Bard song

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:45 pm

Does anyone know what effect playing the bard song has on fighting, skill rolls, etc?

I look at my profile stats before and after turning on the bard song, but for the life of me I have no idea what the beneficial effects are. Aerich, can you assist, O wise Jedi Master??

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:34 am

Which Bard Song are you singing? They all have different effects.

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:09 am

I'm playing IWD 1, not HoW, so there's only one bard song available.

[QUOTE=krunchyfrogg]Which Bard Song are you singing? They all have different effects.[/QUOTE]

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:42 am

Sorry, I didn't know that (I've never playerd w/o HoW).

I think the standard Bard Song adds +1 to hit and +1 save vs. Fear.

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:02 pm

Bard Songs

Bariumdose, you are using the lvl 1 song; +1 to attack, damage, and saves. You don't get the benefit until one full round after you start singing. As you can see below, HoW makes bards into dynamic support characters, but you can't get any songs other than the first in IWD. Just one more reason to get HoW...

Lvl 1 song - Ballad of Three Heroes - +1 to attack, damage, and saves
Lvl 3 song - Tale of Curran Strongheart - immunity to fear
Lvl 5 song - Tymora's Melody - luck, meaning +1 to attack, damage, critical hits, and +3 to saves; may be some benefit to thief skills too
Lvl 7 song - Song of Kaudies - 50% resistance to sound-based attacks
Lvl 9 song - Siren's Yearning - enemies save or enthralled (no actions unless attacked)
Lvl 11 song - War Chant of the Sith - +2 AC, 10% damage resistance to all weapons, regenerate 2 HP per round.

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:48 am

Hey, Aerich,

Thanks for the info. I recently bot HoW but haven't installed it yet. Right now, I'm still playing IWD 1 (a long hard slog as Rumsfeld would say, but I've been busy with other things which is why I'm playing the game so slowly.)

Can I install HoW and get all the cool spells and bard songs even though I haven't finished IWD 1? Would installing HoW mess up my current saved game and characters? I would assume that it shouldn't since the instruction manual for HoW say you don't have to finish IWD 1 in order to play HoW?

[QUOTE=Aerich]Bariumdose, you are using the lvl 1 song; +1 to attack, damage, and saves. You don't get the benefit until one full round after you start singing. As you can see below, HoW makes bards into dynamic support characters, but you can't get any songs other than the first in IWD. Just one more reason to get HoW...

Lvl 1 song - Ballad of Three Heroes - +1 to attack, damage, and saves
Lvl 3 song - Tale of Curran Strongheart - immunity to fear
Lvl 5 song - Tymora's Melody - luck, meaning +1 to attack, damage, critical hits, and +3 to saves; may be some benefit to thief skills too
Lvl 7 song - Song of Kaudies - 50% resistance to sound-based attacks
Lvl 9 song - Siren's Yearning - enemies save or enthralled (no actions unless attacked)
Lvl 11 song - War Chant of the Sith - +2 AC, 10% damage resistance to all weapons, regenerate 2 HP per round.[/QUOTE]

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:50 pm

Installing HoW in mid-stream will not mess up your game. Make sure you install the free expansion Trials of the Luremaster, too, as TotL has the latest HoW patch.

The only real effect is that if you have already visited a shop in IWD, the inventory does not switch over to the HoW inventory when you go back to the shop. No biggie.

You will notice a difference in play because of the call-to-arms feature; no more picking off a roomful of creatures one at a time.

It's actually a lot more fun when you get used to it, makes more sense, and is a boon to the "lure" tactic (decoy with free action rouses enemies and runs back to party through web/entangle).

krunchyfrogg · Post by **krunchyfrogg** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:39 pm

Another difference is that HOW further restricts your oppositional schools for your specialist mages (if you have any). This is to make it more like P&P D&D.

You won't lose any spells you have memorized already, but you can't get any new ones from opposing schools.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:03 am

The most powerful (random) items you can find in IwD are also removed with the installation of HoW.

Philos · Post by **Philos** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:55 pm

Which Items?

Kmonster,

Which items get dropped? In "general" I have found better items overall since adding HoW & TotL. Not disagreeing with you, just curious as to what I might be missing out on.

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:10 pm

The biggest removal that I can think of is the +4 Hammer longbow... talk about a machine gun. :laugh: I've heard that it can be found randomly in HoW, but I can't confirm it.

In general, HoW adds many more items, ranging from decent to excellent. I can't say that I miss many items that are only available in vanilla IWD, because there aren't many taken out and the benefits of HoW far outweigh any perceived loss of overpowered items.

I forgot about the opposition school thing - the hardest hit specialist class is conjuror - opposition school shifts from divination to evocation...

I wouldn't take a specialist with HoW installed without another mage or bard capable of casting the opposition school - you could get away with it in IWD, but not with the opposition school rebalancing.