If you are building a warchanter, it is very important to understand you are NOT an elite fighter. You will always be a generalist, but with careful planning, you can master the art of fighting and still be able to buff and heal. Bards are extremely versatile and underplayed in DDO. By learning to properly buff (you can stoneskin (wands), barkskin(pots), blur(wands), and displace yourself), you can be LAST MAN/WOMAN STANDING on a regular basis. Your defenses as a melee are second to none. UMD can really help you out and truly make you do things most melees could only dream they could do. Sadly many warchanters are terribly underpowered, and I believe the main reason for that is just a horrible selection of warchanter builds available on this forum.
There is an exception. Check out Borror0's excellent warchanter build, "Barrok Z'rro - Dwarf TWF Warchanter w/ fighter splash" right here http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=172958. High hp (for a bard), high saves, high umd, very smart melee feats.