Singing, Slashing and Wreaking Mayhem While Seeking Revenge PvM (1-40) and PvP
MINISTREL OF DOOM By Deborah “Tyr” Templar
Concept: The Minstrel of Doom. Once alive with the song, and well on his way to becoming a brilliant performing bard, he was now a shadow of his former self. His had been a charmed life, a poet he was, full of youth and promise when he had the misfortune of meeting up with the Dark Muse – a dark and malignant phantom she was, who unbeknownst to the Minstrel had been stalking him for countless weeks; carefully, from the shadows of the night she had studied him, taking detailed mental notes of his every move, until she was able to second-guess his every thought. She continued her study until she felt the time was right for her to introduce herself to him. That introduction she decided would occur over the course of a private dinner party, which she knew the Minstrel would be attending. For this encounter, she concocted a plan in order to gain entrance to the party in order to meet him.
It was a dark and stormy night when the Dark Muse elected to make her move. She easily gained entrance to the party by pretending to be an aristocrat in distress, informing the party’s host that her carriage had broken down, necessitating shelter for a short while in order to wait out the storm. Strikingly beautiful, cultured and refined she was, and no human male could refuse her. In truth, she was a vampiric spirit, an immortal of immense wealth and knowledge, and one simple gaze from her spirited eyes was usually enough to reduce the strongest man into a babbling slave, most willing to offer his life-force to her on a plate, upon which she needed to feed. Any mortal foolish or strong enough to resist her necromancer magic was instead taken by force, thus meeting a most unpleasant death. But where was the fun in that? No: she delighted, indeed relished, the chase, the seduction, and the taste of human spirit best given freely to her; upon these mortals she fed slowly, tenderly, and in exchange for their life force she insisted on bestowing upon them great gifts and powerful magic; for these willing slaves, although their life was cut short, their death was neither quick nor painful, but rather pleasant. This was to be Minstrel’s fate; like other mortals before him, it took but a simple glance, just one dominating gaze from this evil but beautiful phantom for him to give of himself freely to her. From that night forward, and each time he laid his eyes upon hers thereafter, he wanted nothing more than to be her loyal and eternal slave.
“Eternal fame shall be yours, My Darling,” she promised him. “Give yourself to me, and you shall have fortune and fame beyond your wildest dreams.” And glory and fame soon followed as she had promised; each night, she repeated her promise while feeding upon him, draining from him just a little bit more of his humanity, his life force, but with each feeding, he was in turn gifted by her with great talents. In exchange for his life, she gifted him with outer worldly talents and knowledge such that, in a matter of only a few weeks since their first meeting, a meeting she had so carefully planned and executed, the Minstrel’s reputation soon grew to the point that he was one of the most sought after bards in the entire realm, which in turn enabled him to amass quite the small fortune, just as she had promised. Beyond his wildest dreams, all she had said was coming true.
In turn, he gave more of himself to her, his very life force, until one night she drained so much of him that she mistook him for dead, before fleeing back into the safety of the shadows from whence she had originally come.
The next morning, the maids entered into his room to find his corpse crumpled up in a corner, and he was subsequently buried to his fans’ heartbreak. And dead he was, and yet he was not dead. Perhaps it was the kindness of the maids and doctors who tried as hard as they might but could not bring him back to life, or perhaps it was something the Muse herself had gifted to him, but something inside the Minstrel stirred and grew stronger. With each passing of the moon, Minstrel became aware, his consciousness slowly returning; at first, it came in the form of voices, the voices of the undead, which both haunted and beckoned to him. In time, Minstrel learned he had the power to control them, that he could control the undead. As the days turned to weeks, and the weeks turned to months, Minstrel lay in his grave, waiting for his strength to return, for the day when he would have his revenge. With nothing but the voices and his anger against his murderess to sustain his mind while his body grew strong, he would soon leave the grave; soon, the world would know his wrath.
Character: The Minstrel of Doom is not the first of his or her kind in terms of this class combo, but differs from the others in terms of the level split, which was chosen to strike a balance between combat prowess and bard abilities, in order to achieve an evil fighting bard character, which this class-split achieves.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Good, highly buffable AB, good, buffable AC, and good, buffable damage output (including access to different damage types); in other words, this is a combat-melee focused character, having ample arcane access (including sixth level bard spells and UMD/scrolls), and a strong, lasting bard song. Whereas hitpoints are decent, saving throws may appear somewhat problematic; this is offset, however, not only by the Doom’s arcane abilities (i.e., UMD skills), but especially by the Pale Master’s rather exceptional list of immunities – which includes immunity to criticals, thus enabling this character to partake in almost any environment, including dev crit PvP play with confidence. As a result, the Minstrel of Doom is a solid melee character, being balanced and fun to play for those who are evil enough to dare.
Without further adieu, please meet the Minstrel of Doom, who is the second character in a two-character series (the other character being his murderess and maker, the Dark Muse: Click Here )
Minstrel of Doom Bard (20), Pale Master (10), Blackguard(10) -- Overview Race: Human / Alignment: Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil (Theme: Chaotic Evil)
* Taunt chosen for theme reasons; if you prefer something else, feel free to switch for another skill (ie discipline); or, alternatively, max-out Spellcraft and UMD (which, in turn, would leave you with left-over points for heal or lore, depending on your world and play-style preferences) ----
IV. The Basics
Hitpoints: 418 (> 440 Song)
Saving Throws: Fort: 25 (27 Song) Will: 22 (27 Song + Owl’s) Reflex: 22 (26 Song + Cat’s)
Saving Throw bonuses: Spells: +6 (+7 Song) Other: BG Dark Blessing (adds Cha. Bonus to All Saves, enhance w. Eagle’s, etc.); Immunities (Pale Master): critical hits, sneak attacks, stun, hold and paralysis; (bard): mind-effects (clarity), etc.
V. Combat Vitals (mundane longsword)
a. Attack Bonus:
27 BAB +1 Weapon Focus +2 Epic Weapon Focus +1 Epic Prowess +10 Str Bonus ------ 41 AB +5 Greater Magic Weapon +2 War Cry +5 Stacking Bull’s Strength(Bard + Blackguard Buffs) +2 Song +5 Curse Song (lowers enemy AC) +6 Taunt (lowers enemy AC) ------ Self-Buffed AB: 66/61/56/51/66 (self-buffed & hasted) +3 Smite Bonus (+5 Eagle’s Only) -- Capped AB (assuming +20 Weaponry and +12 Str & Cha): AB +87
b. Damage (mundane longsword): 1d8 +10 crit: 19-20/x2 (17-20 w. Keen) -- +5 GMW +5 Stacking Bull’s +2 War Cry +3 Bard Song + Haste and Keen -- 3d6 BG Sneak Damage -- +10 BG Smite Damage
Other Damage (examples only): • Curse Song (28 Damage) • Bard Ice (3d6 Bludgeon, +8d6 Cold) • Wounding Whispers (1d6 +20 “on hit” Sonic) • In addition, can moreover call in / summon various reinforcements (i.e., graft arm, summon fiend, create undead, etc.)
VI. Defense Vitals:
AC 23 Naked +8 Mundane Heavy Armor +3 Mundane Shield ------ 34 +4 Haste +5 Song +4 Mage Armor +2 Cat's Grace +2 Curse Song (lowers enemy AB) ------ 51 AC (Does NOT include any Magical Equipment)
In addition, has access to: ghostly visage, displacement (50-% concealment), darkness, improved invisibility, etc. (see, spell casting, below)
VII. Spell Information:
Spell Casting: Bard(6), SR 20 + 1d20 In addition to bard toys and magical devices, can cast as follows: Spells/Day (or rest period) Cantrips- 5 Spells / Level 1 – 5 Spells Level 2 – 5 Spells / Level 3 – 5 Spells Level 4 – 4 Spells / Level 5 – 4 Spells Level 6 – 4 Spells To customize your spell book, please see: http://www.nwnwiki.org/Bard
VIII. Other Abilities:
• Blackguard: o Use Poison o Create Undead, Turn undead (11+2d6), Summon Fiend o Inflict Serious Wounds, Contagion, Inflict Critical Wounds
• Bard: o Bard Song: singing adds (to self and allies within area of effect): +2 AB, +3 Damage, +Saves (+2 Fort, +3 Will, +2 Reflex), +26 HPs, +5 AC, +7 Skills o Curse Song: opposite effect on all enemies within area of effect as follows: -2 AB, -3 Damage, -Saves (-2 Fort, -3 Will, -2 Reflex), -28 HPs (Damage), -5 AC, -8 Skills
Fixed alignment, made changes as requested by the author - Kail Pendragon
Edited By Kail Pendragon on 10/21/06 17:08
Quote: Alignment: Non-Lawful, Non-Good
Nice job. I'm always impressed by the buffed AB and AC of these Bard builds. The only thing I saw is that the alignment needs to be non-lawful evil, not just non-lawful, non-good. That means NE or CE only.
Nice build Tyr.. resilient certainly and offensive with it!
Just some thoughts for you:
You could go Bard 12/ BG 8 pre-epic to maintain BAB of 17. Giving you another 2 class levels to play with instead of BG 10. Losing 1d6 Sneak isn't that bad a loss to me. You could get your Lasting Inspiration in earlier with a bit of playing around. Personally I would always aim to get that in as early as feasibly possible. the 100 round boost of Bard and Curse Song of a 20th level song I find to be more effective than Crit Immunity, in my experience.
Running as Bard 22, BG 8, PM 10 you could get LI in at 30th level and also giving you the ability to finish on a Bard level for that final skill dump.
Why take EWF after EP? During the life of the build you would benefit more from the additional 2 AB with EWF at 21st and then 1AB at 24th - minor point I know!
Curse Song has limited value until your 6th level Bard Song mainly due to the number of uses per day you have., with this in mind I would take Power Attack and Cleave aat 1st level, giving you some help in those early levels; and then Toughness at 3rd and Curse Song at 6th (by this point you will have 6 uses of Song per day, which is a bit more effective, particularly when split between Bard and Curse Song.
You are reliant on items to get your Perform ranks to the required 50 for the 20th level Song that you can have. Only 5 ranks required btw and once your Bard Song has been sung, your Curse Song will be the fully loaded 20th level it should be.
No Discipline ranks? I know your AC is decent, but it is still possible to kD this muse. I would consider dropping starting CHA to 15, boosting INT to 14 and then taking a CHA at 20th instead of STR. This would give you an extra epic feat to play with as well... perhaps ESF Taunt. Admittedly you will lose 1 AB and 1 damage in doing so. it would give you another skill to fully boost.
Something to think about would would be to go either Bard 26/ BG 4/ PM 10 or Bard 20/ BG 4/ PM 16, the first giving you the opportunity to get LI at 24th level, but AB will drop unfortunately, but you gain 2 bonus Bard Epic Feats.
Ideas really..
Thanks, guys: just can't help but love 'dem fighting bards, regardless of their extra twix/alignment
Firstly, allow me to apologize for what might seem like a delay in responding, but please know I appreciate all your thoughts and comments; as some of you know, I've assumed my new duties as a professor this fall; I love it (I do), but it leaves me w. so little time; know I'm happy to be postin' again, and to see all of you
And Samphus . . . . wow! Once again, do appreciate your thoughts, and they're good ones. Firstly, your point re: EWF and EP, you're right, and it's not minor at all: a +2 boost def. should come first (I'll PM that change at once, and thanks
As to the split: while it's true that a couple or so more bard levels would get us a few more HPs and skills on song, went for the xtra sneak and PM immunities as you note: for me, it seemed (and plays) so natural, and we've eagle's of course to boost; that said, you've some interesting alternatives; cool (& btw, just checked it out, and really like yer laster, too
Your point, about the need for more lasters, esp. evil ones, is truly bang on (e.g., a quick search on pulse cap reveals, of all 361 bard builds, only 69 contain enough levels for LI (if they even go there), but even assuming they do, only about 10 or so of evil alignment -- well, make that 11 now with this one; hey, just doin' my part for the greater good (er, make that evil) -- one fighting bard at a time (thanks, guys) ~ Tyr
p.s. Samphus, as to those ideas of yours, if you're into it, perhaps we can work on an 'evil laster' together, as there is def. a need; I'm sure that I can come up with a story, and quite sure also that it'd be fun -- PM me if interested, and thanks again for your thoughts!
Nice build Tyr.. resilient certainly and offensive with it!
