Bard without concentration

[3d6InOrder]

I’m thinking of playing a Bard / Fighter / Paladin (20/6/4) with Craft Wand and Still Spell but without Concentration due to being skill point starved.

Is this short-sighted or can I get away with it?

[Teshil]

Sorry, what were you asking? Forgot.

[BegoneThoth]

Find a way to get the skill points.

Tumble, discipline, concentration, and UMD are basically mandatory for that sort of build.

[Astral]

You can get away with building without concentration if you can get away from taking damage when you cast spells. Unlike discipline and heal, which I consider must-max, the need of concentration is more about player skill.

Tumble, discipline, concentration, and UMD are basically mandatory for that sort of build.

You forgot Perform there.

From my excessive experience with bards, you can get away with a lot of things when your bard song gives you +8 to skills for 10 minutes but I'd still recommend some concentration. Lets say, enough concentration so after bard song and gear and items you meet the none-bards who'd max it entirely. My bard has 20 concentration, taunt, spellcraft and not entirely maxed out. squeezed 3 skills into the slots of 2 and it still feels solid after bardsong/gear.

[BegoneThoth]

Yeah I sort of assume anyone playing a bard would know to automatically take preform.

[dallion43]

Bard has limited spells that worth casting in the middle of getting hit( by someone that passes your ac after you lower his ab), check the full list and decide:
http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Bard_spells

But If you investing AS3 in the build you might as well as take human/more int for the SPs for concentration.

Don't forget that your AC is relatively high after the debuff so resisting taunt is kinda important.

Consider 21/6/3, or due to 20 lvl bard on lvl 30 = lasting inspiration on lvl 30, expect harder grind to get the max possible bonuses at lvl 30. Plus debatable since divine power scroll..

[Cuchilla]

You need concentration to cast during battle, but like already stated, you can play a bard who doesn't cast during battle. So it's a choice you make: If you choose 0 concentration, you also choose less casting. That said, if you choose a "support and buff" bard, you can fairly easy avoid combat and buff your party with mass haste, healing circle and whatnot when played shrewdly (means, not being attacked).

And yes, right, taunting is a pain as well. Then again, you don't get taunted all the time. Just try to avoid enemies with taunt.

[3d6InOrder]

It’s a Dwarf with Int 14 so I get 178 skill points (23x6 + 10x4). This is how I initially thought about distributing them:

Disable Trap - 1 (cc)
Discipline - 33
Open Locks - 1 (cc)
Perform - 25
Search - 6 (cc)
Spellcraft - 30
Taunt - 33
Tumble - 30
UMD - 11

DT, OL and Search were RP choices but I could lose them and put 16 into concentration. The others I’m loath to change for purely mechanical reasons.

Edit: I should mention he’ll have a buffed Constitution of 28 so this will add a further +9 to Con checks.

[Lorkas]

Drop search and lower taunt until you have enough ranks to max concentration, IMO. You'll have the advantage of +8 on your taunt roll due to bard song and your enemies will have -7 to resist it with curse song. That should be enough, except against targets with such high concentration that you don't want to taunt them anyway.

[3d6InOrder]

Thank you all for the advice!

[dallion43]

Remake, start with 14int+2int(gift), getrid of OL FT, search, Max all relevant SP including perform.

Don't count on SP from items when you don't have too.
Max taunt on bard is great, Max -discipline is even better.
Put leftovers in umd.

Imho.