I've got about ten characters I've been playing in LFR modules over the past year or so and so far, my Dragonborn Bard has been the most fun to roleplay. I was lucky enough to get a Sight of the Unseen spellscarred card for her so she could do something interesting from an RP perspective. See the spoilers section at the bottom for an explanation.
Derynni
What I attempted to do was to build a character with great skill potential, some decent combat potential, and some extra controller-y goodness in addition to all of the leader-y goodness that Bards already have.
Beginning stats:
STR - 13+2 (Dragonborn) = 15
Con - 13 (currently 14)
Dex - 8
Int - 15 (currently 17)
Wis - 10
Cha - 16+2 (Dragonborn) = 18 (currently 19)
I wanted to MC my Bard to Wizard to get Scorching Burst as an encounter power. In addition, she bought a Master's Wand of Scorching Burst for a second use of it, with the added bonus that the center square of the burst gets additional damage. And of course, including her Dragonbreath, I have a lot of excellent area attacks that I can do per encounter.
I made this a Cunning Bard, since even though she has a good strength score, she's much better at hanging back and attacking at range. I made Dex my dump stat and gave her chainmail and a light shield to start. (She now has Eladrin Finemail +2 for AC 24 at 8th level.)
Feats:
1) Arcane Initiate
2) Jack of All Trades
4) Hurl Breath
6) Implement Expertise (wand)
8) Student of the Plague (Sight of the Unseen)
For her 10th level feat, I'm planning on taking Adept Power to give her the Burning the Plagued Bellows spellscarred daily power, which seems much better than the comparable Hideous Laughter Bard daily since it's an area attack for the same damage dice instead of against only one creature.
Current powers:
At-Wills:
Misdirected Mark
Vicious Mockery
Encounter powers:
Blunder
Dissonant Strain
Unluck
Utility powers:
Inspire Competence
Glimpse the Future
Daily powers:
Stirring Shout
Tune of Ice and Wind
Equipment:
Cloak of Resistance +2
Master's Wand of Scorching Burst +1
Wand of Ethereal Stride +2
Eladrin Finemail +2
Light Shield
Shadowfell Gloves
Helm of Heroes
Flute of the Dancing Satyr
Doss Lute +2
I'm not convinced that especially the spellscarred progression is the best route to take, though, and I'm curious what others have done with their bards. Any suggestions?
PS. Almost forgot to mention...I'm seriously considering the Battle Mage paragon path. She's from Chessenta, meaning she gets +1 on APs. Battle Mage gives her an additional +4 on APs plus an absolutely insane 20th level area attack power (if all other dailies have been used). What do you think?
SPOILERS --
In LURU1-1, there is a special award, given only to one PC, that gives your character glowy blue eyes. The Sight of the Unseen card also gives your character glowy blue eyes. I'm combining them for the RP value. In addition, there is a spellscarred dwarf in WATE1-2 with tentacles for arms. With the idea that spellscars could have effects like this that change the character's body without necessarily having any mechanical, in-game effect, I had my Bard accidentally sit on a crystal shard in DALE1-4 and grow a tail. (Dragonborn don't have tails.)
The main issue though is that the Sight of the Unseen card is a Creation card (upper right corner of the card) and can only be used on a new PC and not added to an existing one. (although I wish they would change that)
The Larger than Life card is an Expansion card and can be used on any PC, new or old. That one is in the rewards card PDF.
Not a problem. I'm well aware of that. :-)
Even though I didn't take the feat until 8th level, I totally built the character with her spellscar in mind. Since I'd already played LURU1-1, I knew the special reward that was available so I built this character to be better able to get that award than most other characters. And I got lucky. I got the award when she played it, so I could stack it with her spellscarred trait. ^_^
Damon
Okay... that makes more sense then. 
Some notes:
The breath weapon is eventually going to go way down in usefulness - as a cunning bard, you really shouldn't be boosting either Str or Con.
That said, is there a reason you boosted Con, especially at what appears to be a cost of Cha? Either you bump it again, dinging Int/Cha, or you lose the benefit of having bumped it during Paragon.
I don't think the Con or Int really defines a Bard as being melee or ranged. Especially given Dragonborn's relative support to Con over Int(Breath Weapon, Draconic Heritage vs better Ref, option to wear light armor), I think the Con would have been the better choice.
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So, here's some thoughts:
Breath feats are going to be a no-no. You'll have a 16 Str at 14th when many people will have a 22 primary attack stat. That opens up Hurl Breath for retraining.
There are several options that can allow a Bard to pick and choose melee/ranged/ranged weapon at will now. As an example, a Far Bond Spellblade from AV2 and Arcane Initiate Proficiency(Heavy Blade) feat means you now have a weapon that counts as a heavy thrown weapon and can be used as an implement.
Light armor? This seems to be a possible choice. At 11th as an example, you're going to have an 18 Int, or in other words, a base AC of 17 from Hide+Int vs 16 from Chain. Eladrin's speed bump is okay, you'll have an additional +1 for masterworked armor, but that's sacrificing a useful property, especially if you're actually paying for Eladrin Chain.
They don't seem to be updating Spellscarred powers at all, so I think that's something to think about - I'd go with something else for a paragon path for that reason.
Resourceful Magician is a fun paragon path for a Cunning Bard build - lets you pick up Prestigitation, Eldritch Blast, and a couple of other things. You might also look at Academy Master from the Dragon Magazine options.
Some notes:
The breath weapon is eventually going to go way down in usefulness - as a cunning bard, you really shouldn't be boosting either Str or Con.That said, is there a reason you boosted Con, especially at what appears to be a cost of Cha? Either you bump it again, dinging Int/Cha, or you lose the benefit of having bumped it during Paragon.
I don't think the Con or Int really defines a Bard as being melee or ranged. Especially given Dragonborn's relative support to Con over Int(Breath Weapon, Draconic Heritage vs better Ref, option to wear light armor), I think the Con would have been the better choice.
The main reason I boosted Str is so that I can later take a feat for heavy shields, in Paragon. I could've left Str a point lower, since Paragon gives a +1 to all stats, but there really wasn't any other ability that really made sense to me to add that final point to.
As far as boosting Con, as a Dragonborn I get a bonus to healing surges equal to my Con modifier. As a healer, I like to keep myself standing! The main reason I chose to boost Int as high as it is now was to MC into Wizard, as I'm looking to create as strong a controller as possible in addition to the leader-y stuff my Bard can do.
So, here's some thoughts:
Breath feats are going to be a no-no. You'll have a 16 Str at 14th when many people will have a 22 primary attack stat. That opens up Hurl Breath for retraining.
Since I hadn't yet played my Bard at 8th level (she just leveled recently), I actually already retrained this into Novice Power and took the 7th level Wizard power Enemies Abound to replace Unluck. Fantastic area attack that hits enemies only.
There are several options that can allow a Bard to pick and choose melee/ranged/ranged weapon at will now. As an example, a Far Bond Spellblade from AV2 and Arcane Initiate Proficiency(Heavy Blade) feat means you now have a weapon that counts as a heavy thrown weapon and can be used as an implement.
Possibly, but my Bard is already making excellent use of the wands she has and I don't see a pressing need at the moment to go melee. I *could* do that later on, though, since she has a decent Str (to help with basic melee attacks). I'd just rather not spend two feats right now to do that.
Light armor? This seems to be a possible choice. At 11th as an example, you're going to have an 18 Int, or in other words, a base AC of 17 from Hide+Int vs 16 from Chain. Eladrin's speed bump is okay, you'll have an additional +1 for masterworked armor, but that's sacrificing a useful property, especially if you're actually paying for Eladrin Chain.
I didn't pay for Eladrin Chain. Found it in a mod. She's already AC 24 at 8th (+6 chain, +2 enhancement, +1 masterwork, +4 for 1/2 level, +1 light shield) and will eventually go higher when she gets a heavy shield.
I do see what you're saying about switching to hide armor in order to gain some other useful property, but I'd also be doing that at the cost of a -1 armor check penalty (which I don't have right now from Eladrin Chain). I really didn't see anything incredibly useful in terms of armor properties out there for her. I agree that this is an option, though. (+3 Hide, +4 ability, +2 enhancement, +4 for 1/2 level, +1 light shield = 24 AC too.)
They don't seem to be updating Spellscarred powers at all, so I think that's something to think about - I'd go with something else for a paragon path for that reason.
Right. I'm planning on going Battle Mage (wizard paragon path). I'm still looking at whether the higher level Spellscarred powers will be useful, though. At 10th, I think getting Burning the Plagued Bellows is a good choice. Not so sure about after that.
Resourceful Magician is a fun paragon path for a Cunning Bard build - lets you pick up Prestigitation, Eldritch Blast, and a couple of other things. You might also look at Academy Master from the Dragon Magazine options.
I looked at Resourceful Magician. It has some interesting fluff, but nothing that my build could really make good use of...except for perhaps Diverse Study, available after 16th level. Tempting, but there's just not enough there to make me choose that over Battle Mage.
As far as Academy Master goes, I'm very rarely using at-wills. Usually an encounter is over before I get down to at-wills. Learned Boost would make at-wills far more useful, but unfortunately I don't have any area at-wills.
Battle Mage has several things that make my build even better:
1) Battle Mage Action. My Bard is already from Chessenta, giving her a +1 to attacks on an AP. BMA gives an additional +4 for a total of +5. Great for following up a decent area attack with another one that's much more devastating (like Enemies Abound).
2) Forceful Retort. Close burst 1 hitting enemies only. If enemies attempt to gang up on me, I can push them away with this.
3) Arcane Rejuvenation. I'm a healer, so being able to immediately get back up if I'm knocked down to zero or below is absolutely huge.
4) Closing Spell is AWESOME. And it's enemies only!
If there's another paragon path that can top Battle Mage in terms of usefulness, I'd be interested in seeing it.
Damon
The main reason I boosted Str is so that I can later take a feat for heavy shields, in Paragon. I could've left Str a point lower, since Paragon gives a +1 to all stats, but there really wasn't any other ability that really made sense to me to add that final point to.
As far as boosting Con, as a Dragonborn I get a bonus to healing surges equal to my Con modifier. As a healer, I like to keep myself standing! The main reason I chose to boost Int as high as it is now was to MC into Wizard, as I'm looking to create as strong a controller as possible in addition to the leader-y stuff my Bard can do.
My point about the Str was that the only benefit to boosting Con was the 1 extra hit point, 1 extra hit point on surges, and an extra healing surge due to the value of Str. Past the initial investment, no Cunning Bard should really be investing in either stat. Especially not at the cost of your primary attack stat.
To look at it another way, what would you say if someone told you that they were going to make up a Wizard with a starting Int of 15 after racial mods.
Battlemage may have some very nice capabilities - but you're still someone who started off with an Int of 15. If you started with an 18, I think it is a very solid choice(though Resourceful Magician's ability to cherry-pick from usually Wizard, Warlock, and Bard is ultimately much more effective in my view) - yes, 8d10 is great, but not when you have to use an action point to make sure you hit.
Possibly, but my Bard is already making excellent use of the wands she has and I don't see a pressing need at the moment to go melee. I *could* do that later on, though, since she has a decent Str (to help with basic melee attacks). I'd just rather not spend two feats right now to do that.
The advantage is that you can take any Bard/Wizard power you want and use it without thinking about implement. As there are some very nice ranged weapon Bard powers...it also lets you take a melee or ranged weapon at-will as the two you have are extremely similar.
My point about the Str was that the only benefit to boosting Con was the 1 extra hit point, 1 extra hit point on surges, and an extra healing surge due to the value of Str. Past the initial investment, no Cunning Bard should really be investing in either stat. Especially not at the cost of your primary attack stat.
To look at it another way, what would you say if someone told you that they were going to make up a Wizard with a starting Int of 15 after racial mods.
I see your point, but as things stand my int modifier will only ever be one point behind my cha modifier from now on. If I want to make absolutely sure I can keep up, all I need to do is take Combat Virtuoso and I can use my cha modifier for all Wizard multiclass powers, including paragon powers.
In any case, I would've had to lower my Str by two in order to gain one more point of Int to start with. Because I wanted to ensure that I could get a heavy shield in Paragon, I decided not to do that. (Lowering Con by two would've made even less sense.)
Battlemage may have some very nice capabilities - but you're still someone who started off with an Int of 15. If you started with an 18, I think it is a very solid choice (though Resourceful Magician's ability to cherry-pick from usually Wizard, Warlock, and Bard is ultimately much more effective in my view) - yes, 8d10 is great, but not when you have to use an action point to make sure you hit.
I understand why you prefer Resourceful Magician, and that one ability is VERY useful, I agree. I guess what it really comes down to is how useful any particular build is in play. Resourceful Magician would basically save me from having to pick the Novice Power and Adept Power feats -- which at this point (level 8) I've already done. It would also give me the ability to choose more than one encounter or daily power from another class, something I currently can't do. I can definitely see the value in that, but I also have to question if my build would eventually really benefit from such a variety of choices more than the benefits I'd gain from another paragon path, such as Battle Mage. Resourceful Magician is a strong contender, but given my play style and my build choices I still think Battle Mage is a better choice for me, especially since enemies might choose to single me out because I have a better DPR than the typical Bard. Forceful Retort and Arcane Rejuvenation would come in enormously handy in cases like that. But YMMV.
The advantage is that you can take any Bard/Wizard power you want and use it without thinking about implement. As there are some very nice ranged weapon Bard powers...it also lets you take a melee or ranged weapon at-will as the two you have are extremely similar.
I agree that that's a big advantage. There are a couple of Bard powers that are ranged that I might be interested in if I were to go that way. But again, I think it comes down to play style. Having a heavy blade as an implement, along with the feats necessary to make this work would complement Resourceful Magician's ability to choose powers from any multiclass class quite well. It would take a number of feats to make it all work, but the end result would be quite good. It doesn't really suit my play style, though, as I'm focusing on implement-based area attacks and leaving the melee and ranged stuff to other PCs.
In any case...I should probably post my Sorcerer build next. I'm wondering if choosing the Daggermaster paragon path just so I can crit on an 18-20 is worth it, because the rest of the paragon path powers and abilities are useless to my sorcerer...
Damon
I see your point, but as things stand my int modifier will only ever be one point behind my cha modifier from now on. If I want to make absolutely sure I can keep up, all I need to do is take Combat Virtuoso and I can use my cha modifier for all Wizard multiclass powers, including paragon powers.
In general, you need to compare to what ought to have happened - it should be 1.5 behind your cha modifier. At many levels, you're going to be functionally having a -2 to hit with your Wizard powers compared to what you ought to have had. Combat Virtuoso also won't work with Battlemage powers, only paragon multiclassing or your Wizard powers..
Having a heavy blade as an implement, along with the feats necessary to make this work would complement Resourceful Magician's ability to choose powers from any multiclass class quite well. It would take a number of feats to make it all work
Hmm? You have proficiency with a Longsword - all it requires to make work is Arcane Implement Proficiency(Heavy Blades) and a particular weapon(Far Bond Spellblade from AV2 which a level 2+ weapon, so not too expensive to keep upgrading)
In any case...I should probably post my Sorcerer build next. I'm wondering if choosing the Daggermaster paragon path just so I can crit on an 18-20 is worth it, because the rest of the paragon path powers and abilities are useless to my sorcerer...
It probably is, given the Epic Sorcerer feat that lets you do a free at-will on a crit. But this is update bait - there's a big update supposed to be coming soon(fixing reckless and bloodclaw and other overpowered things) and the Daggermaster 18-20 crit thing might be a big target. I'd wait to after the update to make that decision final.
In general, you need to compare to what ought to have happened - it should be 1.5 behind your cha modifier. At many levels, you're going to be functionally having a -2 to hit with your Wizard powers compared to what you ought to have had. Combat Virtuoso also won't work with Battlemage powers, only paragon multiclassing or your Wizard powers..
Noted. But since my Bard is already level 8, it's too late to look back on what should have/might have happened.
Hmm? You have proficiency with a Longsword - all it requires to make work is Arcane Implement Proficiency(Heavy Blades) and a particular weapon(Far Bond Spellblade from AV2 which a level 2+ weapon, so not too expensive to keep upgrading)
Plus implement expertise (the second feat I mentioned), plus I'd have to buy the sword, plus the wands I already have would be wasted since I'd have to use a minor to switch back and forth between them and the blade. (My Bard's other hand is holding a shield.)
It probably is, given the Epic Sorcerer feat that lets you do a free at-will on a crit. But this is update bait - there's a big update supposed to be coming soon(fixing reckless and bloodclaw and other overpowered things) and the Daggermaster 18-20 crit thing might be a big target. I'd wait to after the update to make that decision final.
Sounds like a good idea. My sorcerer is 5th level right now so I won't need to make that decision for quite a while, in any case.
Damon
Hmm? You have proficiency with a Longsword - all it requires to make work is Arcane Implement Proficiency(Heavy Blades) and a particular weapon(Far Bond Spellblade from AV2 which a level 2+ weapon, so not too expensive to keep upgrading)
Plus implement expertise (the second feat I mentioned), plus I'd have to buy the sword, plus the wands I already have would be wasted since I'd have to use a minor to switch back and forth between them and the blade. (My Bard's other hand is holding a shield.)
I don't think that's as much of an issue as you think it is. Economically speaking, people simply can't afford to pay to upgrade multiple items at their level of power. So eventually, the wands you have are going to be wasted, regardless. This will be particularly true once you start seeing the +3 magic items with your stats - do you really want to use your Wand of Ethereal Stride +2 to attack with a Wizard spell when you have a +3 option? You're just going to use them for the dailies. You can also buy a Ruby Scabbard(free draw) for 1000 and when you have a light shield, you can hold a wand in that hand.
In any case, you'd want Focused Expertise(Longsword)
It probably is, given the Epic Sorcerer feat that lets you do a free at-will on a crit. But this is update bait - there's a big update supposed to be coming soon(fixing reckless and bloodclaw and other overpowered things) and the Daggermaster 18-20 crit thing might be a big target. I'd wait to after the update to make that decision final.
I wonder what they would plan to do on the 18-20 crit for daggermaster other than perhaps limit it to weapon based attacks only or more specifically to rogue and rogue paragon path attacks only. I certainly hope not more than that since my rogue IS a daggermaster rogue already =(
I like the bard listed here btw, very different from mine as I went for healing as a primary concern, it's pretty impressive how different two bards can be moreso than a lot of other classes.
It probably is, given the Epic Sorcerer feat that lets you do a free at-will on a crit. But this is update bait - there's a big update supposed to be coming soon(fixing reckless and bloodclaw and other overpowered things) and the Daggermaster 18-20 crit thing might be a big target. I'd wait to after the update to make that decision final.
I wonder what they would plan to do on the 18-20 crit for daggermaster other than perhaps limit it to weapon based attacks only or more specifically to rogue and rogue paragon path attacks only. I certainly hope not more than that since my rogue IS a daggermaster rogue already =(
I like the bard listed here btw, very different from mine as I went for healing as a primary concern, it's pretty impressive how different two bards can be moreso than a lot of other classes.
I like this Bard too!
I agree that it's pretty cool how vastly different Bard's can be in play. WoTC really out-did themselves with their implementation. 