Role playing Lord Najib, the necropolitan bard

[Darius Rae]

In an upcoming campaign I am going to be playing Lord Najib, who is a necropolitan bard. I would like help deciding how to role play such a character.

What I have so far...

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Race: Human(necropolitan)
Deity: Al-Istus
Gender: Male
Alignment: CE but will act CN
Weapon: Whip-Dagger
Level 3 Bard

2 Flaws: pathetic (applied to con before becoming necropolitan ) and shakey
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Versatile Performer, Melodic Casting, Death Devotion, and extra music (to be retrained once he gets more uses of bardic music)

What I have thought up for his back story is that Najib was a very frail child who was left to die in the desert because (insert suitably horrible event) he was then discovered by some barbaric tribe who kept him alive because of his wonderful ability to sing. He grows up with this tribe, takes up worship of Al-Istus and eventually petitions to become a necropolitan to rid himself of his weaknesses.

His motivation in the adventuring party is to cause as much pain to the everyone as possible, but in a masked and deceptive kind of way. He has max ranks in bluff and high ranks in diplomacy, and uses these to appear to be some kind of noble, as in hinted in his title. He will accept quests and go along with the good members of the party, for two major reasons. Hanging out with good adventurers is an excellent cover and he is not very picky about who he kills.

I plan to take the feat, haunting melody, and to always have a wand of undetectable alignment on hand. What other quirks could be flavorful for such a character? Thanks in advance!

[Keld Denar]

Since his melodies seem to pull on the heartstrings of the gruffest desert barbarians, I'd recommend Songs of the Heart from the Eberron Campaign Setting. It gives you a +1 on many of your bard songs, and +1 DCs on any of your songs with saves.

Whip Daggers are slashing weapons, so you could nab Snowflake Wardance from Frostburn if you are planning on staying straight bard. That would net your your Cha on attack and damage rolls while performing some kind of dance, which you'll be able to do with Versatile Performer. I'd rename it though, maybe something like Desert Wind Wardance or similar.

[Innis Cabal]

I'd personally rename it Dance of the Cross Winds, but thats just me

[Another_Poet]

I would consider dropping Extra Music to take a Spell Focus instead. If you do get Snowflake Wardance you can also drop Weapon Finesse for something more useful and still come out ahead on your to-hit.

[Thurbane]

Roleplay him as Andrew Eldritch.

[NeoVid]

I believe Libris Mortis had a perfect prestige class for an undead bard, but someone with a better memory will have to give you the details.

[Darius Rae]

It has dergeseeker I think. The prc gives cool music ability's, but does not advance magic if I remember correctly.

Roleplay him as Andrew Eldritch.

Did I mention that he has ranks in preform(power ballad)...

edit: At the movement I am planning on going bard 10/seeker of the song 10 to get full spell casting. I may change if we have a sorcerer in the party tho.

[Keld Denar]

If spellcasting is your goal, why not go Sublime Chord? Default builds include Bard9/Virtuoso1/SublimeChord2/Virtuoso8, sometimes with Mindbender or Lyric Thamaturge thrown in there for some of the Bard levels for good measure. Sublime Chord gives you essentially sorcererous casting, and even with another sorcerer at the table, you can still coordinate spells to prevent much overlap.

[Partysan]

Where did you get that character's name? That's mine!

(I named a character for a high-level one-shot like that, because I didn't want to think of a name for 2 hours of play, couldn't have known it would grow out to be a campaign. It's just my real life name backwards...)

[AirGuitarGod32]

The class is Dirgesinger, and its decent. I suggest the Sublime Chord personally. Necropolitan Bard? clever clever basterd

[Darius Rae]

Where did you get that character's name? That's mine!

I picked it from an Arabic DND name generator.

To everyone else, I get sublime chord and seeker of the song confused... I was planning on taking the one that advances spell casting.

[Raging Gene Ray]

You might consider a 1 level dip into the Mindbender PrC. That won't slow down your spellcasting and you'll get Telepathy.

Couple this with the Bluff skill, and you could convince the dying and destitute that you are their god communicating with them from some divine realm and offer them hope which doesn't come...meanwhile, your companions are none the wiser.

What did you have in mind for spell selection?

Also, definitely take Song of the Heart...there's also a feat from some issue of Dragon Magazine that requires a Chaotic Alignment, causes you to emit a Chaotic Aura, and lets you use Bardic Music as a Bard 4 levels higher.

That's 4 extra Bard Levels for uses per day, what kinds of music you can use (of course, you probably only care about Fascinate and Suggestion), how many targets you can Fascinate, and the DC for your Bardic Music abilities.

Another thing...consider one of your Versatile Performer skills to be Perform (Oratory). That means you can use your suggestion ability while simply talking and push people to do things they wouldn't do normally without anybody noticing you're using Bardic Music.

[Darius Rae]

Raging, that is EXACTLY the type of evil that I was wanting! Do you by any chance remember what issue of dragon magazine that feat was in? Would a wand of undetectable alignment cover up the chaotic aura tho? The point of using the wand every morning is to not glow like a torch when the paladin detects evil, but I should know in case someone actually casts detect chaos.

We are probably going to be having a rotating DM so when NPCs die I will just have to think to myself about what Najib would say.

DM: "In his last breath, the peasant thanks you for your kindness..."
Me: *lols
DM: "That's horrible! The peasant just died, why did you laugh?
Me: Oh, sorry... (que mental evil laughter...)

So I will take levels in bard until I can take a level in Mindbender. From there I will take virtuoso and sublime chord. If I can, should I try to squeeze a level or two of Lyric Thamaturge as well?

I also think that I will be using lots of poisons as necropolitans are immune to them. Is it better to spend skill points on craft(poison) or to just flat out buy them? The entry for poisons say that they are sold in a black market of sorts, what size city do you think that requires?

Edit: Here is what I am currently planning to take for each level

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Level 1-5: bard
Level 6: Mindbender
Level 7 &8 : Lyric Thamaturge
Level 9: Virtuoso
Level 10 & 11: Sublime Chord
Level 12-20 Virtuoso