Looking for a solo and group build for a new player.

[Anshar]

Hey all. Newish player here. (I have been playing a cleric until I got 400 favor.) I am looking for a bard build that I can play solo as well as in groups. I am interested in bard because of the versatility of the class. If anyone has a better suggestion and reasoning for it, that would be nice as well.

I do not have any tomes, and limited gear I can transfer. While a complete build would be helpful, I am more looking for a step by step build that will take me from 1 to 16 rather than an end product. Suggestions of tactics would also be welcome. Any help at all would be appreciated as I would rather get the information up front rather than learn how badly I messed up later on.

[geezee]

With 400 favor, drow or a 28 point dwarf with toughness will beat the hell out of any other solo bard character. Beyond that , you have a ton of options. Bard being so versatile, and a potent multiclass character, you can basically specialize in nearly every aspect of the game. One of the strengths of the class is that a bard can adapt to any situation, some builds moreso than others.

The problem is that you can't specialize in everything. If you spread yourself too thin you will make an ineffective and frustrating character. So you have to decide what area(s) of the game you want to excel at, and what weaknesses you can tolerate.

In order for anyone to answer your question, you have to give some information about what type of bard you want to play.

[Anshar]

What I am looking at now is spending points on dexterity and charisma and either using ranged attacks (repeater is supposed to be good, right?), or twf. I am considering splashing sorc in there for the spell points and also to get the magical training prereq for spellsinger (if this is worthwhile). I want to be able to dish decent combat damage, backup heal in a pinch (and keep myself standing) and use judicious crowd control and minor buffing. This may not be obtainable, but I wish to focus on being capable of soloing while maintaining group viability. With that in mind, I suppose DPS and AC/HP are the primary concern with healing/crowd control in second place. I hope this makes sense. As I said, I am newish so I might be way off.

Also, I would like to add that I would like to have a high UMD so I can use items outside my normal class.

[geezee]

Any bard can be good for the group. Since you plan to solo a fair amount, you need to be able to kill things fast. The faster you can kill things, the exponentially better your character will be soloing. Since bards have no damage spells, your choices are melee and range. In DDO melee is much more powerful than ranged, especially for soloing.

So, I would go for melee and forget about trying to solo a DEX bard with a repeater. Not saying it cant be done by a very good player, but it would be difficult for sure compared to a melee build. Dwarf and drow both make great melee builds. Now you are looking at some sort of battle bard, dwarf or drow. The trade off is hit points and CON for CHA, and they are both very effective and fun to play.

In my experience, the STR builds are much more effective in melee combat than the DEX builds, especially soloing. I have leveled up CHA/DEX finesse bards and the difference is huge that those few points of damage make in how fast you can clear a room and how much you die.

If you go TWF you will want to start with 16 DEX and buy an INT tome by level 9. By level 9 you should have enough money for an INT tome if you dont die too much. Ive bought a bunch of em on my server for 200,000 g.p.

So for what you are asking, I would recommend a STR based Dwarf or Drow battle bard. The Drow does slightly more DPS with TWF, as bard buffs apply to each hit. The Drow also has better crowd control spells and CHA skills like UMD. The dwarf also does very good DPS and is much less fragile, although he usually saves his mana for buffs and healing and doesnt use any cc spells.

If one of those sounds interesting, I could elaborate.

[skraus1]

What I am looking at now is spending points on dexterity and charisma and either using ranged attacks (repeater is supposed to be good, right?), or twf. I am considering splashing sorc in there for the spell points and also to get the magical training prereq for spellsinger (if this is worthwhile). I want to be able to dish decent combat damage, backup heal in a pinch (and keep myself standing) and use judicious crowd control and minor buffing. This may not be obtainable, but I wish to focus on being capable of soloing while maintaining group viability. With that in mind, I suppose DPS and AC/HP are the primary concern with healing/crowd control in second place. I hope this makes sense. As I said, I am newish so I might be way off.

AC is only important to low level bards. Zhaffy has never had an ac much above 14 and she does great in every quest.

If you're going twf, then you probably should take some str. I would look around at the bard build threads with lots of hits on the forum to get ideas.

[Westerner]

So for what you are asking, I would recommend a STR based Dwarf or Drow battle bard. The Drow does slightly more DPS with TWF, as bard buffs apply to each hit. The Drow also has better crowd control spells and CHA skills like UMD. The dwarf also does very good DPS and is much less fragile, although he usually saves his mana for buffs and healing and doesnt use any cc spells.
I think Geezee summed it up well. I'm a newish player as well, and I find battlebards easy and fun to play.