(melee) bard customization for specific party

[Waazraath]

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.

[Jackinthegreen]

I assume you're going to use the 3.5 version of Divine Might, yes?  If so, you'll need to take Power Attack as well since that's one of the prerequisites.  Here's the feat.

However, if you're the only caster might I recommend you not try to wade into melee yourself?  You'll be buffing your allies, and they're both definitely stuck in melee, so it seems that's covered for your party.  You can still do quite a bit at range, even with warblade/ToB stuff.  Here's a quick reference for maneuvers and stances that work at range.

[Waazraath]

Ah, yes, you're right about power attack - will need to look at the feats again 

You're also make a good point about 'not wading into melee' as the only caster, but then again, I like it. My idea was to spend 1 or 2 rounds on buffing, and then join the fray. If it's possible, I like that; at early levels, that would be inspire courage, swift action travel devotion, and move to a tactical position, round 2 full attack; at later levels, it would be something like round 1) haste (standard) inspire courage (swift), move to a tactical position, round 2: swift action move into melee range, full attack. I won't go for the ranged attack route, it's quite feat intensive, I'll rather grab some spells for that.

edit: as extra info, stats are: strength 14, dex 10, con 15, int 15, wis 13, cha 17

[Iainuki]

I'll try to give more substantive comments later, but first I want to highlight something else.

words of creation (6)

...

I skipped dragonfire inspiration because this group doesn't play at a high optimization level - inspire courage will do

Words of Creation is much, much stronger than Dragonfire Inspiration.  I don't understand how Dragonfire Inspiration can be not appropriate for a given optimization level and Words of Creation be appropriate for same.

The difference between the damage added by plain inspire courage and that added by Dragonfire Inspiration isn't that large.  If you have a weapon with a 20/x2 threat range and use Power Attack on all the attack bonus from plain inspire courage, you get 2*1.05*bonus = 2.1 damage.  Added to the 1 damage plain courage gives, you get 3.1 damage/point of inspire courage bonus.  Dragonfire Inspiration gives 3.5 damage/point of inspire courage bonus.  (There's a rigorous argument showing this is a valid comparison, but it's involved and requires some knowledge of multivariable calculus and linear algebra.  I'm going to include it in an updated version of my Power Attack handbook.)  That means Dragonfire Inspiration multiplies inspire courage's damage by about 1.13.  That's significant but not huge, and it's elemental damage which has some downsides.  Words of Creation straight-up doubles the damage from inspire courage.  Even if you believe that it doesn't affect the bonus from inspirational boost and the badge of valor, over the first four levels or so it still takes inspire courage from +3 to +4, and over 20 levels from +6 to +10 without any other items or abilities that increase inspire courage.  Thus, early on, Words of Creation multiplies inspire courage's damage by about 1.33, and in the long run by about 1.66, at least.

[Waazraath]

Thnx for the remark, I meant that I won't go for dragonfire inspiration besides words of creation, doubling all the extra d6's. Besides, I don't know how 'bad' WoC really will be, since I won't have room for some of the 'standard' optimization stuff like song of the heart, nor am I 100% sure on how the DM will rule on WoC - wether it will double the total bonus from IC or only the one part from bard levels (and add the bonus from spells / items after that).

After previous remark, I'm thinking along the lines of skipping divine might for protection devotion... it's a very good buff, as I noticed in the campaign I'm DM'ing atm. At later levels I might get the 'cha to damage' from slippers of battledancing, if my DM counts the move action through travel devotion for its activation. But if somebody has a way to get power attack / divine might before level 12 / 15, I'm happy too. (Retraining is allowed btw).

More comments / thoughts are appreciated!

[Waazraath]

Campaign will start in a few days... any other suggestions would be be most welcome!

[PixelHead777]

Campaign will start in a few days... any other suggestions would be be most welcome!

A hat. A signature hat.

Could also be magical but it needs to be special. It needs to be what identifies your bard from cheap imitations.

[phaedrusxy]

Campaign will start in a few days... any other suggestions would be be most welcome!

A hat. A signature hat.

Could also be magical but it needs to be special. It needs to be what identifies your bard from cheap imitations.

Like this guy:

(click to show/hide)

[Waazraath]

Very helpful, that was just the idea I was looking for! I think I'll write 'barrd' on my hat and declare my character finished. 

[phaedrusxy]

A bit more seriously, here is a bard/warblade I have in a PbP game on here which I think is pretty fun and effective. You might find something useful in there. I took Requiem because... well, it's a Ravenloft game. And it lets me use Doomspeak on undead, which I thought should be great fun. The Soothing Voice half-elf sub is also awesome.

[PixelHead777]

Very helpful, that was just the idea I was looking for! I think I'll write 'barrd' on my hat and declare my character finished. 

No! If you write THAT on  your hat, then you'll inevitably almost-die the most! It will be THE MOST TREACHEROUS. And also you'll be SO BAD at magic. Like... So bad. 1 spell. Not even a useful spell, just some world-rocking uberspell from some dead god or something.

... I'm saying I got da reference.