Quote Originally Posted by Xefas View Post
In my opinion, the best way to play a Bard/Paladin would be to take all your levels in Crusader and pick up max Perform ranks.

It would certainly reduce your MAD, which would be, as a Paladin/Bard:

STR- Paladin damage
DEX- Light Armor required for Bard casting
CON- Making up for your d6 hit dice
INT- Bard skillmonkeyness/Bardic Knowledge
WIS- Paladin casting
CHA- Bard casting
Everything starts to look like a nail, doesn't it?

I mean, come on. Perform isn't a class skill for Crusaders, and Max Ranks in Perform != Bard. The Crusader can't cast, the Crusader can't Skillmonkey, the Crusader can't sing. We know ToB is great, but telling me to play a warblade when I want to play a wizard is is little over the top. A more reasonable suggestion would be a Crusader/Bard/JPM, but it sounds like to OP already has Paladin levels.

You make good points regarding MAD, but some of that can be reduced. You don't have to be hulking and muscle-bound to be a paladin. Depending on your level layout, skill points may or may not be a huge issue. You don't get Trapfinding regardless, so you are probably not the primary skillmonkey anyway. Also depending on your level progression, you may choose to mostly ignore Paladin casting and let your Wis lag behind a bit.

Now, you could pump dex, weapon finesse, grab the prereqs for Shadow Blade through Martial Study/Stance, and dump Str. Snowflake Wardance also helps with beating people. Arcane Strike has been mentioned. That leaves you needing Dex, Con, and Cha, with Int, Str, and Wis being dumpable.