Quote: Posted 04/01/05 19:51:27 (GMT) -- jjjhhhlll
rdd requires 10 levels to be effective. You need at least 15 barbarian levels to get terrifying rage. That leaves only 15 bard levels, which reduces the effect of the bard song (only +3 skills). rdd also grants +2 cha, so you'll get one more point of intimidate. You'll probably want 16 barbarian levels so you can top off the intimidate skill, otherwise you must delay terrifying rage until level 39 to get decent intimidate ranks.
The cleric level is there to obtain turn undead. Cleric is the only way to get that with one level.
You're not going to use divine spells at all, so 8 wisdom doesn't really matter too much. With only one cleric level and 8 wis, you're giving up 3 cantrips and 3 level 1 spells. I guess bless could come in handy, although the duration is really short. perhaps a +1 divine favor would help a little bit. feel free to swap around the ability points to get 11 wisdom if so desired. I prefer to use bless and aid potions to get my +2 ab...
Another way to go is to use paladin instead of cleric. You need 3 paladin levels to obtain turn undead for divine might. You'll also get divine grace, which will give you +11 to saves. with barb 16/bard 21/paladin 3 you can still get most everything vital to the build. You lose one epic bard bonus feat and your bardsong is only +9 skills due to the loss of bard levels. You also have to deal with law/chaos alignment shifts to use paladin, which is impossible in most modules.
You could also drop the cleric level and take 17 barbarian and gain +1 dr. This also removes the xp penalty.
rdd requires 10 levels to be effective. You need at least 15 barbarian levels to get terrifying rage. That leaves only 15 bard levels, which reduces the effect of the bard song (only +3 skills). rdd also grants +2 cha, so you'll get one more point of intimidate. You'll probably want 16 barbarian levels so you can top off the intimidate skill, otherwise you must delay terrifying rage until level 39 to get decent intimidate ranks.
The cleric level is there to obtain turn undead. Cleric is the only way to get that with one level.
You're not going to use divine spells at all, so 8 wisdom doesn't really matter too much. With only one cleric level and 8 wis, you're giving up 3 cantrips and 3 level 1 spells. I guess bless could come in handy, although the duration is really short. perhaps a +1 divine favor would help a little bit. feel free to swap around the ability points to get 11 wisdom if so desired. I prefer to use bless and aid potions to get my +2 ab...
Another way to go is to use paladin instead of cleric. You need 3 paladin levels to obtain turn undead for divine might. You'll also get divine grace, which will give you +11 to saves. with barb 16/bard 21/paladin 3 you can still get most everything vital to the build. You lose one epic bard bonus feat and your bardsong is only +9 skills due to the loss of bard levels. You also have to deal with law/chaos alignment shifts to use paladin, which is impossible in most modules.
You could also drop the cleric level and take 17 barbarian and gain +1 dr. This also removes the xp penalty.