Need Advice on F/M or F/B

[Zelgadis]

I've been thinking about my character, who will either be a fighter mage, or a fighter bard. I want him to use swords and crossbows. From looking at the character generator, it looks like i would want to raise str and dex about equally, so my ranged and sword attack bonuses are about equal. Assuming we start with 28 pts in arygle, would 14/15/12/15/10/8 be good for a fighter mage, and 14/15/12/10/10/14 for a fighter bard? And which stats should i raise with the pts i get later?

[average joe]

For the bard i would raise charisma, and for the mage intelligence.

[ 12-31-2001: Message edited by: average joe ]

[Xandax]

well it depends much on what level you'd like to take your wizard (not mage ) or bard to.
Remember you "only" need intelligence of 10+spell level (charisma 10 + spell level) to cast spells - so if you only want to cast 5 lvl. spells - you would ultimatly only need 15 in the relevant stat.

[Xyx]

If you're looking to cast spells whilst wearing armor, you have several ways to go about it:

• Live with Spell Failure. You get about 5% of Spell Failure per point of Armor Class (this may vary slightly depending on which armor you wear).
• Get the Still Spell Metamagic Feat. This allows you to cast spells without making the necessary movements. These spells take up slots one level higher than they normally would.
• Cast only spells that do not have Somatic components (movement requirements). These are unaffected by armor, but there are only very few of them.
  
  If you like Still Spells, you should go with the Fighter/Wizard. Bards and Sorcerers need not prepare metamagic spells in advance, but take a whole round to cast spells with metamagic instead of only a standard action.
  
  At level 16, Bards reach level 6 spells, their highest spell level. A pure Bard could start with Intelligence 12 and still get to cast those level 6 spells when he gains them.

[Xandax]

Originally posted by Xyx:
<STRONG><snip>
At level 16, Bards reach level 6 spells, their highest spell level. A pure Bard could start with Intelligence 12 and still get to cast those level 6 spells when he gains them.</STRONG>

A bard uses charisma to cast IIRC

[average joe]

Yes, Bards use Charisma