Anyone tried something like this? Focus on melee buffs/Healing. TWF Khopeshes. Bored and coming up with crazy builds today. The idea would be trading the later FS abilities for the Bard's offensive melee songs, haste, displacement, etc.
Anyone tried something like this? Focus on melee buffs/Healing. TWF Khopeshes. Bored and coming up with crazy builds today. The idea would be trading the later FS abilities for the Bard's offensive melee songs, haste, displacement, etc.
My first thought would be that it wouldn't work very well. You would miss out on both classes higher level spells. Also your class split doesn't seem that great. You are 1 short on FvS of the next spell level and the beloved feat. Bard 9 versus 8 doesn't get you much.
At very least if you wanna split I would think 12/8, but I'm not sure how great the character would be.
FS 12 would get blade barrier, but at a handicapped DC. The FS weapon spec. doesn't apply to Khopeshes. Bards get a +1 Inspire Courage Attack Bonus at lvl 9. By lvl 11, FS have all the offensive buffs. This is just a theoretical build though, I was hoping that someone else out there may have tried it and be able to offer some hands-on experience.
Well, FvS 12 would get up thru lvl 6 divine spells, which gets you Heal or Blade Barrier (but not both), as well as your FvS weapon bonuses, two elemental DRs, and your lvl 6 ability. And bard 8 would give you a so-so Courage song (depending on PrE), up to lvl 3 arcane buffs (Rage, Blur, Displacement, Haste), and some CC song ability. Feats would be a bit tight, though, and you'd miss out on the higher-lvl abilities of both classes. EDIT: if I was crazy enough to try this, I would go elf and use scimitars to save a feat and benefit from FvS bonuses.
Might be an interesting hybrid solo build; probably a bad idea overall, though. That must be why I like it!
If you roll Bard20 or Bard 15+/fighter/rogue you would have the same functionality as FvS11/Bard9 and more.
Caster/Caster don't mix so good in this game. Caster/Warrior and warrior/warrior yes, caster/caster is so-so.
Plus FvS, like Sorc is not so good for multiclassing. FvS gets spell slots late. Cleric (or Wizard) is better.
Atleast go Cleric. More spell slots easlier (Heal and Blades at 11) and as you'll have some CHA, you can have a solid number of cheap heals with U5 Radiant Servants healing aura and burst. You can also take Divine Might 2 (RS will regenerate Turn Undead and so DM) for some extra melee boost.
Edit: call that build TV evangelist?
The more I thought about this the worse the idea seems to me. You would be trading offensive casting and healing to be able to have blur/haste and a Bard PrE. So at end game you wouldn't heal well and would have bad spell DC's so you wouldn't cast well offensively. Melee wouldn't be much better, if not just on par, with a pure FvS and you would miss out on DR10.
You wouldn't get anything from this split that a bard in your group wouldn't provide for you or your group. I guess if you didn't have a bard in group then you would at least have song buff to add, but I would guess that wiz/sorc could cover the buffs.
Poor DCs on offensive spells. Mediocre SP pool for heals. A song buff that isn't great, but is better than no song.
Multiclassing a Bard with less than 14 levels of Bard is not a good idea. Favored Souls need as many levels as they can get for spells and SPs. Doing more than just a splash of another class is a very bad idea on a caster. You lose too much compared to what you gain.
I saw someone on my server with a build like 4 Sorc, 4 Paladin, 3 Cleric. I have no idea what he was trying to do with it, but that's one person I would never group with. He will never be able to drop firewalls that do decent damage. His melee will be sub-par. His heals will be horrible without heal spell.
Try it if you want, but don't be surprised if you are not effective enough at any role you play.
All valid points, but everyone seems to be ignoring that part about this build going the Melee route. Spell DCs won't matter because the only spells I'll be casting are self buffs and healing magic (the Heal spell will still heal for a lot). As for low BAB, Divine Power w/extend spell. I wouldn't get the FS damage reduction, but I could use wands of stoneskin. I'm not actually building this one now, was just looking for input, which I'm getting, so I'm happy. I like to know what the hurdles will be before I jump in.
You only get Heal if you get 12FvS and it would heal for a base 120 (since caster level is only 12). I'm not saying this wouldn't work, but it seems an unlikely way to go for a melee multi-class. That and in a group, a lot of what you want out of this build would likely be covered by a group mate. A primary Bard would have a better song and same lower level buffs. A primary Cleric/FvS will heal better. A primary melee would hit more and harder.
However, if you do build it, I'm curious how it would do.
Also, don't forget Divine Favor for hit/dmg,
Last edited by Shumanfoo; 06-23-2010 at 02:59 PM.
Yeah, I definitely counted wrong. You need 12 lvls of FS, I must have been looking at Cleric thinking lvl 11. I realize that a pure whatever can obviously do FS or Bard better than a split, I was thinking more in terms of soloability.
i was considering something like this but not for melee just support casting, FvS has the xtra sp for heals and bards get better buffs
guess i was wrong?