My futile attempts at making a bard useful!
Xavioria
Member Posts: 874
Okay more specifically Gharrick... I'm actually not having too bad of a time using him. I tried making a bard out of my NPC, but the class has always felt so... fickle, I felt like it fell short of the Bhaalspawn that she is! I wanted those awesome pickpockets and lore values, so I picked up Gharrik!
It so far actually is going really well. He stays ranged and is decent support, has magic (when he actually successfully learns magic) and his song has freed up room in my cleric scroll because I use his song for fear protection! He's alot more useful than I thought! The only issue is that his usefulness lessens if I'm not fighting mages.
AND I don't have Khalid, so his song is less useful...
It so far actually is going really well. He stays ranged and is decent support, has magic (when he actually successfully learns magic) and his song has freed up room in my cleric scroll because I use his song for fear protection! He's alot more useful than I thought! The only issue is that his usefulness lessens if I'm not fighting mages.
AND I don't have Khalid, so his song is less useful...
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Comments
Don't forget to let him (ab)use the wands you find.
Plus give him staffs.
I have already soloed BG1 with a Bard and I know I could with Garrick.
If one is too lazy to use his spells or abilities like using staffs, he might seem underwhelming.
If you are a player who like to have a balanced group (for example; a tank, archer, thief, mage, cleric) then a bard is great as the 6th member. But if you focus hard on magic or melee (not both) then bard won't find himself very useful in such groups.
In versatile groups bards add a bit to each role, making everything better, but they only add they can't replace.
I'm never going back. We'll maybe after I beat the game with the blade but any ways. He's epic you cast Mage armor then waid into the fray with two ninjato with attack spin on and throwing around a spell or two here and there. Plus boots of the cheetah the only other char in my party that even gets a hit in any more is rasaad or neera if she causes cows to rain from the sky or a demon to pop up.
I have always played as I thought it should be: a good character and mostly boring fighter, paladins and rangers and typical crew. I want to try something new. So this is what I had in mind:
Bard or its kit, is it worth it to be played as main character? (a thought occurred to me after reading Patrick Rothfuss).
However, even though I didn't play him well in BG1, he was still not totally useless. His Chromatic Orbs were great, as were other scaling damage spells. Also, he just made identifying items so much easier, plus he's got Charisma and Intelligence and thus makes a great "party face". Had I recognized the importance of Mirror Image, Stoneskin and all the wands that you can use (as well as a generous helping of pickpocketry), I guess my Bard would also have been up to par in BG1 already. What I did was try to have him fight in melee without a shield and armor because I thought a Bard could handle that. Well, he's not too good at it at low levels and with low Strength (which mine had).
In BG:EE, Bards should have become more powerful by the addition of the kits and several new spells alone. Also, Elven Chain (which currently doesn't appear cause it's bugged, but it will be there sooner or later) wasn't in the original version, and it improves the Bard vastly.
To summarize, I believe a Bard is a good Charname. It might even be one of the best possible classes for a Charname as you get a little of everything, which I personally like for the offspring of a god. It also gives you a lot of leeway in choosing your party composition, as you will always fit in and thus can take whomever you want with you (which is different when you're, say, a cleric, which makes Viconia and Branwen quite unnecessary).
The Half-elf race is the best due to the +10 to PP and slight sleep/enchantment resistance. The human brings literally nothing to the table beyond simple roleplaying.
Get the con manual as soon as you can for maximum con bonus. If you're a blade or Skald, feel free to play around with melee, if not stick to range until you get the str manual. Steal everything that isn't tied down when the chance to do so arises (it's not nearly as prevalent as in the sequel where a Bard is a F'ing GOD).
Though you can manage with any stats really, even abysmally low ones..it'll just be a bit harder going until you can get gear to cover your ass, and/or party members to support you.
May want to be careful there. Shar-Teel and Eldoth can come to blows.