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Hi there,

Since I stopped DMing late last year, I've been playing a barbarian. It's been fun but it's now starting to get a bit boring and I've been wanting to try out the bard. This is what I've come up with ...

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Iolanthe Akkaruil, level 7
Eladrin, Bard
Build: Cunning Bard
Bardic Virtue: Virtue of Cunning
Noble Bred for War Benefit: Weapon Proficiency (Glaive)
Background: Noble Bred for War (Noble Bred for War Benefit)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 13, Dex 12, Int 16, Wis 13, Cha 18.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 12, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 17.

AC: 20 Fort: 15 Reflex: 18 Will: 20
HP: 55 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 13

TRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +10, Arcana +13, Insight +9, Bluff +13, Diplomacy +14, Streetwise +12

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Dungeoneering +7, Endurance +7, Heal +7, History +11, Intimidate +10, Nature +7, Perception +9, Religion +9, Stealth +7, Thievery +7, Athletics +5

FEATS
Bard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Feyborn Charm
Level 2: Arcane Familiar (Falcon)
Level 4: Jack of All Trades
Level 6: Focused Expertise (Glaive)

POWERS
Bard at-will 1: Vicious Mockery
Bard at-will 1: Guiding Strike
Bard encounter 1: Blunder
Bard daily 1: Verse of Triumph
Bard utility 2: Canon of Avoidance
Bard encounter 3: Song of the New Dawn
Bard daily 5: Compulsion
Bard utility 6: Synchronicity
Bard encounter 7: Timely Distraction

ITEMS
Ritual Book, Harsh Songblade Glaive +2, Journeybreads (10), Eladrin Chainmail +1, Pouch, Belt (empty), Waterskin, Amulet of Physical Resolve +1, Hedge Wizard's Gloves (heroic tier), Alchemical Reagents (Arcana) (50), Bedroll, Fine Clothing, Rope, Silk (50 ft.), Everburning Torch, Hand Crossbow, Mac-Fuirmidh Cittern +1, Bag of Holding (heroic tier), Acrobat Boots (heroic tier)
RITUALS
Traveler's Chant, Tenser's Floating Disk, Brew Potion, Explorer's Fire, Eye of Alarm, Fastidiousness, Enchant Magic Item, Disenchant Magic Item, Fey Passage, Lullaby, Call of Friendship
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======


I realize she's not the most optimized build out there but I think she'll be fun and effective enough. However, I am open to suggestions on how to improve her to be more effective.

She'll be joining a party that includes an eladrin rogue, an eladrin wizard, a minotaur fighter, an elf cleric and a human ranger.

As for the character herself, Iolanthe is of the noble eladrin house of Akkaruil. She has a sharp wit coupled with a dark sense of humor. Although she is used to roughing it as an adventurer, she still prefers the elegant, pampered lifestyle of the eladrin nobility. Her familiar is a falcon named Horus. She has two brothers, one older and one younger. Her younger brother, Ariiat, was the DM's former PC. He disappeared into a magic mirror (a relic of the Raven Queen) at the end of my last session as DM. Iolanthe has decided to go in search of her brother and she will enter the campaign having finally tracked down the surviving members of the adventuring party with whom Ariiat was last seen alive. After learning of his fate, she will continue to travel with the party in hopes of eventually convincing them to accompanying her into the Shadowfell to rescue her brother.


One thing to note about equipment: with permission from my DM, I took the total gp value of the standard three items you're supposed to get for starting at higher level and just bought the equipment I wanted instead of going with the default rules. I realize this means she has suboptimal defenses, but I wanted her to have eladrin chain and the +2 version is 8th level, so it was either that or the +2 songblade, which is also 8th level ... and since she's a noble as well as a bard, I thought it would make sense that she'd have a whole bunch of magic trinkets and things like a bag of holding and the hedge wizard's gloves, which will continue to be useful well into the higher levels of the game. If you just stick with the default three magic items, you miss out on some of the fun stuff.



Please feel free to comment and make suggestions - particularly for future options. I haven't really thought about where to go with this character in terms of feats, powers, multiclassing, paragon paths, etc etc.



Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Jonny

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Rainbow Dash is proud to be a Kiwi. Are you?

Looks like a fun build. I played a bard for a short while, but we never advanced very far.

I think the only thing I might have done differently is use one or more of the feats to cross class and dabble in some other classes. The group seems to have all four of the basic roles covered, doubling up on leader (bard, cleric) and striker (rogue, ranger). So, depending on the cleric's build whether the cleric likes to mix it up or stand back and blast, I might dip into a defender class to help the fighter, or dip into a controller class to help out the wizard.

But, hey, if you like your build and have fun with it, that's all that's important. There was a player in one of my groups who used to get on other players all the time about not having the most min/maxed build, but I always told the players, play what you want.

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When it comes to games, the bottom line is fun.

Thanks, GM Geo! I'm hoping it will be more fun to play than the barbarian - which is not to say that the barbarian hasn't been fun. But she can't really contribute much outside of combat and even in combat she doesn't seem to be as effective as I'd like her to be (although I think this may just be a matter of perception). Going with a more intelligent, skills-oriented character who can support the other PCs and also act as the party leader / face should be good. I just want to make sure that this character build will be effective enough that I won't get frustrated with it.

Anyway, regarding multiclassing: I have considered it. I'm not a big fan of 4e's multiclassing, though, and I'm just not entirely sure which other classes would work well with my build. I might do paragon multiclassing with warlock or wizard, as there's no particular paragon path that says "Pick me! Pick me!" (but then I haven't really looked at the bard or eladrin PPs that closely). I wouldn't mind multiclassing as a warlord, but that would mean boosting STR at the cost of something else ... any ideas there?

So far I've really only focused on this character up to 7th level. I really haven't given any thought to where to go after that.

If you can sell me on a multiclass feat (or any other feat really), I would be willing to consider ditching the familiar for something.

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Rainbow Dash is proud to be a Kiwi. Are you?

The main reason I would pick up a multiclass is to get trained in a skill I do not have and get another power I could use during an encounter.

I am all about options during combat.

However, since your character is a bard, you wouldn't get much benefit from cross classing in any of the arcane classes, because most of them give you Arcana, which you should already have.

Some of the divine classes would give you Religion, but you seem to have a fairly high score in that already. Cross class cleric would give you healing word 1/day, but as a bard you already have some healing powers.

So, really I can't think of anything worth your while to cross class in at this time.

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When it comes to games, the bottom line is fun.

IIRC, that's pretty much what my thinking was when I first made this character.

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Rainbow Dash is proud to be a Kiwi. Are you?