11 réponses à ce sujet

[It might be Mitch]

Hello everyone! I recently decided to replay the entire BG franchise from start to finish with a bard. Im going to be playing BG1 with Easytutu, so I will have  access to the blade, jester, and scald right away. I would like to know the benefits of each kit so I can get the most out of my character. Btw I'm most likely going to be NE so ill have an evil party if that changes anything. Thanks in advance!

[AnonymousHero]

I've you're looking for power, it's the Blade, no question. The Skald and Jester songs are really the only distinguishing feature about those two kits. The Skald's song is easily surpassed by any bard when they get HLAs. The Jester's song will probably be extremely powerful through BG1 and the start of BG2, but useless thereafter. In contrast the Blade's Offensive Spin + spells can make him/her an almost invulnerable dervish of destruction.

[It might be Mitch]

Thanks for the speedy reply. I have one more question for you/everyone else. Is there a HLA that can improve my blades song at a high level, or will the song never improve?

[It might be Mitch]

Oops, I forgot to ask which weapons you'd recommend for a bard as well. It may not matter though, since I wont be able to specialize in them anyway.

[Enuhal]

Well, you can of course gain the Improved Bard Song HLA of course, as any other bard can



For Weapons: The most important thing is to get the *** in two-weapons style. The weapons you will use are a matter of taste - since you will be able to use pretty much any item. I always like the combination of Flail of Ages +5 and Crom Fayr for the late game. Others prefer the Axe of the Unyielding +5 instead of the Flail. However, since you will use a lot of different weapons throughout the games (most definetly you will use some longswords, two-handed swords, possibly maces and quarterstaffs), there is almost no limit to which weapon type can be useful.

[AnonymousHero]

The most important thing about weapons is to get two-weapon style (as Enuhal suggests) and to wield Belm or Kundane in the off hand. That'll get you a ridiculous number of attacks if you use Offensive Spin and Improved Haste.

[Slyx]

And go for the Scarlet Ninja-To (from Jolev in the Copper Coronet, one of the BioWare bonus merchants [not a mod per se]) for off-hand once you get UAI. It's a +3 weapon that gives an extra attack (just like Belm or Kundane) and has a chance for a poison effect too. You could have that weapon in primary, and preferably Belm in offhand for an extra +2 attacks per round. You'd be at a minimum of 4 attacks per round before any haste spells were factored in.

[AnonymousHero]

Oh yeah, the Scarlet Ninja-to... I always forget that. It's obviously a better choice than Belm/Kundane off .

[Enuhal]

Yeah, forget what I wrote about weapon choices, I wrote that with a fighter-type character in mind who would have been able to get GWW etc.

The +1 APR weapons are the way to go for the blade. Also, if you don't mind using some glitches, get the ring of free action and combine it with defensive spin, thus being able to move while having a ridiculous armor class.

[Nukenin]

I'm currently playing through BGT with a Jester leading the "canon" party (you know who they are, and if you don't, well, ye shan't be spoilt here!) in the BG1 portion of the game.

I'm so used to playing a front-line behemoth that the closest I've ever come to playing a finger-waggler at any length was years back when I ran a Blade through the SoA portion of BG2.

Disclaimer: I'm using the revised kit as presented in aVENGER's Rogue Rebalancing mod.  I'm also using an assortment of fixes and tweaks that include putting the kibosh on past bard cheeseries such as stacking bard songs with Mislead.

aVENGER gave true Bards, Skalds, and Jesters distinct HLA enhanced songs (and Blades get access to the fighter Whirlwind HLA instead of an enhanced song).  Without that, everyone just gets the default enhanced bard song which seemed kinda goofy.  RR also removes traps from Bard HLAs and replaces them with music/sound/charm-type HLAs.  I haven't the experience with them yet to say if they are good (anyone who wants gonzo OP HLAs would want to keep the thief trap HLAs) but it'll be fun to experiment when I attain such lofty heights.

Now the vanilla Jester song in BG1 would be way overpowered; the RR variant turns the initial ability (confusion) into "distraction" which gives affected enemies a penalty to THAC0 and AC and a 20% chance of casting failure.  In vanilla, if memory serves, at 15th level the Jester song would start to slow enemies and at 20th level I believe it would start to knock them down.  With RR, at 9th level the Jester song starts to confuse, and at 18th level it will start to mesmerize them (stun them until they are the recipient of hostile action).

My Jester's only 5th level so I am only seeing the effects of Distraction.  Does it help?  I'm too busy having fun being a worthless-seeming "hero" who feels his best contribution on the battlefield is to run around mocking the enemy, with the occasional spell-casting or dagger/dart toss.

If you really like being on the frontline and playing a showy combatant, Blade is the way to go.  If you want to provide a bit more of a combat boost to your group at the expense of pickpocketry (and casting speed using the RR mod), Skald fits the bill.  Otherwise, for a balance of bard song, pickpocketry, and spell-casting, the true Bard is still an option.

Again, this is with the caveat that I've adjusted my "bard-sense" to account for the changes incorporated into my playthrough by the RR mod.  

[jaxsbudgie]

Install Song and Silence, that mod adds the Bard kits Chorister, Dirgesinger, Gypsy and Acrobat.
All are really different from one another, I quite like the Chorister and Gypsy kits.
I've played a bit of early BG2 with the Skald and Chorister kits.
The Skald's song I found a bit overpowered, I was playing a good character, so had Keldorn, Mazzy and Anomen up front, and their AC was so ridiculously low they just weren't getting hit.
The Chorister was fun too, essentially a Bard with a bit of Cleric thrown in. This is definitely what Leliana would be in Dragon Age.
Install it alongside Rogue Rebalancing like someone suggested for maximum awesomeness.

I really want to play a Bard, but I can't quite figure out what I should be doing the majority of the time. I like to sing when I'm a Bard, but then that's all I do non stop. I think soloing a Gypsy could be fun ....

Modifié par jaxsbudgie, 12 août 2010 - 09:05 .

[bloodanddarknessfillmysoul]

Remember as well the gauntlets of extraordinary specialisation for your blade, up to imp. hasted 9 attacks per round...not too shabby.