Rage Mage / Sublime Chord - Build critique

[DaCraw]

This thread has made the wheels spin in my head over the past 24 hours and here is the result:

Silverbrow Human

Human Paragon 1/Warblade 5/Warchanter 1/Suel Arcanamach 1/Human Paragon +1/Jade Phoenix Mage 1/Sublime Chord 2
Feats:
1. Power Attack
Human. Cleave
3. Combat Casting
6. Heighten Spell
Warblade Bonus. Iron Will
9. Dragonfire Inspiration
Human Paragon Bonus: Versatile Spellcaster
12. Song of the White Raven

Finish with a combination of the last level of Human Paragon, Jade Phoenix Mage and Abjurant Champion to taste.

Strengths:
- 18 BAB at 20th level
- 9th Level spells
- High level maneuvers (giving up a single level of sublime chord casting gives 9 level maneuvers, otherwise stuck at 8th level)
- ALL bardic music abilities.  Inspire Greatness and Inspire Heroics is nice.
- Swift Action Dragonfire Inspiration.

Weaknesses:
- Pretty feat intensive, I pulled it off without needing to use flaws of even magical location, but using them frees up some feat slots.
- Needs nice INT for the cross class skills even with human paragon.
- Dragonfire Inspiration bonuses are pretty weak compared to someone dedicated to the task, only +3d6 Fire with 3.5 items.  Can be +6d6 with words of creation if you take a flaw though which is not bad.
- Only 2 activations of DFI per day without Extra Music feat (again, solved with flaws)

You forgot to add any bard levels...
You need bardic music to qualify for Warchanter, and Sublime Chord. You need Inspire Competence (gained at Bard 3) to qualify for Song of the White Raven.
You also don't meet the spellcasting prerequisites for Sublime Chord. You need to be able to cast 3rd level spells. Suel Arcanamach 2 (SA 1 + HP 1, JPM 1 doesn't advance spellcasting) can only cast 2nd level spells.

I made a very serious typo.  I typed in Warchanter when I instead meant WARRIOR SCALD, the class I recommended in a previous post and all.   Warrior Scald gives all the bardic music abilities.

As for only being able to cast 2nd level spells, note the versatile spellcaster and heighten spell which allows the character to cast level 3 spells.

Ah. It's worth noting that many DMs won't accept that as allowing the caster to cast 3rd level spells. Most I know would rule that either a) Versatile Spellcaster does not actually grant you spell slots higher than you could normally cast (ie it can only apply to combining slots LOWER than the highest you know), or b) being able to cast a heightened 2nd level spell is not the same as being able to cast a 3rd level spell in its own right and thus doesn't meet the prerequisite. That said, RAW vs RAI is always up for debate (although this thread is about an actual game, so I err on the side of RAI). Check with your DM.

Your build did get me thinking, though. I hadn't considered Jade Phoenix Mage as an option. Mixed with Sublime Chord, you can get 8th level spells and 9th level maneuvers at 20 (and be quite strong along the way). Inspire Courage isn't as impressive as a full Bard (/Warblade) build, but is still decent.

Bard 4 / Warblade 2 / Jade Phoenix Mage 4 / Sublime Chord 2 / Jade Phoenix Mage 6 / Warblade 2
(Replacing Warblade with Crusader is also a strong option)

Human (we need the extra skill point, and the feat is always nice)

Skills:

(click to show/hide)

We need to be a bit careful about our skill selection. Assuming that you can spend 2 points at once on the same sub-max skill (such as when it is cross-class for your current class but not for one of your other classes), and that you can save points to be spent at a later level, this build is viable. The max rank increases by 1 each level, but each point only buys 1/2, so you should be able to spend 2 points to buy one rank.

You will need 2 extra skill points per level. This means either being a Human with 12 INT or other race withe 14 INT.  If you cannot save points to use at a later level we will need one more skill point per level (Human with 14 INT or no-Human with 16 INT). You can meet the requirements using just class-points (non-Human with INT 10) if your table uses the houserule that a skill is a class skill (and thus costs 1 point per rank) if it is a class skill for any of your classes.

All skills are class skills for Bards. Where a skill is listed as (cc), assume that two points are being or would need to be spent at each level. Rank totals are cumulative.

Skill	Bard 4	Warblade 2	Jade Phenix Mage 4
Knowledge (Arcane)	7	9 (cc)	13 (cc)
Knowledge (Religion)	2	2 (cc)	2 (cc)
Knowledge (History)	0	2	2 (cc)
Concentration	7	9	9
Listen	7	9 (cc)	13 (cc)
Perform	7	9 (cc)	10 (cc)
Profession (Astrology)	6	6 (cc)	6 (cc)
Spellcraft	6	6 (cc)	6 (cc)

This leaves you with 6 free points free from your Bard levels. You can assign your points however you like for level 11+

Feats:

(click to show/hide)

1	Dragontouched
H	Dragonfire Inspiration
3	Draconic Heritage, Lingering Song, or Power Attack
6	Two Weapon Fighting
9	Improved TWF
12	Greater TWF
15	Free
18	Free

Tiger Claw maneuvers go well with TWF, and with +4d6 damage per hit the extra attacks are worth it.

Results:

(click to show/hide)

- BAB 18
- 8th level spells (as per Sublime Chord 7)
- 9th level manuvers
- Initiator Level 17
- 7 attacks on a Full Attack
- Inspire Courage of 3 (effective bard level of 14 with vest of Legends and Masterwork Lute [masterwork Mandolin is better until you hit 20]) + 1 (badge of Valor Item) = +4 to-hit / +3 untyped damage or +4d6 Sonic damage