Post/Author/DateTime	Post
fastjack 01-22-06, 09:16 PM	Humm Im about to make a bard for the shackled city adventure path. The adventure will be in Forgotten Realms. Im kinda new to bard, and im trying to explore other paths.. i used to play with rogues and monks. My Dm said to me that theres a possibility to become a harper in this adventure, but im not sure if im goin to follow this path. Either way, which books do you gusy recomend to me as a player, to buy in order to optmize my char as a bard? And how do you recomend me to build it?
Chosen of Bane 01-22-06, 10:26 PM	When considering what type of Bard you want to build it really depends on what style you want to play. A bard is very versatile. With the right feat selection they can be pretty capable in melee or ranged combat, they can be excellent utility spell casters, and they are the absolute masters of social situations. If you want to be a melee based bard than you'll probably want to be DEX based unless you have great rolls. Dex based melee bards are better than STR based because heavy armor is not an option with spell casting. Go with weapon finesse as a feat and use a rapier, then you can take weapon focus, dodge, etc... Ranged combat based bards would also use DEX heavily and typical feats would include point blank sot, precise shot, rapid shot, etc... This is a pretty powerful build because you can sit back, stay out of melee, sing to get morale bonuses and fire your shortbow while staying out of harms way. If you want to focus on utility spellcasting than I recommend either taking "Extra Music" feat and "Lyric Spell" feat (both from Complete Adventurer) and using the extra music as more spells or building towards the "Sublime Chord" prestige class from Complete Arcane to get the more powerful wizard/sorcerer spells. Enchantment focus is also a good one to think about because Bards get lots of the good enchantments (like Dominate Person) and it just seems to fit with the whole bard concept. Remember, however you build this character, he will likely be a master of the social skills. You'll want a high charisma and lots of ranks in spells that the rest of your party will likely neglect, such as Diplomacy, Gather Info, Bluff, Sense Motive, Intimidate, etc... I am currently working on a Bard for an upcoming campaign and he will be taking the regional feat "Artist" at level one. It's a great feat that gives you +2 to all perform checks, +2 to one craft skill (as long as it's artistic based), and 3 extra uses of bardic music. If this is available to you then I highly recommend it. Oh, and what books to buy.... Complete Adventurer has a LOT of good stuff for bards.
Board_Rider 01-23-06, 12:25 AM	Chosen of Bane summed it up nicely. Having played this adventure I would recommend a LOT of Sense Motive and Gather Information skill points...throw Diplomacy in there too.
Imruphel 01-23-06, 09:54 PM	I would also strongly suggest crossing over to the Character Optimisation boards on this website and read the various posts about bards over there. That should give you some good ideas about how to ensure your bard is a playable character. Make sure you read the CO rules before you post there.