Oterisk’s guide to Optimizing the Pathfinder Chronicler?!?!

Overview

What if you want to play a journalist?  What if you want someone else to be the hero?  What if you want to see history happen in front of your very own eyes?  Welcome to the Pathfinder Society.  In here we will teach you all about being an amazing sidekick, a plucky investigative reporter, or a herald of another’s good or terrible deeds.  In such a way, your name can actually supercede the names of the heroes, as it will be attached to every one of their tales.  We are the makers of legend.

The author as adventurer is a very common theme in many fictional stories.  From Bilbo Baggins to Richard Castle, from John Watson to Jiraiya, Ender Wiggins to Ford Prefect, it spans almost every genre.  If you have the same desire to not only write history but make history, the Pathfinder Chronicler could be your ticket.  

Oterisk, are you crazy?  Who in the world would play a Pathfinder Chronicler?

Short answer: Probably am crazy...  Moving on.

This whole guide came about from me being handed a Pathfinder Chronicler NPC and the DM saying, “I want you to roll for this one.  I’ll let you level them from here, and give me suggestions for combat, but I get the final say.”  So, I had to think.  What is the best possible way to use this character to benefit my party, and I have to admit.  While a little unorthodox, the Pathfinder Chronicler had some nifty things about them that made them fun.

Of course, about when I got the NPC going well and contributing nicely to the group, the story took them away.  But the seeds remained.  How useful is a Pathfinder Chronicler (hereafter known as the PfC)?  Is what they get more useful than staying in other classes?  I will let you know.

What can they do?

Skills:  There’s quite a few skills that are PfC class skills.  You would be likely to get a few new ones, and having a little of everything is useful especially since the PfC is pretty good at helping others out.  You aren’t the hero, but you sure can help out in just about any situation.  Since you also get 8+Int Skill points, you can max out some important skills and feel free to spread the love.

Bardic Knowledge:  High knowledge checks are important for any group.  The fact that you get even more bonuses to these skills only solidifies your abilities as a skill monkey.  Ook ook.

Deep Pockets:  Who else can effectively buy a potion or a scroll of something as a full round action?   If you are drowning, you can use one round to pull a water breathing potion you happened to forget you had until now.  Someone need a Dimensional Anchor spell?  You got a scroll in 6 seconds.  If only you had a wheelbarrow that would be something?  Well, if you had a folding one you could fit in a backpack, you have one.   With your high bonuses to using scrolls, you just became an emergency utility caster.  At high levels, you can pull 3rd and 4th level scrolls out of nowhere. This isn’t always useful, but at times it can be a lifesaver.

Master Scribe:  Oh, that’s right: MORE skill bonuses.  See a pattern here?   Linguistics is sometimes useful, depending on your AP, but the bonuses to profession scribe is interesting if only because it works with Epic Tales to bump up your performance score.  That really is only useful for the Distraction use of Epic Tales, which would make it nearly an automatic save for illusions at higher levels.  

Live to tell the Tale:  Up to 5 extra chances to save from ongoing effects.  I would take it.  Is it worth taking the class and giving up spell progression or other class abilities for?  Not really.

Pathfinding:  What a horribly appropriate skill name.  Not terribly useful though.  Not getting lost is usually something that doesn’t really happen after the first few levels.  Although it is excellent for a couple of levels if you have an adventure where you will be traveling quite a ways where there are no roads.  And then at level 9-10, your arcane caster gets teleport and it is useless again.  Ugh, they can’t all be winners I suppose.

Bardic Performance:  Here is finally something the PfC can do in combat.  Helping out your fellows with some inspire courage is usually well accepted.  The fact that this is actually the key to the full optimization of this particular Prestige Class makes it fantastic.  The only downside is that you are at -2 levels, but this can be overcome in other ways.  Check out the Bard section below.

Improved Aid:  This is a nice ability, if only it draws some more attention to the Aid Another option.  Aiding another is way easier than doing it on your own.  But it is an effective way to participate in combat since it only requires a hit on AC 10.  When you get it, your BAB is +5, so stat and magical bonuses aside, you should be all but automatic.  There is a sentence in the combat section that suggests you can use this to help people afflicted by spells, but that’s probably a question for your GM.

Epic Tales:  Save unused bardic performance for 4-10 days at a 2:1 ratio?  Nice.  Able to give them to anyone who can read?  Priceless.  Through this ability you get something that Bards have wanted for ages.  The ability to stack Bardic Performances.  All you need is to borrow other people to read your epic tales for themselves and toss out some inspire courage on top.  The fact that these get the use of any of your feats that augment bardic performance is gravy.

Whispering Campaign:  As cool as this sounds, being able to cast doom as a sorcerer of your level is really kinda dumb.  The enthrall ability is better than a normal enthrall, but since enthrall isn’t very good, this whole option isn’t very good.  

Inspire Action:  Give someone else a move action with Performance action of yours.  With this you can allow someone to get a full attack off in a surprise round, or move and full attack in a regular round.  I’m sure you can see the benefit to this.  It does work well as a Greater Epic Tale, but it’s a nice use of your current bardic rounds as well.  Later when you can inspire an extra Standard action, you can have your wizard cast yet another spell in the same round.  Or give a Greater Epic tale to your friend/cohort/familiar and let the wizard cast another spell in that same round.  Add Lingering Performance to it, and your wizard gets to cast 3 spells per round for 3 rounds, not counting quickened spells.  Congratulations, your ability is now better than Time Stop and you got it at character level 14.  That sounds pretty epic to me.

Call Down The Legends:  This ability is okay.  It is made nearly useless because it is only available once a week.  This ability you can put a price tag on.  You are a living horn of Valhalla.  This would be awesome at character level 6, but you get it at level 12 where these guys are usually able to only soak one hit from a big bad.  But at least they can do that.  They are better if they know how to read your Epic Tales though.  I would ask your GM about that.  Another thing you should ask your GM about is that the original intent of this ability was to allow it to be done once per day.  I don’t think that would be terrible.  

Greater Epic Tales:  Welcome to your Capstone ability.  You get it at level 13, where it will be useful in nearly every AP you will ever play.  Your Epic tales can be read by other people to full effect.  You basically can turn everyone in your party into a Bard.  Stack Inspire Courage and Inspire Greatness for everyone in your group and then give your striker pounce in the surprise round... ALL AT ONCE.  Sure it took a while to get here and not all of the levels were awesome, but now its time for your allies to sing your praises.

Lay of the Exalted Dead:  This is your supposed Capstone.  The fact that your Barbarians have incoporeal form and Ghost Touch Great Axes, makes them almost useful at this level, although I don’t know if they can hit much.  Most bad guys will just ignore them.  Also, this was originally meant to be done once per day, and all these barbarians do benefit from your bardic performances and aid another opportunities, so that’s a good deal.  

The Combat Roles:

Pathfinders can come in all shapes and sizes.  Where should I put my stats?  Doesn’t matter really.  What?  Yep, doesn’t matter.  If you plan on using Bardic Performances to influence and affect people, a 16 or better in Cha is a good idea, but not necessary.  Other than that, dumping Dex is a bad plan.  The Higher the Initiative modifier you have the quicker you can start modifying your friends’ actions for the better.  Since the rest of your stats aren’t as important, you can really make your initiative modifier to be quite high.  

The Tank-  Uses heavy armor and a shield.  You can be a skill monkey, but you wear heavy armor, so you are really only useful for the skills that don’t incur an Armor Check Penalty.  Of course, with your High AC, you feel free to wade into battle.  Since this limits your Skill choices, this really isn’t a great option, but it might get you through some of the lower levels easier.  Also not a bad choice if your group has another skill monkey.  A high dexterity build here is also possible, but it is my personal belief that a high dexterity build has a better option.

Pros:  High AC

Cons:  No Dex or Strength based skills, low CMD makes you an easy target for Maneuvers.  Arcane Spell failure if you took Bard levels.  Lower Mobility.  Being in the front line is bad for scrolls.

Priority: Strength

The Quick or the Dead-  This is a dexterity based build, which focuses on mobility.  You might dance around the battlefield, helping people out here and there.  Since Aid Another is a standard action, you might never stay in one place.  This build can go with the Dervish feats for reasonable damage when they do hit.  If you would rather go for something besides damage, this build can easily switch to a whip build.  Bards can use whip for free, and finesse is something you would get anyway.  Use the whip for ranged help or possibly a tripping build.  Because their dex is high, ranged combat isn’t a terrible option either.

Pros:  Decent Damage, Decent AC.  Options in combat.

Cons:  Being good at range takes a lot of feats, being good at anything dex based takes a lot of feats.  You will find that you are feat starved, always having more good options than you have opportunities to take them.

Priority: Dex

The Standard Bearer- This build focuses on the Longspear or other polearm, able to use reach to aid and can make good use of Combat reflexes to get some extra damage.  Often prone to use scrolls or spells of Enlarge person for extra reach, as well as Knight’s Pinion and Banner of the Ancient Kings on the spear along with the Flagbearer Feat.  This build can also take 4 levels of Cavalier to get a horse and may use PfC to jump to Battle Herald for extra battlefield buffs.

Pros:  Long reach helps keep them out of trouble, Better bonuses to Inspire Courage, possibly trade it in for something else.  

Cons:  Not as good AC as some of the other builds.  Might have less performance rounds per day.

Priority:  Balance

The Advisor- This build uses the Sensei Monk as a basis for their performance and as such has much different priorities as a class.  Because none of your “performances” require Charisma, you can use it as a dump stat.  Sure, that doesn’t help your UMD score, but with all the bonuses you get to scrolls, you can still do a decent job.

Pros:  Able to Dump Cha, Bonus Feats, qualify for Style feats early, Ki Pool

Cons: Lower UMD, less options for performances

Priority: Wisdom

The Stacks.

I’m going to start with the class that makes the most sense and will take the most space.  Then I will rate all of the other classes you could use to prepare to be a Pathfinder Chronicler.  Since ALL PfC’s will be getting up to the first 8 levels of Bardic abilities, it would be good to look at no matter your build up until that point.  

Bard- Blue  Being that some of the best abilities are tied up in bardic performance and there is a certain amount of stacking that goes on with the PfC, This is a really good choice.  Not to mention Versatile performance can allow you to use your required skill points in Perform Oratory and forget putting points in Diplomacy and Sense Motive.  You should probably use some of this class in your build in order to not be too far behind the straight Bards in the buff.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  

Now this Prestige Class came out before archetypes, but you can be relatively sure that if you start with a certain archetype and you stack your PfC levels, you should probably continue on with your Archetype’s kinds of Bardic performance to keep bookkeeping to a minimum.  This means if you turn in Inspire Courage for some other performance, you shouldn’t get it when you reach level 3 of PfC.  Got it?  

I will start with the regular performances, rating them in how they would interact with the PfC and then rating the various Archetypes.  Here we go.

Countersong- Red.  I’m not going to tell you this isn’t useful, but it is likely that your character only has Perform: Oratory, and won’t have the requisite skill to use this.  But you can.  Since it depends on your perform check and not your level, it can be just as potent as if you were a full Bard, which still isn’t terribly potent, just situationally useful.  

Distraction- Orange.  Also situationally useful, but requires nothing but to keep putting one skill point in Perform: Oratory every level.  The fact that it works on figments and patterns is pretty awesome actually, and you can be one of the few that can resist the Heavens Oracle because you are a man of the world: firmly grounded.  

Fascinate- Orange.  You can distract large groups of people.  Yay.  You might use this once or twice in your career, unless your companions have to constantly sneak out of town.  Better have your own way out if you do this though.

Inspire Courage- Blue.  This is a great option.  You will likely be burning most of your rounds on this one.  In fact, if you choose to take levels of Bard before becoming a PfC, this is probably why.

Inspire Competence- Green.  Add this to your ability to aid another, and a full round action can give someone a +7 or more to their skill check after character level 9.  I’d say that’s pretty good.  

Suggestion- Green.  Also situationally useful, but being able to suggest things to people and they have to make a save or do it is a nice option.  Being able to target multiple people makes it better.  Sure it takes two rounds to do it, but you will be doing it out of combat, which makes more sense anyway.

Dirge of Doom- Orange.  This is a nice debuff you can get on those nasty bad guys.  Since it doesn’t stack with any previous fear condition, it isn’t that great.  It is good if you have a rogue pal with Shatter Defences.

Inspire Greatness- Blue.  This is … great.  Yeah, you guessed it.  It’s even better when you can give some Epic Tales to your literate non-magical friend and inspire courage on top.  It’s nice that they stack.

Soothing Performance- Blue.  Combined with Greater Epic Tales, you basically can make free scrolls of Mass Cure Serious Wounds for Free that require no UMD roll.  Epic tales turns this into a full round action instead of a 4 round action.  This is a level 7-8 spell depending on which list you find it on, and getting it at level 14 or slightly higher isn’t too bad.  Now your primary healer can spend his spell slots on smiting action.  Everyone wins.  Everyone on your side that is.

Frightening Tune- Blue.  It was sorta uncool when you got it’s younger brother a few levels back.  Now that you can stack your performances, you can hand some Epic Tales to your friend/Cohort/Familiar and Panic the suckers.  Works great with a Lord’s Banner (terror).  Welcome to Awesometown.  

Inspire Heroics- Green  It’s alright.  The fact that it can stack with Inspire Courage and Greatness makes it useful.

Mass Suggestion- Orange.  As a Capstone for a 10th level Bard 10th level PfC, it’s not that great.  You might use it once or twice.  Whee.  People at this level seem to be interested in taking down Demon Lords and Terrasques and things like that.  

Deadly Tune- Black, You ain’t getting this unless someone comes up with a feat to consider Bardic Music at 4 levels higher than your actual bard level with a limit of your Character level.  Like boon companion for Bards.  So you might as well forget it.

Now it’s time to take a look at the Archetypes.  These are rated assuming you are taking at least 4 levels of Bard.  I will rate the other classes in a later list.  

Animal Speaker- Red.  Not only does the fluff not work very well, but the only redeeming quality is to summon hordes upon hordes of rats.  Okay, nobody likes that.

Arcane Duelist- Blue.  It replaces Fascinate, Suggestion, and Mass Suggestion with more interesting stuff.  And then you get bonus feats too.  Blade Thirst and Mass Blade Thirst are pretty awesome with Epic Tales.  The only detriment to taking this Archetype is some GMs look unfavorably on having both an Arcane Bond and a Familiar (a decent option I will talk about later) at the same time.  Talk to your GM about that so you can weigh all your possibilities.  

Archaeologist- Red.  You would be better off going with any other Archetype.  Getting a swift action for your own luck is great, but trading it for doing it as a standard or move action doesn’t really help.

Archivist- Green.  For a non combat oriented PfC, this Archetype has some interesting synergy such as a bonus to Scrolls and glyphs, and the ability to take 20 on some knowledge checks.  The loss of Inspire Courage hurts, but go with a Flagbearer feat and Banner of the Ancient Kings and stack on the Inspire Greatness performances to make up for it.

Buccaneer- Green.  You get rid of Suggestion for Song of Surrender, which will be used much more often.  There are more interesting options though.

Celebrity- Red.  You get rid of Inspire Courage and Dirge of Doom for limited bonuses to skills.  I just don’t see this working well.

Chelish Diva- Blue.  Great for a Tank or even a Standard Bearer build.  You can still cast your spells in Medium armor.  You don’t lose Inspire Courage, and the real winner is using extra Performance rounds to make your DCs more difficult.  Win.

Court Bard- Orange.  The cool part of this build is the ability to affect a 60’ cone instead of a 30’ radius.  That’s all.

Daredevil- Green.  Lots of cool skill bonuses, but not blue because you lost inspire courage.  It makes a decent whip PfC if you want to do some tripping.

Dawnflower Dervish- Red.  RAW says it might stack but it is clearly RAI that it shouldn’t.  Consult your GM, and if you consulted your GM, smack yourself.  Even Munchkins should have some shame.  

Demagogue- Orange.  No Inspire Courage, but not really a whole lot to replace it.  I would pass.

Detective- Orange.  More lackluster returns for good losses.  Unless it fits your character concept exactly, don’t go with it.  Sherlock Holmes was too much of a lone ranger to be a PfC anyway.  Watson on the other hand...

Dervish Dancer- See Dawnflower Dervish.

Dirge Bard- Green.  The skeletons are kinda cool, but after a while aren’t that great.  It does fit thematically with your Valhalla abilities, but it’s too bad they couldn’t be intelligent undead.

Geisha- Green.  The extra abilities this archetype gives you are pretty neat.  If you dip Monk it’s even better.  View monk for good advice there.

Lotus Geisha- Blue.  Lose well versed for some interesting fluff and options?  Sure!

Magician- Orange.  Not terrible, but also not good if you want to give up 8-10 caster levels.

Sandman- Red.  You give up some of your best stackables for stuff you can hardly use.  

Savage Skald- Blue.  There’s some really good stuff here, Berzerkergang is pretty awesome too, as long as you teach your pet Invulnerable Barbarian to read.  You want this if you have barbarians in the party period.

Sea Singer- Blue.  Lose nothing vital and gain a familiar.  One improved familiar later and you have a second reader all to yourself.  A great option for Dex builds to save feats while still getting the familiar of your dreams.  Whistle the Wind is funny too, because we all know you are full of hot air.

Song Healer- Blue.  Getting Heal is worth losing Frightening Tune.  Epic Tales to get it as a full round action that you can hand to your familiar makes it awesome.  

Sound Striker- Blue.  Many people think Weird Words is overpowered.  Wait until you set off three or four full volleys of weird words in one round.

Street Performer- Orange.  You lose almost all of your stackable bonuses for some weird and maybe fun abilities.  I wouldn’t recommend it, but it could be fun.

Cleric Evangelist-  Orange Why is this in the Bard Archetypes?  Oh that’s right, they get Bard like abilities.  A cleric evangelist also gets Bardic performance, and a little better performances than even the Monk Sensei below.  Why is it orange?  Mostly because a full caster has more to lose from a non-spellcasting Prestige Class than say, a monk or a bard.  The bard can remain a passable healbot with the performances available to them, but a cleric stuck on level 5 casting for 10 levels with little skill points, and another stat they need to have at a decent level makes this particular option not that great for PfC’s.  This isn’t to say that they aren’t fantastic by themselves, just that they don’t synergize as well as your other options.

Monk Sensei- Green.  It’s green because they only get three abilities to write down, although they are good together.  It’s a whole different style of PfC, but it could definitely work.  If you go 5 levels of this before you jump into PfC, you can actually dump Charisma entirely.  Be sure to look at other archetypes that stack with this like Drunken Master and Monk of the Four Winds.

There’s another build that is really strange and possibly controversial.  Take 4 levels of your favorite bard archetype and then go with one level of Sensei.  But Oterisk, those two classes wouldn’t stack, why would you do that?  Let me tell you.  Because they don’t stack, it actually gets you two sources of Bardic performances and the PRD says,  “Levels in this class (PfC) stack with levels in any other class that grants a similar ability to determine her effective bard level.”  Could you read that to mean that PfC would cause both classes to continue stacking in their effective bard level?  Yes. Should you?  Consult your GM.  

How does that work?  Well a Sensei 1, Bard 5, PfC 10 would have 9th level Sensei performance and 13th level Bard performance.  Since you can use bardic performance as a move action as a Sensei, and a swift action as a Bard, you can do some interesting things.  Since when you start a new performance from the same source, they don’t stack, you can use your move to Inspire Action and your swift to Inspire Courage.  I think this is how it works via RAW, but as in all things, you need to consult your GM to make sure they are okay with your build.  I personally don’t think it is an issue balance wise because a Battle Herald can do something similar.  

Other Classes I didn’t consider red.

Barbarian- One level of Barbarian helps any melee character. But not being able to rage and use any skills that require intelligence or charisma, that makes it rough.  Urban Barbarian is a good choice if you are dex based.  Green.

Fighter- One level of Fighter gives you heavy armor and a combat feat.  Good for tanks and possibly Quick or the Dead builds for extra feats, Green.

Monk- A couple levels of certain archetypes can give you some major defense or some fun options.  Green.

Paladin- Two levels of paladin are good for any high Cha character, and heavy Armor is good for Tanks.  Green.

Rogue- I’ve seen it done, It wasn’t terrible.  Lots of skill points, and the extra situational damage from sneak attack is also nice when you can get it.  It has fine flavor and access to some rogue talents which can be situationally useful, but there really are better options.  Orange

Ranger- Decent for skills and extra combat feats, the Ranger also works as a PfC in his pathfinding qualities.  It works for fluff, and not bad for Synergy either.  Blue.

Alchemist- Green for Mindchemist, at least two levels.  Nothing makes a better knowledge monkey than that.

Cavalier- Blue.  You can spend just four levels and a feat to get let your Mount work off of your character level instead of your cavalier level.  This makes it ideal for prestige classes.  Another odd thing you can do is polymorph your mount into a person and teach them to read.  Now you have another person to read your epic tales.  If you buy a scroll to do this, you can dismiss it as a standard action and get back on your mount.   Or better yet, polymorph them into a centaur, and now you can have them read and you can still ride them.  Special consideration for the cavalier should push you toward...

Battle Herald- If you wanted you can take 3-4 levels of Pathfinder Chronicler to qualify for BH, You can do that.  In fact, 8 levels of PfC, 7 levels of BH with a 5 level Cav start and the Banner of the Ancient Kings still gets you a swift action full powered Inspire courage at level 20 and a +16 BAB, AND a move action to Inspire Action in the same round.  Lingering performance works for both Inspiring Commands and Bardic Performance, so you can make them stack if you want to pay the action cost every 3 rounds.  Not bad for a character without spells.  In fact, inspiring command is so good, if you took a level of Cavalier I would recommend taking a one level dip into Battle Herald just to get it so you can continue to use a move action for your performances at higher level and can stack more performances into every battle.  

Oracle- High Charisma Characters could benefit from a level or two of Lore Oracle.  It also makes UMD checks for clerical items easier.  Blue.

Races 

To be honest, any race could be a good PfC.  Dwarves make good Tanks and Monk Sensei builds, Elves do good with Quick or the Dead, Gnomes Tank and Standard Bearer both, Halflings can do any of these, really.  Humans, half-elves and Half-Orcs can all do it well too.  As for Monstrous Races and Races of the Dragon Empires, I’m not going to get into it.  Just make a build that suits whatever combat style your race would be naturally good at and presto!  You should be fine.  

Traits

Maestro of the Society (Pathfinder Society)- Three more rounds of performance?  The more the merrier.

Magical Knack- If you picked the Sea Singer for a Familiar for 5 levels before becoming an PfC and went with this trait, you would qualify for 7th level Improved familiars at level 7.  It’s a fine trick for a limited option.  Otherwise, this isn’t very good as a trait because it won’t get you much more.  Your casting level after you make the switch to the Prestige Class will never recover enough to make this worth it.  

Reactionary- +2 to Initiative, very useful.

Feats

Breadth of Experience- This is a pretty cool boost to all of your knowledges, although half of the benefit of this feat is taken care of by the Bardic Knowledge class ability.

Combat Expertise- If your to hit is pretty low, this can help a lackluster AC while you use Aid Another on other people’s attacks.

Butterfly’s Sting- If you like Desna, this is a pretty nice feat.  Tank it up and try to get some crits, your pal with the Great Axe or Scythe will love you.

Gang up and Team up- Feat intensive to get another Aid Another in a round as a move action.  It could be fun if it didn’t cost 3 feats to get to.  And there is the slight matter of actually having to be next to the enemy and your pals.  I wouldn’t bother.

Improved Combat Maneuvers- Feint is the only combat maneuver you would be decent at, and it isn’t terribly good for you.  Trip- Might also be an option, and go with a whip build pretty well.

Fury’s Fall and Fury’s snare-  These are good if you like a whip build.  

Swift Aid-  If you got Team Up, you can now Aid another 3 times in a round, and maintain a performance on top of all this.  Actually, you would be better off with just this and not Team up, although there is the small matter of the Swift Aid not being the same bonuses as a regular Aid Another, and so one could reasonably argue that the Pathfinder’s Improved Aid wouldn’t work for this.  Make sure to consult your GM.  

Combat Reflexes / Bodyguard.  Use an AoO for a +4 to AC against your friends?  Might be worth it.

Critical Focus- Only useful if you are using Butterfly Sting, although a Keen weapon would be better.

Dischordant Voice- This is a cool way to get some extra damage added on to everyones attacks.  It is a great option, even late in the game.

Dodge+Mobility-  These are okay, they can be useful, but since your slots are limited I would look elsewhere.

Enforcer- If you decided to go with a whip build, this is a fun feat.  Great range, and you get a free chance at a decent debuff.  Add this to your inspire courage, and the disparity between you and your enemies grows.  

Exotic Weapon Proficiency- Grabbing this for net use isn’t a terrible idea.  If you are focusing your proficiencies toward buffs and debuffs even in combat, being able to entangle can be pretty useful.  I might also get Net Adept, so that you can carry a flag or a whip in the other hand.

Extra Performance- 6 more rounds of performance means 3 Epic Tales of inspire action or something similar.  Not a bad plan if you have room for it.

Fast Drinker- useful if you went with the Sensei/Drunken Master Monk build, but only if you do.  In fact, I wouldn’t make the build without it.

Flag Bearer- Morale bonus to attack and damage if you have a free hand for a flag or a polearm to attach a flag onto.  Stacks with Inspire Courage.  Win.  Great from level one.

Harmonic Sage- not terribly useful, but if you plan on using bardic performances against people the +1 to DC could definitely be useful

Improved Familliar, Evolved Familliar, Familiar or similar ability- While being rather feat intensive, the ability that Epic Tales grants you can be well used by an improved familiar.  On top of this, an evolved familiar with Racial Skill: UMD can also be used as a severe bonus to an improved familiar which can allow you to double your effectiveness.  Leadership might be a better and simpler way to go, but quite often, that isn’t available.  

Improved Initiative- A high initiative is always good, especially when people go after you get the bonuses from your performances.  I recommend this.

Leadership- This is a good way to get your epic tales out there.  

Leaf Singer- If you have a bunch of forest going on, doubling your range or area on your bardic performances is amazing.  If you won’t be in the forest much, don’t do this.

Lingering Performance- This is an awesome feat to have, as it allows for some really cool options for your epic tales.  Inspire Action in particular.  Read it right before you bust down a door, so you can get in a pounce like effect or as a caster you can get two rounds of casting extra spells during combat.  This is pretty much a must.  It should be the first thing you should get if you have any levels of Battle Herald.  

Lunge- If you are using the Aid Another action in combat, this can be useful as a late feat to gain more opportunities to do such a thing.

Nimble moves- I like this for a mobile character especially in difficult terrain because it keeps quite a few things from getting a full attack in on you.  Even creatures with Pounce can be stymied by this when you five foot step away, they can’t five foot step up to where you are, nor can they pounce because they need to move ten feet.  There are many ways to make difficult terrain, such as Entangle or Stone Call, both of which you can buy or just pull out of your pocket when you need it.

Power Attack / Deadly Aim- I don’t recommend that you go for damage in battle, you have to think differently to be truly optimized.  Now it doesn’t mean that you can’t do some damage, but there are so many other feats that might be really useful, getting into these common ones may not be your best option.

Quickdraw- Useful if you want to use a shield or throw weapons or switch between different flags in your inventory.

Skill Focus- Eldrich Heritage- This is a good way to get a familiar if you need one, and being good at certain skills can be quite useful.  Some of the other bloodlines besides Arcane can be useful too, but I’m not going through them now.

Spell Focus- You shouldn’t be casting enough to make this worth your while.

Spell Song- a good idea for subversive PfCs

Stone Singer- If you are doing an underground AP, this might be a fine option.

Taunt- You should have enough skill points to keep from using this.

Toughness- Is your campaign tough?  Or do you have low point buy?  This may help.

Two Weapon Fighting- There are better ways to spend your feats IMHO.

Voice of the Sibyl- Useful in stacking some social traits up higher.  Has possible merit.

Weapon Finesse- You might find yourself starting with this one if you don’t have a lot of strength.  Dervish Dance can be useful if you like a scimitar as a weapon.  

Weapon focus/ Dazzling Display- If you have a rogue with Shatter Defenses in the group, this will make them very happy since intimidate doesn’t allow a saving throw.   Probably better to go with frightening tune instead though.

Whip Mastery- Also a fun way to go if you like your whips.

Ensemble- Teamwork feat- Kinda cool, but since there are limited needs for rolling your performance rolls that can be done as a full round action, this seems to lose a bit of luster.  I would think more about it if you had more bards in your party.

Wondrous Items:  

The regular items are useful for Pathfinder Chroniclers.  Don’t bother getting magical weapons unless you use your polearms or whips for actual fighting instead of aid another.  

The best build of Standard Bearers should take a look at the pennons and banners.  There are some nice bonuses you can get for your team with those, and they don’t always stop after 30 feet.  Since you can have multiple polearms, having multiple flags is possible, so picking up a couple of these are pretty nice.

Banner of the Ancient Kings:  Doubles flagbearer feat and +4 to levels for Inspire Courage.  Not terribly expensive.  Very nice.

Banner, Lord’s (Crusades)-  Having a portable Hallow effect is cool, using it to have a one year duration on any of a number of buffs that is completely selective.  Not too bad.  Worth the price?  not quite so sure.  Depends on how many allies you have.

Banner, Lord’s (Swiftness)-  Pretty much only useful if you are lots of people who need to go places.  

Banner, Lord’s (Terror)-  Save and you are shaken, no save and you panic.  Easy way to loot an army.  Worth the money for creative people, don’t abuse it too much or your GM will get cross.

Banner, Lord’s (Victory)-  +2 Morale Bonus to Attacks and saves. A good banner to get if you don’t spend a feat on flagbearer.  Mostly stacks with Inspire courage, for the win!

Pinnon, Knight’s (Battle)-  Heroism once per day?  Useful.

Pinnon, Knight’s (Honor)-  Protection from Evil once per day?  Also Useful.

Pinnon, Knight’s (Parley)-  Enhancement bonus to some pretty useful skills?  Stacks with Inspire Competence?  Also useful.  

Conclusion:

Once you hit level 13, you really start being something.  Up until then, you might not be much.  So oddly enough, don’t take this Prestige class if you are playing Pathfinder Society.  This is for AP’s and homebrew games that will take you a few levels beyond your comeuppance.  This is also quite a nice option for a cohort, no matter your style, because I really can’t think of something better for writing down your epic deeds and helping you accomplish them.

Disclaimer:

I did not make money on any of this, so if you are the author of any of the pictures that I used, I will take it down upon request or make sure you get a proper due for your excellent work.  Also, thanks to Treantmonk for the original guides.