Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 lobo6717_dup Apr 15, 2008 16:46:08	I'm working on creating a bard-ish character for a new group. Since I'm probably going to be going more dex than str, I'm looking at more of a ranged bard. Here is the build that I'm looking at: Archer Bard
#2 davethemagicweasel Apr 15, 2008 16:50:54	The Vest of Legends in DMG2 can give you +5 levels of music advancement.
#3 ninjarabbit Apr 15, 2008 17:44:21	I happen to like bard8/arcanearcher2/sublimechord2/abjurantchampion5/sacredexorcist3 myself. 16 BAB with turn undead to fuel divine feats, 9th level arcane spells, and a bunch of skill points .... a true triple threat.
#4 Wyvernhand Apr 15, 2008 18:22:21	I happen to like bard8/arcanearcher2/sublimechord2/abjurantchampion5/sacredexorcist3 myself. 16 BAB with turn undead to fuel divine feats, 9th level arcane spells, and a bunch of skill points .... a true triple threat. +1, this is good. The Divine feat to look into is Divine Might, which while it requires PA as the prereq, does NOT specify that it has to be melee attacks. Therefore, spend 1 turn to add your cha to all attacks with your bow (Rapid Shot!!!) Another thing to look into would be Dragonfire Inspiration. Archers tend not to lack in hit chance. In fact, most I've seen tend to hit what they want, when they want to, as often as they want past ~level 6 or so. Therefore, the loss of the +hit on your bardsong won't be a huge penalty, and the +xd6 damage on every hit will be very nice. With this comes the typical Inspire Courage optimization (Song of the Heart, Badge of Valor, Inspirational Boost, Vest of Legends). Hmmm, this actually would be a pretty beastly damage archer, once you stack Divine Might, Dragonfire Inspiration, a Str bow, and the effects of a few nice bow enhancements (I like Force and Exit Wounds...untyped damage and the piercing effect, not nearly as cheesy as Splitting) + GMW from your friendly cleric/wizard. I'd put money on ~80-100 damage per round by level 12-13, easily.
#5 ninjarabbit Apr 15, 2008 19:05:00	You could easily dump the arcane archer levels for levels of fighter (for a net benefit of 5 feats!) or paladin. I just put the AA levels there for dramatic effect.
#6 Wyvernhand Apr 15, 2008 19:54:10	Problem with AA, is that when you have GMW on your bow, you totally negate one of the classes primary class features...which is sad. Throwing spells with your bow is kind of cool, but not worth all the suckatude that is the rest of that class.
#7 lobo6717_dup Apr 16, 2008 8:50:32	Thanks the the replies. The Vest of Legends in DMG2 can give you +5 levels of music advancement. Would love to get that vest, but our campaigns seem to be a bit magic item sparse at the moment. I'd have to talk with the DM to see how I could go about getting the Vest of Legends. I happen to like bard8/arcanearcher2/sublimechord2/abjurantchampion5/sacredexorcist3 myself. I'll have to take a look at that build. I don't have the Complete Mage or Complete Arcane yet, but they are on order, so once I get them, I can check up on the Sublime Chord and Abjurant Champion. Who knows, I may be back with a new build after that lol. The thought of adding CHA to bow attacks sounds very nice. Thanks again
#8 Person_Man Apr 16, 2008 9:32:15	You have a confusing combination of precision damage, bard spells, bard music, and druid spells. But the progression on all of them are quite slow. So you're going to end up being mediocre at everything, and good at nothing. Trust me, I've seen PCs try to do similar things many times. Mystic Theurge-ish build just don't work (unless you use a PrC with fast caster progression, but that's another thread. So what exactly do you want to do well? Archery? Skills? Bard Music? Buffs? Battlefield Control? You need not choose just one thing, but choosing everything is just a very weak idea.
#9 lobo6717_dup Apr 16, 2008 9:43:39	Yeah, that's what I was worried about most: spreading myself too thin. Basically what I was looking for was mainly bardic music and ranged combat. I'm not deadset on ranged though.. I'm open to viable melee combat as well... as long as I can survive lol
#10 lobo6717_dup Apr 18, 2008 8:32:44	Attempt #2 I know it's completely different, but I think this is more what I was going for from the beginning. Mainly focusing on bardic music and archery. I didn't want to dip into multiple PrC's and I'm not sure my DM would allow it. I know that kinda defeats the purpose of CO, but thought I'd try to get your opinions anyway. Archer Bard
#11 Wyvernhand Apr 18, 2008 9:13:11	Loses too much bardage. Will only have a +2 base bardsong. Honestly, I think you'd be better served going mostly bard. The bonuses from higher bardsong are going to make up for the lack of BAB and feats like Ranged Weapon Mastery. You also then gain the skills, spells andother shenanagans that come with more bard levels. If you do take fighter, I wouldn't take more than 4. You should also try to splash your swordsage levels (if you take them) much earlier, and space them out in a leapfroging manner (1 ss level every 3rd level, so you get +2 IL/3 levels which nets you a new level of maneuvers every time you take a ss level). If you just want the full BAB, rather than the fighter feats (which anyone here will tell you are rather meh), take 4 levels of paladin. This will net you 16/20 BAB with straight bard (4th iterative by level 20) as well as Divine Grace (YAY SAVES!) and the Turn Undead class feature, which translates into yummy Divine Might +cha to damage rolls. The feat Devoted Performer in CAdv allows paladin and bard levels to stack to determine most of the class features of each, and gets you past the alignment restriction of bards (you still have to be lawful good, but that's not SOOOO bad). This route you just have 2 base classes, and if you go with Lesser Assimar, paladin is your favored class so you won't have xp penalties.
#12 Person_Man Apr 18, 2008 9:55:36	Yeah, that's what I was worried about most: spreading myself too thin. Basically what I was looking for was mainly bardic music and ranged combat. I'm not deadset on ranged though.. I'm open to viable melee combat as well... as long as I can survive lol OK, this is easy. Bard/Warblade or Crusader X Take a look at Inspire Courage Optimization. Words of Creation + Dragonfire Inspiration for massive bonus damage for everyone in the party. Then pick up Song of the White Raven, (Tome of Battle). While in a White Raven stance, you can activate Inspire Courage as a swift action, and Crusader, Warblade and Bard levels stack to determine its strength. If you have the music uses to spare, consider Snowflake Wardance (Frostburn). Spend a bardic music use to get Cha to damage. Not nearly as good as Dragonfire Inspiration, but better at low levels.
#13 lobo6717_dup Apr 22, 2008 19:07:42	Ok.. LAST build, I swear lol After this I'll just take what you guys throw at me and run with it. I made a decision to go with ranged combat. So here it goes: Bardic Archer SS = Swordsage Lyric Th = Lyric Thaumaturge The question marks for the feats on the first two levels is me trying to decide if I want to take another flaw and grab weapon finesse. I'd have to juggle the feats around, but it is doable