Half-Orc Battle Bard thoughts....

[Cedrica-the-Bard]

Ok, so I'm pondering half-orcs (mmmm strength...), Warchanter and that cool new Ranger spell that adds two to strength. So I think I will make, when the time comes:

Half-Orc 10 Bard/4 Ranger/2 Barbarian


I'm thinking starting stats for a 32 point build would be:

Str 19
Dex 13
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 8
Cha 12

I tried to start with a 20 strength but felt it penalized the other scores too much :(

Anyway, only using +6 items (no tomes), level ups to strength and going to level 16, ending stats would be:

Str 36 (+4 level ups, +2 Half-Orc AP? +6 item, +2 Ranger spell, +2 Rage spell, +2 Rage ability)
Dex 20 (+1 Ranger AP, +6 item)
Con 20 (+1 Barb AP, +5 item)
Int 8
Wis 12 (+4 item)
Cha 20 (+2 Bard AP, +6 item)

Will go with the 2-handed fighting feat line-up I guess. Haven't really thought that through yet...

Would like a bit more Con, but that's where tomes come in. :p

Any thoughts/suggestions/changes/improvements?

[CSFurious]

i think half-orcs will be good warchanters (if you like being ugly lol)

anyway, i think you should be a fighter instead of a ranger

your bard spell rage is going to give you +2 to str anyway

you are not fighting 2-weapon, & you can use healing wands as a bard

you should take some levels of fighter for the extra hitpoints & combat feats

peace

[geezee]

IMO, half-orc will only be as good as dwarf (as a battle bard or other melee) if the half-orc's enhancements are as overpowered. Currently, the dwarf's enhancements include +2 to hit and damage with axes, which is almost as good as another 4 STR. The dwarven axe,toughness, CON, strategy, spell defense, and armor mastery enhancements are a lot better than 5 points of STR at this stage.

[GuitarHero]

CS makes a valid point on the ranger vs fighter. If you do decide on ranger, your bard songs benefit you more for twf than thf. Depending on how half-orc enhancements play out, they may negate this benefit, but your songs add bonuses per hit, so swinging two smaller weapons gets you that bonus more often than one big one. You'll just have to crunch the numbers when we have half-orcs to see how it will play out in the end though.