Bard22/CoT8/Red Dragon Disciple10 – Human playable 1 - 40 PvM mostly, although you will not be able to knock him down or take his sword, heh, useful characteristics for PvP. But you can't knock her down or take her sword, either.
This modifies the Sings with Dragon (and Big Sword) to take CoT levels instead of fighter. It has much better saves but lacks some flexibility (no more casting in battle or in armor). You effectively lose two pre-epic feats (one for fighter level 1 and one for having to take heavy armor proficiency). Is it worth it? If you intend to buff and melee (and that is probably the rais d'etre of this build), probably yes.
You give up three feats by going CoT instead of fighter, but two of the three (Luck of Heroes and Epic Will or Lightning Reflexes) are more than offset by the +3 to the reflex saves that CoT gets and the +4 to all saves that CoT's divine grace provides. That leaves the loss of combat casting. But letting go of that frees up an epic feat (although I am recommending Toughness, a pre-epic feat). And potentially frees up 25+ skill points in concentration. An interesting combo might be to take Taunt to 25 or so and Epic Skill Focus: Taunt instead of Toughness.
On the leveling, I checked the grimoire and have confirmed that bards get the medium armor proficiency, meaning you could take the heavy armor proficiency whenever you want.
So...
1Bard1, Martial Weapons, Extra Music 2Bard2, 3Bard3, Heavy Armor Prof 4Bard4, Str17 5Bard5 6RDD 1 Weapon Focus (GSword) 7RDD2 RDD Str 19 8RDD3 Str20 9Bard 6 Curse Song 10RDD4 - RDD Str 22 11CoT1 12CoT2 Power Attack, Imp Crit (GSword) Str23
Or WF first then Heavy Armor.
It never ends.
Okay, here is what you can do with your skill points.
Level 1 Bard: (4 points +2 int + 1 human = 7) * 4 = 28 21 additional bard levels: 21 * 4 = 84 21 character levels with +2 int (not counting level 1)= 42 18 character levels with +3 int = 54 10 levels rdd = 10 * 2 = 20 8 levels CoT = 8 * 2 = 16 Human (+39 (not counting level 1)) = 39
You get cleave one slot later but you get level 3 spells earlier and extend spell earlier too. And you don't sit there with Power Attack, which can be useless, depending on your PW (mine requires High AB and High AC rather over high damage, which I provide anyway).
This allows you to take your spot skill up a bit after you get level 6 spells and get the best and mostest with your bard song.
Also, for what it's worth, I won't take Toughness; I will take Epic Skill Focus: Spot (I live in a harsh environment), and I will take it at 33, taking Perform to Epic at 39.
A slight rework on pre-epic, not to fix anything but maybe make the build marginally better as it levels: