I'm kinda new to this so please forgive me if I accidentally leave out important info.

Every time I play a bard I end up running around chopping people a lot, so I like using buff spells, so I am probably the worst to give advice. Butttt this looks pretty good. The Elven Chain is an obv include. Gloves of storing are cute, but are you sure you wouldn't rather have gloves of dex? So cheap, for such a useful effect.

I'll give the gloves of DEX a thought.
I don't even know why I decided to go with a bard, considering that when I usually play RPGs, I tend to go with an assault-minded class. Choppy-choppy is fun but I just can't wrap my head around being a support player.

Here's the first problem. Half-Elf is one of the downright worst races in the game. It is only good on Eternal Blades, or maybe the odd skirmisher.
The hell is up with those stats? Beyond your charisma being too high to be possible, and odd stats in general, 35PB? And an odd stat? What's up with that?
Your skill list is a mess, but, seriously, this is not a skill.
Two Performs? And Guitar? Perform(String) is a thing.
Why did you not max the best skill in the game?

Seriously man, FOCUS. Your skills are all over the place and many are completely wasted.
What.

All of those are terrible. Why would you wast feats on TWO weapon proficiencies? Especially crossbows? Also, where did you get that last feat. Level eight, you have three feats unless you took flaws.
A lot of those are mediocre, but nothing too bad.
Level 3: Haste, Slow, Lesser Geas
Dude, what's going on with your WBL? You've got, what, well over a hundred thousand GP there. And where are your good items? Where are your immunity items?

The name of the game in 3.5 is focus. Choose what you want to be good at. Choose two things, maybe three. Nothing else matters. Want skills? Jack of All Trades and Bardic Knack effectively gives you half your bard level in ranks in every skill, even trained only ones. Want magic? Go Sublime Chord. Want melee? Snowflake Wardance, DFI, and actually good magic items, or just going all Song of the White Raven instead. Trying to do a bunch of things means you can't do any of them well.

Sorry, that was a brainfart. It's just exotic weapons. Everything else I have pretty much no excuse for.

Half elf gets racial bonuses to bardy things, CJ! It isn't combat minmaxing, but it isn't bad, either.

Also yeah, the whirlwind attack tree is really only reasonable if you're going fighter, or at least getting extra feats from somewhere.

Ugh I forgot how much I love sublime chord lol. Such a fun class.

Okay.

Here's the big problem: We're missing information. You're building under some houserules, as made obvious by your stats and WBL, so what's up. We need to know this before we can help you.
Yes. Bad things. Worthless things. Things that do not help in any appreciable way.
Yes it is. One must be at least decent in combat. Not necessarily good, mind you, just enough to carry one's weight in a level-appropriate encounter. This cannot. The fact that the OP wants to go further is made obvious by the rather... bizarre feat choices. Further, it cannot do anything else well enough to mention.
No, it's not reasonable even then. It sucks. Hard. And not in the fun way.
I know, right? And it's even more fun if you build it into a Bardzilla.

Whirlwind is good in large scale combat, and mobility helps there a lot as well.

And I do get what you're saying about half-elf bard bonuses being worthless in combat, and I don't think that Nolifer is trying to optimize for an out of combat character, I just meant that half elf wasn't literally worthless, and someone might want to optimize a diplomatic/information gathering character for a non-combat campaign. Or, of course, they might choose it for flavor or story reasons but try to optimize for combat otherwise.

No it doesn't. No it doesn't.
Except it is. The bonuses are worthless, completely and utterly worthless. There is nothing Half-Elf will give you that an extra point or two in Charisma won't.
I've never gotten that. The only thing the half-races have ever done for me is look like they belong in some racist late-nineteenth century crap, although the biggest problem there is orcs, it's still... problematic that a half-elf will always be more stupid that both its hypothetical human and grey elf parents, purely because it's racially inferior. I mean, the inherent strengths and weaknesses of different races is interest, and can make an interesting story, but I can't say I like the implications and where both half-elves and the favored class problem logically lead. I mean, it kinda means Zarus has some good points, and I can't say I like anything that makes him at least be completely reasonable in his arguments.
/rant

I've played more military and political campaigns than any other type. Whirlwind and mobility are good in large scale combat, like at an army level, and the +2 bonus of diplomacy and gather information that half elves get is a bonus unmatched by any of the standard player races. If you're optimizing for that above everything else, it is absolutely the best. Again, not saying this is optimal here at all, just that there is a purpose, even if you personally don't ever intend to make use of it.

I do get what you're saying about the design of the half races being generally bad, though.

Except they aren't. Except human's bonus feats. Or the various races that get charisma bonuses.
Primordial Half-Giant. You'll get more of a bonus from Marshal, which is your real bonus-generator.
Except it isn't.

Half-Elf is completely worthless. There is nothing, not even Diplomancy, that another race cannot do better.

CJ AMG LETS HATE KISS

Lol okay. I'm used mobility and whirlwind attack to good effect. When you're regularly surrounded by 6+ enemies, they're great. I don't know why you think they aren't.

And I still submit that if you look at just the core races, which is what the stats were balanced for, then half elf has a purpose. Primordial half giant sounds great, but if you are trying to be diplomatic and information gathery, a reasonable GM is going to go "okay you get a penalty interacting with the farmers because you're a freaking primordial half giant and they're a bunch of farmers." And the human bonus feats can give you a better bonus at level one, but half elf can pick up all of those feats as well later.

No they aren't. Because extra attacks are easy to get, and even if they weren't, if you're one-shotting a bunch of enemies, the weren't threats to begin with. It's wasted investment.
Humans are better. They can do everything the half-elf can do and more.

This thread is beginning to inspire me to make a Burning Hate-style post about a Lawful Neutral/Good Zarus.
Except no, because the primordial giant template doesn't change your template, and half-giants look human.

Also, unless the farmer put ranks in Knowledges, he can't even identify a human, much less something that looks very much like one.
...Except you'll always have feats up on the half-elf. Show me a half-elf, any level, and I'll show you a human better at dealing socially.

What? Not at your full bab and mainhand damage, and certainly not as early as it is possible to get whirlwind. And who says you one-shot them?



I've already conceded that half elves are not combat optimal. But humans are just factually not better at the narrow thing I'm talking about. They get an extra feat, so they can briefly be better, but the half-elf bonus stacks with all of the feats they can take, and they can take the same ones humans can. I don't get why you can't acknowledge this.



Ah, okay. Well, that's a silly design, but I'll concede that point then.



But there are only so many feats that can up your skills.

AC=lulz. If you're missing, urdoinitwrong.

Also, Tiger Claw says hi.
Why would you use anything but a greatsword?
...You get WWA at level four at the earliest. At level 6, it's trivially easy to get three attacks a round, at a bonus, with bonus damage, without even touching ToB. Now, which is better? The ability to throw out three attacks a round that are going to kill ****, or having to throw little crap-attacks at a bunch of worthless mooks? Hell, how many times will you actually be surrounded by more than three enemies, and how many times will you kill one of them with one of your crap attacks?
If you didn't, then you managed to completely waste your action.
Except they are.
Because humans get the same feats and more.
...Dude? I invented the nines fighter. So trust me when I say no, no there really aren't.

What about Revenant Blades?

Also, doesn't RoD have a half-elf bard ACF that's pretty damn good?

I do believe I've made my opinion on them quite clear.
Oh god no. Its only worthwhile ability is only worthwhile because it replaces the laughably terrible Countersong. The rest lets you replace a SLA with a worse SLA, and give up spells known to get mediocre spells known.

Anyways, if you're a bard, you should be human. Persistomancy is fun.

Why do you hate melee so? WHY CAN'T FIGHTERS HAVE NICE THINGS?!

He likes ToB.

Of course, who doesn't?