Ok, I'm about to play a bard, for the first time in about 20 years of dnd... I made a build based mostly on melee and inspire courage. The concept is:
Human, NG, cloistered cleric 1, bard 7, warblade 1, bard +11;
Feats: extra turning (1), divine might (human), travel devotion (cleric), knowledge devotion (cleric), snowflake wardance (3), words of creation (6), song of the white raven (9), rest is open.
Alternative class features: none.
The idea is to gain combat bonusses with divine might (damage, free action), to attack (snowflake wardance, free action), damage and attack (inspire courage, standard, later swift action - knowledge devotion, free action). Together with spells like displacement, (greater) mirror image, and some combat buffs, that should result in a decent melee warrior. The inspire courage optimization works with items (badge of valor, vest of legends) and words of creation. (I skipped dragonfire inspiration because this group doesn't play at a high optimization level - inspire courage will do - if it doesn't, I can always get the dragonborn template).
But finishing the build, I'm wondering about two things. In the first place, my other party members (we start at lvl 1) are a dragon shaman (that rolled great stats), that will focus on the draconic aura's and the breath weapon (entangling, maximizing), but will be able to be relevant in melee first levels pure through 18 strength and 20 con. The other is a whirling frenzy barbarian. That makes me the sole caster.
1) Considering that, would the Bardic Sage variant (UA) be worth considering? It reduces the duration of inspire courage, which sucks since I spend rescources on optimizing that, but one extra divinition spel per spell level known is very good for the party's utility.
2) Would the ACF lore song from dungeonscape be worth it? I spend allmost all my skillpoints of cloistered cleric in knowledge skills (next to diplomacy and concentration), and I've got 'lore' from cloistered cleric 1. So I got that covered, I guess. And a +4 bonus on almost any roll is nice. Bardic knack (phb2) is also an option. On the other hand, extra information (from a maxed bardic knowledge) might be nice, since the rest of the party won't have any intelligence gathering possiblities.
3) would the healing hymn ACF from complete champion be a good idea, since there isn't a real healer in the party (at least, after the dragon shaman healed everybody back to half hp)?
Any other advice is welcome as well of course, also on how to finish the build.