New Bard

[wrinyn]

I'm an experienced player in other classes and I decided to roll up a bard because of the melee, buff, healing ability. It is my second favorite class to play (i'm an arcane by nature). I might have gimped myself with stats but it truly has been fun. I'm just not sure if I should go spell singer or warchanter. My base strength is a 17 and my base cha is a 16. I might be too low to be an effective spellsinger. I know my data is vague but I am at work.....any suggestions with spells, strategies, and so forth based on the little data i've presented. So far I enjoy buffing myself to the hilt and dual wield cold and acid long sword and sickles while wading into battle. Strategies have been so far, charm one monster, aggro on the charmed one, then hyp or fascinate to CC while kicking one at a time......

[jarlaxle_dourden]

I'm an experienced player in other classes and I decided to roll up a bard because of the melee, buff, healing ability. It is my second favorite class to play (i'm an arcane by nature). I might have gimped myself with stats but it truly has been fun. I'm just not sure if I should go spell singer or warchanter. My base strength is a 17 and my base cha is a 16. I might be too low to be an effective spellsinger. I know my data is vague but I am at work.....any suggestions with spells, strategies, and so forth based on the little data i've presented. So far I enjoy buffing myself to the hilt and dual wield cold and acid long sword and sickles while wading into battle. Strategies have been so far, charm one monster, aggro on the charmed one, then hyp or fascinate to CC while kicking one at a time......

Your Cha will not have much to do with your spellsong benefits.

However looking at your str you probably want to be building a melee bard so I would go warchanter.

[SlipperyPete]

End game quests and raids usually come down to a party make up of somewhere around 1/6 arcane and 1/3 divine. The spell points you're going to save the arcane caster vs. the efficiency in kills and DR that warchanter will save the party and the clerics in spell points isn't even a comparison IMO.

War chanter FTW!!!

[Samadhi]

Warchanter has more difficult prereqs, but is certainly quite powerful.

Spellsinger gets you +100 bonus spells points right off the bat, and a bonus to UMD. Mainly people focus purely on the song, but these additional benefits make the two specialties reasonably equivalent IMO.

Personally, I would look at the feats and AP's you plan on taking, and see which is matching up with the prereqs for the two specialties. This will tell you a lot about the direction you are already thinking.

[maddmatt70]

End game quests and raids usually come down to a party make up of somewhere around 1/6 arcane and 1/3 divine. The spell points you're going to save the arcane caster vs. the efficiency in kills and DR that warchanter will save the party and the clerics in spell points isn't even a comparison IMO.

War chanter FTW!!!

1/3 divine are you kidding me. I would never have more then 2 clerics on a shroud because well clerics can't do dps and in hound I prefer 2 clerics. In VOD it varies depending on the party makeup from 1 cleric to 3 clerics.

[sirgog]

1/3 divine are you kidding me. I would never have more then 2 clerics on a shroud because well clerics can't do dps and in hound I prefer 2 clerics. In VOD it varies depending on the party makeup from 1 cleric to 3 clerics.

Clerics can DPS if they are built for it. At the same time as healing, if the player is competent.

[Gorbadoc]

Remember that Spellsinger and Warchanter are enhancements, not job descriptions.

...I decided to roll up a bard because of the melee, buff, healing ability.

Spellsingers and Warchanters can do all of those. I'll assume you've read over the prereqs and specifications of each enhancement, and that you can figure out how they all tie in to making your character better at this, that, or the other task.

You mentioned that you're currently doing some CC. Don't expect your CC spells to work on higher-end content unless you have a really good charisma (read as: 16 at level 1, plus all your level-up increases and enhancements and a +6 item and perhaps that 1750 favor tome). If you're focusing on CC, you justify your existence to the sorcs with your buffs and healing, and by not being a marshmallow when you get a little aggro.

If you decide to give up on CC, your goal should be to compete with fighters. That means lots of hitpoints, good combat feats, whatever you can scrape together in terms of AC and saving throws, and maybe some divine power clickies. You justify your existence to the fighters with your buffs and because (unlike them) you can cast Mass Cure Mod and read scrolls.

[sirgog]

Remember that Spellsinger and Warchanter are enhancements, not job descriptions.


Spellsingers and Warchanters can do all of those. I'll assume you've read over the prereqs and specifications of each enhancement, and that you can figure out how they all tie in to making your character better at this, that, or the other task.

You mentioned that you're currently doing some CC. Don't expect your CC spells to work on higher-end content unless you have a really good charisma (read as: 16 at level 1, plus all your level-up increases and enhancements and a +6 item and perhaps that 1750 favor tome). If you're focusing on CC, you justify your existence to the sorcs with your buffs and healing, and by not being a marshmallow when you get a little aggro.

If you decide to give up on CC, your goal should be to compete with fighters. That means lots of hitpoints, good combat feats, whatever you can scrape together in terms of AC and saving throws, and maybe some divine power clickies. You justify your existence to the fighters with your buffs and because (unlike them) you can cast Mass Cure Mod and read scrolls.

Generally good advice.

IMO a melee-specced, well-built Warchanter is better at melee after selfbuffing than an unbuffed Barbarian. You use to the party is that you are the best fighter in a vacuum, and you make everyone else even better at it.

But even a character like this can land crowd control spells on occasion, as long as they cast mass crowd control spells that are useful even when they only hit one target - and here I'm thinking of Mass Suggestion. My Warchanter has a charisma of 20 at endgame (12 + 2 enhancements or tome, can't remmeber which + 6 item) and while his Discoballs are near-on useless, his Mass Suggestions are very useful indeed, usually charming one to two monsters in a pack of eight, which is IMO the optimal number to have charmed.