GameBanshee Forums

I've never played a Bard before, so I don't know much about them. I'm thinking of giving them a try, but had a few questions:

1) What exactly is the Bard's Battle Song? i.e: What does it do?

2) I was checking out the Skald, and thinking their song sounded good (immunity to fear/stun/confusion would be great). Then I noticed that any Bard can get "Enhanced Bard Song" as a HLA - and that this includes all the benefits of the 20th level Skald song and more! So what's the benefit of playing a Skald?

3) The Jester seems to be the one Bard kit that doesn't have "Battle song doesn't get better with levels" as a negative to it. Is this true, or just a mistake on the webpage? (Based on this)

4) How good are their Mage abilities? i.e: Do they have access to all spell levels? How many spells do they get (rough percent is fine) compared to a full mage?

The manual is a bit sketchy on the Bard song, infact I don't think it says *anywhere* what the original one does. Been a while since I played one but I'd imagine it gives combat bonuses. And yes, the Skald is nerfed by enhanced Bard song.

As for spell levels, Bards can cast up to level 6 (mislead being the one to get) unless you're using Ease of Use mod in which case they can get up to level 8 (sets Bard spell tables back to pnp rules apparently). They get roughly 75% of the number of spells a mage gets. The Rogue Rebalancing mod also does alot to the various Bard classes but I haven't tried it yet.

Originally posted by kopywrite

As for spell levels, Bards can cast up to level 6 (mislead being the one to get) unless you're using Ease of Use mod in which case they can get up to level 8 (sets Bard spell tables back to pnp rules apparently). They get roughly 75% of the number of spells a mage gets. The Rogue Rebalancing mod also does alot to the various Bard classes but I haven't tried it yet.

The mod is cool, but if you like the trap cheese, you'll hate it. You get another habilities and it corrects the blade improved bard song.

BTW, without the mod, play a Blade, or a Skald. The spins are cool, and the Skald atacks are better.

Yep, I played with a Skald a couple of times. Great potential, yet not a straightforward ubergod-type character. UAI is nice, but is counter-balanced by the no-spells-above-lvl-6 limitation.

I haven't played a Bard recently; should be interesting with the thief rebalancing mod...

-kaitsuburi

Thanks for info - especially on the Rogue rebalance mod - I hadn't heard about that one! I'm not a trap person (too cheesy), so the mod is welcome. And I'm going with the Skald, now that they actually get a better song with the HLA. My plan is for him to sit back and sing during combat anyway. I'm just loading him up with non-combat and pre-combat spells (knock, haste, area affect spells like fireball). Should be a nice complement to my full mage.

Try mislead...you get the benifits of the bard song and you get to join in too.