My Barbarian//Scout and His Buxom Bard//??? Sidekick

[IthroZada]

PART I
I made sure to read Solo's Being Bane guide, which I thoroughly enjoyed, for the basics of what is useful and what's not, now I'm looking for more interactive help on the character, and his sidekick, who is not covered by Solo's guide.
This character is meant to start off at Level 1 (characters get 1 free LA), and work his way up to Level 20. So what I'm looking for are obvious weakness, improvements, and things I've overlooked. I enjoy optimizing, but I do want his RP flavor to be maintained, a large, charging, hulk of a wild mountain man, with his sexy buffing sidekick. Equipment ideas would be insanely helpful.

Pretty much any book is allowed, just ease up on the abbreviations since I don't have them all memorized by heart.

[spoiler]
Gestalt Barbarian(Pathfinder)//Scout
The only things I'm taking from Pathfinder are the Rage Powers, and the way Rages/day are handled. Feats are all 3.5.

22 Str, 15 Dex, 19 Con, 16 Int, 15 Wis, 13 Cha
1: Lion Totem Barbarian (Pounce), Goliath Substitution Level (Mountain Rage)
   Powerful Charge, Power Attack , Improved Bull Rush
   Flaws: Glory Hound, Implacable, Traits: Agressive, Honest
2: Rage Power (Lesser Elemental Rage)
3: Improved Sunder
4: Rage Power (Lesser Spirit Totem), Bonus Feat (Improved Initiative)
6: Rage Power (Energy Resistance)
   Shocktrooper
7: Streetfighter variant - Lose DR, increase crit threat by 1 on charge or foe is flat footed
8: Rage Power (Elemental Rage), Bonus Feat (Improved Skirmish)
9: Combat Brute
10: Rage Power (Spirit Totem), Variant - Up to 90 degree turn on rage
12: Rage Power (Greater Energy Resistance), Bonus Feat (Danger Sense)
   Knockback
13: Variant - Charge through squares occupied by allies or noncombatants
14: Rage Power (Clear Mind)
15: Leadership (Solo has me entirely convinced on the sexy bard cohort for a Barbarian)
16: Rage Power (Greater Elemental Rage), Bonus Feat (Quick Reconnoiter), Variant - 4x speed on charge
18: Rage Power (Greater Spirit Totem)
   Leap Attack
19: Variant - Cleaving Charge (If 1st attack drops opponent, charge next opponent at least 10ft away and you have at least 10ft movement left)
20: Rage Power (Energy Absorbtion), Bonus Feat (Iron Will)
[/spoiler]

I might be able to squeeze in two more feats due to the campaign home rules, and it's all a toss up of Improved Critical, Telling Blow, and Reckless Rage. I'm unsure which of those would fit best, although Improved Critical and Telling Blow have some synchronization.

Since his AC is terrible, I plan on getting a Blurring on his chain shirt + Energy Defense + Spirit Totems to make hitting him always have a 1/5 chance to miss or hurt the enemy like hell.

PART II
The second part, that's a much bigger question and is going to require a lot more help, is the design of his cohort. The basic idea is that she be his buffer. One half of the character pretty much has to be a Bard for flavor. The second half I'm considering either Dragon Shaman, Marshal, or Healer. The first two have the obvious passive buffs, and the Healer is self explanatory. I'm leaning towards Bard//Marshal, but I'm not really familiar enough with any 4 of these classes to know off the top of my head their pros and cons.

My hesitant put together:
[spoiler]
Silverbrow Human or Spellscale w/ Substitution levels
Gestalt Bard//Marshal

Flaws: Arcane Performer, Noncombatant
Feats: Draconic Aura, Lingering Song, Words of Creation, Jack of All Trades, Melodic Casting, Combat Pananche, Obtain Familiar (2-3 feats left)
ACF: Spellbreaker Song, Bardic Knack
My feat choices here are rather less focused than the Barbarian, they all seem good but I'm not sure how well they all add up together.
[/spoiler]

[weenog]

I don't see Rock Hurling in there, or any ranged attack boosting feats for that matter.  And neither one of you can fly, the bard can't even cast a Fly spell.  How exactly do you plan to cope with enemies hanging around in midair making rude gestures while they kill you from far enough outside your reach that jumping won't help?

If you have some control over your gear (iow if you can find a seller, or someone to commission to custom-make something for you), you don't need Improved Critical.  The Scabbard of Keen Edges in the DMG can save you a feat.

[IthroZada]

I originally didn't realize that Pathfinder did feat progression different, with a feat at every odd level instead of every 3 levels. That gives me an extra 3 feats to work with, plus the two I mentioned earlier. I originally figured simply having a Large Mighty Bow would be sufficient, and better than Rock Hurling. But if I have a total of 5 feats in my previous build unspent, I can get Rock Hurling, Improved Rock Hurling, Brutal Throw, and Power Throw to transfer my strengths (being Strength) to range. And Telling Blow. My only concern about Rock Hurling, is how practical is it to find 40 pound rocks when you need them?

Edit: I suppose it could be houseruled that a special Bag of Holding could work as a type of quiver for rocks. If I could fit Quick Draw and Hurling Charge into the build, it might be pretty amusing. Maybe get rid of Telling Blow and one of the Scout Bonus Feats.

[gorfnad]

Have you considered Dragonfire Inspiration for you Bard? If you dump Obtain Familiar and pick up Song of the Heart you could end up getting some pretty significant damage boost. Especially if you pull some of the tricks from here: Bard Inspire Courage Optimization. Snowflake Wardance may give your bard a boost in combat as well. Obtain Familiar / Improved Familiar may be of use later on if you can get the right spells and maybe some levels in Sublime Chord. If you're planning for Melodic Casting you may want to consider a build like this for the bard side since it requires Melodic Casting anyways: Bard 6/ Lyric Thaumaturge 2/ Virtuoso 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso 8. Dragon Shaman would definitely be an option on the other side and would fit thematically as well (and it saves you from having to take the Draconic Aura feat).

[weenog]

My only concern about Rock Hurling, is how practical is it to find 40 pound rocks when you need them?

IME it's very easy to find stones in the 40-400 lb range any time you're near stone walls, pillars, or ground, if your damage output is high enough to smash them to pieces quickly.  Uh, you might want to have regeneration, damage reduction, or a very large amount of hp if you opt to smash load-bearing pillars.

[IthroZada]

If you're planning for Melodic Casting you may want to consider a build like this for the bard side since it requires Melodic Casting anyways: Bard 6/ Lyric Thaumaturge 2/ Virtuoso 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso 8.

So, with the help from you, your link, and perusing the Bard's Handbook, this is what I came up for as a sort skill monkey/buffer Bard. I pretty much took out any feats that improve her combat, so now I'm wondering how practical it is to bring a cohort like this into encounters.
[spoiler]Silverbrow Human
Gestalt Bard 6/Lyric Thaumaturge 2/Virtuoso 2/Sublime Chord 2/Virtuoso 8//Dragon Shaman 20
Flaws: Arcane Performer, Noncombatant
Bonus: Melodic Casting
Flaw feats: Dragonfire Inspiration, Nymph's Kiss
1: Lingering Song, ACF Bardic Knack, ACF Spellbreaker Song
3: Jack of All Trades
5: Wanderer's Diplomacy
7: Words of Creation
9: Song of the Heart
11: Obtain Familiar
13: Double Draconic Aura
15: Improved Familiar
17: Doomspeak
19: Master Manipulator
[/spoiler]

IME it's very easy to find stones in the 40-400 lb range any time you're near stone walls, pillars, or ground, if your damage output is high enough to smash them to pieces quickly.  Uh, you might want to have regeneration, damage reduction, or a very large amount of hp if you opt to smash load-bearing pillars.

Something that ignores hardness and does a lot of damage to tear apart the environment for ammo then? Throwing flagstones from the floor and such.. seems like actually pretty good RP potential. "I break the wall and throw it at him."

[PhaedrusXY]

Edit: NM... I reed gud.

No reason to go full marshal. That class is 1 to 4 levels long. I'd definitely throw in some warblade or crusader for Song of the White Raven and other awesomeness.

[gorfnad]

So, with the help from you, your link, and perusing the Bard's Handbook, this is what I came up for as a sort skill monkey/buffer Bard. I pretty much took out any feats that improve her combat, so now I'm wondering how practical it is to bring a cohort like this into encounters.

Your build can heal and buff a considerable amount, has mad skill options, has 9th level spells, D10 HD, awesome saves, and has other options for even more versatility. So in pretty much in any situations that do not involve antimagic fields your build will be useful and awesome.