Okay, so for an evil campaign, a friend of mine wants to try to play a more evil bard, one that can manipulate people like puppets rather easily.
My current dilemma is of the fact that the majority of bard builds seem to rely on the bard being Exalted or a Paladin, which their good natures somewhat contradict the desired nature of this character. An LA of +3 is the max I think we'd be comfy with, and our other party members are a Sorceror/Incantrix (myself), a Warblade, an Evil Cleric of Hector, and a rogue/Assassin.
Any help is greatly appreciated, as I have NO idea where to even start with something like this. D:
Edit: Forgot to mention that ALL books are available, Dragon Magazine and all, along with the fact that the DM is encouraging us to Munchkin.
In Dragon #318 page 25 and 26 there's a race called a Gruwaar. They don't have a LA (which in my opinion is good but, not in everyones) and they're small which is good for AC and hiding. They get -2 str, +2 dex, -2 wis, +2 cha which for a Bard I think is great, they can move 30ft. if they drop on all fours with nothing in there hands (which comes in handy if retreat is the only option). They're Fey which is nice, they get darkvision out to 60ft, they get +2 hide, move silent, and slight of hand and they can use disguise self 1/day. They have some other stuff but, I don't feel like copying it all.
A handy feat out of Dragon #315 (I don't have the book so I don't know what page) is Rapscallion, it allows you to add your Intelligence on top of your Charisma to bluff which is nice in social situations (and if you're feinting it doesn't hurt).
You could also look in to the Beguiler class from the PHB2, they're the War Mages of Enchantment and Illusion so that might help with what you're going for. Another base class that might help is the Mountebank from the Dragon Magazine Compendium. You get an ability that you can use at will that let's you stair into an enemies eyes, if they fail a Will Save they take a -5 on Sense Motive checks and a -2 on Will Saves which is fun, they also get Trap Finding and something similar to Sneak Attack. The Mountebank Prestige Class from Complete Scoundrel is also nifty, they get an ability that works like the Rapscallion Feat, they can teleport themselves so many times per day and they get sneak attack.
You may also want to look at the alternate class feature from Exemplers of Evil, I think it's called Inspire Hatred. You get it instead of Inspire Greatness but, you use your Bardic Music against a creature and if it fails it's save it has to attack a creature that you specify for as many rounds as you perform and it can hear you +5 additional rounds.
EDIT: O! Another feat that might help is the Seduction Feat from the Book of Erotic Fantasy. You get a +2 on Charisma based checks against Men or Women (you can take the feat twice to get the benefits against both men and women).
Hm... the Gruwaar sounds like a great idea, and with the Unseelie Template from the Dragon Compendium, we're looking at a +4 to Dex and Charisma while still fluttering around as a +0 LA. Do we know of any real templates that can add on plenty of charisma?
I like where the Inspire Hatred is going, too~. Can play the bardic music to make one of the enemy BSFs attack the spellcaster, while using other features to generally turn the whole battlefield into one big musical.
...Music Meister, anyone?
Half-fey, phrenic, and magic blooded all add to Charisma. The first two are +2 LA each (and really worth it). The last is LA +0.
Half-fey, phrenic, and magic blooded all add to Charisma. The first two are +2 LA each (and really worth it). The last is LA +0.
Where is magic blooded from?
Half-fey, phrenic, and magic blooded all add to Charisma. The first two are +2 LA each (and really worth it). The last is LA +0.
...okay, wow.
Gruwaar: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str, -2 Wisdom. Disguise 1/day and stuff associated with small. +0 LA
Unseelie Fey template: +2 dex, +2 cha, -2 str, -2 con. DR to cold iron, and if we choose Winter's Chill, we give people morale loss to all saves equal to cha mod. +0 LA
Magic-Blooded template: -2 wisdom, +2 Cha. Low-light vision and some spellcraft/arcana boosts. +0 LA
Half-Fey template: +2 Dex, +4 Cha, +2 wis, -2 con. Fly with good speed twice base land speed. SHITTON of extra spell possibilities. +2 LA
So overall... -4 Str, +6 dex, -4 con, +0 int, -2 wis, +10 cha, with a crap ton of nifty little addons. For +2 LA. Too bad there isn't another +1 LA for charisma, or we would have been completely set. Still, not a bad haul for a little bugger.
To take advantage of his running speed on four legs (or in this case, since he can fly, take advantage of his instrument playing instead), we could have it so all of his weapons are hidden blades like from the Complete Scoundrel, making it look like a simple bard until all the tricky blades come out.
Consider Doomspeak for insane save debuffs. -10 to saves for a turn can be deeply nasty.
Where can I find Doomspeak?
You could look in to the Dirgesinger prestige class.
You could look in to the Dirgesinger prestige class.
That's ACTUALLY what I was just about to ask; if there was any prestige classes we should be looking into, and what levels that they should be taken.
Doomspeak is a feat that can be found in Champions of Ruin. With a use of bardic music, you drop a -10 penalty to attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks for a turn on someone. They get a will save to avoid it, but the way it scales makes it damn hard to resist. Just the thing for prepping someone for the mage's save-or-die.
If you want the Inspire Hatred variant bard you have to have 12 levels of Bard. I think the Dirgesinger is only 5 levels and the prerequisites aren't that hard to meet, you need 4 ranks in Knowledge Religion and 8 ranks in Perform (which you should have as a 5th level Bard) then you need Requiem as a feat and to have Bardic Music but, that's a given. So it's really up to you it's really just for more Bardic Music abilities, I don't think they get any more spells.
Check out the bard handbook on this forum.
In general, a few things the bard must have to manipulate people:
Spells: Improvisation (SPC lv1), Glibness (PHB lv3) try to get Divine Insight if you can (dip into Unseen Seer). This all bumps your bluff to plus 50+
Items: Choker of Eloquence, another +10 bluff and diplomacy. Ring of Mind-shielding, if you don't want others to know you're evil. Undetectable Alignment works too but you have to be careful about dispels.
Prestige Classes: really depends on the flavor you favor.
Stuff for flexibility: Get Planar Binding and you can do a lot with it. Bind a devil or demon, even an archon, a guardinal or an eladrin with your high charisma accompanied by bonus on ability checks from Improvisation. Cheat them to do what you want and keep yourself innocent.
Other classes to consider: Beguiler as someone already mentioned. Also think about Dragonfire Adept for the at-will Geas with a standard action at level 11.
For a higher bluff you could also look into taking the Rapscallion feat or taking a one level dip into Mountebank they both let you add Intelligence on top of Charisma to bluff.
I would recommend either 3 or 7 levels in Dread Pirate.
This hurts your spellcasting, but gives you a martial boost (Full BAB and free TWF), and makes your inspire courage ability awesome (free action to activate, no maintaining req'd, and pumps the bonuses as well.
Mixed with some other the other options to boost inspire courage, this really is an excellent option.
I would recommend either 3 or 7 levels in Dread Pirate.
This hurts your spellcasting, but gives you a martial boost (Full BAB and free TWF), and makes your inspire courage ability awesome (free action to activate, no maintaining req'd, and pumps the bonuses as well.
Mixed with some other the other options to boost inspire courage, this really is an excellent option.
I actually made a character based on that, The Bard / Swashbuckler / Dread Pirate / Marshal with a great deal of Charisma modifier synergy.
Only problem being that it uses an exalted feat but it can easily be removed with minor losses.
I would recommend either 3 or 7 levels in Dread Pirate.
This hurts your spellcasting, but gives you a martial boost (Full BAB and free TWF), and makes your inspire courage ability awesome (free action to activate, no maintaining req'd, and pumps the bonuses as well.
Mixed with some other the other options to boost inspire courage, this really is an excellent option.
I actually made a character based on that, The Bard / Swashbuckler / Dread Pirate / Marshal with a great deal of Charisma modifier synergy.Only problem being that it uses an exalted feat but it can easily be removed with minor losses.
Which feat is that? We could easily replace it with Dragon Heritage to get the subtype when nomming with the Gruwaar... though we do have access to two extra feats due to flaws we can put on. <3
That would be the exalted feat Words of Creation from Book of Exalted Deeds (p. 31).
If you are allowed Eberron feats, you could take Song of the Heart which increases Inspire Courage by 1.
If you really want to bump inspire courage, get Badge of Valor from MIC and somehow get Inspire Courage extended or persistent from SPC. With the Song of Heart and Vest of Legends from DMG2, you get +7 bonus at level 13. Words of Creation then doubles it to +14, although that's but for the good bard.
A side note: although the number looks scary, check if your fellows are immune to mind-affecting effects.
If you really want to bump inspire courage, get Badge of Valor from MIC and somehow get Inspire Courage extended or persistent from SPC. With the Song of Heart and Vest of Legends from DMG2, you get +7 bonus at level 13. Words of Creation then doubles it to +14, although that's but for the good bard.
A side note: although the number looks scary, check if your fellows are immune to mind-affecting effects.
Words of Creation only doubles the plusses you get from the Bard base class (or any other classes that grant Inspire Courage), e.g. a maximum of +8 at level 20 after applying the feat.
Then comes Inspirational Boost (+1), Badge of Valor (+1) and Song of the Heart (+1) for a total of +11.
And you can't exactly persist your Bardic Music abilities either unless you think you can sing non-stop for 24 hours.
And you can't exactly persist your Bardic Music abilities either unless you think you can sing non-stop for 24 hours.
That's why warforged and undead make good bards.
That's why warforged and undead make good bards.
Good point heh. The other group members might have a thing or two to say about that though
I am thinking something along this comic strip.
And you can't exactly persist your Bardic Music abilities either unless you think you can sing non-stop for 24 hours.
That's why warforged and undead make good bards.
Hm... speaking of which, would it be worthwhile to throw in a Necroptolian/Spellstitched template in there?
And you can't exactly persist your Bardic Music abilities either unless you think you can sing non-stop for 24 hours.
Of course Bardic Music doesn't have to be music. An Orator just needs to talk for 24 hours, and I know people who will do that no matter how much you try to indicate that you aren't interested 
While the acting Bard just needs to "act" for 24 hours. "Look everyone, I'm now going to show you how well I can imitate a person sleeping!!!!"
Inspiring courage in companions is only one side of the bard coin. Evil bards get nice flavor from the other side, inspiring fear in others.
I seem to remember that nice things can be done with Dreadful Wrath, Frightful Presence, etc. In fact, I believe Frightful Presence triggers whenever you attack, while Dreadful Wrath triggers when you cast a spell, so couldn't one try for a shaken off of a spell (Inspirational Boost, say) and panicked off of the ensuing attack, assuming the target was vulnerable to Frightful Presence?
You could look into the evangelist PrC from complete divine if you're doing perform oratory to get inspire dread and a few other things. Someone played one in a game I was in and converted a paladin, a monk (from our party), and a bunch of clerics to neutrality. In your case it would be making them evil but, they still lose all their abilities for a while.
If you want to optimize your bard, you essentially have the following options:
- Spellcasting: get 9th level spells (via Sublime Chord) and other goodies. E.g., Bard9/Virtuoso1/SublimeChord2/Virtuoso8. This one also progresses bardic music.
- Pump your Inspire Courage. There's plenty of threads on that one. Give all your allies a massive bonus to hit and damage.
- Be a Diplomancer: pump your diplomacy skill and abuse the respective rules to force all opponents to become helpful (or fanatic, if you use the Epic rules). Usually ends up broken, so I can't really recommend it for an actual game.
- Be a fighter type. Use ToB (warblade or Crusader) with a few levels of Bard to both be a solid fighter and an "inspiration", by taking the Song of the White Raven feat. Alternatives exist, but that's the most popular way to do it.
- Be a debuffer. With plenty of save-or-be-screwed spells and Doomspeak, this doesn't even require a big investment in the actual bard class. Can be combined with any of the above, especially the spellcasting or the fighting approach.
For prestige classes, take a look at these:
- Sublime Chord: your ticket to 9th level spells
- Virtuoso: some more bardic music effects, but otherwise "meh".
- Battle Howler of Gruumsh [Dragon311]. Excellent martial bard PrC that stacks with everything important a bard does: bardic music aquisition, bardic music strength, spellcasting. Could also fit nicely thematically for an evil campaign.
What else to look at:
- The Harbinger bard variant [Dragon 337]: Instead of using bardic music to bolster your allies, use it to debuff them. Not quite as meachanically strong, but perhaps a better fit flavor-wise.
- The Chaos Music feat [Dragon326]: Like Practiced Spellcaster for bardic music. Makes mulitclassing easier even if you are optimizing your Inspire Courage.
- Gauntlets of Heartfelt Blows [Dragon314]: CHA to damage.
Given your party makeup and the ressources you can use, I'd recommend a debuffer build. A magic-blooded unseelie fey (something) imposes a nasty penalty to saves on everone adjacent to him. Combine this with a basic lockdown build and prevent your foes from leaving that zone. Here's an example, just add the templates.
Alternatively, a Bard1/CrusaderX/BattleHowler3 with an Inspire Courage focus could be a fun addition to the party.
You could look in to the Dirgesinger prestige class.
That's a terrible bard PrC. It neither progresses bardic music aquisition nor spellcasting, and the powers you get in return are mediocre at best. Has to be filed under: "great concept, poor execution", I'm afraid. In short, it's a trap.
You could look into the evangelist PrC from complete divine if you're doing perform oratory to get inspire dread and a few other things. Someone played one in a game I was in and converted a paladin, a monk (from our party), and a bunch of clerics to neutrality. In your case it would be making them evil but, they still lose all their abilities for a while.
Also a terrible PrC, except for a 1-level dip. See here for a summary.
Ok, sorry TheHat for suggesting "trap" PrC's. Why is Seeker of the Song never suggested for Bard builds? Is it because they don't get spells? I think dealing various d6's of damage is fun. Maybe I'm just not good at picking Bard PrC's sorry.