How do you guys play your Blades (the bard kit)
booinyoureyes
Member Posts: 6,164
I was so pumped to play him... but he's so squishy. He does okay damage with the spin, but his ac is crap since I don't have armor for him yet (that allows him to cast spells) and he takes a hit like a little girl. My group right now is a bit low on frontliners, but I thought I'd be okay having played the game so many times before. My group right now is Neera, Nalia (to be replaced by Imoen) and Minsc. I plan on picking up Rasaad and Aerie or Cernd. He seems most effective with melfs minute meteors at the moment to be honest.
How do you guys play him? I stoneskin and mirror image before fights, and occasional draw upon holy might when I remember I have it. Any other ideas on how to beef him up?
And most importantly will he get noticeably better as time goes on and he gains levels?
Does doing the Bard Stronghold give you some unique bard items that will help me out?
How do you guys play him? I stoneskin and mirror image before fights, and occasional draw upon holy might when I remember I have it. Any other ideas on how to beef him up?
And most importantly will he get noticeably better as time goes on and he gains levels?
Does doing the Bard Stronghold give you some unique bard items that will help me out?
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What is a good low level summon I should use? I have 2 arcane casters besides my bard, so I'm sure they can cook up something nasty.
I just picked up Mazzy for awhile too, but even she is used most effectively from afar.
Also don't discount the usefulness of defensive spins if your blade has been wounded.
Be proficient with scimitars or short swords, and equip your blade's "off hand" with either Belm or Kundane.
Get the best bracers you can (AC 3) as soon as you can afford them.
If your blade has a high strength, daggers are good missile weapons to use, especially since (a) they also can be used as melee weapons, and (b) you can add your strength bonus to the damage. The boomerang dagger is especially excellent (until you get to the Drow city).
A. The armor spell is your friend until you get some lovely elven chain mail or bracers of defense.
B. The entire reason I will be playing a new blade through the saga (mind you this is a BG1 perspective), is that I'm made I didn't choose an early missile weapon. Sure I picked Dagger intending to use throwing daggers, but I would argue that 1 point in Bow, Crossbow or Dart (FYI they are affected by OS), 1 point in your melee weapon of choice and 1 point in single weapon style SHOULD* (TM) hold you over until you gain 2 pips in 2WF.
C. Don't discount spells like blind, spook, glitterdust, web (if you have free action available or if you go with the ranged weapon proficiency), hold person and slow, but also remember mirror image and/or blur. One of the intricacies in playing blade (in my opinion), was trying to find a healthy mix of buff, debuff and magic spells to compliment my physical abilities.
Edit: Using a basic heavy crossbow on a blade I just made. I went from
Thac0 18, damage 3-10 and 1 APR, to Thac0 16, damage 5-12 and 2 APR. so yes it works
Thanks @Dragonspear
If you're looking for best possible weapon coverage (i.e. maximum amount of proficiencies among characters so few to none are overlapping):
For Good Parties:
Go Crossbows as Keldorn is the only good BG2EE character with any points in Crossbow
For Evil:
Go Bows, since Dorn has points in Crossbows
Here's a question: If I was to dual wield Kundane and Belm, would i be getting five attacks per round after offensive spin?
BTW I'm using the Rogue Rebalancing mod so I got a free *** in two-weapon fighting (I know, its op and i still suck!) My bard is basically proficient in a million weapons.
I understand your pain, due to the 3ed handbook, I always envision a bard to use a longsword and light crossbow, but my blade is evil so =/ I'm competing with his dorniness.
He was an actor, so I eventually wanted to give him a net to go with the trident (as the Gladiators were often depicted in theater) but we never got far enough for me to get the right proficiencies in exotic weapons.
Also Aerie and Haer'dalis compliment each other rather well in terms of banter back and forth
There is a good thread that has all the mods that are currently compatible in the right install order
You can find it here: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/23726/bgii-ee-compatible-mod-list/p1
Really, have never been able to bring myself to play a bard in this game. I play them in other games, like IWD2, because I can make some cool multiclass combos. But in BG, they just don't quite do it for me.
Throwing daggers get 2 apr, the strength bonus for damage, and a proficiency in a weapon you can use for both melee and ranged combat.
You also can use throwing daggers with a buckler, if you need the additional protection, which obviously you can't do with bows or crossbows.
And you can throw them while using OS.
The only downside with throwing daggers is that in BG1 there are no magical throwing daggers. But in BG2 there are two *excellent* magical throwing daggers. Boomerang dagger does 2d4+2 and is easy to get very early in the game.
Plus dagger of venom is a great weapon, and is now available in BG2EE (if you do Neera's quest).
I can't remember the thread atm, but currently throwing weapons are not getting the str bonus to damage that they should be.
Argh! I just checked and you're right. (Strange that I hadn't noticed before.)
I do receive a mysterious +1 "ability bonus" (to both hit and damage). I have no idea what that is. It's not Dexterity or Strength.
Not getting the strength bonus does improve the attractiveness of darts (3 APR and almost as much damage).
Throwing axes show the strength bonus to damage.
NOW I'm going back and saving the circus... my playthrough has been so backwards compared to usual.
Belm + Kundane + OS should give you 5 attacks. It's a combo that will get you through most of SoA pretty well. And once you have 6th level spells floating around you can alternate OS with Improved Haste. For a good portion of BG2, AC still matters, so don't forget that defensive spin can save your bacon if a tough melee opponent (looking at you, golems and umber hulks) takes a dislike to your Blade.
As @Dragonspear said, there's a bit of a learning curve where you figure out which buffs work well for you. Don't be afraid to experiment with different options. Remember, since you are a fast leveling class, you'll quickly have a caster level that dwarfs the mages in your party. This means you can squeeze more power out of offensive spells, summon better allies sooner, and use buffs/debuffs that last longer. Debuffs aren't a big deal, as they usually last much longer than you need them to anyway (this is a good role to delegate to Aerie), but longer duration buffs can mean squeezing in an extra fight or two before you have to refresh them.
Also, because of your higher caster level, you're likely to be the only party member (barring picking up Keldorn) who has a reasonable chance of dispelling those high level spellcasters lurking around every corner. Being able to reliably counter a Chaos spell is nothing to sneeze at, and stripping Firkraag of his haste spell is a godsend. If you're not a fan of direct damage spells, you could do much worse than filling up your 3rd level slots with Dispel Magic and Remove Magic.
Ya I'm thinking of going Crossbow or Longbow this go, especially since I'm a firm believer in web based strategies (once you go invoker.......)
Longbow was an easy choice for me because they're quite good in BGEE (with the option of picking up multiple good ones if there's overlap in the group) and I knew I'd be much less inclined to have my Blade attack at range in BG2EE. Keep in mind, though, that Bards can't use composite longbows, so you'll need to hold out for a Longbow of Marksmanship.
Crossbow is probably the better option if you intend to keep using ranged weapons into BG2EE. Sure, there's overlap with Dorn, but there are two decent options for crossbows to use in BG2EE. In my current run I have Jan using Firetooth and Dorn using The Army Scythe. I rarely have cause to switch Dorn to ranged, but when I do, The Army Scythe with Bolts of Lightning seems to do just fine, and TAS has better synergy with Poison Weapon anyway.
And hey, with that d8 damage die and damage bonuses, crossbows benefit pretty well from Offensive Spin (especially Firetooth with ammo stacking...).
As it is I also have an archer playthrough atm, and I know I'm screwing myself right now because I have so many points in longbows........and I'll wish they were shortbow by the time I get her to BG2EE.
Are there even any good bows in BG2 or ToB at this point? I can think of the +3 elven longbow in De'narise keep and the one at the bottom of Watcher's Keep and that's it =/