Halfling Bard / Ranger / Rogue

[Thalmor]

Presently I have a Bard 7 / Ranger 4 / Rogue 1 ( use him to mostly solo).

I'm looking for some suggestions on the following combinations; Bard 13 / Ranger 6 / Rogue 1 or Bard 12 / ranger 6 /Rogue 2 or Bard 14 / Ranger 4 / Rogue 2.

Reasoning for going Bard 14 is to have access to Improved Inspire Courage

Reason for 6 levels of Ranger is to have access to the Ranger feats at level 6, plus Arcane Archer.

Reason for 2 levels Rogue ( Evasion ).

Right now I am leaning towards 12/6/2 split as the level 5 spells for Bard don't really excite me. ( Because GH provides a moral bonus, which will not stack with Inspire Courage).

I done some playing around with the Character planner, but really I'm just looking for some feed back from some other player who might have tried this combo.

[unbongwah]

You don't use Heroism / Good Hope / Greater Heroism for the +to-hit & dmg, because as you say it doesn't stack with Inspire Courage; you use them for the bonuses to skills & saves, which will stack with Courage, Competence, and Greatness (but not Heroics). Greater Heroism also provides fear immunity & bonus HPs, which IIRC will stack with Greatness's +HPs. This chart (http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Bard_Buffs) may help.

As for making an AA bard, see my Bardcher thread. Unfortunately, as a halfling you would only be able to take the first tier of AA from rgr 6; elves & HEs can take the full lineup. Force imbues & +1 arrows isn't a good return on investment for 3 feats + APs.

[AzB]

Presently I have a Bard 7 / Ranger 4 / Rogue 1 ( use him to mostly solo).

I'm looking for some suggestions on the following combinations; Bard 13 / Ranger 6 / Rogue 1 or Bard 12 / ranger 6 /Rogue 2 or Bard 14 / Ranger 4 / Rogue 2.

Reasoning for going Bard 14 is to have access to Improved Inspire Courage

Reason for 6 levels of Ranger is to have access to the Ranger feats at level 6, plus Arcane Archer.

Reason for 2 levels Rogue ( Evasion ).

Right now I am leaning towards 12/6/2 split as the level 5 spells for Bard don't really excite me. ( Because GH provides a moral bonus, which will not stack with Inspire Courage).

I done some playing around with the Character planner, but really I'm just looking for some feed back from some other player who might have tried this combo.

I would shoot for 16th level bard to get the 6th level spells, another ability, and one last jump to your hit/will/save rolls.

I have a FiRoBard that's 2/2/16 and he was a lot of fun sub 10th level. After that, he's been slowly working towards pointless. In a party, there's always someone that can do anything he does a lot better. Solo, he just doesn't have the ability to insta-kill much of anything, and his mob control is fairly limited.

One of the main issues is spreading your stat numbers too thin. Something is going to suffer. I've never bought a 32pt build, or even bought tomes, (used a few that dropped though!) on general principle, but on a 3 class character I think it would be a good idea.


FWIW.

[JasonJi72]

I have played a some of these builds to 20. They are fun, and I like playing them.

First I made an elven aa 12bard / 6ranger / 2rogue. Evasion, buffs, archery, trapper, ok melee, but hp and cc were too low.

Then I made a halfling 16bard / 2fighter / 2rogue 2wf with some sneak damage, trap skills, evasion, virtuoso song cc, decent healing support. Otto's irresistable dance is worth taking 16 bard for, and I will not go under 16 bard again. This character was fun, and I liked using the hero companion buff, but I had a base 14 con, and really needed more hp, and dps.

My current bard is a half elf (palladin dilly) aa/2wf 16bard / 2ranger / 2fighter with max stealth, good saves, solid dps, and decent hp for a bard. I am currently still a virt, but I may switch to spellsinger now with mesmerism, but I do still use the song of cappering a lot. Once you get used to having song of cappering on a bard, it is hard to give up. I do still have skill focus umd from leveling, and plan on swapping it for maximize to improve healing. The reason that I havent done it yet is because I already used a free feat swap, and I am hesitant to use the free LR, because the build is working out very well and I don't want to mess it up.

I'm not sure what advice to give you about your build. Arcane archer is really only good if you can get slaying arrows, and you are already 5 deep in splashing a bard. I would recommend focussing on melee at this point with what you have going.