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Alright, me and my ideas, I have been through the game a couple times and Ive even solo'd a couple times (3) but now iwant to try something a little different . . .

A party of 6 bards.

I figure if i have 5 bards singing (2 of the jesters and 3 skalds) my 6th bard, a blade (the one who will be dealing the damage) will be insane! All the while the enemies will be confused (nothin can save enough to stand 2 jesters lol)

The question is will the bard song effects of the skalds stack?

will the jester's?

will any of them stack with the blade's offensive spin?

PS think of the possibilities . . .

[QUOTE=Sneezer]Alright, me and my ideas, I have been through the game a couple times and Ive even solo'd a couple times (3) but now iwant to try something a little different . . .

A party of 6 bards.

I figure if i have 5 bards singing (2 of the jesters and 3 skalds) my 6th bard, a blade (the one who will be dealing the damage) will be insane! All the while the enemies will be confused (nothin can save enough to stand 2 jesters lol)

The question is will the bard song effects of the skalds stack?

will the jester's?

will any of them stack with the blade's offensive spin?

PS think of the possibilities . . .[/QUOTE]

Good Idea... but it's not a new one. I've actually tried something like this (3 Skalds, Haer'Dalis, Keto (Bard SKed to a Skald) and a Blade PC).

It works pretty well in the beggining, since your Thac0/AC are low. 3 Skalds will give you AC and Thac0, wich is helpful in the beggining. Howerver, by the end of SoA, a though fighter will have a lower AC and a better Thac0 than a Blade (that's obvious!).

After having done my "bard-theme" party, I've conclued that the following party would work better :

- Berserker/Cleric (Or Dual/Multi Fighter/Cleric... you'll need a few buffs like Negative Plane Protection and Chaotic Command sometimes!)
- Kensai/Thief or Swashbuckler/Fighter (Good Fightning skills, thievery!)
- Kensai/Mage, Monk, Paladin... whatever fits you, but must be a damage dealer. An archer could be great. A 4th Skald could also be an option.
- Skald
- Skald
- Skald

Jester's Songs are pretty useless... unless you use the Invisibility/Song cheese... wich is a bit stupid! (C'mon... you can't sing/play music while invisible without being noticed!)

"Jester song does not help allies, it affects all opponents within 30 feet and they must Save vs. Magic at +4 once per round or be Confused"

A save at +4 isn't great... Greater Malison could bring it back to 0, but still, by the end of SoA, most enemies will be immune or almost (always saves) against your Song.

------------

If you want challenge, then do not use any cleric/druidic classes... the game will be ALOT harder. BTW, a Bard with 16 Con (Highest bonus for Non-Fighters) can have crazy HP once they have access to Tenser's Transformation (Double HP!). Keto, in my game, had a whooping 230 HP when using Tenser's Transformation.

Six bards sounds somewhat overkill, but from a role-playing perspective your party could be a travelling troupe of performers. I'd go with two blades for the extra oompf offensively. Try two of each, maybe? Two blades, two skalds, two jesters?

Yeah, I'd definitely suggest two for all the Bard kits. For strategies in use, I'd suggest you go like this, with some credit to Erenor.

Blade 1 - Main Melee

Blade 2 - Melee and Spellcasting

Skald 1 - Identifier and Singer

Skald 2 - Melee or Ranged & Spellcasting

Jester 1 - Singer

Jester 2 - Pocket-Picker & Spellcasting

I think it's a great idea. Forces you to find new ways of dealing with old problems--and there are at least two excellent bards, one in the game and one from a mod, to consider, too.

Yeah, as fable said :

Haer'Dalis is good with Short Swords (Since he hacked the game to have 2 profiencies in this weapon).

Keto is a good bard, but doesn't have the stats of a frontliner. Use her with bows/crossbows... or whatever ranged weapon suits you, and use her as a singer/pickpocketer/spellcaster/identifier. She has the maximum consitution to have the higher HP bonus for bards (16), so she'll end the game with more than 100 HP! (That's great... add a str-enhancing item and a Tenser's Transformation (double HP!), and she'll become a great tank!).

Get these spells early : Stoneskin, Fireshields, Lower Resist, Tenser Transformation, Improved Haste

I think I would go with 5 skalds and 1 fighter/thief. Or maybe a barbarian, if you want a really ironic twist.

Bards are not very good at casting spells.
So, on which level will they get an access to 9 level spells?

They don't, bards reach a max of level 6 spells and no further.

They're a backup or support character, the description is very true "A jack of all trades but a master of none."

It's an interesting idea really, might look into it myself.

OK, Bard party:

Main slashers:

Blade - Dual short swords, arbane off hand, main hand your choice.

Blade - Main hand Crom, second hand shield of the lost/harmony

Skald - Main Celestial F, offhand Darkon zerth

Suporters:

Plain - Main bow (tuigan)

Jester - Sling (everard)

Spells are: Mislead, mislead, mislead, mislead, magic missile, mislead, have I mentioned mislead? Death spell is good too, along with some of the others.

[QUOTE=Luis Antonio]
Blade - Main hand Crom, second hand shield of the lost/harmony

Skald - Main Celestial F, offhand Darkon zerth[/QUOTE]

Hey, Luis, I thought that Skalds could only get 1 rank in skills like 2-Weapon Fighting.

***Minor Spoilers***

Damn BG2 I can't help myself

I've started a game with 1 Swashbucker as my main character, a blade as a 2nd offensive melee character and 4 Skalds for spells/singing/ranged weapons.

Does anybody know of some good bard AI scripts? I'm after one so that my skalds immediately start singing as soon as an enemy is sighted. I did a quick search via google but wasn't able to find exactly what I wanted.

Update: It seems the ring of regen which I "borrowed" from Ribald doesn't work when I've got more than one bard singing. However when I've got the 4 Skalds singing my swashie's armour class is fantastic The blade and swashie had absolutely no problems cleaning out the slavers from the CC tavern. They barely ever get hit and have no problems dealing out damage.

I'm just curious what does normal bard's and blade's songs do? Couldn't find it in the game

[QUOTE=Galuf the Dwarf]Hey, Luis, I thought that Skalds could only get 1 rank in skills like 2-Weapon Fighting. [/QUOTE]

Well, they do, but they get +1 to hit and to damage bonuses that apply to the off hand as well. I'll dual them because thats what I prefer with bards - always dual them. But, if you prefer, and thats what I think when I see your quote, swap the weapons from blade to skald. But think about that skald as the one who's gonna be behind waiting to atack, and casting spells (darkon zerth extra spells)

Make the bard cast Misleads. The effects of their bard songs stack up, giving your main fighter insane damage!

[QUOTE=mbz]Make the bard cast Misleads. The effects of their bard songs stack up, giving your main fighter insane damage![/QUOTE]

He's playing with 6 bards. But anyway, the songs stack for real and the frontliners will deal a lot of damage.

That's what I meant. The bard or whoever is dealing the damage. But this requires some levels for the bards to cast 6th level spells.

5 bards, 5 mislead = 10 bards? And a blade on top of that.

It could indeed be fun to try, I guess. I would prefer a Swashbuckler or something like that for the damage though, it's really annoying to play a party without a thief of some sort. :/

[QUOTE=kams]I'm just curious what does normal bard's and blade's songs do? Couldn't find it in the game [/QUOTE]

Sorry, if I annoy anyone, but would someone plz answer me
I now want to play this game as a bard and I really have no idea about this songs.

[QUOTE=kams]Sorry, if I annoy anyone, but would someone plz answer me
I now want to play this game as a bard and I really have no idea about this songs. [/QUOTE]

This is a much debated question, see for example here:

I no longer recall what we agreed on though...