Ranged Bards
Dominating the Game with this Combo

All trademarks/copyrights in this document owned by respective trademark/copyright holders. This content may not be copied, reproduced or distributed without the express written approval of multiplayerSTRATEGIES, LLC.

This is a superb build, which we felt needed to be shared with our members in detail. In actuality Bards aren't likely to be a very popular class, however this particular build makes for a superb support class, and you can still pump out some nice damage as well. The best of both worlds!

So let's get start, here's our take on a particularly effective Bard build..

Halfling Female Bard

Halflings get a +1 to saving trows which is a huge help concidering this will be a highly specilized bard and every stat will be -1 except dex and cha.

Before looking at the stats just relize that a bard is mainly a "fill in the blank" class and is used for support. In this case will be used as a focused ranged support AKA a machine gun nest ... so on to the stats.

Str 8
Dex 18
Con 8
Int 8
Wis 8
Cha 18

Feats

Creation - Rapid Reload
Level 3 - Repeating Heavy Crossbow Proficiency
Level 6 - Proformance Skill Focus
Level 9 - Either "use magic device skill focus" OR "Extend spell"

Now, with skills feel free to put it into whatever you would like. as a halfling your stealth would be a wise choice. As a bard your social skills would be a wise choice (haggle, diplomacy, bluff). But, no matter what, you should put maximum rank into preform and use magic device. A bard excells in these two areas and with both maxed can cast amazing buff spells and use just about any wand you come across. meaning you can take the place of a healer, sorcerer, or a wizard. And because your main focus is ranged this would be a wise choice.

Now about your ranged combat. Notice how the first few feats are rapid reload and Heavy Repeating Crossbow? Basily the rapid reload alows your to shoot one bolt every 2 seconds as opposed to the 4 or so seconds it would take without it. secondly the heavy crossbows do 1D10 damage per shot. Meaning you have a chance of doing 1-10 damage per shot on creation and with that high dex you get a +5 to hit at creation with that crossbow. Now the repeating heavy crossbow shoots 3 bolts befor needing to be reloaded and takes only slightly longer than a normal crosbow to reload. Then rapid reload and repeatheavy crossbow together .... If you are not spending a lot of time changing targets, you can get off better than one bolt a second. Mix that in with a 16-18 Dex Halfling, and you aren't just archery support, you are practically a machine gun nest.

1D10 damage every second and with an 18+ dex you will hit 80% of the time. I know halflings are known for their thrown weapon profetiancy and many of you are wondering why i didnt just go that route? well here is a look at ranged weapons.

Question: Does Strength affect your ranged weapons?

Answer: It definitely effects your Thrown Weapon damage, positively or negatively.

It has no effect whatsoever on Crossbow damage, positively or negatively.
If you have a level of Ranger, it has a positive effect on Bow damage.
I believe, I have seen (and this is easily verified by delving the starting short bow damage on a new weenie arm character) that it can have a negative effect on Bow damage.

So essentially with thrown weapons i would have to split my stats between "to hit" and "damage dealt" on top of that thrown weapons have alot of positives and negitives which I will list below however before I do, one that is not in the list is the fact that thrown weapons can not be bought off of "brokers" which is where players can sell magic items and other players can then buy the item off of the broker. But here is a list of good and bad with thrown ...

Bonuses of thrown weapons:

+Str to dmg without taking ranger levels

Fire as fast as a bow using the rapid shot feat without needing any aditional feats.

Halfling get bonuses to both hit and dmg with them

You can use the power attack feat with them (not sure if you can with bows )

Magical retuning thrown items = infinate ammo in 1 inventory slot.

No repair bills.

Negatives of thrown weapons.

Each stack is only 20 (takes a lot of inventory space to be a frequent chucker)

Unlike a bow you cant pass your magical bonuses onto cheap,mundane, ammo. Each stack needs to be magical to get the effect. max base damage = 1d6.

Basically a halfling thrower starts off at (with thrown weapons): +2 to hit +1 To dmg +str to dmg +fast rate of fire Thats the equivelent of 3 feats, 1 class ability and akin to having all your ammo constantly masterwork....

Though the downsides are sustantial.......little inventory space, when others are getting +1 flaming swords your stacks of +1 daggers will be looking pretty wimpy.

At this early stage of launch, we've done our best to cover as much as possible for this particular build. If changes are necessary, we shall do so as the game launch progresses. Have fun.