Fighter 8/Weapon Master18/Bard4

[Barael]

Using the same stats as the Cookie Cutter Fr/WM/Rg

Levels 8 Fighter, 4 Bard, 18 Weapon Master
1-6 - Fighter
7-17 - Weapon Master
18,19,20-Bard
21-29- Weapon Master
30- Bard

4 Intimidate
9 Perform (believe this gets 3rd level bard song)
33 Disc
33 Spellcraft
33 Tumble
33 UMD
Remainder in healing, or maybe spot... (think it will be like 20 points)

Feats i would like to take luck of heroes at level 1 ...
Weapon Master Feats
Overwhelming Crit feats

I will have 1 feat where i can pick epic toughness, armor skin, and something else...(cant remember)

I believe this leaves 4 feats left to play with

I was thinking improved knockdown to deal with casters and improved disarm to deal with melee

Another thought was to get vanilla knockdown and vanilla disarm (since my char should have a pretty high accuracy) and get more bard songs and longer bard songs

What does everyone think ?

[msterswrdsmn]

You're not really getting anything with 18 weaponmaster levels; 16 is a better cuttoff point, as thats when you get the upgrade of +3 weapon AB and an extra bonus feat (which you can use to take a second wm weapon!) 18 Doesn't give you anything new

4 bard isnt enough to really make use of bardsong either; mostly bard levels will be for tumble/umd/spellcraft dumping

Epic toughness is not a good epic feat to get. Don't get it. Better choices are
-Epic weapon focus
-Epic skill focus (discipline or detection score)
-Epic Prowress
-Armor Skin
-Saving throw feats

Regular toughness is, sadly, better than epic toughness if you're only taking 1 rank of epic toughness.

[Lurch]

Additionally, if you want to take epic weapon specialization, you have to take it on a fighter level, which means that at least one of your epic levels has to be fighter.

I would suggest fighter 10 / WM 10 pre-epic, after which you could do

21-23: WM 11 -> 13
24: Fighter 11 (Epic Weapon Specialization, having already taken epic weapon focus)
25-27: Bard (or Rogue) 1 -> 3
28-30: WM 14 -> 16

[Barael]

Is bard worth it over rogue as a skill dump class? I felt like 4-9 lvl 3 bard songs per rest, plus the fact that bard has spell craft gives it an edge over what a rogue offers

[msterswrdsmn]

It depends on how many skill points you've saved to dump.

Bard has an advantage over rogue by having access to spellcraft, which dramatically increases your ability to survive magical attacks.
Taunt is also a possible option, but its doubtful you're gonna have enough skillpoints left over to seriously invest int htat.

Rogues do -not- have spellcraft as a class skill or taunt, but gain more skillpoints per class level.

Also; A level 3 bardsong (no improvment at level 4) gives you 1 AB, 2 damage, and +1 fort/reflex. Its hardly a "good" point, especially since you need to put in enough skill points to get 9 perform. Something you might not be able to do if you're already doing skilldumping in 2-3 stats.

[Lurch]

Don't forget that rogues get evasion for better durability against direct damage spells and uncanny dodge that might help with armor class (though it's not very noticeable unless you're a dexterity build).