Optimization for a moderately silly character

[Sir Chuckles]

Fireblooded Dwarf Battle Dancer/Bard

It's a concept that may or may not get off the ground, as I am often an eternal DM. The primary plan is to have it as a backup for a 5th level character in an upcoming campaign. But as the eternal DM, it means I can bring it up to an appropriate level for my party. And I just so happen to be DMing an epic campaign right now.

So, I pose two questions.
1) That character. 5th level. Perform (Dance) and Perform (Percussion). Dance because Battle Dancer, Percussion for Castanets. Dragonfire Inspiration. Yes, Mexican Bald Dwarf fight-dancing while his Castanets makes your weapons burn with passion. How the foozle do I stat that out? The base itself is sub-optimal, but that's the fun of it.

2) Bring him up to be an appropriate encounter for a party of ~25th level characters.

Assume WBL, 36 point buy, and all books and Dragon go.

[Jackinthegreen]

All Dragon?  Dragon 306 has some racial variants as templates, but it notes that it's for PHB races and it's also 3.0 material.  If an LA 0 version of the regular dwarf is allowed then the Magic-Blooded template on page 64 grants -2 Wis, +2 Cha, Low-light vision on top of whatever other boosted vision the character has, +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft, and some SLAs that need to be updated for 3.5 since Nystul's Magical Aura and Nystul's Undetectable Aura were merged into a single spell.  Correcting for this update, the SLAs are 1/day Detect Magic and Read Magic, and 2/day Nystul's Magical Aura.

Since you're using two kinds of perform, the Versatile Performer feat might interest you.

The Battle Dancer feat itself might be interesting if you have a way to attack and it might work with DFI depending on one's interpretation of what the Xd6 extra damage is.

Dipping into either crusader or warblade for Song of the White Raven might work well.

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1583.0 has more Dragon Mag stuff.

Here is the book and online ACF stuff if you want to look through it.  The Dragon Mag ACFs and similar can be found here.

How much of bard vs battledancer are you thinking?  Do you want both the spells and bardic music, or are you thinking of favoring one?  Or do you want to have a bit of luchadore in there and be punching and wrestling a bit?

[Sir Chuckles]

So what I'm sensing is:
Magic-Blooded Fireblood Dwarf Battle Dancer X/Savage? Bard X/Warblade 1
Picking up a total +2 Con -2 Wis, Leading the Charge, possible Bard Schools, and making sure to take Battle Dancer, Song of the White Raven, and possibly (probably) Versatile Performer. Gotta have 15 Int for Words of Creation. Thus, I'd be Chaotic Good.

For 5th level, Bard 1-Warblade 1-Bard 2-Battle Dancer 1, picking up DFI at 1st and Battle Dancer or Song of Heart at 3rd. Song of the White Raven would be at 6th.

Ideally, after going over this, it would be Bard 8/Battle Dancer 11/Warblade 1. That would net me, with proper fanciness, ~+9d6 DFI, full-attack charges, 1d10 unarmed strikes, all while playing clamshells and fighting like a Capoeira Luchadore. Which is the essential goal: "fighting like a Capoeira Luchadore while both I and my allies enjoy the benefits of big flaming swords/axes/elbows". The bit of spell casting on top from Bard is just gravy on the potatoes.

[Jackinthegreen]

Bard colleges aren't really worth much.  Here's the quick rundown:

Blackburn College

Knowledge (dungeoneering) and Knowledge (the planes) become cross-class
Gain +1 to Diplomacy and Gather Information

Brendelwood Academy

knw (dungeon) and hide become cross-class
Gain +1 to climb and knw (nature)

Highspire University

Disguise and Sleight of Hand become cross-class
+1 to knw (history) and knw (the planes)

Society of Symphonic Sortilege

Escape artist and tumble become cross-class
+1 to decipher script and knw (arcana)


Is LA buyoff from Unearthed Arcana allowed?  The Draconic template from Races of the Dragon page 74 seems like it'd be nice here, mostly for the stat boosts but the save boosts versus sleep and paralysis effects are useful too as is the theme.

Savage Bard could work well with the different saves and spells.  Reflex isn't usually a big deal while fort and will are.

You might want to look at http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8936 for more Inspire Courage stuff.

You might not need to take Song of the Heart as a regular feat.  Page 34 of Eberron Campaign Setting has the section "Music of Creation" which allows taking certain feats in place of getting a new bardic music ability, and Song of the Heart is one of them.  However, it could be seen as a bit cheesy to replace Inspire Competence with it since the feat itself says it requires Inspire Competence.  Your mileage might vary.

[Sir Chuckles]

It seems you're right about the Bard Colleges. I can't see any that would be worth it.

As for LA buyoff, I already asked for my original character (A Thri-Kreen Urban Barbarian), and the DM said no. Mildly disappointing, but no big deal.
And that link is what I was already looking at.

The character is coming together nicely, thank you.
I generally like to have two characters ready and waiting before a campaign, so I can keep party diversity. One was talking about the Jester a not too long about, but is also watching an unhealthy amount of Kung-Fu movies.

Would Versatile Unarmed Strike plus Snowflake War Dance be an interesting, if not inefficient, option?
Re-reading Snowflake War Dance: "...any slashing melee weapon you wield in one hand."
I'd probably have to get DM adjudication for that one.

[Gribel]

You could use Undersong (possibly in the form of a continuous magic item, it's cheap) to use Perform in place of Concentration. Not only do you require less skills, but, since you're getting Warblade levels anyway, you also can use (Greater) Insightful Strike to do damage equal to (2x) your Perform check on a melee attack.

[Jackinthegreen]

Unarmed strikes are considered light weapons as per the weapon description.  I expect them saying "wield in one hand" means the character can use light and one-handed weapons for SFWD and they were just trying to be clever with the wording instead of being direct in saying "light and one-handed weapons."

[Sir Chuckles]

So SWD is on the table, even if it's a paper napkin on a white tablecloth? Or is it nicer than that in this situation?

[phaedrusxy]

I don't really know what having a massive charisma is doing for this character, to be honest. He's not really casting many spells. I'd probably just go with a moderate charisma, and then otherwise build it like a typical melee build. And is Battle Dancer really required? It looks pretty awful. XD I'd suggest just going with some mix of bard/warblade (or crusader) and ToB prestige classes. It's too bad there's not one that could advance both your bardic music and initiator levels (sounds like something someone should homebrew... ).

[Sir Chuckles]

If I wanted to use a Chordsage, I'd build a Chordsage. It's about using Battle Dancer. *insert comments about switching all non spell casting classes with ToB*
I'm not worried about it being sub-par, my RL group's pinnacle of optimization was me. As a Neanderthal Barbarian/Wizard/Rage Mage with Born of Three Thunders. When I joined in a different group that was connected to one of my ex-players, I actually ended up getting Monks, Fighter dips, Large PCs, grappling, ToB strikes, and myself banned from the table. It was not a happy day.

And Battle Dancer isn't too terrible. It's functional, and a full BaB class that gains many semi-interesting Supernatural abilities.
So it's required for this character.
Though I have to agree with you about the Charisma. Even with a low spell casting threshold, however, I'll still need at least 15.