I know a bard/rdd/pm build has been done before but I just have some questions for one that I'm building myself. I've got everything set in place except for a few things.

First: There are 2 feats that I'm having trouble deciding on. I can either choose 2 great strengths or I can choose 2 of the following:
Armor skin
Blind fight
Epic Prowess
Epic skill focus: Taunt
Luck of heros

On one hand the 2 strengths gives me one more strength modifier which increases my dev crit DC. On the other hand would taking 2 of the above feats help out my overall build. And if I don't choose the great strengths what 2 out of the 5 feats should I pick. I'm conflicted as what I should choose.

Second question: Bard song/Curse song depend on the bard's level and the characters perform ability. As my last lvl will be bard I have the ability to max out my perform but do I have to. My bard lvl will be 14 so this is how the lvl 14 curse song works:

Perform 21 and Bard Level 14:-1 to Damage rolls, -8 Hit points and -1 Dodge Armor Class (straight from the manual)

Since I can't achieve the higher lvl effects of bard/curse song because I'm stopping at lvl 14 should I only raise my perform to 21 or is there an advantage to having my perform maxed out to 43.

Well those are the only questions I have. Basically my char only needs the final inspection from R&D devision before it goes into full production. THANKS GUYS!

Edited By highlife262626 on 08/11/04 04:47

Quote: Posted 08/11/04 04:44:18 (GMT) -- highlife262626

I know a bard/rdd/pm build has been done before but I just have some questions for one that I'm building myself. I've got everything set in place except for a few things.

First: There are 2 feats that I'm having trouble deciding on. I can either choose 2 great strengths or I can choose 2 of the following:
Armor skin
Blind fight
Epic Prowess
Epic skill focus: Taunt
Luck of heros

On one hand the 2 strengths gives me one more strength modifier which increases my dev crit DC. On the other hand would taking 2 of the above feats help out my overall build. And if I don't choose the great strengths what 2 out of the 5 feats should I pick. I'm conflicted as what I should choose.

Second question: Bard song/Curse song depend on the bard's level and the characters perform ability. As my last lvl will be bard I have the ability to max out my perform but do I have to. My bard lvl will be 14 so this is how the lvl 14 curse song works:

Perform 21 and Bard Level 14:-1 to Damage rolls, -8 Hit points and -1 Dodge Armor Class (straight from the manual)

Since I can't achieve the higher lvl effects of bard/curse song because I'm stopping at lvl 14 should I only raise my perform to 21 or is there an advantage to having my perform maxed out to 43.

Well those are the only questions I have. Basically my char only needs the final inspection from R&D devision before it goes into full production. THANKS GUYS!

As for the feats I'd go armor skin and epic prowness(blind fight if for pvp). This will help more than 2 str, you will only lose 1 dmg and 1 dc for dev crit yet gain 2 ac and since a pm/rdd/pm is obviously an ac build you might as well get all you can. Though if you are pvp ya might want ep skill focus taunt to be able to nail those casters with high concentration.
I assume you are going 14 bard/10 Rdd/16 PM? In that case you should get the 21 perform(or if you are stingy take into account your chr modifier ). In any other case I'd advise you to go 16 bard for the huge increase you get in bard/curse song for those 2 levels, but I guess you get the extra 2 ac anyway and epic spells are more than worth the sacrifice .
BTW you can get 3 epic spells with this build, take your 15th PM level at a normal feat level (24,27 etc) and your 16 on another normal feat level. Then you can take epic mage armor, epic warding and hellball. Be warned though, with epic warding it only lasts long enough for 1 fight. So unless it's pvp it's not really a great pick. Evo you are correct in your assumptions. 14 bard/ 10 rdd/ 16 pm. I do play on a heavy pvp server so blind fight might be a good idea. Is the taunt skill only resisted by a concentration check or if a char has mind immunity does that make them immune to taunt? Also is there no save vs. curse song? So what I'm figuring is that there is no benefit to having my perform any higher than 21 and I can just put the extra points into concentration. As far as the epic spells go the only ones that I want are epic mage armor and epic warding. Hellball is too annoying in my opinion because you have to cast it and then run away and half the time you end up getting caught up in your own spell. I could take Greater Ruin because of this but I'll be able to cause the same amount of damage that spell does in just a few hits.

On a side note. What is a minimun UMD skill I would need to use various +5 items.
Quote: Posted 08/11/04 17:41:44 (GMT) -- highlife262626

Evo you are correct in your assumptions. 14 bard/ 10 rdd/ 16 pm. I do play on a heavy pvp server so blind fight might be a good idea. Is the taunt skill only resisted by a concentration check or if a char has mind immunity does that make them immune to taunt? Also is there no save vs. curse song? So what I'm figuring is that there is no benefit to having my perform any higher than 21 and I can just put the extra points into concentration. As far as the epic spells go the only ones that I want are epic mage armor and epic warding. Hellball is too annoying in my opinion because you have to cast it and then run away and half the time you end up getting caught up in your own spell. I could take Greater Ruin because of this but I'll be able to cause the same amount of damage that spell does in just a few hits.

On a side note. What is a minimun UMD skill I would need to use various +5 items.

Taunt is only resisted by concentration and is not a mind spell. Definetly don't get higher than the required perform since you can't resist curse song and higher bard song only allows high bard songs with bard levels. The -9 ac your enemy gets from curse/taunt should really help out this build since it tends to have low bab. Yea with bard song + curse + taunt I will in essence have a AB of around 64 so I figure that is pretty good. My whole idea was to avoid relying to heavily on buffs. I could have chosen cleric instead of rdd and with various clerical buffs get my bab in the 70's but with one mord disj. I would be screwed.

I plan on picking human as my race but I wonder if there could be an advantage to picking a different race. I get so many immunities and abilities through rdd and pm that the abilities gained from other races seems pointless.
Quote: Posted 08/12/04 01:10:23 (GMT) -- highlife262626
I plan on picking human as my race but I wonder if there could be an advantage to picking a different race. I get so many immunities and abilities through rdd and pm that the abilities gained from other races seems pointless.

Not really pointless...

If you choose Dwarf,

+ 2 racial bonus on Search checks
See in dark
+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poisons and spells.
+1 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs and goblinoids.
+4 dodge bonus to AC against giants
+2 racial bonus to Lore checks

Or

Half-Orc

If you don't need CHA, this would be good race to use since you get higher starting STR if you place the points in right places. Since you are taking RDD, it will increase it even farther if you focus on STR.

Or

Elf

Immune to spells and effects of the 'sleep' subtype.
+2 racial bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting spells.
Bonus proficiencies (longsword, rapier, shortbow, longbow)
+2 racial bonus to Listen and Search checks.
Search checks automatically and with no movement penalties
See better than normal in the dark.

Many races has useful stuff about them. It depends on which race you are taking, the only race that does not have any penalties to their ability scores is Human and Half-Elf.

There are many things that RDD does not get from Racial bonus. They would be useful in my opinion, but that is just me. You probably would say differently.

Anuis

Edited By Anuis on 08/12/04 01:41

Quote: Posted 08/12/04 01:10:23 (GMT) -- highlife262626
I plan on picking human as my race but I wonder if there could be an advantage to picking a different race. I get so many immunities and abilities through rdd and pm that the abilities gained from other races seems pointless.

With my bard/rdd/pm build I went dwarf. With dwarf you can get 12 chr(enough for lvl 4 spells with rdd) and 16 starting con for really cheap. With 18 con, and 30 con possible you can have a lot of hp. (470 with 700+ possible). With 14 lvls of bard I have access to 5th level spells. What is the minimum charisma required to cast 5th level spells? I thought it was just like wizards and such i.e. to cast a 9th level wizard spell you have to have an intelligence of 19. I do like the idea of higher constitution but with a lower charisma how much would that effect my taunt ability? Also if I go dwarf I would lose a feat but I guess that's not that big of a problem since I have 2 feats I can't decide between. With dwarf it would only be 1.