Build help - Yikes (Seeker of the Song)

[Tsabrak]

Greetings BG-  let me first say that it's good to see many of the posters that I've happily trolled over on the CO forums for a few years.  Thanks for keeping the dream alive!

I'm looking for a little assistance with a build that I am currently infatuated with.  It is pretty rough, so please don't beat me up too much for it's incompleteness.  I'm just brainstorming for some ideas here, so any comments are welcome and appreciated.

Let's assume all books with the exception of Dragon Mag, and Psionics are approved material.

Race:  Likely Human, but I am open to alternatives
Classes:  Bard 1/Fighter 2/Paladin 2/Dervish 5/Seeker of the Song 6/X?X 4

So where do I need help?  The concept is to have a primary fighting character that will be "anti-caster" in concept.  So SoTS's 6th level ability is a key factor.  I have 4 open levels at this point in time, and the only feat I am sure of is the Snowflake Wardance.  I'm considering a move to make use of dual light maces & picking up Lightning Maces...but Scimitars are of course a nice option given the classes.  I am also having some problems with the class order at this point in time.

Oh, I almost certainly expect to take Perform: Dance as the perform...I've kind of got a Paladin/Concubine of Sune in mind for this character-

Thanks for the time to look and again, any thoughts are appreciated.

Tsabrak

[Bauglir]

Aptitude (see Tome of Battle) Scimitars might be useful to you, if you want to use Scimitars but Lightning Mace is interesting to you.

[GawainBS]

Filling those 4 levels with Warblade or Crusade is never a bad choice. Take Raven's Song as a feat then.

[Tsabrak]

Thanks gents!  A couple of nice suggestions.  I'd considered Shadow Dancer and Warblade as well as more Dervish.  I was hoping for a bit more Charisma synergy and maybe some ways to get the bardic uses a little higher via those last 4 clasess though.  It's weird that I can't seem to hone in on the best finish for this one.

[skydragonknight]

Dervish requires BAB+5. With the Cha to hit that Snowflake Wardance gives, one interesting approach would be to drop a couple Dervish levels and add 5 levels of Revenant Blade(PGtE) so you can power attack with both sides of a double scimitar as if they were 2-handed weapons.

[Terronus]

Ah, this is a build similar to what I've wanted to play for some time.  While it won't fit for you directly, here are some good ideas for it

Divine Might
Power Attack (if you want a 2 handed weapon)
Initiate of Milil (Champions of Valor)
Devoted Performer
Snowflake wardance
Song of the Heart - you might replace this with knowledge devotion if you can optimize your ranks with bard.
Dragonfire Inspiration (with dragon type/human).  I might think of using battle blessing... since your CL from mystic fire knight is 13 for paladin.  Also, you could use second wind, divine favor, or protection from X as swift actions
Extra Smite... if you have a build that can squeeze more feats in (flaws or whatnot)

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around a build that could use 6 seeker of the song for both a melee and anti-caster threat, but probably something like

Paladin 5 (complete champion variant: underdark knight/mystic fire knight (champions of valor))/ Bard 9 (more spells than pally, lets not forget inspirational boost), and you can combine greatness and courage songs/ seeker 6

This way you use all your +attack to maximize power attack.  Could be fun stuff... this is just a genreal outline, I (or you) would have to flesh it out to decide what levels to take what.

[GawainBS]

Champions of Valour or its Web Enhancement also has alternate class features for stacking Paladin & Bard, at least for Inspire Courage, or something like that. Maybe check that out?

[Terronus]

aye, thats initiate of milil.  Your paladin/bard levels stack for what songs you get (not how often you can use them, like devoted performer).  You also get a couple extra spells to your spell list

[Tsabrak]

Excellent stuff, thanks!

I'll see if I can hash it out a bit more and see what you all think. I like Initiate of Milil a bunch, so thanks for that!

[Blade2718]

Devoted Performer lets you count Bard levels for Paladin smites, too.

[Terronus]

Ah, I should have been more inclined to mention you would need somatic weaponry using TWFing, and light maces would be a no-no if you still decide to go with levels of dervish.  Especially since you'll be wanting for every feat you can get.

[Tsabrak]

So I've tweaked this a bit more and wanted to see what you all thought-

Current build is still not to 20 (can't seem to figure out how to cap this thing) but it's as follows:

2 Monk (cobra UA variant)/2 Fighter/1 Bard/2 Paladin/4 Dervish/6 Seeker of the Song/3x

I've got serious MAD going on, but it's pretty fun so far.  Charisma is still the primary stat and I still have some open feats, but primary feats so far are Snowflake Wardance, TWF, Improved TWF, Versatile Unarmed Strike (slashing), Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike), Dodgem, Mobility, Combat Expertise, Improved Unarmed Strike, Skill Focus [Perform], Mage Slayer...I've got like 4 open feats I think (sorry, I'm doing all of this from memory from work)-

Any thoughts on the final 3 levels or remaining feats?

Also, Terronus, I appreciate the path you proposed...it was just a different direction than what I was heading.  I'm kind of envisioning a character who is basically a "stripper" who uses her perform [dance] to great effect...including combat when need be.  With SotS 6 and Mage Slayer, I've got her working as an anti-caster style character as well.  Her skills are pretty good from a "face" standpoint, but she should have a pretty fair amount of attacks as well with dervish dance, 4 BAB attacks, TWF and Flurry-

Thanks as always for looking!

Tsabrak

[GawainBS]

I repeat it: If you have feats left, Crusader levels instead of Fighter levels might be worth your while. Use them anyway to top of your build. Or Warblade levels. Or replace Monk with Unarmed Swordsage variant.

[Operation Shoestring]

I remember doing a seeker build way back when.  I used Iaijutsu Master for Cha synergy.  Though I'm guessing that's not an option for you.

Dervish isn't the best option for a CHA- heavy build, but I guess it fits you concept- get those Slippers of Battledancing stat.

The fighter levels don't seem like the best idea- If you need feats, there's a monk variant that gets you Dodge and Mobility over 2 levels, and evasion besides- though that may cause alignment issues- oh wait, you caught that.

Ascetic Mage could help fix your MAD, but you'd need more bard levels.

Just make sure to nab that Eternal Wand of Heroics, you'll be wanting it, and Bard lets you use it.

Also, BARD LEVEL FIRST- that's 8 skill points you're loosing with monk first.

[Kuroimaken]

I'm seriously failing to see why you need your Unarmed Strike feats...

Also, Dervish has a problem with maces (namely that it needs to use slashing weapons for the dance).

Consider picking up that feat from CA (can't remember the name now) that allows you to end fatigued/exhausted conditions by spending Bardic Songs. Snowflake Wardance can kick you right back in the nads if you end up fatigued while the fight's still going on.

I second going for Unarmed Swordsage rather than Monk. Maneuvers > Feats, always. Also, don't forget that either the variant or Monk will already grant you Improved Unarmed Strike so you don't need to pick it up.

Shame your build doesn't have more Bard in it. Lyric Spell/Lyric Metamagic are great feats, specially combined with Echoing Spell.