bard questions

[aaron22]

i was wondering what are some of the bard "must have feats" and "awarded feats" from level advancement?

[chad878262]

You want lingering song, curse song, medium armor proficiency, battle caster, extend spell, chorus of heroism, song of Requiem, hymn of Requiem.

If you take noon caster progression classes such as fighter or rogue you need practiced spell caster.

[Kauaiian]

Bard is such a versatile class, there are tons of possibilities to build with. The RP is quite fantastic as well and it can fill many archetypes or roles. I miss mine greatly!

[Zanniej]

You want lingering song, curse song, medium armor proficiency, battle caster, extend spell, chorus of heroism, song of Requiem, hymn of Requiem.

If you take noon caster progression classes such as fighter or rogue you need practiced spell caster.

This is great advice, if you want a strength based bard (which according to most is the best way).
If you go for dex based, you can drop medium armor proficiency and battle caster. If you go for ranged dex bard you can also drop curse song (since you don't want to be in that range).

[Valefort]

Yeah, overall I think extend spell and requiem feats are the only must have feats if you play a nearly pure bard.
After that you can be ... most anything and be fine, STR bard, ranged DEX bard, TWF bard, CHA bard. Everything works well.

[chad878262]

You want lingering song, curse song, medium armor proficiency, battle caster, extend spell, chorus of heroism, song of Requiem, hymn of Requiem.

If you take noon caster progression classes such as fighter or rogue you need practiced spell caster.

This is great advice, if you want a strength based bard (which according to most is the best way).
If you go for dex based, you can drop medium armor proficiency and battle caster. If you go for ranged dex bard you can also drop curse song (since you don't want to be in that range).

STR Based OR EDM Bard... If going Bard 27/BG3 you need 21 STR / CHA and you also have to take Power Attack and Cleave to qualify for BG. STR Bard is probably better overall, but EDM gives a nice boost to damage and the BG Saves are also really nice. Likewise you could theoretically go Bard 27 / Cle 3 with water domain for Evasion and EDM + not needing to take two feats for BG and waste skill points on something you don't necessarily want and having some other beneficial domain such as Chaos for slippery mind... Point being, it is not *just* a STR bard that the above is useful for. DEX based or DEX/STR mixed TWF Bards are also neat, though very feat starved and with the dispel fix you can't afford to mix in classes like Dread Pirate and/or Tempest to help. Kind of sad that DP has so much synergy with Bard, yet is no longer really an option past 4 levels. Anyhow, it would definitely be beneficial to understand the type of bard you want before advice is given. A 'True bard' is also doable via max CHA and taking Storm Singer and maybe Dissonant Chord PRC's, though I would probably recommend one of the Spell feats (Rune of Thunder?) because you just don't have very many spell slots, but even without them, you can find ways to be somewhat viable in melee, but your bread and butter will be in a group using your songs, there is even a feat to improve some of your song DC's by 2...

[mrm3ntalist]

Even CHA bards can bash things with a sword. They do it better than some melee builds. A reserve feat is not useful at all.

[chad878262]

Even CHA bards can bash things with a sword. They do it better than some melee builds. A reserve feat is not useful at all.

It sure would be nice if they were though...