Explicate Lyrics (Bard 35 / Fighter 1 / Blackguard 4)

Human
Neutral or Chaotic Evil

PvM, playable 1-40

Str 16 (30)
Dex 12
Con 14
Wis 8
Int 12
Cha 14 (20)

1 Fighter 1 - Power Attack, Cleave, WF: Scimitar
2 Bard 1
3 Bard 2 - Still Spell
4 Bard 3 - CHA 15
5 Bard 4
6 Bard 5 - Curse Song
7 Bard 6
8 Bard 7 - CHA 16
9 Bard 8 - Empower Spell
10 Bard 9
11 Bard 10
12 Bard 11 - Improved Critical: Scimitar, ST 17
13 Bard 12
14 Bard 13
15 BG 1 - Toughness
16 BG 2 - STR 18
17 BG 3
18 BG 4 - Divine Might
19 Bard 14
20 Bard 15 - STR 19

21 Bard 16 - Epic Weapon Focus: Scimitar
22 Bard 17
23 Bard 18
24 Bard 19 - Great Strength I, STR 21
25 Bard 20
26 Bard 21
27 Bard 22 - Great Strength II
28 Bard 23 - Lasting Inspiration*, STR 23
29 Bard 24
30 Bard 25 - Great Strength III
31 Bard 26 - Great Charisma I*
32 Bard 27 - STR 25
33 Bard 28 - Great Strength IV
34 Bard 29 - Great Charisma II*
35 Bard 30
36 Bard 31 - Great Strength V, STR 28
37 Bard 32 - Great Charisma III*
38 Bard 33
39 Bard 34 - Great Strength VI
40 Bard 35 - Great Charisma VI*, STR 30

naked
AB 39 - [BAB 26 + Str 10 + WF 1 + EWF 2]
AC 30 - [Base 10 + Dex 1 + Plate 8 + Tower 3 + Tumble 8]

buffed
AB 56 - [39 + Emp Bulls 3 + BG Bulls 2 + GMW 5 + Song 2 + Curse 5]
AC 45 - [30 + Mage Armor 4 + Haste 4 + Song 5 + Curse 2]

buffed damage (Str 40, Cha 26)
Scim 3.5 + Str 15 + Song 3 + Warcry 2 + GMW 5 + DM 8 = 36.5

Wounding Wispers: 1d6+35

HP (max): 380

Saves (max CHA) [vs spells]
Fortitude 28 (34) [42]
Reflex 26 (32) [40]
Will 24 (30) [38]

Recommended Skills:
Discipline 43
Perform 43
Tumble 40
UMD 43
Spellcraft 40
Hide 5 (pre-req for Blackguard)
Others .... (maybe Taunt)
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Build notes:

With this build, I wanted to create a Bard that had both a good melee presence as well as a good Charisma for Divine Might and extra spells.
Unfortunately, this particular class combination was used twice already; by Mr. Dwarflord, no less. Both his builds, the Shrike and the Bastard, had much less Bard and more Fighter and/or Blackguard; so I decided to post it anyway. I wanted more bard to deal with dispelling and also to give extra punch to my Wounding Whispers.

I put a weapon focus in Scimitar for the crit range, but with a 30 strength, you might consider a Greatsword or GreatAxe for the extra 1.5 strength damage.

Also, if you wanted, you could take swap Improved Critical for Craft Wand. This would allow you to throw Haste and Improved Invisibility onto some wands.

Pros:
- Good buffed AB
- Good party or solo
- Buffs are un-dispellable (except for Mords)
- Good damage (especially on Crits)

Cons
- Weak HP
- Average AC

Anyway, as always, suggestions and thoughts are always appreciated.

Cheers. Nice idea really, but I don't understand why Bard is taken to 35th level, purely because your Bard & Curse Song is capped at 30th level.

You could get 5 levels of Fighter in instead, quite comfortably, giving you a better AB overall, and 2 more feats, with the option of getting Weapon Spec and Epic Weapon Spec, or even KD, IKD and Blind Fight.

Aside from that neat! Good build, but you should definitely go with Bard 30/Ftr 6.
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Our aims self-same:
The Guest of Guests, friend Zarathustra, came!
The world now laughs, the grisly veil was torn,
And Light and Dark were one that wedding-morn."

Edited By FinneousPJ on 06/29/06 12:50

Quote: Posted 06/29/06 12:08:24 (GMT) -- I...Samphus

Nice idea really, but I don't understand why Bard is taken to 35th level, purely because your Bard & Curse Song is capped at 30th level.

You could get 5 levels of Fighter in instead, quite comfortably, giving you a better AB overall, and 2 more feats, with the option of getting Weapon Spec and Epic Weapon Spec, or even KD, IKD and Blind Fight.

Aside from that neat!

Thanks.

You make a good point. And especially without having any Perform boosting feats, it will be pretty unlikely that it would reach it's bard song potential.

This was my thinking:

-When I am usually playing a build through various mods, I try to achieve 15 Bard levels as early as possible; especially if I will be casting my spells as Stilled. I find that reducing the bard levels reduces playability as some spells get gimped (Greater Magic Weapon, Wounding Whispers), and other life-savers such as Improved Invisibility need a Bard level of 14 to be cast stilled.

- Also, I was using the bards Epic feats to pick up more Great Charisma's than could normally be gotten with less Bard levels. The extra Charisma helps with both damage (Divine Might) and saves with Dark Blessing.

- I wanted at least 25 levels of Bard to Dispel-proof myself and at that point, I figured I would just keep going to give my Wounding Whispers more punch.

Of course, those are just my opinions, and I would concur that I have sacrificed some long term strength for pre-epic playability. Your suggestions would be well advised for anyone wishing to tweak this build.

Thank you for the suggestions. I like it. Lots of tasty Bard levels! A few tweaks I'd consider:

1) Take Bard at level 1 and FTR at level 2. Gives you 8 more skill points at no loss other than to delay your acquisition of heavy armor and your +1 AC from Tumble by 1 level.

2) I'd take Extend Spell over Empower. Extend your Wounding Whispers and it will last almost as long as your Bard Song with Lasting Inspiration.

3) Totally optional, but you could delay raising CHA to levels 12 and 16, since you don't actually need 15 CHA until character level 14. However, that would delay when you can cast your level 3 Bard spells by 1 level and it means you don't get your bonus level 3 Bard Spell until later.

4) I'd take a Bard level at level 17 to top Tumble, but that's just a minor playability tweak.

5) I'd drop 2 of your GRT STR feats and pick up Epic Prowess and Armor Skin. Net loss is 1 damage and some carrying capacity. Net gain is +2 AC. You break even on AB.

6) Another thing to look at is your CON. Your HPs are relatively low for a melee character, so you might consider dropping DEX to 8 (you can cover it with Cat's Grace) and raising CON to 16. I don't generally like to go with the low DEX, but it's an option.

As far as the less Bard/more FTR angle, I like the added CHA for the build (and extra level 1 and level 5 spell per day), which the Bard bonus feats provide. I think I'd keep the 35 Bard. Besides, you get style points for so many Bard levels.
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This signature will self-destruct in 5 seconds... I echo Cin's suggestion on Constitution.

I would also advise dropping Power Attack and Cleave for Blindfighting and Knockdown. Or perhaps Blindfighting and SF: Perform, and then drop two Great Strengths for Epic Prowess, ESF: Perform. It seems that with 35 Bard levels, you need all the Perform help you can get.

I might even consider dropping 3 Bard levels for 3 fighter levels in Epic, and use those bonus feats for things like AS and EP.
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Ariel, Ookla, RIDE! Can't drop PA and Cleave, as Cleave is a prereq for BG.
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This signature will self-destruct in 5 seconds... I like the way you use your bard bonus feats to get a str 30, cha 20 build!

The build inspires me to see if it's possible to make a bard/blackguard/HS build that can self buff cha and str ad nauseum.
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The curve is more powerful than the sword
-- BG courtesan
Quote: Posted 06/29/06 14:50:22 (GMT) -- Cinnabar Din

Can't drop PA and Cleave, as Cleave is a prereq for BG.

Ha-ha. I didn't even see BG in the build. Hmmm, let me reflect....

You only really need 3 BG levels. You get Dark Blessings at Level 2, and at level 3 you get Turn. This means you can go Bard16/Ftr1/BG3 pre-epic, and then use Ftr 2 in Epic for Epic Prowess or Armor Skin, and still keep your 35 Bard levels.

Bard35/Ftr2/BG3
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Ariel, Ookla, RIDE! Thanks for the constructive comments and suggestions.

@ Cinnabar:

1) I like the idea of taking Bard at lvl 1. Bards need all the skill points they can get.

2) The Empower / Extend swap is a toughy; they both have their merits (I have an unhealthy addiction to casting my stat buffs Empowered). Of course having my Wounding Whispers last longer when I am in a protracted fight would be more beneficial than an extra 1 modifier to Str and Cha.
(Is is just me, or does it seem that Bards are starved for both skill points and feats?)

3) I'll probably leave it as is; but it is a good consideration depending on what type of stat boosting items you are running across as you are leveling. (ie. with a +2 Nymph cloak, you my as well boost your strength first.)

4) ah, yes.

5) Good idea on Epic Prowess and Armor Skin. I hate to see that Shiny, Round "30" drop to a 28 , but it is worth it as this build need more AC. Of course, with +12 Strength items, it would cap at 50, which is nice and shiny and round

6) Yeah, the HP bother me as well. I hate going through those 6-7 levels with 2 less AC, but I also hate running out of HP in a battle Well, I suppose Belt/Bracers of Agility are usually pretty easy to find early on as well (at least until I can cast Cats Grace), so what the heck.

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@ G. Dwarflord:

A good suggestion, but alas, the game won't let me.

When I was originally fleshing the idea out, I actually tried to split my levels with 2 Fighter and 3 Blackguard, but I couldn't take Divine Might on my 3rd Blackguard level (BG 16, BG 17, BG 18). Perhaps the Turn Undead doesn't "register" until after you have selected your feats.

So then I tried to take my 3 BG levels and then take Divine Might with a Bard level (BG 15, BG 16, BG 18, Bard 18) ; but apparently you can only take Divine Might on a Blackguard level. I'm still running 1.66, so I don't know if that was something that was fixed in 1.67 or not. Ah well, such is the fickleness of NWN

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Ok, with the above suggestions taken into consideration, here is the revised build.

Explicate Lyrics (Bard 35 / Fighter 1 / Blackguard 4)

Human
Neutral or Chaotic Evil

PvM, playable 1-40

Str 16 (28)
Dex 8
Con 16
Wis 8
Int 12
Cha 14 (20)

1 Bard 1 - Power Attack, Cleave
2 Fighter 1 - WF: Scimitar
3 Bard 2 - Still Spell
4 Bard 3 - CHA 15
5 Bard 4
6 Bard 5 - Curse Song
7 Bard 6
8 Bard 7 - CHA 16
9 Bard 8 - Extend Spell (or Empower)
10 Bard 9
11 Bard 10
12 Bard 11 - Improved Critical: Scimitar, ST 17
13 Bard 12
14 BG 1
15 BG 1 - Toughness
16 BG 2 - STR 18
17 Bard 13
18 BG 4 - Divine Might
19 Bard 14
20 Bard 15 - STR 19

21 Bard 16 - Epic Weapon Focus: Scimitar
22 Bard 17
23 Bard 18
24 Bard 19 - Epic Prowess, STR 20
25 Bard 20
26 Bard 21
27 Bard 22 - Armor Skin
28 Bard 23 - Lasting Inspiration*, STR 21
29 Bard 24
30 Bard 25 - Great Strength III
31 Bard 26 - Great Charisma I*
32 Bard 27 - STR 23
33 Bard 28 - Great Strength IV
34 Bard 29 - Great Charisma II*
35 Bard 30
36 Bard 31 - Great Strength V, STR 26
37 Bard 32 - Great Charisma III*
38 Bard 33
39 Bard 34 - Great Strength VI
40 Bard 35 - Great Charisma VI*, STR 28

naked
AB 39 - [BAB 26 + Str 9 + WF 1 + EWF 2 + EP 1]
AC 32 - [Base 10 + Dex 1 + Plate 8 + Tower 3 + Tumble 8 + Armor Skin 2]

buffed
AB 56 - [39 + Emp Bulls 3 + BG Bulls 2 + GMW 5 + Song 2 + Curse 5]
AC 47 - [32 + Mage Armor 4 + Haste 4 + Song 5 + Curse 2]

buffed damage (Str 38, Cha 26)
Scim 3.5 + Str 14 + Song 3 + Warcry 2 + GMW 5 + DM 8 = 35.5

Wounding Wispers: 1d6+35

HP (max): 420
with lvl 20 song (perform 50, the best you can get without items): 448

Saves (max CHA) [vs spells]
Fortitude 28 (34) [42]
Reflex 26 (32) [40]
Will 24 (30) [38]

Thanks again.

Cheers know its an old post, but is it any use to have both still spell and extend? I mean you cant cast a stilled extended spell right? So you have to cast those extended spells before a battle without armour.

Lovely build btw..i love the use of bard and divine might and strength.
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Everything`s been done, everything`s been said so why bother There are some round per level spells like haste and wounding whispers that you might not be walking around with. Most of the time you can take off your armor, cast them extended and then put your armor back on. However if you get ambushed, you'll want to put them up in combat and that's where still spell comes in handy. It also helps if you want to use a spell like darkness, invisibility, clarity or silence in combat.
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