Working on a Bard need help.

[Lunarambling]

Hey folks. So my MoMF recently took a dive to save a party member. Totally got myself killed but saved a party member. Totally worth it I guess. Anyway. I need to make a new character. So, a fresher on the particulars of my current game.

We use a Character Point system in place of Exp. 10 CP= 1 level alternately, 1 CP=1 stat point up to 20 before racial mods, 2 CP= 1 Feat (Must meet prerequisites), or can be used to buy off various templates and the like. I have 36 points to spend.

Here is a list of the Templates that I have run by the DM so far

Draconic- 5CP
Half-Dragon- 6CP
Divine Minion- 8CP
Half-Minotaur- 6CP
Feral- 4CP
Bloodlines- 4-6CP

Currently I am thinking of going with a Half-Dragon Unseelie Fey Human Bard 2/Paladin4/Warrior Skald X

Stat Adjustments: Str +6 Dex +2 +2 Int +4 Cha

With the stats that I have been given: 17, 16, 16, 16, 13, 12

That gives me:
Str: 23
Dex: 15
Con: 16
Int: 18
Wis: 12
Cha: 22 (with level bumps)

Feats I am thinking that I should go with the following:

Flaw(Shaky): Combat Expertise (Prerequisite for Warrior Skald)
Flaw(Murky-Eyed): Weapon Focus (Prerequisite for Warrior Skald)
Human(Two-Weapon Fighting)
1st: Initiate of Milil
3rd: Dragonfire Inspiration (Battle Dragon: Sonic)
6th: Words of Creation
Traded Inspire Competence for: Song of the Heart

Debating on dropping Paladin spellcasting for a bonus feat.

What can I do to make this better?

[linklord231]

I might be looking at a different Warrior Skald, but the one in Races of Faerun has different prereqs than the ones you listed.  It wants Power Attack and Cleave rather than Combat Expertise and Weapon Focus. 
Other than that, I'm not quite sure what the focus of your build is.  The Warrior Skald I found is pretty underwhelming - could be neat in a fear stacking build, but the fact that it's limited by bardic music uses is kind of weak.  Not sure why you want 4 levels of paladin, besides to get Spellcasting which you were going to trade for a bonus feat anyway.  2 levels would get you Cha to saves, then taking 2 levels of Fighter would get you TWO feats.  Oh whoops, didn't notice Initiate of Milil.  Guess that kind of makes sense.
 
Also, why 2 weapon fighting?  This is generally considered to be sup-optimal, unless you have a reliable source of bonus damage (I guess Dragonfire Inspiration counts as this, but you can't really swing and 2wf at the same time).  You don't really have the Dex to qualify for ITWF and the rest of the chain though. 
I do like the synergy between Words of Creation, Song of the Heart, and Dragonfire Inspiration. 

I guess my advice would be to pick something else that advances Bardic Music besides Warrior Skald.  Preferably something that advances bardic spellcasting too.  If you're going the route of "pump my party with DFI", you might as well optimize around that.  A build along these lines would be Bard 4/Warblade 2/Jade Phoenix Mage 10/X 4 with Song of the White Raven.  Since you can buy feats with Character Points, I always thought it would be a fun idea to put the Bard's free EWP:Whip to use and take Improved Trip and Improved Disarm for some extra BFC. 
This and this are fantastic resources for optimizing Inspire Competence for use with Dragonfire Inspiration. 

[Lunarambling]

My bad. I actually meant War Chanter, not Warrior Skald, was looking into both wrote the wrong one. Also, should have mentioned I was using the Harmonius Knight Sub-levels for Paladin.

I did indeed take TWF for the DFI damage. I figured that the large amounts of Sonic damage would make it worth it. Was also planning on buying Gloves of the Balanced Hand to boost my TWF to Imp TWF. I have looked over the Bard Handbooks on Brilliant Gameologists, but did not find them particularly useful. I will look further into them again, may have missed stuff.

[Sjappo]

No tips, just a question. What level do you start? And the Unseelie Fey template I found requires an evil allignment. Doesn't jive well with standard Paladin. How do you fix that? And you don't buy off the Unseelie Fey template if my math is correct.

[Lunarambling]

Damn. I missed that Evil bit. I may have to discuss that with the DM. As for buying off, it is an LA0 template, so there isn't anything to buy off.

[Kremti]

Also...isn't Words of Creation [Exalted] Feat too?

-K

[X-Codes]

Murky-Eyed is a terrible flaw to take.  Vulnerable is better, as it doesn't look like you're going for AC.

Initiate of Milil almost certainly has pre-requisites that prevent it from being taken at first level.

Song of the Heart requires Inspire Competence, so you can't trade out the latter for the former (assuming you can trade it out at all since you're not getting it via the Bard levels).  If you get Suggestion, trade that out instead, if you can.  Your actual Bard levels are nowhere near high enough to make practical use of that ability.

Initiate of Milil is also only one-half of the overall Paladin/Bard hybrid equation.  The other is Devoted Performer in Complete Adventurer.

Dropping your Paladin spellcasting is a good idea.

Strongly consider picking up a bloodline.  The RoI for some of them will at least equal the costs of picking up the individual feat and stat bonuses.

[Lunarambling]

Ok. I will admit, I have not fact checked the build extensively, just went with suggestions from the handbooks I read as this is more or less my starting point.

Is there a particular bloodline you would recommend?

Is there a particular build that you would recommend if I were to try to make a combat focused bard?

[X-Codes]

Well, bloodlines tend to either give feats that are worthless, although they are often those annoying pre-reqs for certain PrCs like Dodge or Iron Will, or feats that are pretty much staples for certain characters, like Power Attack or Improved Initiative.

Speaking of, I think I just remembered that WoC requires Wisdom 15.

For a combat-focused bard, you're on the right track.  I think I'd rather see a two-hander + Power Attack than TWF, but with War Chanter and Dragonfire Inspiration it might be worthwhile, especially if you get Half-Battle Dragon past the DM.

Actually, your final type *should* be Dragon, so maybe instead of going with manufactured weapons at all you should go with natural weapons + Rapidstrike?  Better attack mods, feat tax is about the same, but chances are you'll get better returns on Power Attack on top of everything else, which is the big draw.

[Endarire]

What's a Bard without Inspire Courage?

[sirpercival]

Does it have to be Paladin?  You could play a Bardsader with Song of the White Raven...

[Kremti]

Speaking of, I think I just remembered that WoC requires Wisdom 15.

Actually, it's Int 15 (which is covered in the build)

-K

[X-Codes]

Speaking of, I think I just remembered that WoC requires Wisdom 15.

Actually, it's Int 15 (which is covered in the build)

-K

Ok, this is right.  Kind of a non-requirement for Bards, though, IMO.

[Lunarambling]

Ok. So what I have ended up going with is a Magic Blooded Half Dragon Half Fey Human Bard 4/Crusader2/Warrior Skald 1/ War Chanter 1 with a fully purchased Major Titan Bloodline. So, I need to figure out what that means.

So, what exactly does the Bloodline add to this character? I have never used a bloodline before, but felt like giving it a try. From what I can figure, it means that I have max skill ranks of 14 rather than 11, a CL of 7 for Bard spells, and an IL 3(Bard)+5(Crusader)+2(WarSkald)+2(Warchanter)=12? Is that right? Does this do anything else?

[linklord231]

Because of the funny way Warrior Skald works (bases bardic music songs off Perform ranks instead of effective Bard level), you could probably cut Bard out of the build entirely.  If your DM is nice, he'll probably allow you to apply feats/abilities that progress Bardic Music to your Skald songs.  Cutting Bard would give you more room for Crusader (if that's your thing), but you'd have to find a way to get Perform onto your class list.  Factotum might be an interesting choice, and would get you Int to lots of stuff. 
Come to think of it, how ARE you meeting the skill prereqs for Warrior Skald by level 7?  Crusader doesn't have Perform as a Class Skill, and Bloodlines don't grant any skill points. 

[X-Codes]

^ Not likely.  Warrior Skald is a 3.0 class, and in 3.0 the Bard just worked that way.  Bard 1/Rogue 19 had full Bardic Music, just no spellcasting.  Just like how Ranger 1/Barbarian 19 could spend a feat for Improved Two-Weapon Fighting without meeting the Dex requirement.  With the update to 3.5, it would almost certainly add Warrior Skald levels to Bard levels for determining the kinds of music available.