drow buffer bard??

[jimtheslim]

im looking to make my first successful bard and i am pretty sur drow's best race plz help me with my bard:confused:

[Lucian_Navarro]

I hope I dont sound like I'm tooting my own horn but I have rolled up two Bards. One Human and one Halfling. The Human is my UMD and HAGGLE Master while my Halfling is the true master at buffing.

I took all of the increases available to Bards that better thier songs like Inspire Attack and Damage 3. So with the standard songs and spells like Greater Heroism she can make the party amazing but I chose halfling for one other reason.

The Halfling Hero's Companion 4 can increase all of your buffs for one lucky person with +5 Damage, +5 Saves, +4 Attack, +3 Armor Class for 20 seconds 5 times per rest.

Take an unbuffed character and add the following;

+11 Attack
+13 Damage
+12 Saves
+4 Armor Class

HENNA
"Superstar"

[jimtheslim]

so your saying i should go with a human or halfling rather than drow?

[Blind_Skwerl]

I think they are saying not to rule out halflings as a competent option.

[jimtheslim]

ok i understand ty for the advice ill be sure to keep it in mind.:cool:

[hazur]

Greetings,

There isn't really an avenue for a purely buffing bard. I mean you can put all the enhancements into your songs and grab as many buff spells as possible, but there is still so much room to do more. What are you wanting to do AFTER you buff the party? Hit things? Crowd control? Healing? Pretty much 99.9% of bards are "buffing" bards, they just have various degrees at which they buff, mostly based on enhancements and what spells they take.
I mean you'll obviously want to take Extend Spell, but I'm really not sure what else you want to do here.

If you're going for buffing/casting, go with drow, start with 18-20 charisma and put the rest wherever you want. (Dex for AC/Ranged/TWF, Str for strength based usually THF melee, Con for HP, Int for skills...) After that, these are the feats you'd most likely want to take, in no particular order:

Extend Spell
Skill Focus: UMD
Spell Focus: Enchantment
Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
Heighten Spell

From there, go pure bard to max out your songs. Take all the +hit/damage song enhancements. With this design, you would go for the Spellsinger enhancement line, giving you +100 SP and the +1 DC/10% off mana cost buff song. If you went with 20 charisma, with all your level ups in charisma, you would end up with 32 CHA maxed before tomes. This would give you a total of +15 to your enchantment spell DC with a +1 item if I'm not mistaken. So basically you buff the party, then proceed to stop every mob you see in its tracks if you feel like it. :)

The alternative would probably be some kind of battle-bard contraption. Either a TWF or THF, I personally like the THF version because you don't burn all your feats on it. For this you could go dwarf or warforged or even drow, human or halfling. I would again suggest going pure bard to max your songs. You would take the Warchanter enhancement line to completely max out the +hit/damage on your songs, and get the 5 DR buff song. You would go with a lower charisma, probably in the 14-16 range depending on your race. Then you would go with dex for TWF or strength for THF. For feats you have some options:

Greatswords: Take this feat once you get an SoS if you go THF.

Greataxes: Take this right off the bat and get a Carnifex from deleras.

Power Attack: Necessary for Warchanter, great for THF, can also be potent for TWF.

Weapon Focus Slashing: Necessary for Warchanter unfortunately.

Extend Spell: You may or may not want this depending on your SP pool/playstyle.

MT/IMT: Some extra SP will help buffer your smaller SP pool.

SF: UMD: Scroll use will be clutch since you won't be casting a ton of non-buff spells.

IC: Slashing: Improved critical is one of the most powerful melee feats.


There are plenty of builds on here for both of the above and more. Check out my original Sex Appeal build for a basic balanced bard. There are plenty of "battle bard" builds out there, I just don't really prefer them. They can be very potent however. Just comb the forums until you find something you like. If you need any help customizing/whatever send me a PM or reply. :)

Regards,
Booser

[jimtheslim]

i sent you a pm about my build ideas and if you could get back to me about thatthat would be cool:p

[Duplicate_10]

What's a good spell set if you wanna go buffs/CC?

Also, is light armor or cloth the better choice.

[hazur]

Greetings,

Dear Lord Baby Jesus Chuck! You're asking about builds? Does this mean you're venturing out of the harbor?

For a buffing/CC bard, I would personally go with the following:

Level 1 Spells:
Charm Person
Hypnotism
Focusing Chant
Remove Fear
Otto's Dance

Level 2 Spells:
Blur
Glitterdust
Suggestion
Soundburst
(Insert Cure Moderate Wounds if you care to heal people other than off scrolls/wands.)

Level 3 Spells:
Charm Monster
Good Hope
Haste
Displacement
(Cure Serious Wounds would be nice to fit in here also, but if you don't want to heal don't worry about it.)

Level 4 Spells:
Freedom of Movement
Otto's Sphere of Dancing
Dominate Person or Hold Monster or Break Enchantment
(Dominate Person is a nuts charm. Hold Monster is nice if you want to hold things, personally I feel unless its mass hold its going to be a waste of SP...I personally carry Hold Monster on one bard, Dominate on another, and I like the Dominate a lot better. Break Enchantment is nice if you accidentally charm a boss or something, the Song of Freedom helps take care of that anyway, but I see some bards take this.)

Level 5 Spells:
Greater Heroism
Mass Suggestion
Mind Fog

Those are the basics, change to add your own flavor. A lot of spells are personal choice, as many work just as effectively. This is a charms suite built for using Spell Focus Enchantment. If you use a majority of these spells at the right times, your party won't be touched. :)

I incorporated as many buffs as I felt was necessary, change as you see fit.

Also, about armor, you're going to want to wear light armor. Bards get no spell failure in light armor. Good light armor includes: Mithral Breastplates, Elven Chainmail, Chain Shirts, Mithral Chain shirts (My personal preference.) Non e of these will give you spell failure. Also try to pick up a light mithral shield. Heavy Mithrals are wasier to find but will give you 5% spell failure. Non-Mithral light shields will give you 5% as well. Starting off at level 2 with a 16 dex, a +2 elven chain (not super hard to find, if you need one let me know ;)) and a +2 light mithral shield (bit harder to find I admit, I usually end up using a +2 heavy mithral) You will start off at 24 AC, 25 with the founder's necklace on. A basic fighter with a +2 fullplate and a +2 heavy steel shield would have 25 AC, 26 with founder's necklace. So its definitely worth it to wear the armor, especially at lower levels. AC only begins to not matter in level 12+ content, and even after that, it still gives me piece of mind to have 40 AC on my bard, because I might as well right? :P

Anyway, if you have any other questions, feel free to reply or PM me anytime.

Regards,
Booser

[Duplicate_10]

My thanks sir. You shall see me soon enough. Perhaps outside my harbor abode.

Punching a puppy,
Charles Norris, Esq.