Build Help for a First-Timer's Kobold Bard

[Elrandir]

Alrighty, so. I'm new to 3.5, but I've been playing/DMing 5e for about a year and a half now. A new friend invites me to their family's game, and I'm excited. I've been wanting to give 3.5 a try and I have no idea what to play. I initially go with a half-giant psychic warrior because it sounds cool and is unlike anything 5e offers. But, half-giants don't fit the DM's setting and psychic warriors are a "Not normally, but I'll let you play it I suppose." I want to make a good first impression so I go "Nah, that's cool. No biggie. I'll just play a bard." I don't want to play your bog-standard half-elf or human though. I love kobolds, and who doesn't love Deekin? So I think a kobold would be good. But I have almost no clue how to build a character. My friend isn't particularly helpful and I don't have a chance to speak to the DM except through her. I want to do something decently powerful, but not completely broken, and I'd prefer to stay relatively core (Core +1 Book kinda thing. In my case it's the Races of The Dragon). The one thing I know is that I am going to be venerable and dragonwrought because why not? No epic feats at level 3, none of that. Just a +3 to mentals and a -0 to physicals. I've already rolled stats. (per DM's rules; standard 4d6 drop the lowest done six times) All I need is some explanation of how to go about my feats and whatnot. No prestige classes or anything, just a straight 20 levels of bard. (We're starting at 5.) The character isn't a bard, per say, but rather a village elder. His primary skill is diplomacy and his performance is dead gnome jokes, not an actual instrument.

Tl;Dr: Help me build my feats/skills/ASI's list for a 1-20 kobold bard. Flaws are allowed. Tips are greatly appreciated as well. Core only. Please keep things simple for this novice 3.5er who may not understand every acronym and slang term. Primary role is face and buffer/debuffer. Alignment is undetermined for law/chaos but he is good aligned.
Edit: Controller spells like Suggestion and Charm are also ideal, but I don't know if that's giving me too many roles.

Race: Desert Kobold

Stats: Includes racials and current feats
STR: 10 (14 - 4)
DEX: 15 (13 + 2)
CON: 15 (15)
INT: 15 (12 + 3)
WIS: 13 (12 + 1)
CHA: 20 (17+ 3)

Already Determined Feats:
Level 1: Dragonwrought (Brass Ancestry)
Level 3: Dragon Wings

[JMS]

So, one of the big things about 3.5 is that capabilities of builds and characters can vary widely, and Bard has some issues, since it wants to do too many things. Bard also has a problem with needing a lot of splat books to work. Core +1 is not a particularly great strategy in 3.5, unless you are a druid. What level of optimization are the others using?

[RaiKirah]

Hello! A couple of thoughts right out of the gate:

With Core + Races of the Dragon you don't have all that many options to specialize yourself. This is perfectly fine, as Bards are awesome anyways. Races of the Dragon does give you access to Accelerate Metamagic, which will allow you to apply a selected Metamagic feat without increasing the casting time to a full round action since you are a spontaneous caster. Heighten Spell might be a good target for this as it's fairly versatile, and a lot of your spells require saves, so boosting the DC can make them more effective. If you're focusing on such spells (Charm, Suggestion, etc.), Spell Focus (Enchantment) isn't terrible in core. If you're focusing on buffing these options become less important. If you're staying in core you might even allocate resources to being decent with a weapon (Precise Shot at least if your using a bow), though Bards are not the best at that in Core.

You have Dragon Wings selected as your 3rd level Feat. By itself, this is not the most useful, though very thematic. If you want to have always on flight that cannot be dispelled, then you'll want to use your level 6 feat to pick up Improved Dragon Wings (you should pick up both feats or neither in almost all situations).


If you can talk your DM into giving you access to Dragon Magic as well you open up a lot of options to improve your buffing capabilities, specifically in the form of the Draconic Aura and Dragonfire Inspiration feats.

Draconic Aura allows you to pick up one of the Dragon Shaman's auras, which give a 30' radius always on buff to your party. Several of these are very good: Power helps everyone's spellcasting, Vigor keeps your entire party at at least 1/2 HP between encounters, Presence gives a bonus on your social skills, etc.. Because you have the dragonblood subtype these bonus will scale with your character level, meaning some of them will continue to be relevant throughout the game.

Dragonfire Inspiration allows you to replace your Inspire Courage bonus with an equivalent number of d6s of fire damage. In many situations, getting extra damage is better than the extra to hit bonus, and regardless you get to choose every time you start singing. If you pick up the Draconic Heritage feat you can use it to change the elemental damage type to whatever your heritage is (your Dragonwrought heritage technically doesn't do this by itself, but your DM may take pity on you). If you go this route you should look up Inspire Courage optimization, as you can give your allies significant bonuses with a little effort. An added benefit is you contribute a lot while making your martial friends feel awesome.


There's my 2 cents, hope that helps at all!

[Elrandir]

So, one of the big things about 3.5 is that capabilities of builds and characters can vary widely, and Bard has some issues, since it wants to do too many things. Bard also has a problem with needing a lot of splat books to work. Core +1 is not a particularly great strategy in 3.5, unless you are a druid. What level of optimization are the others using?

I don't actually know. The group is a combination of my friend, her family (DM, and 1-3 players. I'm not sure how many family members are playing) and people who see the DM's ad. (Seems sketchy, but I guess you've got to find players somehow) Since the group is somewhat amorphous and unformed at the moment, I can't say what the average level of optimization will be. With people joining via ad we might end up with an Übermensch munchkin on one end and a first time player using a terribly built human fighter on the other. I want to land squarely in between those.

Hello! A couple of thoughts right out of the gate:

With Core + Races of the Dragon you don't have all that many options to specialize yourself. This is perfectly fine, as Bards are awesome anyways. Races of the Dragon does give you access to Accelerate Metamagic, which will allow you to apply a selected Metamagic feat without increasing the casting time to a full round action since you are a spontaneous caster. Heighten Spell might be a good target for this as it's fairly versatile, and a lot of your spells require saves, so boosting the DC can make them more effective. If you're focusing on such spells (Charm, Suggestion, etc.), Spell Focus (Enchantment) isn't terrible in core. If you're focusing on buffing these options become less important. If you're staying in core you might even allocate resources to being decent with a weapon (Precise Shot at least if your using a bow), though Bards are not the best at that in Core.

You have Dragon Wings selected as your 3rd level Feat. By itself, this is not the most useful, though very thematic. If you want to have always on flight that cannot be dispelled, then you'll want to use your level 6 feat to pick up Improved Dragon Wings (you should pick up both feats or neither in almost all situations).


If you can talk your DM into giving you access to Dragon Magic as well you open up a lot of options to improve your buffing capabilities, specifically in the form of the Draconic Aura and Dragonfire Inspiration feats.

Draconic Aura allows you to pick up one of the Dragon Shaman's auras, which give a 30' radius always on buff to your party. Several of these are very good: Power helps everyone's spellcasting, Vigor keeps your entire party at at least 1/2 HP between encounters, Presence gives a bonus on your social skills, etc.. Because you have the dragonblood subtype these bonus will scale with your character level, meaning some of them will continue to be relevant throughout the game.

Dragonfire Inspiration allows you to replace your Inspire Courage bonus with an equivalent number of d6s of fire damage. In many situations, getting extra damage is better than the extra to hit bonus, and regardless you get to choose every time you start singing. If you pick up the Draconic Heritage feat you can use it to change the elemental damage type to whatever your heritage is (your Dragonwrought heritage technically doesn't do this by itself, but your DM may take pity on you). If you go this route you should look up Inspire Courage optimization, as you can give your allies significant bonuses with a little effort. An added benefit is you contribute a lot while making your martial friends feel awesome.


There's my 2 cents, hope that helps at all!

That helps a lot!

Draconic Aura sounds really cool, I didn't realize I needed Improved Dragon Wings, and I had disregarded Dragonfire Inspiration because I thought it replaced Inspire Courage without the option to use it normally. Also my heritage will be Brass, so fire damage via Dragonfire Inspiration is perfect. No need for Draconic Heritage. You said I needed to try talking my DM into letting me have Dragon Magic to pick those feats up, though?

Edit: I see now. Dragon Magic is a book. So I need to check with the DM because that makes me Core+2. Gotcha.

I confess I don't fully understand Metamagic in this edition, so that's something I'll need to look into more fully, but from what I do understand, that sounds like a good suggestion. Like I said, my idea was being the face and buffer/debuffer. I wasn't sure whether Suggestion, Charm, etc. was considered controller or not, but that would also be a nice role to fill, albeit to a lesser extent. I'm certainly not looking to be the one pumping out heavy damage. The idea is to use a (Edit: was longsword) longspear and shortbow, neither of which I'll be particularly good with, I'm aware.

[Troacctid]

I think you're off to a good start. Dragonwrought is great and Dragon Wings is a fine choice (even though it doesn't give full flight capability). Dragonfire Inspiration is well and good, but I do think you need to be boosting your inspire courage a little more before it's worth a feat; keep it in mind for later but don't necessarily jump to it now.

One bit of goodness that you definitely want to take advantage of is the Draconic Rite of Passage (which is in the kobold chapter, IIRC). It gives you a 1st level sorcerer spell as a spell-like ability once per day, CL equal to your level. An excellent bonus for being a kobold.

Ideally you'll also be able to use the masterwork instrument rules from Complete Adventurer. Masterwork instruments offer cheap, powerful ways to boost bardic music (and most of them work even if you are using a different Perform skill to meet the prerequisite). The expanded rules for them are in Complete Adventurer, but the instruments themselves are teeechnically for sale in the PHB.

[Elrandir]

I think you're off to a good start. Dragonwrought is great and Dragon Wings is a fine choice (even though it doesn't give full flight capability). Dragonfire Inspiration is well and good, but I do think you need to be boosting your inspire courage a little more before it's worth a feat; keep it in mind for later but don't necessarily jump to it now.

One bit of goodness that you definitely want to take advantage of is the Draconic Rite of Passage (which is in the kobold chapter, IIRC). It gives you a 1st level sorcerer spell as a spell-like ability once per day, CL equal to your level. An excellent bonus for being a kobold.

Ideally you'll also be able to use the masterwork instrument rules from Complete Adventurer. Masterwork instruments offer cheap, powerful ways to boost bardic music (and most of them work even if you are using a different Perform skill to meet the prerequisite). The expanded rules for them are in Complete Adventurer, but the instruments themselves are teeechnically for sale in the PHB.

Gotcha, thanks! The Draconic Rite of Passage is just a free thing, more or less, no? You just have to spend the gem and time and you can get it? As for Dragonfire Inspiration, I feel like I need to take it at level 1, since I get two extra feats from taking flaws (DM has approved flaws. He even likes them.) unless I'm mistaken on how the flaw system works. I'm not certain any of the other feats I have in mind can be taken at level 1, so that's why I'll probably take it early.

I think, assuming the DM will allow all this (I'm at what, Core+4 now?), I'm going to look something like this for the first 9 levels.

Flaws:
Murky-Eyed
Inattentive
Feats:
1st: Dragonwrought
1st: Melodic Casting
1st: Dragonfire Inspiration
3rd: Dragon Wings
6th: Improved Dragon Wings
9th: Draconic Aura and trade out Inspire Greatness for Song of the Heart

[Troacctid]

Gotcha, thanks! The Draconic Rite of Passage is just a free thing, more or less, no? You just have to spend the gem and time and you can get it?

It's not free free, but it's very cheap.

As for Dragonfire Inspiration, I feel like I need to take it at level 1, since I get two extra feats from taking flaws (DM has approved flaws. He even likes them.) unless I'm mistaken on how the flaw system works. I'm not certain any of the other feats I have in mind can be taken at level 1, so that's why I'll probably take it early.

Fair.

I think, assuming the DM will allow all this (I'm at what, Core+4 now?), I'm going to look something like this for the first 9 levels.

Flaws:
Murky-Eyed
Inattentive
Feats:
1st: Dragonwrought
1st: Melodic Casting
1st: Dragonfire Inspiration
3rd: Dragon Wings
6th: Improved Dragon Wings
9th: Draconic Aura and trade out Inspire Greatness for Song of the Heart

Seems solid enough.

[Endarire]

JoshuaD's Bard Handbook.