Sword and Bord drow pure bard build?

[Kadagan]

Anyone have a build for this?

I'm thinking of rolling one up. Tomes and items aren't a problem.. +5 mith chain, elemental of PG & greater bane rapiers, ect.

I figure it would be fair damage and buffage (warchanter) and fair casting. That +5 mith twilight twr shield that some of the casters use would be decent on this guy too... Again this is just an idea, haven't run any of the numbers.

Anyone have a build like this they can share?

Thnx

edit: board*

[A_Sheep]

I'm not a fan of sword and board after level 10 in DDO for Bards.

AC:
10 Base
+10 Kundarak Delver's Suit
+6 Max Dex Bonus (slot for dex)
+5 Deflection (Neck/cloak slot)
+3 Natural Armor (ring slot or potions)
+2 Chaosgardes (Bracers slot)
+3 Chattering ring (ring slot)
+1 Haste
+7 Heavy Shield
===
47 AC

Which, considering the slots (6 out of 12) and loot (3 Raid items) it takes to get there is not worth it, imo.

Drow Stats:
Str 14 (6) +6 Item + 2 Rage Spell = 22 (or 16 melee version +1 tome + 3 levels + 6 item +2 Rage = 28)
Dex 16 (6)
Con 12 (6)
Int 10
Wis 8
Cha 18 (10) + 6 Item +2 favor tome + 3 levels + 3 enh = 32 (or 16 melee version +1 Tome + 3 Enh+ 6 item = 26)

Feats:
1 - Extend
3 - WF: Piercing
6 - Power Attack
9 - Mental Toughness or Toughness
12 - Improved Critical

Rapier Enhancements, Cha enhancements, song enhancements.

Torn between the melee and casting version of the stats (if you're dead set on warchanter). If you don't care about the Warchanter enh, then I'd strongly recomend the Spellsinger enh and going with the caster version. You'll still be okay in melee, and you can have very nice casting, too (and you can drop power attack and weapon focus for more useful casting feats).

DPS graph:

[skraus1]

Yeah sword and board for a bard is sort of silly in my opinion after level 10 or so. Use a quarterstaff or something and rely on buffs for defense.

[A_Sheep]

Yeah sword and board for a bard is sort of silly in my opinion after level 10 or so. Use a quarterstaff or something and rely on buffs for defense.

Meh, just a Rapier (tied for the second best 1-hander behind khopesh) is better DPS than a Quarterstaff (the worst 2-hander):

In yellow is going TWF with Rapier/Shortsword without any of the feats! With just one TWF feat, the TWF would be more DPS than the Quarterstaff along the whole chart. In purple, is Quarterstaff. In Navy is single-handed fighting with the rapier.

(using a 28 Str 14 Bard Warchanter for this graph)



Versus undead or other uncrittable monsters, the Quarterstaff would be a good choice as the crit range won't matter.

[Riorik]

I've seen some amazing battle bards in the past - don't sell any of them short. Haven't really taken the time to pick this one apart AND I'm not a part expert either, however, it's all about the feats and choices - going pure melee sacrifices other options.

[Blind_Skwerl]

There is always another option. Drop the "board" part of the equation. I am currently running a 32 point warforged warchanting battle bard (1 level fighter) that focuses on two-handed fighting with improved crit slashing. Max str, rest into charisma and con. Today's DPS focused parties usually consist of offensive casters and and lots of mêlée, sometimes foregoing a traditional healer position altogether. A 13/1 warchanting battle bard can offer the best mêlée buffs in the game, a modest amount of CC, and still manage to put up some big DPS numbers (mid 100's on crits with a elemental burst of pure good weapon) with a + to attack that can get into the 30's, all while being able to whip some wands and scrolls and equip nearly anything with that 30 UMD.