Help with bard half of a 2-man party

[Bartholamew]

Hi, I haven't played this game in about 5 years- I played at launch and then picked up again right when crafting was introduced. Back then there was no free to play, so I'm not completely familiar with the current model.

That being said, my sibling and I are planning on running a 2 man party to try and see the game again. He plans on making a monk, and I was always interested in running a bard.

I'm drawn to the spellsinger buffer/ healer archetype. I would be the support side of his melee, and we would probably only ever play together. I wouldn't mind being able to contribute to combat, but my main focus would be healing/ CC.

Questions: is bard the best class for this role? He seems like a great buffer, healer, and ccer, so I'm inclined towards the class. Also I would greatly appreciate anyone who could point me towards a good and current spellsinger build. I've read some on these forums and people tend to say he should be a hybrid melee character- any advice here is appreciated. Thanks all!

[Thrudh]

I'd probably go bard/rogue if I were you.... 16/4 or 14/6. or maybe 16/4/2 (two fighter levels for extra feats)

Let the monk get the aggro, then sneak attack anything he's hitting. Keep you both hasted and raged and blurred and healed (Displacement on yourself).

Being able to disable the traps is a nice bonus, and you'll both have evasion which is nice.

Human or Drow would be good races...

Take rogue 1st level, then 6 levels of bard, then rogue again...

Try to max out Perform, Haggle, UMD, Spot, Search, Disable. Put a few ranks in Open Lock. You'll want to start with a 12 INT (if human), 14 INT (if drow). If you only have 28 point builds, then drow is probably the better choice...

STR 14
DEX 16
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 8
CHA 16

[DaGreat1]

Played a bard on a 2-man party, leveled him up to 20. Other player was a paladin.

Was a virtuoso, so I enthralled everything. Made quests so much easier. I think the bard is one of the best class for small parties as he can fill many roles. He can't heal a full party at end game very easy (I know some can, but mine couldn't really) but to keep 2 players alive, no problem.

[Bartholamew]

Thanks so much for the quick replies!

For his melee capabilities, is TWF pretty much the way to go? What if I didn't melee at all and just say plucked away with a bow, is that worth it?

[Bart_D]

Unless you add in some fighter levels, i'd use a twohander (and master's touch for proficiency) rather than twf'ing; you save feats, can save build points in dexterity and get a significantly better to-hit. If you do take fighter levels and have evasion (16 bard, 2 fighter, 2 rogue is nice for evasion and feats), twf and dexterity for evasion are more likely better.