Jack of all Trades – Bard Build

[Sthax]

Hey folks,

My bard is almost lvl 20 and is on his first life. I’d like to TR him atleast twice and discover the bard playstyle a bit more, as it is good fun. ATM he is 13bard / 6 rogue /1 fighter 2h handed STR build. He was pretty strong but now in quests he seems a bit light and squishy.

For the second life i’m thinking of going twf dex build with ranger. I am pondering on the bard lvls. 9 for inspire greatness and maybe even getting lvl 10 for lvl 4 spells mainly Ddoor & FoM.
mid Int and Con and str on 10. I could switch between tempest and AA in the ranger tree for playstyle conversion and set disable, spot, unlock, hide, move silent, umd on max. Maybe even cut back on bard lvls to 8 and get 6 rogue for some assasin style play to mix things up.

The build roughly set out.
(getting weapon finesse from tempest 1e tier.)

BUILD ID: 63780
PAST LIVES SELECTED:
Bard (1)
Tomes Recorded: STR: +3, DEX: +3, CON: +3, INT: +3, WIS: +3, CHA: +3
LEVEL 1
Race Selected: Male Halfling
Alignment Selected: Neutral Good
Class Selected: Rogue (Rogue 1)
Abilities Raised: STR: 13, DEX: 16, CON: 16, INT: 14, CHA: 12
Skills Ranks Raised: Bluff +4 (4), Diplomacy +4 (4), Disable Device +4 (4), Hide +4 (4), Move Silently +4 (4), Open Lock +4 (4), Search +4 (4), Spot +4 (4), Tumble +4 (4), UMD +4 (4)
Feats Selected: Toughness
LEVEL 2
Class Selected: Rogue (Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Bluff +1 (5), Diplomacy +1 (5), Disable Device +1 (5), Hide +1 (5), Move Silently +1 (5), Open Lock +1 (5), Search +1 (5), Spot +1 (5), Tumble +1 (5), UMD +1 (5)
LEVEL 3
Class Selected: Bard (Rogue 2 / Bard 1)
(Applied Past Life Tome Bonuses)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (6), Hide +1 (6), Move Silently +1 (6), Perform +1 (1), Search +1 (6), UMD +1 (6)
Feats Selected: Power Attack
LEVEL 4
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 2 / Rogue 2)
Abilities Raised: DEX: 18
Skills Ranks Raised: Hide +1 (7), Move Silently +1 (7), Perform +6 (7)
LEVEL 5
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 3 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (7), Hide +1 (8), Move Silently +1 (8), Perform +1 (8), Search +1 (7), UMD +1 (7)
LEVEL 6
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 4 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (8), Hide +1 (9), Move Silently +1 (9), Perform +1 (9), Search +1 (8), UMD +1 (8)
Feats Selected: Cleave
LEVEL 7
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 5 / Rogue 2)
(Applied Past Life Tome Bonuses)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (9), Hide +1 (10), Move Silently +1 (10), Perform +1 (10), Search +1 (9), UMD +2 (10)
LEVEL 8
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 6 / Rogue 2)
Abilities Raised: DEX: 20
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (10), Hide +1 (11), Move Silently +1 (11), Open Lock +0.5 (5.5), Perform +1 (11), Search +1 (10), UMD +1 (11)
LEVEL 9
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 7 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (11), Hide +1 (12), Move Silently +1 (12), Open Lock +0.5 (6), Perform +1 (12), Search +1 (11), UMD +1 (12)
Feats Selected: Great Cleave
LEVEL 10
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 8 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Bluff +2 (7), Disable Device +1 (12), Hide +1 (13), Move Silently +1 (13), Search +1 (12), UMD +1 (13)
LEVEL 11
Class Selected: Ranger (Bard 8 / Rogue 2 / Ranger 1)
(Applied Past Life Tome Bonuses)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (13), Hide +1 (14), Move Silently +1 (14), Search +2 (14), Spot +1 (6), UMD +1 (14)
Feats Selected: Favored Enemy (Human)
LEVEL 12
Class Selected: Ranger (Bard 8 / Ranger 2 / Rogue 2)
Abilities Raised: DEX: 22
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (14), Hide +1 (15), Move Silently +1 (15), Search +1 (15), Spot +2 (8), UMD +1 (15)
Feats Selected: Two Weapon Defense
LEVEL 13
Class Selected: Ranger (Bard 8 / Ranger 3 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (15), Hide +1 (16), Move Silently +1 (16), Search +1 (16), Spot +4 (12)
LEVEL 14
Class Selected: Ranger (Bard 8 / Ranger 4 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (16), Hide +1 (17), Move Silently +1 (17), Search +1 (17), Spot +4 (16)
LEVEL 15
Class Selected: Ranger (Bard 8 / Ranger 5 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (17), Hide +1 (18), Move Silently +1 (18), Search +1 (18), Spot +2 (18), UMD +1 (16)
Feats Selected: Improved Critical (Slashing), Favored Enemy (Aberration)
LEVEL 16
Class Selected: Ranger (Bard 8 / Ranger 6 / Rogue 2)
Abilities Raised: DEX: 23
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (18), Hide +1 (19), Move Silently +1 (19), Search +1 (19), Spot +1 (19), UMD +1.5 (17.5)
LEVEL 17
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 9 / Ranger 6 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +2 (20), Hide +1 (20), Move Silently +1 (20), Search +1 (20), UMD +1 (18.5)
LEVEL 18
Class Selected: Bard (Bard 10 / Ranger 6 / Rogue 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Bluff +1 (8), Disable Device +1 (21), Hide +1 (21), Move Silently +1 (21), Search +1 (21), UMD +2 (20.5)
Feats Selected: Greater Two Weapon Fighting
LEVEL 19
Class Selected: Rogue (Bard 10 / Ranger 6 / Rogue 3)
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (22), Hide +1 (22), Move Silently +1 (22), Open Lock +3 (9), Search +1 (22), Spot +3 (22), UMD +1 (21.5)
LEVEL 20
Class Selected: Rogue (Bard 10 / Ranger 6 / Rogue 4)
Abilities Raised: DEX: 24
Skills Ranks Raised: Disable Device +1 (23), Hide +1 (23), Move Silently +1 (23), Open Lock +5 (14), Search +1 (23), Spot +1 (23), UMD +1 (22.5)

My concerns are mainly the low dps on dex chars and the halfling class. Anyone got any advice on that?

Thnx for your help.

CU IG
Sth*x

BTW: how do i get a nice scroll box in the post around the build?

[Wish]

So, I kinda find its hard to give build advice without knowing how the player views the importance various elements of the build.

If you are after a jack of all trades then a pure bard is about as good as it gets, dont underestimate the warchanter or swashbuckler trees in terms of dps..

As for the build you posted:
I dont think there is much reason to go past 2 Rog lvls for trap skills and eva, bards and rangers are up there in terms of skill points per lvl, about +2-3 more sneak attack die is about it. And trapmaking is realy not worth the 2 extra lvls either.

As for the 2wf: if you are going for dex based 2wf then you have a couple of options. the lvl 6 tempest core gives dex to dmg on finesse weps, the lvl 3 assasin core also gives you dex to dmg on finesse weps. Another alternative is go elf. at the top of the elf tree you get dex to dmg on a subset of weps and also on longbows. This brings me to the whole ranged thing.

Becase of your low strength Bow Strength(lvl 2 rng feat: +str mod to bow dmg) you may not get as much out of your manyshot as you would like. so either bumping up str or hell switching up your build completely and using int to hit and dmg from the harper tree in the next update would be something. Though with your dex you could take IPS to give more umpf to your manyshots. This brings me to feats!

10 total feats so somethign like:
PA
PBS
Cleave
Great cleave
IC: Pierce
G2wf
IPS
OWC
Inspire excelence
Maximize

more or less in that order

or drop Cleaves for IC ranged and dragonmark or maybe quicken for hjeals

for epic destiny feats: Lasting inspiration(+spell length), P2wf

Favoured enemies: Undead(no argument), then Construct, dragon, human, elf or giant.

Skills: erm I cant tell they are all over the place. max Perform, search, DD, umd, if you are not confident on trap locations then spot, OL(not quite as mportant) balence, diplo, dont need to max hide and MS.

think i should point out that the order you take classes should be
rog(for skills)
rng(get that dex to hit in early)
rng(twf)
rog(eva)
4 more rng for manyshot and i2wf
then start bard

Your worry about the low dmg output of dex builds shouldnt be a worry if you have dex to dmg.

~W

oh I belive the build in a scroll box comes from Ron’s character planner forum export and i assume youre using the website based one?

[Sinaefay]

Wishy covered more or less my input as well, so I’ll just agree with his suggestions 🙂

[Sthax]

Thnx for the advice guys.

Going with 12 bard / 6 ranger / 2 rogue Elf build.

Gonna take rogue and ranger lvls first.

-Will stick to DD, search, UMD, hide, move, OL, perform. Should be able to max most of them.

-Taking full Warchanter and most of tempest enhancements. (switch tempest for AA for range play)

-I was thinking that 12 perform should be enough to play the songs. They are mostly to buff the party. I’ve tried facinate on my first life bard with max perform, but it just takes to long to play and most of the time some guy will cleave through them and it was all for nothing. I’m having trouble seeing its potential. Suggestion didn’t work most of the time.

-What are good hide and move silent checks? If it doesn’t need to be maxed.

-Gonna get the cleave feats instead of range, as i’m an hack&slash kinda guy.

This is an exploritory build, so i’ll prolly TR again at lvl 20. Unless it rocks!

Thanks again for the suggestions, should be a fun build to lvl through.

Cheers,
Sth*x

[Sinaefay]

MS and hide are either maxed or ignored. You will probably not have much use from them unless you use stealth alot.

[Ryan]

Just to follow on from what Jan has said…

I assume you wanted MS and hide for soloing so you can bypass mobs?
Perhaps Bluff would help as it’s excellent for pulling mobs so you dont get overrun by large groups. I used it when I did my Rogue/ Assassin life.

[Author]

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