[RPG] What options exist for a “divine bard” in D&D 3.5

barddnd-3.5e

One character I'm considering playing in a 3.5e D&D game is a dwarvish bard (yes, I know that's a really bad idea from a min-max perspective, and no, I don't care!). The back story for the character would have him growing up in and around a temple and picking up his musical skills there, so I was looking for some options to make the bard "more divine".

Two options I'm aware of are the Divine Bard from Unearthed Arcana (p. 50) and the Healing Hymn and Hymn of Fortification options from Complete Champion (p. 46-47). Are there any other official options I'm missing, and how balanced are all those options?

Best Answer

There's a lot of stuff, actually.

ACFs

Inspire Turning - Trade Inspire Competence for the ability to empower Turning attempts. (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, p 206)

Inspire Awe - Trade Inspire Courage for Inspire Awe. (Dragon Magic, p 13)

Repel Domination - Lose Suggestion. +2 bonus on saves vs mind affecting spells and abilities of the undead, if you succeed in the save they become shaken. (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, p 206)

Feats

Initiate of Milil, From Smite To Song, Devoted Performer - Takes a paladin, makes it Bardic, Bard and Paladin levels stack for stuff.

Ironskin Chant, Chant of Fortitude, Epic of the Lost King - Dwarvenly appropriate.

...

Actually i'm going through this and it's all very situational. Do you want to be the Divine Bard of what, Pelor? Healing adding feats are a thing, elysian thrushes, whatnot. Some frost god(dess)? Snowflake Wardance, Ice Harmonics. Moradin? Words of Creation, why not.

But without any context beyond 'divine', I can't really go anywhere.

I can say that the Bard/Cleric (or Paladin(Wary Swordknight)) of Milil/Spellsinger/Fochluchan Lyrist is a thing of beauty and fun to play.

The Orc (or Dwarf) Battle Drummer is pretty good too.

But yeah, without context I can't really.. suggest anything.

For me, a Dwarvish Bard is a fighting/drinking Bard. Someone rough and tumble, so something with two razor-sharp axes, a foot-tapping jig, and a snowflake wardance right through the ol' trachea. Or perhaps someone with a big ol' set of scottish pipes, piping the party into battle and maximizing those inspire courage bonuses.

Healing Bard, Fighting Bard, Buffing Bard, Sneaky Bard, Nasty Bard, Summoner Bard, Bard Admixture, Secret Bard, there's a lot of kinds of Bard, and lot of feats for said bards. But you really need to know what kind of bard you want to be, first.

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