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.

[EinarMal]

My 2 cp is if you want to go warchanter then you should go with a two hander or two weapon fighting. I agree with A_Sheep in that getting to ~50 AC to make it work well at high levels is difficult and requires a lot of gear and gear slots. What you probably will end up with is low 40ish AC and lower damage so sort of in between on both counts which is ususally not good.

I play a TWF build, my "AC" is stoneskin scrolls, displacement, and a fearsome robe. So far it works out pretty well and if you kill mobs quicker they have less time to do damage to you (seems obvious but maybe not). Look at the Icy Kind build or my second favorite for pure DPS would be a Dwarf 2-hander warchanter.

Dwarf Bard 14

Feats:
Greataxe
Weapon Focus Slashing
Power Attack
Your Choice....(Toughness would probably be what I would take with some dwarf enhancements)
IC Slashing

If you also want to do some CC casting then I probably would suggest something along the lines of the better balanced bard in this thread (there is also a couple of other build ideas that might help in some way or other)

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=116268

[nbhs275]

S&B is viable on a pure bard, though it takes some loot to do it, and a rather large devotion

10 base
10 delving suit
8 Dex
7 shield
3 chattering ring
2 choasguard
5 Protection
1 haste
4 natural
_____________
50 self buffed

Quicktoez has this kind of build, and its undeniable that its effective.

[A_Sheep]

S&B is viable on a pure bard, though it takes some loot to do it, and a rather large devotion

10 base
10 delving suit
8 Dex
7 shield
3 chattering ring
2 choasguard
5 Protection
1 haste
4 natural
_____________
50 self buffed

Quicktoez has this kind of build, and its undeniable that its effective.

Hmm, Can't cast while madstoned, so I don't think it's fair to place the nat AC bonus @ 4 as you will be hindering your ability to keep displaced/hasted.

I am a little impressed with how high a Bard _could_ get his AC, (even though it is fairly expensive).

Maybe with the next mod (and the +4 AC from inspire Heroics) a Bard Intimitank build would be in order...

Lemme ponder this a little:
By sacrificing
Slots: Armor, Shield, Ring, Bracers, Necklace/ring/cloak, Dex Item, Daggertooth's Belt (7 Slots)
Stats: Dex 17 to start, +6 item + 1 Tome +2 "Elf enh" = 26 (not too bad...)
No Feat investment.
6 AP Enhancement Investment

Gets you to 53 AC (@ lvl 16 cap) +2 AC blocking +2 AC When Defensive Fighting is active.

Anybody know of a way to squeeze out a little more?

[EinarMal]

Hmm, Can't cast while madstoned, so I don't think it's fair to place the nat AC bonus @ 4 as you will be hindering your ability to keep displaced/hasted.

I am a little impressed with how high a Bard _could_ get his AC, (even though it is fairly expensive).

Maybe with the next mod (and the +4 AC from inspire Heroics) a Bard Intimitank build would be in order...

Lemme ponder this a little:
By sacrificing
Slots: Armor, Shield, Ring, Bracers, Necklace/ring/cloak, Dex Item, Daggertooth's Belt (7 Slots)
Stats: Dex 17 to start, +6 item + 1 Tome +2 "Elf enh" = 26 (not too bad...)
No Feat investment.
6 AP Enhancement Investment

Gets you to 53 AC (@ lvl 16 cap) +2 AC blocking +2 AC When Defensive Fighting is active.

Anybody know of a way to squeeze out a little more?

Combat expertise, dodge.... without feats not sure.... maybe dwarf for armor mastery enhancements that stack with belt.

[Prinstoni]

I disagree with sword and board being useless for a Bard.

Here is one of the armor options I use on my bard and he doesn't get hit very often.

Armor
+10 base
+6 dex
+10 armor (delvin suit)
+5 protection
+2 chaos gaurd
+3 chattering ring
+3 natural armor (pots)
+1 dodge feat
+1 haste
+7 shield
48 ac
50 ac with defensive fighting
50 ac with ranger bark
52 ac with pali around
54 ac with pali and ranger
56 ac with pali, ranger, and defensive fighting

Most high end mobs to hit is under 40 (that means) 40+10= 50 or 50% chance of the time they miss you with a 50 ac. Add blurr or displacement and you rarely get hit.

My bards stats are...
23 (15 base, +2 tome, +6 enchanted)
22 (13 base, +1 tome, +6 enchanted, +2 enhancement)
20 (12 base, +2 tome, +6 enchanted)
10 (10 base)
12 (10 base, +2 tome)
30 (20 base, +2 tome, +6 enchanted, +2 enhancement*[until L16 or +3 tome arrrives])

If I can get a +3 str or char tome he'll be 24 str and/or 32 charisma

feats
dodge
enchantment focus
improved critical slashing (uses mostly Longswords)
toughness
extend

Enhancements
focus is spell slinger (+100 sps and +2 concentration/UMD, +spellsong trance +1 dc to all spells and 10% reduction in spell cost)
all song duration and attack/damage bonuses
40 UMD

I swap the chat ring and +6 con necklace with con +6 ring and torc for lower level quests/normal runs/and if I need sps.

+35 to hit +19 to damage with item/self buffs and +5 longsword.
288(+31) self buffed hps (319) (madstone, rage spell, GH, song)
920 sps

[nbhs275]

Hmm, Can't cast while madstoned, so I don't think it's fair to place the nat AC bonus @ 4 as you will be hindering your ability to keep displaced/hasted.

I am a little impressed with how high a Bard _could_ get his AC, (even though it is fairly expensive).

Maybe with the next mod (and the +4 AC from inspire Heroics) a Bard Intimitank build would be in order...

Lemme ponder this a little:
By sacrificing
Slots: Armor, Shield, Ring, Bracers, Necklace/ring/cloak, Dex Item, Daggertooth's Belt (7 Slots)
Stats: Dex 17 to start, +6 item + 1 Tome +2 "Elf enh" = 26 (not too bad...)
No Feat investment.
6 AP Enhancement Investment

Gets you to 53 AC (@ lvl 16 cap) +2 AC blocking +2 AC When Defensive Fighting is active.

Anybody know of a way to squeeze out a little more?

Thats true, so a -1 right there.

And it does burn up alot of item slots, which are tight as it is on a bard. I dont know if dwarf would be the way to go, unless you didnt mind spell failure chances

+5 MFP

13 +3 dex
+2 daggertooth
+3 dwarf
____________
21 vs 18 delving suit.