Goddess

[Ambaryerno]

Wanted to get some opinions on this build. Like Lucia, there's a little bit of a joke behind this one. In this case the concept is based on one of my favorite historical personalities, 17th Century fencer, duelist, and opera star Julie d'Aubigny (this chick was seriously badass. I think I fell in love the first time I read about her).

Details here.

The Bard levels are mainly there for the RP of being a singer, rather than any mechanical purpose. The ultimate mechanical focus is her fighting ability.

[Stonebar]

Nice idea, I'll have to look her up. Do we have the Epic Skill Focus (Perform) feat here?

[Ambaryerno]

How's the build itself look?

[Lighters]

Do we have Battle Dancer feat?

[chad878262]

We don't have Battle Dancer or Epic Skill Focus: Perform (would be a seriously huge bump to the Bard's already powerful Hymn of Requiem). Also, I'm thinking you'd be well served by grabbing the two extra levels of SB to get wounding critical, though I suppose it's a toss up between that and the extra 1d6 piercing damage from duelist... I would say the artist feat along with cross-classing perform skill does what you need without taking Bard levels from an RP perspective, so SB20/Duelist 10 could be fine, which would be ok, but I don't think it's a big deal either way... +1 hit and damage from Bard (or bonus to skills at need) is certainly enough to make the dip worthwhile, but getting to 17 and missing out on 19 SB is kind of a shame.

[Ambaryerno]

OTOH, 20 Swash/10 Duelist I can only get to 16 (base) Perform, which doesn't reflect the source I'm drawing from.

I've gone ahead and removed the feats that aren't available for now. Will need to find something to substitute.

[chad878262]

OTOH, 20 Swash/10 Duelist I can only get to 16 Perform, which doesn't reflect the source I'm drawing from.

That depends... 16 Perform (plus CHA and any other modifiers) would probably be the highest anyone would have in this world. Anything above ~15 is really only good for mechanical purposes since the DC check on most "normal" tasks is anywhere between 10 and 30, 30 being the most obscure/lost/unknown lore, the most difficult tumbling maneuver, the most difficult thing to perform (like playing 6 lutes at once, one in each hand, one being strummed by each foot and a couple others being strummed by extremities better left unsaid, this is an exaggeration of course, but hopefully you get the point).

16 Perform (which can of course be buffed to 22 with a pair of gloves, 26 with Greater Heroism, and from there buffed further depending on how many item slots you want to give up) is more than enough to RP being a FANTASTIC performer.

Again, do as you will, but you should not feel you have to take levels in Bard, or max the perform skill in order to RP your performance being stellar.

[Valefort]

SB 15/duelist 10/bard 5, get combat expertise, feint, combat insight ?

You'll miss SB 19 but bard 5 offers some utility spells and is in line with the story ... even if you could indeed just go with 16 ranks and pure SB/duelist.

[Ambaryerno]

Out of curiosity, what's the advantage of taking Combat Insight when Swash receives Insightful Strike? IS stacks with any STR bonus, whereas CI doesn't. The only difference I can see is that IS doesn't work against Crit Immune targets, so CI would seem to be a fallback in those cases.

I'm also wondering how CI and IS stack considering they're more or less the same thing...

[Valefort]

IS and CI stack so take both

[Ambaryerno]

IS and CI stack so take both

What exactly stacks? If I'm reading it right the only difference is that, CI uses INT in place of STR for damage, IS uses INT AND STR for damage.

[chad878262]

IS and CI stack so take both

What exactly stacks? If I'm reading it right the only difference is that, CI uses INT in place of STR for damage, IS uses INT AND STR for damage.

When you have both you get double INT added to damage. IS adds INT to damage and CI replaced STR to damage with INT to damage, thus double INT...

[Valefort]

CI replaces STR by INT for damage calculation when using a melee weapon. IS adds your INT modifier to damage, regardless of anything else.

[Ambaryerno]

IS and CI stack so take both

What exactly stacks? If I'm reading it right the only difference is that, CI uses INT in place of STR for damage, IS uses INT AND STR for damage.

When you have both you get double INT added to damage. IS adds INT to damage and CI replaced STR to damage with INT to damage, thus double INT...

Ah, I get you. Wow, that's a serious damage buff.

[chad878262]

What exactly stacks? If I'm reading it right the only difference is that, CI uses INT in place of STR for damage, IS uses INT AND STR for damage.

When you have both you get double INT added to damage. IS adds INT to damage and CI replaced STR to damage with INT to damage, thus double INT...

Ah, I get you. Wow, that's a serious damage buff.

Yep, and if you throw in a shorty race you can also take Power Attack/IPA and use it with a finesse weapon, allowing for all kinds of damage with a short sword while still gaining the benefits of duelist (though this is an engine bug and I don't know if it is considered an exploit to take it on this server). not that this applies to you since it doesn't appear your concept would necessarily fit with a hin/gnome PC.