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Like a virgin, Skald for the very first time.

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 2:52 pm
by Mister Popo
As my Totemic Druid save game got erased, I was thinking about starting a new game as a Bard.

I've chosen a skald, but I don't know if this was the right choice.
The bardsong prevents him from doing anything else.

The main reason I chose him was because his to hit and dam. bonus but while playing I discovered it was pretty much one or the other. Either sing the song or fight along.

So my question is, as I've just started, did I make a wrong choice or is the skald/bard a good char. I've never played one, not even in BG1, so I'd really like to try.

All hints or redirections are welcome, current skald threads aren't to uplifting. :p

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 3:55 pm
by fable
As has been said before so many times, there are no wrong professions or NPC party members in BG2. It's all a matter of 1) how you play the game, and 2) the kind of challenges you want to take on. If you're looking for an easy game, I would certainly recommend one of the many combinations that have been discussed, such as a kensai/mage. If you want something that's going to make you think about how you'll really deal with a fight, a skald is definitely a good place to start. :)

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 4:17 pm
by Idioteque
It depends how you want to play. If you're just gonna sing the whole time then Skald is a bad choice and you should pick a vanilla Bard or a Jester. But if you want a guy who can fight a little as well as cast a few spells and identify then Skald or Blade is the way to go.

Personally I don't like Bards and would rather go Swashbuckler/Mage. :D

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 7:40 pm
by VonDondu
You could always start a multiplayer game and create two of your own characters instead of just one (or as many as you like, up to six). You could make your primary character (the Bhaalspawn) some type of melee character such as a Berserker, a Swashbuckler, or a Fighter/Thief, and your second character could be your Skald, whose songs would enhance your primary character's fighting abilities. Then you could add any NPCs you like to the mix. Since the Skald song is stackable (I did some experiments and confirmed it a long time ago), you could even create a whole squad of cheerleaders if you wanted to--five Skalds to sing while your primary character goes to town. :)

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:44 pm
by Ekental
Originally posted by fable
As has been said before so many times, there are no wrong professions or NPC party members in BG2. It's all a matter of 1) how you play the game, and 2) the kind of challenges you want to take on.


LOL..... hehe... this almost seems like a way of saying that there are no wrong classes but the ah... more ... uh not weak, I guess I can't find a word for it but i'll use "Weak" as a poor substitute...
The weaker the class the harder the game, so if you want to look at it in those terms I guess there would be "wrong" classes, personally I don't use bards cuase they were never very useful to me. Bonuses and stuff, they made a cruddy fighter or just gave a couple moderate bonuses while singing

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 5:36 am
by Mister Popo
Originally posted by VonDondu
(I did some experiments and confirmed it a long time ago), you could even create a whole squad of cheerleaders if you wanted to--five Skalds to sing while your primary character goes to town. :)
Haha, how did you experiment, and what were the results.
I would love to see a barbarian kick Firkraags ass with 5 female skalds singing on the background.

I know the game can be beat by any char. but Fable, you know that some char's are more fun then others. Look at the discussion AC ans Ys can have about wich druid is best. ;)

I had a Bard in IWD1 and I liked him a lot, he had a long bow, spells, a high lore and some good bardsongs (Liked the dire charm one.) So that's why I tried one when making a new BG2 char.

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 6:46 am
by VonDondu
Originally posted by Mister Popo
Haha, how did you experiment, and what were the results.
I would love to see a barbarian kick Firkraags ass with 5 female skalds singing on the background...
Well, I don't know if better Armor Class and THAC0 would help all that much against Firkraag, who has magical protections and special attacks that render such advantages moot. Dealing out extra damage helps, though, as long as you hit your target, and the immunity to Fear helps against dragons.

In any case, my experiment went like this. At the time, I was playing with a party of Bards, one of whom was a Skald. (Yes, I enjoyed playing Bards.) They were in the Underdark at the time. Some people on a popular message board which is now defunct wanted to know if the Skald song is stackable, so I decided to have a bit of fun.

I took my saved Multiplayer game and deleted all of the characters except for the Skald, and then created four more Skalds. When I opened the game, I created Boo (yes, Boo) from the console and equipped him with three items that I already had in my inventory: the Ring of Gaxx, the Helm of Balduran, and the Cloak of Mirroring. Then I had him attack the beholder lair all by himself while the Skalds were singing.

Boo did very well for a 0 Level character with only 7 hit points. :) His attacks and defenses were phenomenal. The Skald song is kind of weird because the bonuses are constantly re-calculated, so Boo's Armor Class constantly fluctuated between -11 (his natural AC with the items he was wearing) and -31 (each Skald could give him a -4 AC bonus) and everything in between. Boo can be killed with one good hit (he has 2 Hit Points, and the Helm of Balduran gave him an extra 5 Hit Points), but he only got hit a couple of times for a couple points of damage, which were healed the next round by the Ring of Gaxx. When I did the experiment, the Cloak of Mirroring hadn't been fixed, so it reflected all of the Beholder's attacks and they injured themselves quite a bit. Boo did get imprisoned by the Elder Orbs a couple of times, but I had four scrolls of Freedom, so all it did was slow him down (and make him angry). :) The Beholders didn't stand a chance.

I should point out that in Shadows of Amn, the combat tables have an effective AC limit of -10. Your AC can be lower than that, but in effect, AC -20 is treated the same as AC -10. This was corrected in Throne of Bhaal, where the effective limit is AC -20.

After I laid waste of the Beholder lair a couple of times (hey, it was fun), I created a Kensai dualled to a Thief and tried it again (with the five Skalds). I quit halfway through because the Kensai/Thief didn't need the Skalds' help. Cheesy characters like that just aren't any fun. :)

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 7:12 am
by Loki 65t
As always - the ultimate decision is up to you. Picking chars on the rule : "oh i haven't played that yet" is not the best since is partly forced choice.

I decide what char should I be after I make up the list of party NPCs - and then choose the one that should fit in - role/rpg- wise.

Also - if you plan on a bard - if his main role would be singing think about how little else he could do ? Sounds to me that 1 char is actually out of tactical control during combat (all you have to do is start singing and move him from time to time ).

In any case - your definition of an interesting char is all that matters.

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 7:30 am
by VonDondu
Originally posted by Ekental
LOL..... hehe... this almost seems like a way of saying that there are no wrong classes but the ah... more ... uh not weak, I guess I can't find a word for it but i'll use "Weak" as a poor substitute...
The weaker the class the harder the game, so if you want to look at it in those terms I guess there would be "wrong" classes...
I don't remember exactly what the issue was, but we had a thread a while back that inspired me to create a "dream team" out of the lamest possible character classes. I included a Transmuter (surely the weakest character class of all), a Beastmaster, a Totemic Druid, a Wizard Slayer, a Blade (who has the most penalties out of all of the Bard kits and just isn't good enough in melee to make up for it), and a single-class Thief (the best character in the party). I didn't play with it for very long because there wasn't anything particularly interesting about it. It was just a run-of-the-mill party that was a lot weaker than all of the other parties I've played, and weakness in itself doesn't have much novelty value. :)