I was just confused since you mentioned customization options when having another bard in the group. Thanks again!

Basically there are just 2 things that make bard a bard. inspire courage 2+ and good hope. That's literally it. Everything else is nothing more than a tag on the character sheet.

I'm sorry, one more question -_-

You mentioned taking a Half-ling Sylvan Sorc merc so I assume the Half-ling build you linked in this thread is advisable to take? Since it summons pets for I guess soaking the first attacks. [Taking Grease and Magic Armor first as you said]

Could you please tell me which stat spread I would take instead with 20 PB

5/18/14/10/7/19
Mage armor+Grease>Magic Missile>Glitterdust is what matters. Then standard sorc fare.
SF conjuration, GSF conjuration, SF evo, spell specialization, heighten then whatever.

Thank you so much.

I specifically asked for sensei trip vivi because the point of the sensei in that build is to very late game allow one to dump a bard from a party and sort of "feel better" about it- which I think it can once you are into the last few chapters of the game. At that point with how enemy saves and the bard class attack abilities work it makes more sense to have a backline of sorc+alch+sorc or sorc+alch+kineticist or sorc/alch/wiz rather than a bard it is not quite optimal to take a bard with you into the end dungeon I think. hell towards the end of the game a mystic theurge is probably a better support to have than a bard.

this happens though once you are level 14+ and have the crown item or head of mental perfection which gives your trip viv +6 or +8 in all social and talk stats (so you get enough cha+wis to have enough bard song)

one thing I do do and it is up to you is I think I skip taking dodge feat (+1AC lol) on the build and instead go for lingering performance to maximize the bard song use - you activate it before combat and deactivate it and it last 3 rounds - most combat it finished by then.

early game bards are great though on higher difficulties - boni to group attacks heroism and good hope are great.

I was actually looking at the Trip Vivi in this thread but they do seem very similar! Thank you for the additional info. I really appreciate all the info I can get. I'm enjoying this game a lot and I wish I could play and learn the PnP but it's probably not gonna work out for me.

@InEffect

I'm still stuck at building my group. The only puzzle piece missing with this small group is trickery. I'm not sure how to fit it into this group. I would like to have it on the MC for the first act XP and for safety reasons but I'm okay with taking it on a party member. Is it okay to get Trickery on Bard Valerie and ignore UMD [or maybe a different skill] when someone else in the party already has it? If not, how much would I gimp myself if I didn't have trickery at all?

Depends on what MC you run. I like taking trickery on my saint as it's my todays go-to. Trip vivi obviously can do it too.
Otherwise, bard Val can take care of it and so can jaethal and jubilost too.

Hello InEffect, for your Amiri first build, you suggest Perception MAX twice for her primary skills. Did you mean Persuasion and Perception?

Fixed. Persuasion is not exactly needed. If you don't have another dazzling user - take it. If you do - she doesn't need it.

I am using your DEX aldori investigator build for my main character, so persuasion on Amiri is definitely not needed. Anyway, thanks for clarifying.

Offtopic question: I am at Oleg's trading post and I'm purposely trying to fight the bandits without the tar, traps and Oleg lighting the alchemical fire. But even if I don't activate any of those things, when I wait for the fight, they all show up and Oleg lights the fire, is this a bug? Is there no way to fight all the bandits to get more XP?

Think they scripted that to make the fight easier in one of the passes. Either way the exp for encounters doesn't scale with CR, so fighting enemies in smaller batches is preferable.

Actually I quit to Main Menu and redid the conversation without choosing to use anything and the traps and tar were no longer there but Oleg still used the fire...

Ok, last question, I finished the fight and rested, next morning I am trading with Bokken and it seems he is giving me stuff for free, is this a bug? See in below link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1767693519

not free, It says 1500 gold at the bottom with an arrow pointing who pays whom.