trueclass bard advice?
stargazerb
Member Posts: 57
I'm starting a bard for bg2, and was hoping to get some pointers. None of the kits appeal to me, so I'm just going with the trueclass version.
I'm already used to pickpocketing everyone, so I know how that works. I also know of a couple weapons that add extra spells. I'm using Rogue Rebalancing, fwiw.
Any thoughts on party makeup, tactics, good spells to use, etc?
I'm already used to pickpocketing everyone, so I know how that works. I also know of a couple weapons that add extra spells. I'm using Rogue Rebalancing, fwiw.
Any thoughts on party makeup, tactics, good spells to use, etc?
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I try to stand in the back and use my song whenever possible. Now that he has some levels I try to pick Mage spells that disrupt groups of enemies (sleep, fear, confusion) or summon spells to distract and block enemies. They also make a good backup for your Mage's magic missiles. If you need to disrupt an enemy spellcaster or remove their mirror image having two sets of MM really helps. When they're out of spells play the bard song to boost your allies. If things get hairy switch to a bow and target someone with a low AC. Only go into melee when you have to.
They can be really useful this way. I think of them as water boys, running to help the other people as necessary. Of course, there are some expert powergamers on this forum who can give better advice. I bet someone here has done a solo poverty run with a bard and never reloaded. Anyway, have fun! Pick every pocket!
shoud foucus on sumoning spells or go for buff and fear and debuff?
If you want to be somewhat cheesey, you can also cast invisibility on yourself and go around singing.
To be blessed with the intelligence and the wisdom to turn every situation to ones advantage, either through direct action, or the action of others as influenced by Charname, would still result in foes experiencing the bitter taste of defeat while pursuing ones continued quest for survival, and adventure.
I do tend to have a preference for classes with an element of warrior to them, though, which often acts as a counter balance to my Bard plans.
Unlike the blade, the vanilla bard isn't really a strong fighter, and unlike the skald, he isn't going to be running his song most of the time. It is definitely more of a jack-of-all-trades type of class, and that's just fine with me, and certainly suits the Dr. Who role you described.
When I did my run with the vanilla bard, I focused mostly on ranged support via bows and spells, with the spells primarily buff, debuff, and disabler type spells, leaving my main caster free to focus on blowing things up. I made it a point of picking a few self-buffs that would let him tank in a pinch, especially at higher levels (stoneskin, mirror image, tenser's tranformation, etc) and that also worked well. I picked up Find Familiar as soon as possible, since those extra HPs are also useful if I need to go toe-to-toe with something. This made him a solid character for protecting mainstay casters, especially the squishier ones, which let me keep my fighters in the front line fighting while the bard intercepted anyone that got past them. I rarely used the bard song, but it was quite useful in the situations where it was appropriate.
At lower levels, you'll probably want to take one of the armor spell variants so that you can have decent armor while casting. Once you get further into the game you can get some of the bard chainmail and not have to worry about it so much any more. The vanilla bard is also a good choice for holding spare scrolls and wands, giving them the flexibility to do whatever needs to be done to support their group. And keep an eye out for the other bard-specific items as well. Some of them are very handy.
I really find the bard to be one of the most useful classes in the game, and certainly one of the most fun, simply because of the versatility with the benefit of not needing to multi/dual class to get that versatility.
But to me in BG2 the Skald is like a Shapeshifter. It should do something awesome, but in practice they are weak.
The bard songs have a tiny range as well, makes it more frustrating to make a bard follow everyone else and just sit there doing nothing. One thing that later DnD games improves was that bard songs were changed to party buffs, much stronger than spell based buffs but with a shorter duration, bit then you could sing the buffs and battle or cast spells rather than how it is in BG.