Your question is too vague.  What are you looking to do?  Evasion?  Traps?  Tank?  Swashbuckle/SWF?  Max Facinate?  Sing till you are blue in the face?  Keep things like this in mind.

im on 13 rogue 5 bard 2 ftr with 10d6 sneak attack, precision, opportunist, imp sneak attack. doing my 3rd arcane etr with it now. Went with Imp evasion over opportunist, power attack over precision, and 1 cleave for LD cleaves and bitz charge.

12 bard 6 ftr 2 rogue or Munk's version 7/7/6 has better hps, prr, cleaves and OC.

Red Sox H8 Yankees wrote on Jul 7^th, 2014 at 7:24pm:



Yeah that's what I'm running with now, first life. It's outstandingly good. Are you str\cha\ or dex based?

Munkenmo wrote on Jul 7^th, 2014 at 11:10pm:



Yeah I saw that, looks really good. I think I will TR into that next and see how it goes. Can I do it with PDK?

tachyon wrote on Jul 7^th, 2014 at 8:29pm:

100% Strength based.  Do not fall into the trap of Charisma.

Although one caveat about swashbuckling: it breaks Celestia (shocking I know). Not vitally important, but a good piece of info that I didn't have before I got one in a citw.

dex based swashbucker who gets dex to hit and damage

They are really uber, ANY flavour ( charisma, dex, DM, pure, 12/6/2, whatever weapon.
Crusader, Fury, Fatesinger ( lol), LD,  whatever.

Dicking around with half gimps on Lama last few days, it shits on any martial class I played, barbie, kenseis, various pally gimps, Tempests.
You can literally create Swashbuckler on Lama and do almost any EE without breaking a sweat, quests that can still be somehow challenging on a "lesser" build.
Maybe it does have fuck all to do with bard, but it's a goddamn Shiradi/monkcher/tosser/wolf/treetard " tier".

Good question, It changes quickly so you have to adjust your tactics accordingly.

Most of my deaths with these builds have been because I was just mowing down nor mobs until I run into a red named and treat it the same, then boink! I am dead. 

My most active right now is a sub epic level dex build so I am kinda playing Russian roulette with crits because I am running with shadow dodge on for the sweet sweet sweet boosts. But that -30% fort can be a bit of a bitch if my toon zigs when it should zag.

Calling this build:
Favored Pick of Destiny
16 bard, 2 rogue, 2 favored soul.. STR based melee DPS/CC

+4 tomes
16str
16con
16cha
whateverelse..
Max Str along the way for Overwhelming Critical

Why Strength and not the more obvious DEX or CHA? There is no way you can get your dex or cha anywhere near as high as you can with Strength. With Divine Might, Skaldic Rage from warchanter and a rage pot you'll already be higher than any possible Dex/Cha build. Throw in a Titans grip +6 psionic and it's even more ridiculous.

So..
What does this all give you?
-Evasion/traps
-Insanely high STR with a light pick doing x4, you'll one shot crit everything until high teens+EE and even then they all drop VERY fast.
-DDOOR!!1
-nice long buffs/healing
-any scroll in the game
-human benefits, saves/skill boost and heal amps
-Inspire Excellence
-Irresistible Dance
-And a instant kill/stun

Feats:
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave
Single Weapon Fighting
Improved
Greater
Quicken
Empower Healing
Imp Critical Pierce
OW Crit
Inspire Excellence

11 feats needed, so human required.. sadly no completionist feat and this is my completionist life now:(


And why Light Picks? Well, they're all 17-20x4 while swashbuckling.. Can't really beat that until epic levels at least. Then I'll switch to a Balizarde..

APs, Coup De Grace and pimp slap. Not sure what the rest of the points will be going into until after the patch today.

5 Foot Step wrote on Aug 8^th, 2014 at 2:09am:


Lit 2.

5 Foot Step wrote on Aug 8^th, 2014 at 2:09am:


Sorry, I should have specified easily acquirable. I'm thinking a cannith air rapier.

Any buckler suggestions? I think I have a lvl12 swashbuckler shield stored on one of my mules. Is there even anything else out there for heroic?