WC or Virtuoso?

[marspr]

Just began trekking with what will eventually end up as a 12/8 barb-bard. It's almost exclusively for solo excursions. I'm wondering if I shouldn't go Virtuoso for better CC, especially Music of the Dead, or should I go with WC for the better melee buffs and the extra rage? Virtuoso seems intriguing since WC DR is redundant to my existing barbarian DR. Any thoughts or suggestions would be most appreciated.

[dunklezhan]

The advice you get will be to go Warchanter.

[Chette]

The warchanter PrE is more usefull for the bonuses to damage and attack rolls than the DR song. So yes, I would recommend warchanter over virtuoso. In addition, virtuoso has a lot of prerequisites that are useless to you as a bardbarian.

[unbongwah]

Both are viable options; sounds like you have a good handle on the tradeoffs. One other advantage to a barb FB / bard WC is PA is a pre-req for both, so it's a little more efficient with the feats. For soloing I'd rather be a Virt; I love using CC songs which really help out with mobs.

[Krag]

/derail

Is there a good enough reason to abandon Bard 14 in favor of 2 extra Barb levels?

[marspr]

Krag, I'm going barbarian 8 bard. If it was the other way around I would definitely take 14 levels of bard.

[marspr]

Also, if I decide to go Virtuoso, I was wondering if Enthrallment packed much bang for its buck?

[dunklezhan]

Also, if I decide to go Virtuoso, I was wondering if Enthrallment packed much bang for its buck?

As a barb probably using a 2 hander, enthrall is better than just fascinate, because glancing blows will snap mobs out of a fascinate whereas there's only a chance of snapping them out of an enthrall, and even if they do they still suffer some penalties. On the other hand, the ironskin chant of a warchanter is probably or more benefit to a Barb.

[marspr]

Yo Dunk, thanks for the Enthrallment info. I was wondering though about DR. Since my barb levels already give me DR, isn't the Ironskin chant of little use since this build is for solo play. Or, do the different DR enhancements stack? I was assuming that they didn't.

[ddobard1]

Both are useful. From what i have been reading here, i understood that Virtuoso may bring more effectiveness to Eberron on Epic.
Another options you may choose are Barb 10/ Bard 10 for 4th level spells or Barb 11/ Bard 9 for Greater Rage. 9 or 10 songs are enough for Inspire Courage, Fascinate, Inspire Competence, Suggestion, and Inspire Greatness. Two levels of Fighter also interesting for 2 free feats. Keep Perform maxed always.

[Crazyfruit]

Your ironskin chant won't stack with the Barb dr.

IMO virtuoso is a much better one for bards with under 14 levels, all of my small bard splashes take it. The extra bonuses from Warchanter won't make you do much more than a Greater Heroism, but the extra songs Virt grants you (+3, a bit of extra duration & that pretty big chance of keeping things mesmerized when hit) will let you play as a crowd control for many situations - even enough for (most) epic quests without a caster.