Need F2P Bard that's New Player Friendly

[Dulcimerist]

I'm looking to make a F2P bard for my daughter to try out while she can create a level 10 character this week.
- No premium races, classes, or trees; but she has Drow unlocked.
- No tomes, but might be able to grab a +1 or +2 if needed.
- Not much named gear, but she has a level 300+ Cannith crafter.
- Simplicity to the build and play style are a plus.

She's only played an Arcane Archer so far. If a viable ranged bard build exists, that would be great. Otherwise, melee and buffs/heals are fine. If a caster sound blaster is new player friendly and doesn't require a large gear farm, she might go for that. Crowd control focus is less appealing to her.

Help is greatly appreciated! I spent an hour or two digging through the build repository, and the builds I found were either really old or required things my daughter doesn't have access to.

[unbongwah]

I have a pure bard Swashbuckler thread but it requires Feydark Illusionist for CHA to hit. Though any of the classic bard / rogue splits should still work fine such as bard 18 / rogue 2, bard 15 / fighter 3 / rogue 2, or bard 12 / fighter 6 / rogue 2. Or Strimtom's barb / bard handaxe build which can be adapted to DEX-based with Weapon Finesse feat.

Thrower bard is actually pretty straight-forward although not as good as it was pre-Horizon Walker. Spellsingers too: just tweak this build for drow.

[rabidfox]

Spellsinger/buff bard is a lot of fun; I've run it with friends on hardcore with zero tomes and no gear outside RNG luck. Does nice AoE damage right out of the gate plus buffs up the entire party. Only downside is single target vs bosses gets a bit meh as it approaches 20 then pops back up with epics. (I pretty much used a similar setup to Strimtom's HC build for mine)

[Enderoc]

Straight up nothing in this game is new ftp player friendly... it's actually a very hostile environment made to kill such persons repeatedly.
If you are such a person, put up a LFM for everything you want to do.

[C-Dog]

Straight up nothing in this game is new ftp player friendly... it's actually a very hostile environment made to kill such persons repeatedly.

Wow - who peed on your Murlynd's Spoon? Bitter experience in HCL recently?

The game is not "simple" - this is not an easy arcade-style distraction (if played above Hard). But there are a lot of builds that can perform well and are, in fact, "new ftp friendly". Some of the above, for example.

- Not much named gear, but she has a level 300+ Cannith crafter.

She "has" one, or she "knows" one?

[dunklezhan]

Very basic simple build outline that should work for trying things out.

Is this optimal:

NO. This is just how I'd have a stab at it to try out the class if I wanted. It should function, and it should be fun solo or group play especially once you've got the right spread of gear. Randgen loot (I mean, if it's the right loot) should be fine, the right named loot will be good, but even with the best gearing it won't really ever be 'competitive' - you'd want to be getting into multiclassing and buying universal trees or other races to leverage their trees. With good reflexes though it should be quite survivable, particularly if you can layer up the displacement/dodge/incorporeal type gear.

It'll do for L10-20 though to see if Bard melee is the right kind of fun, and after that its more about the EDs anyway.

Human Bard 20

Trees: swashbuckler/warchanter, rest into race or spell singer if there's any low hanging fruit there that appeals/synergises well

Attributes priority:
Dex 13 (needed for precision at L1)
Max Str (because it's easy to come by on gear for hit and damage)
Cha 10-12 (so that with gearing you can still cast spells)
Con: everything else. At least 14.

If that 14+ Con means you can't put any points in Charisma, or even can't max out Str then so be it - you might struggle to cast any spells at all for a while after starting at 10 till you find some Cha gear, but you'll catch up. You'll still have fascinate, bard song buffs and at least some UMD capability even at L10.

Level ups in Str: you'll use this for hit and damage, no fancy feats required, and str is still probably one of if not the easiest stat to come by with in-game gear and spells so max out your Str as you level to max out your combat effectiveness.

Skill priority:
Balance: at least 8, as you'll need this for Single Weapon Fighting line. Its a class skill, so this won't be an issue. More balance is good, but once you get it to 8, you don't *need* to keep it maxed.

Jump is a class skill and you're a Str build: there is literally no need for you to put more than 15 ranks it in, and personally I'd stop at 10.

Max and keep maxed as much as possible: Perform and UMD. This is to make use of fascinate (your perform skill is of more use for DCs here than your Charisma) & also UMD for useful buffs & raises right out the gate at L10. Perform also directly boosts sonic damage from shout etc., so you can take a few damaging/stunning spells to for with your eventual disco balls, though bear in mind this is not a caster build, your DCs won't be amazing.

After that, if you do have spare points my priorities would be Bluff, Diplomacy, Heal, Concentration.

Feats priority:
Unless you multiclass (I would suggest 2 levels of fighter would not be a terrible idea), you get 7 feats by L20.
With a Str build you do not need to pick up Finesse - but should still need to use finessable weapons if you're going swashbuckler. There are some great bucklers and short swords out there, and shortswords have a good starting crit range anyway (though swashbuckler compensates well if you go hand axes or something instead).

So, I'd go:

L1:
Precision - get at L1 if you can, this is why you took dex 13. Toggle it on, leave it on.
Human bonus feat: make sure you have 2 ranks of balance at L1, and take the first Single Weapon Fighting feat.

L3: Shield Mastery
L6: Quicken (you might only use it for heals but you want at least the heal you usually cast on yourself to *work*)
L9: next SWF feat: (should easily Balance of the required 4 by now).
At L11, you should see improved critical piercing become available. Get it.
L15: Next SWF feat (balance should easily be 8 by now)
L18: Next Shield Mastery

In epics... eh. I dunno. By that point I'm usually picking up passives. In this case I'd be looking at perfect SWF for sure, and if I could fit them in I'd probably take the remaining shield mastery feats too.

But you should know if the build is for you long before that becomes a thing to worry about.


Tactics:
Buffs from warchanter and swashbuckler will make this thing do a fair amount of single target damage, with investment in perform skill/gear and enchanting gear meaning you can use fascinates as you charge in to try to lock up the extra mobs whilst you work through them. You will die horribly the first few times you try this. Start playing before you start running in, is my advice, then leap out, look around, and let the non-fascinated mobs come to you.

Take Rage, keep it up. Take blur, keep it up. Take Displacement, pop before you fascinate. When you can, take Haste as well, use liberally. Make sure you take heal spells - you don't need all of them but keep a cheap one and then the best one you can fit in around the spells you really use/need, at least. Quicken that last one.

You'll want to make sure your jump is as high as it can be via gear, spells or potions also, so you can leap out of the middle of packs of mobs when it all goes wrong.

Use quicken once you get it for your most efficient or biggest heal so you can cast it on yourself when leaping out of trouble without being interrupted.

You're gonna die to traps a lot. Fortunately, at L9 you can get hirelings with raise. Use and abuse.

Gear:
Random gen loot will generally be fine until you get named items, but named items drop frequently.

You want shortswords and bucklers, probably a golf bag full of different combos. There's named versions a-plenty but random gen ones will be totally fine particularly once you find some with augment slots on.

Best Con, St, Cha gear you can get. Int is irrelevant. Rest (wis, dex) are less important but definitely not not important. These days none of it is that hard to come by at decent ratings for your level.

Con is your priority, along with anything that boosts hitpoints. The Con I'm suggesting is lower than most people would recommend but I've generally always got by with 14 as my floor if I'm more of a DPSer, particularly if I have some level of self-heal.

Maintain highest charisma gear you can and be on the look out for a spell point item with other useful bonuses on to make sure you can always cast your higher level heals when you need to.

Look out for gear (e.g. certain types of armour) which allow you more dodge, incorporeality and things like that, make sure you take blur and displacement as spells: you are going to be quick squishy when you do get hit.

Be on the lookout for perform, evocation DC and sonic spell power items: more perform is even more sonic spellpower and is the basis of your fascinate DC, and all the sonic spell power and evocation DCs help your Shout and Soundburst spells land just a little better - when a bunch of mobs break out of fascinate, leaping backwards and casting one of those spells does AOE sonic damage and also has at least a chance to stun some of them. Most will probably save and take half damage, but any that don't is a bonus and fewer you have to skewer in the next few seconds.

Best saves item ("Resistance") you can find.

Deathblock item <--- essential kit.

A devotion item is very helpful for getting the most out of your heals: this can be something you can swap on so you can top up more efficiently between fights or take an emergency spot heal role in a group. Certainly if you have a slot empty, and find a devotion item that fills it, it is not going to hurt to equip it till you get something better.

... and that's all I got. Have fun!

[Dulcimerist]

She "has" one, or she "knows" one?

Her main character did the Cannith Crafting grind during a bonus weekend to go level 300+ on crafting levels, and she has the Shared Bank to transfer BtA crafted gear.

[Dulcimerist]

My daughter seemed to like the idea of a sonic blaster, since the play style is somewhat like a ranged character. I remember unbongwah's "Shouty McShouterson" build:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post5883392
This was posted in 2016, and I wondered if this is still current. How viable is it? If it doesn't work out for her, it looks like a good party buffer and backup healer until she can TR.

She also liked the outline posted by dunklezhan, which is her second choice.

Thanks so much for the input and ideas!

[Discpsycho]

That build looks solid, I'd say go for it. Interesting how little changes in 5 years, even though the Spellsinger tree got retouched.

Frankly, the difference between a F2P Spellsinger and non-F2P spellsinger is pretty minimal. The only things you might consider on a fully-kitted account is:
- Tiefling instead of Human for +2 Cha. Effectively +1 to all DCs instead of +1 to 1 DC via Spell Focus: Whatever
- Some points in Feywild Illusionist, probably mostly for Greater Color Spray. On the flip side, this locks you out of either T4 Warchanter (medium armor, moar support, temp HP in Core#4) or Swash movement speed. IMO Feywild Illusionist isn't worth it, since Spellsingers have a cone CC option in Greater Shout

[spifflove]

I have a pure bard Swashbuckler thread but it requires Feydark Illusionist for CHA to hit. Though any of the classic bard / rogue splits should still work fine such as bard 18 / rogue 2, bard 15 / fighter 3 / rogue 2, or bard 12 / fighter 6 / rogue 2. Or Strimtom's barb / bard handaxe build which can be adapted to DEX-based with Weapon Finesse feat.

Thrower bard is actually pretty straight-forward although not as good as it was pre-Horizon Walker. Spellsingers too: just tweak this build for drow.

Don’t forget this wise man’s thread more what the op asked for:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...light=Bardcher

[unbongwah]

Don’t forget this wise man’s thread more what the op asked for:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...light=Bardcher

I had intended to re-revisit bardchers after Horizon Walker came out, but since you can't Swashbuckle with a bow like you can with a light crossbow (via Dashing Inquisition), I don't feel like the synergies are there.

[Dulcimerist]

Thanks for all of the help, everyone! My daughter went with the caster build to try that out first life on her new character:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post5883392

Now she's trying to figure out gear. Are there any must-haves for this build at level 10? The whistle from Cannith Challenges looks good. There are also some caster clubs that look nice, but they don't work with the Swashbuckling stance - although that stance might not matter on this build and the club from the Anniversary Event would be good.
She can craft anything BtA in Cannith Crafting.
Thanks again!

[Tomadre]

I have a pure bard Swashbuckler thread but it requires Feydark Illusionist for CHA to hit. Though any of the classic bard / rogue splits should still work fine such as bard 18 / rogue 2, bard 15 / fighter 3 / rogue 2, or bard 12 / fighter 6 / rogue 2. Or Strimtom's barb / bard handaxe build which can be adapted to DEX-based with Weapon Finesse feat.

Thrower bard is actually pretty straight-forward although not as good as it was pre-Horizon Walker. Spellsingers too: just tweak this build for drow.

Hi there.

I can´t see your swashbuckler build, Unbongwah; the link sends me to the main page :S. Same with Paletrapper from Elis.

Any solution?

Ty and sorry, but my english is too bad.

[C-Dog]

(Your English is more than good enough. )

I can´t see your swashbuckler build, Unbongwah; the link sends me to the main page :S. Same with Paletrapper from Elis.

The URL format has changed!

Older links start "https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php..."

New links use... "https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/..."

Make that small change, and they'll work.

(So, the 2 threads are now:

o https://FORUMS.ddo.com/forums/showth...w(ish)-Players

o https://FORUMS.ddo.com/forums/showth...=1#post4716319