, also doing a shield bard well generally means getting specific gear which a newer player isn’t going to possess or be able to get quickly. Also the bard ev shields require one to have NO monk level so there is no trying it out and then going to dualing. Instead, I chose to go with a monk level for evasion and the ability to dual more safely. A dexer bard with a monk level can still wear the set light armors and a small shield for added protection once they obtain them.
Monk weapon vs. tiny
Though small sized characters do get a point of AC and AB over large ones, plus gnomes get 2 bonus skill points per level in legendary levels, one of the problems with making a gnome based bard is size. On a medium sized bard monk weapons are normally the preferred choice because a dexer bard’s damage is generally based around number of attacks over damage from bigger or more critical hits. However small characters take an extra –2 penalty to AB when finessing a small sized weapon versus tiny; and there are no tiny monk weapons. Although the monk weapons get you more attacks per round, the top three of these attacks will be at –2 ab over a tiny weapon. Still it’s probably still a slightly better choice to go with monk weapons. I am recommending kamas on this build since there are a fair number of set ones, if you’ve been lucky enough to obtain some I would recommend nunchaku.
If you want to go with simple instead there are two tiny weapons that require exotic proficiency to wield sai and kukri, but on fire gnome you’d have to give up an epic feat just to take exotic proficiency. So your choices are down to dagger and katar. Since katars are CEP weapons they’re very hard to get hold of and almost no set ones exist, leaving you with dagger . . . unless you’ve come across a set of katars.
Feat Reasoning
ambidexterity, two weapon fighting and improved two weapon fighting all reduce the AB penalty for fighting with two weapons at once. To dual wield effectively these feats are necessary.
Still working on this post - will try to post bard song point selection soon.
-S
Fire gnome can make a pretty nice dexer bard, almost nicer than some of the secret subraces partly due to gnome’s constitution bonus rather than the penalties, siren and pixie give. There are a number of hard choices to be made when making a gnome based dexer bard and I’ll go over why I’ve made the big choices I did with this build at the end of it all
Base Race: Gnome
Subrace: Fire Gnome
STR -2, CHA +2, speaks Ignan
Starting Stats (After Fire Gnome is applied)
Strength 6 (4)
Dexterity 16
Constitution 16
Wisdom 14
Intelligence 10
Charisma 14 (16)
4 strength means you'd better buy some magic bags!
Stat points
All dex (Dexterity increases your AC AND AB so you want it to be as high as possible on this build)
Feat/Level Progression
01: Bard(1): Ambidexterity (Required for improved 2 weapon fighting, reduces the AB penalty of the offhand weapon by 4)
02: Bard(2)
03: Bard(3): Weapon Finesse
(Required to use your dexterity score for your attack bonus rather than strength)
04: Bard(4): DEX+1, (DEX=17)
05: Bard(5)
06: Bard(6): Two-Weapon Fighting (required for improved two weapon fighting, reduces the dual-wielding AB penalty to -4/-4)
07: Bard(7)
08: Bard(8): DEX+1, (DEX=18)
09: Bard(9): Curse Song
(allows you to use your bard song to penalize monsters with lowered, AB, AC, saves, damage and skills) - make sure you add it to your quick slots ASAP.
10: Bard(10)
11: Bard(11)
12: Bard(12): DEX+1, Metamagic: Extend Spell, (DEX=19)
(Allows your character to use higher level spell slots to double the duration of buff spells)
13: Bard(13)
14: Bard(14)
15: Bard(15): Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
(Gives you an extra attack and reduces the AB penalty for dual wielding by 2)
16: Bard(16): DEX+1, (DEX=20)
17: Paladin(1)*Alignment Change*(You must change from Neutral good to lawful good) To do this, visit the Crypts, level 3 which are next to the docks area where you arrive on the server. Make sure you bring gold.
18: Paladin(2): Greater Spell Focus: Illusion
(Improves the concealment granted by ethereal visage) - concealment is as, if not more important as AC.
19: Paladin(3)
20: Paladin (4): DEX+1, (DEX=21), (4 Paladin levels taken before lvl 20 will increase your AB)
21: Monk(1): Weapon Focus: Kama, (Free Feat=Evasion)
(Weapon focus in kama increases your AB by 1) We must wait until lvl 21 for this feat because it requires monk proficiency and taking a monk level before 21 will hurt your AB.
22: Bard(17): *Alignment Change* (you must change from lawful good back to chaotic or neutral good)
23: Bard(18)
24: Bard(19): DEX+1, Armor Skin, (DEX=22)
(Armor skin increases your AC by 2)
25: Bard(20): Improved Critical: Kama
(Improved critical adds to your critical hit range and makes it more likely for you to land a critical hit)
26: Bard(21)
27: Bard(22): Lasting Inspiration
(Lasting inspiration multiplies your bard song duration by 10x)
28: Bard(23): DEX+1, Great Dexterity I, (DEX=24)
(Great dexterity feats increase your base dexterity by 1 each)
29: Bard(24)
30: Bard(25): Great Dexterity II, (DEX=25)
31: Bard(26): Great Dexterity III, (DEX=26)
32: Bard(27): DEX+1, (DEX=27)
33: Bard(28): Great Dexterity IV, (DEX=28)
34: Bard(29): Great Dexterity V, (DEX=29)
35: Bard(30)
36: Bard(31): DEX+1, Epic Weapon Focus: Kama, (DEX=30)
(Epic weapon focus is required for legendary weapon focus and increases your AB by 2)
37: Bard(32): Great Dexterity VI, (DEX=31)
38: Bard(33)
39: Bard(34): Great Dexterity VII, (DEX=32)
40: Bard(35): DEX+1, Great Dexterity VIII, (DEX=34)
Legendary Feats
Epic Prowess (Increases your AB by 1)
Great Dex 9 -10
Legendary Weapon Focus (Increases your AB by 3)
ESF Illusion
LSF Illusion
LSF Enchant
Skills
Max Discipline, Tumble, UMD, Perform - up to 40 once you hit Legendary levels you'll get enough skill points for three additional skills - Craft Armor, Listen and Parry.
Put a point in Pick Pocket just in case and stop putting points in tumble at lvl 57. Put remaining points into concentration.
When you get a spell focus book I would recommend Enchantment. Possibly transmutation if you go with a non-slashing weapon but the epic is mostly for the hells. ESF enchant will give you a +13 gmw and LSF will make that +14 enabling you to buff your own weapons and the rest of the party.
Spell Selection -at lvl 40+
lvl 1 Mage Armor, Expeditious Retreat, Sticky Fingers, Insidious Rythm, Joyful Noise
lvl 2 Clarity, Ghostly Visage, Endure Elements, Deafening Clang
lvl 3 Bestow Curse, Remove Disease, Displacement, Keen Edge, Greater Magic Weapon
lvl 4 legend lore, war cry, shadow conjuration, improved invisibility cure critical wounds
lvl 5 Healing Circle, Ethereal Visage, greater shadow conjuration, greater dispelling, improved heroism
lvl 6 Mass Clairaudience & Clairvoyance, Shades, energy buffer, Mass eagle's splendor
A lot of these spells are not critical choices, several are more useful in the hells than elsewhere, but most are useful everywhere.
Comments on Choices
Shield vs. monk level
Shield based dex bards are more viable although primarily due to the added gear, however you lose out on the extra attacks given by wielding two weapons as most dexer bards do, also doing a shield bard well generally means getting specific gear which a newer player isn’t going to possess or be able to get quickly. Also the bard ev shields require one to have NO monk level so there is no trying it out and then going to dualing. Instead, I chose to go with a monk level for evasion and the ability to dual more safely. A dexer bard with a monk level can still wear the set light armors and a small shield for added protection once they obtain them.
Monk weapon vs. tiny
Though small sized characters do get a point of AC and AB over large ones, plus gnomes get 2 bonus skill points per level in legendary levels, one of the problems with making a gnome based bard is size. On a medium sized bard monk weapons are normally the preferred choice because a dexer bard’s damage is generally based around number of attacks over damage from bigger or more critical hits. However small characters take an extra –2 penalty to AB when finessing a small sized weapon versus tiny; and there are no tiny monk weapons. Although the monk weapons get you more attacks per round, the top three of these attacks will be at –2 ab over a tiny weapon. Still it’s probably still a slightly better choice to go with monk weapons. I am recommending kamas on this build since there are a fair number of set ones, if you’ve been lucky enough to obtain some I would recommend nunchaku.
If you want to go with simple instead there are two tiny weapons that require exotic proficiency to wield sai and kukri, but on fire gnome you’d have to give up an epic feat just to take exotic proficiency. So your choices are down to dagger and katar. Since katars are CEP weapons they’re very hard to get hold of and almost no set ones exist, leaving you with dagger . . . unless you’ve come across a set of katars.
Feat Reasoning
ambidexterity, two weapon fighting and improved two weapon fighting all reduce the AB penalty for fighting with two weapons at once. To dual wield effectively these feats are necessary.
Still working on this post - will try to post bard song point selection soon.
-S
