Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Zemyla 05-06-05, 01:52 PM	I'm creating an elven Pal 2/Bard 7/Eldritch Knight 1/Sublime Chord 1/Eldritch Knight 5, and I'm trying to figure out which spells would be best for her. The skills are a pain in the neck to figure out, but I can qualify for SubChord at 10th level (I've calculated this). My feats are: 1st: Additional Favored Class (bard) 3rd: Devoted Performer 6th: Extend Spell 9th: Battle Caster 10th: Persistent Spell 12th: Lyric Spell 15th: Extra Music And I'm going to use the Lyric Spell feat kind of like Divine Metamagic, giving myself Persistent Ruin Delver's Fortune. So what other spells should I get?
UMiskatonic 05-06-05, 02:58 PM	Changing to human would help your con, and give you two extra feats, along with an extra skill point every level. Both paladins and bards are starved for feats. Why make it worse? With those extra feats, you could take the excellent arcane strike, for example. Spell-wise, you must have cure light wounds, haste, and dimension door. Cure serious is also worth the investment at higher levels. For offense, I'd consider some of the enchantment spells, suggestion and Tasha's are probably the best, and lower level for bards. For defense, there are multiple options, I personally prefer improved blink. You may not want a lot of utility spells, but Voice of the Dragon is good, as are sculpt sound and the terribly useful legend lore (if you have that kind of DM). When you get the sublime chord levels, I recommend you swap out a bard spell for magic missile. It's always good to have, and works against almost everything. Planar binding spells will also be great, you'll do well at the charisma checks. Orb of force, and one of the two stand-bys, fireball and lightning bolt.
lokkesmadr 05-06-05, 03:03 PM	Otto's Irresistable Dance. There is no better bard spell for a sublime chord, I reckon.
AramilWindwalker 05-06-05, 03:27 PM	Otto's Irresistable Dance. There is no better bard spell for a sublime chord, I reckon. I second that^ and haste improvisation from CV could be useful too
Zemyla 05-06-05, 03:30 PM	Voice of the Dragon sounds like fun. What book is it from?
UMiskatonic 05-06-05, 03:52 PM	Draconomicon, naturally.
Iaimeki 05-07-05, 02:54 AM	First, a few general comments. Human, as noted, would almost certainly be better than elf, for the extra feats. You want to take Practiced Spellcaster (CA) and Arcane Strike (CW), without question. Depending on your choice of weapon(s), Snowflake Wardance (FB) might also be good. Persistent Spell is, IMO, not worth it: as a bard/sublime chord, you don't get all that many spell slots. I also wouldn't bother with Extra Music: you'll have enough uses to cover most of the things you want to do with it, and your feats are better spent other places, like improving your casting or combat ability. There's no disadvantage to taking sublime chord 2: you get the same BAB and pick up song of arcane power, which is really quite good. I'd splash sacred exorcist 4 (CD) for turning and Divine Might (CW) at some point. I'd also consider doing something like dipping spellsword (CW) instead of taking more bard, unless you want the skills. Without a way to cast spells while also attacking, this smells like a buff-up-and-charge-in arcane warrior. The spell list I suggest will thus be focused on buffing, spells you can cast as swift/immediate actions, utility spells, and combat magic you can use to back up a primary arcane caster. Noting that arcane warriors have problems with save DCs, I will avoid spells that grant them, and try to minimize the number of spells that grant SR. 1st (4): My picks: Cure Light Wounds, Grease, Feather Fall, Swift Expeditious Retreat [CV] 2nd (4): My picks: Glitterdust, Heroism, Mirror Image, Swift Fly [CV] Also good: Bladeweave [CV], Alter Self (only if you're an outsider), Rage, Shatter, Silence, Swift Invisibility [CV], Tactical Precision [CV] 3rd (2): My picks: Dispel Magic (surpassed by Greater Dispel Magic), Haste Also good: Blink (surpassed by Greater Blink), Good Hope 4th (4): My picks: Cure Critical Wounds, Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement, Polymorph Also good: Black Tentacles, Enervation, Greater Invisibility, Stoneskin, Spectral Weapon [CV], War Cry [CV] 5th (4): My picks: Greater Blink, Greater Dispel Magic, Greater Heroism, Teleport (possibly swap once you get Greater Teleport) Also good: Cloudkill, Dismissal (if going for sacred exorcist), Improvisation [CV], Mass Fly, Mislead, Reciprocal Gyre [CA], Shadow Evocation, Wall of Force 6th (4): My picks: Antimagic Field, Cacophonic Shield [CV], Disintegrate, Irresistible Dance (I'd swap this once Mind Blank becomes common) Also good: Analyze Dweomer, Brilliant Blade [CA], Fiendform [CA], Greater Scrying, True Seeing 7th (4): My picks: Greater Teleport, Spell Turning, Summon Monster VII, Limited Wish Also good: Energy Immunity, Greater Arcane Sight, Waves of Exhaustion 8th (3): My picks: Greater Shadow Evocation, Moment of Prescience, Polymorph Any Object Also good: Ghostform [CA], Mind Blank 9th (2): My picks: Shapechange, Timestop Also good: Crushing Hand, Foresight, Mage's Disjunction, Reaving Dispel [CA], Superior Invisibility [CA]
Eyeless Blond 05-07-05, 09:36 AM	Another choice other than Elf or Human would be half-elf: you get the same favored class:Any so you save your 1st level feat, a few useful skill bonuses, plus you get access to the half-elf bard racial substitution levels. The Command one is particularly good for you as you're going to be focusing heavily on Cha, and you won't be getting enough bard levels to make Suggestion as hugely powerful as it normally gets. Soothing Voice is practically a no-brainer as well.
Iaimeki 05-07-05, 10:12 AM	If I were doing this, I'd either go with human (if nothing interesting was permitted), star elf (in FR, possibly taking the Otherworldly feat for outsider type), or aasimar (either the +1 LA version, or the +0 LA version from here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a). All of those races don't have favored class problems and get something actively beneficial for a bard/paladin arcane warrior.
thorian 05-08-05, 01:49 AM	If I were doing this, I'd either go with human (if nothing interesting was permitted), star elf (in FR, possibly taking the Otherworldly feat for outsider type), or aasimar (either the +1 LA version, or the +0 LA version from here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a). All of those races don't have favored class problems and get something actively beneficial for a bard/paladin arcane warrior. That really isn't an Aasimar with a +0 LA. It just breaks down the standard Aasimar like the progressions in Savage Species. You can't avoid taking the 1st level of the progression, just like you can't swap out of monster levels in Savage Species. There is a +0 LA Aasimar, though, on page 191 of the Player's Guide to Faerun, under the Lesser Planetouched heading.
Iaimeki 05-08-05, 11:28 AM	That really isn't an Aasimar with a +0 LA. It just breaks down the standard Aasimar like the progressions in Savage Species. You can't avoid taking the 1st level of the progression, just like you can't swap out of monster levels in Savage Species. There is a +0 LA Aasimar, though, on page 191 of the Player's Guide to Faerun, under the Lesser Planetouched heading. There's an optional rule in Savage Species allowing you to _not_ take subsequent levels of a monster class. The +0 LA aasimar in PGtF doesn't get the outsider type, meaning that it's mostly worthless for this concept. Does it say whether the +0 LA aasimar can take Otherworldly? If not, star elf or human are better choices.
Eyeless Blond 05-08-05, 12:33 PM	Yes, well the Savage Progressions +0 Assimar is broken anyway for what you get. Basically you end up with everything the +1 guy gets, other than the paltry resistances and the +2Wis (note that the +0 version has unbalanced ability scores, which should already make it +1). I don't know a single DM that would go for it unless you were required to take the +1LA at level 2.