Warchanter (L18 Bard/L1 Fighter/L1 Barbarian)
Concept: Bard with decent melee abilities and great buffs, but weak offensive spell-casting (still able to Fascinate for crowd-control though).
Original path's flaws: Some combat feats not appropriate to such a build (Cleave, Stunning Blow), waste of a few build points in Cha, trying to get too many skills (resulting in particular in low Concentration)
Main fixes: Revised feats and optimized build points and skills to focus on the build's strengths. Splashed one level of barbarian (for proficiencies and to take advantage of the warchanter's raging ability) and one level of fighter (for the extra feat), making it a better combatant.
Multi-class progression <- click for more info: Create your character as Bard, then take your second level as Barbarian, levels 3 to 9 as Bard, level 10 as Fighter, and finally Bard from 11 to 20.
Alignment:
Chaotic Neutral,
Chaotic Good,
Neutral,
Neutral Good,
Lawful Neutral,
Lawful Good
Stats and Race (28/32 pt):
........Drow.....Dwarf......Elf.....Halfling...Human...Warforged.
.Str.....17........17........17........16........17........17....
.Dex.....10.......9/10.......10........10.......8/9.......9/10...
.Con.....14......17/18.....14/15.....15/16.......16......16/17...
.Int.....10........8.........8.........8.........8.........8.....
.Wis.....9........8/9........8.........8........8/10......8/9....
.Cha.....14........12......13/14.....12/14.....13/14.......12....
Ability increase every 4 levels: All in Str.
Skills (except Human and Drow): Max out UMD, Perform, Concentration, Balance, get one rank in Tumble and spend the rest into Jump. Jump will have to lag behind a bit because of skill points lost on the Barbarian and Fighter levels, which is fine. On these two levels, just ensure you do not end up with 0.5 in any skill, as it may prevent you from maxing it out later on.
Skills (Human and Drow): Same, but also max out Haggle.
Feats (by level), except Human: Extend (1), Weapon Focus: Slash (3), Power Attack (6), Toughness (9), Improved Crit: Slash (10), Two-Handed Fighting (12), Improved Two-Handed Fighting (15), Greater Two-Handed Figthing (18)
Feats (by level), Human: Toughness (1), Extend (1), Weapon Focus: Slash (3), Power Attack (6), Two-Handed Fighting (9), Improved Crit: Slash (10), Improved Two-Handed Fighting (12), Greater Two-Handed Fighting (15), Empower Healing (18)
For more information about picking enhancements please read this post.
Enhancements (Barbarian): Sprint Boost I, Toughness I
Enhancements (Bard): Extra Song II, Inspired Attack III, Inspired Bravery II, Inspired Damage III, Lingering Song III, Lyric of Incredible Song I, Lyric of Song I, Song Magic II, Wand and Scroll Mastery II, Warchanter I
Enhancements (Fighter): Haste Boost I
Enhancements (Drow): Enchantment Resistance I, Racial Toughness II
Enhancements (Dwarf): Axe Attack I, Axe Damage I, Constitution I, Racial Toughness II, Spell Defense I
Enhancements (Elf): Enchantment Resistance I, Racial Toughness II, Valenar Elf Melee Attack I, Valenar Elf Melee Damage I
Enhancements (Halfling): Cunning I, Guile II, Hero's Companion III, Luck (Fortitude) I, Luck (Reflex) I, Luck (Will) I, Racial Toughness II
Enhancements (Human): Adaptatability Strength I, Improved Recovery I, Racial Toughness II, Versatility III
Enhancements (Warforged): Constitution I, Construct Thinking I, Great Weapon Aptitude II, Hardiness I, Healer's Friend II, Racial Toughness II
Spells taken when leveling up.
Spells followed by brackets may be swapped for the spell given in brackets, at the character level also provided. Swapping spells is often a non-mandatory minor optimization, so you may decide not to do it if it is too expensive for you (you can also directly pick the spell that should be swapped to, but be careful that you may wish you had the other spell while leveling up).
- L1: Cure Light Wounds [Feather Fall at L6]
- L3: Expeditious Retreat
- L4: Focusing Chant
- L5: Blur / Heroism [Summon Monster II at L15]
- L6: Cure Moderate Wounds [Invisibility at L12] / Detect Secret Doors
- L8: Displacement / Haste / Rage
- L9: Good Hope
- L12: Cure Serious Wounds / Dimension Door / Freedom of Movement
- L13: Break Enchantment
- L15: Cure Critical Wound / Cure Light Wounds, Mass / Greater Heroism
- L16: Greater Dispel Magic
- L18: Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass / Mass Suggestion / Otto's Irresistible Dance / Remove Fear
- L19: Eagle splendor / Heroes' Feast
- L20: Remove Curse
Soloability by level:
No hireling..: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
With hireling: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Tips:
- The idea is (starting at L2) to swing a two-handed weapon (Falchion, Greataxe or Greatsword), relying on blur/displacement and the Warchanter's DR song for defense.
- Use your barbarian rages when you expect not to have to cast spells or use scrolls in the next minute (put your 'Dismiss Rage' feat on a hotbar so you can quickly get out of rage if needed).
- The Warforged will enjoy not being fatigued after the rages. Other races may rely on lesser restoration wands / potions to get rid of fatigue faster.
- The Human version has room for Empower Healing, making it more viable to heal the party through mass heals at high levels.
- Carry a devotion weapon to quickly swap to when you need to heal (a clicky works too, or an item if you can spare the slot).
- Remember that you need a Cha of at least (10 + spell level) to cast a spell. You can use items, enhancements, tomes and the Eagle's Splendor spell to meet this requirement.
- Learn to take advantage of Fascinate: even with non-maxed Cha and no +Perform item, it remains a very strong ability against non-immune mobs.
Variants:
- One may prefer to go for dual-wielding instead of Two-Handed Fighting. 32 pt builds will help meet the Dex requirements (15 for Two-Weapon Fighting, 17 for Improved TWF and Greater TWF, where only starting Dex + level-up + tomes count). Str should be taken down to 16, and Cha can also be reduced a bit if needed. Splashing two levels of ranger instead of Barbarian and Fighter can be a decent option to get the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, a favored enemy and Bow Strength.
- If you want to add Empower Healing to be a more useful healer on a non Human, it may be better to replace the Barbarian level with a second level of Fighter. This will give you one extra feat (so you can for instance take Power Attack on the first Fighter level, then pick Empower Healing at L6), and +1 Str with the Fighter enhancement, but you lose the Barbarian fast movement, sprint boost, and ability to rage.
- Alternatively, you can replace the Fighter level with Barbarian, gaining
Uncanny Dodge, enhancements for +1 Con, longer Rage and 1 extra Rage, but losing the haste boost and one feat (dropping Extend, or Empower Healing on a Human).
- Splashing more than 2 levels can be ok on such a build (which is not focused on offensive casting), but keep in mind we do not know yet what Warchanter III (L18 Bard enhancement) will give us.
- This build gives up offensive spell casting in favor of melee abilities. It is possible to focus more on spells, by favoring Cha instead of Str. However, keep in mind that Warchanter requires Power Attack (13+ Str with base Str and tomes) and Weapon Focus, two feats that are wasted if you are not fighting. For such a build, more feats to boost spells should be taken (Heighten, Spell focus: Enchantment, Spell Penetration), at the expense of the Two-Handed Fighting line, and it is best to remain pure Bard.
Color code: best to worst =
green,
yellow,
orange,
red