Playing as bard.

Vylla

Hi again. I was wondering about any tips you guys might have about playing as a bard. My character is a Skald, and I think she can grow really neat throughout the game.

Has anyone any idea about armor for example? Or how-to-play it?

atcDave

Bard s a very viable class, I enjoy playing them a lot. But the armor situation is pretty bad. As an arcane type caster they can't wear armor and cast spells. So part from leather or studded at 1st level (when they have no spells anyway) they will mostly wear bracers and robes like a Mage. There are a few suits of elven chain they can wear and cast with, but typically these are inferior to the Mage-like options.

Basically a bard is like a utility player. The can do a few things, but aren't really specialists. So you can shoot a bow, cast spells, buff your party, identify stuff. But they won't usually dominate combat.

meagloth

The only armor you're going to wear is the first level spell, and some elven chain at high level. For the skald you should pretty much have bard song on all the time, so cast invisibility and start singing. Other than that, identify items, cast backup arcane(whatever primary mages don't have room for) and sing, sing, sing.

DreadKhan

I believe your song buffs summons, so make sure you use your song with the wand of summoning. IIRC.

Do skeletons buff too? Clerics and a skald would get interesting.

jackjack

First things first, get yourself a crossbow. Let your meatshields do the up-close dirty work.
Focus on buffing and debuffing spells, plus a few spells that grow stronger with caster level, (Magic Missile, Flame Arrow, Chromatic Orb, etc.), and leave the fireballs to your mage(s).
Don't bother with any physical armor until you get some type of Elven Chain. The Shield spell, Stoneskin, and Bracers of Protection AC whatever are your best friends until then. Protection from Magical Weapons is awesome but short in duration.
And of course, sing like nobody's listening!

fanscale

Put on chain mail and be a useful archer with melee ability at first. I would not play them as a spellcaster. When I memorized spells, I would just have several of the same type to support the main fighter and wizard.
p.s. When you get to haer-dalis quest you can get bard armor.

Elrandir

For BG1 I usually use them as a melee character mainly, dealing out death while letting my warriors take the hits. If you don't have a good STR/DEX/CON, however, you can have them use ranged weapons instead. I always keep them on support spells that only need casting pre-battle or nowhere near battle. This way I can keep them armored and ready for battle. (if you want to keep your casting ability, then use the armor spells) I generally rush for elven chain mail as soon as I can, since I want to be able to battle cast. By the end of BG1 I have them pre-buffing and front-lining, and they make a good secondary front-liner. If you want them to use long weapons (staff/spear/2Hsword/etc.), then they can stay out of battle even more effectively. I generally use normal distance weapons, though.

As for BG2, I'd say same basic deal until you get elven chain mail. Once you have your chain mail again, you can use them as a weaker F/M/T. Since you hopefully have a good STR (Preferably 19, assuming you got a tome in BG1. Or at least a STR boosting item), you can definitely use them as a melee character. With elven chain mail and pre-buffs, they're quite effective melee battle casters. They'll never drop the spell nukes that a true mage will, but they're great support/pre-buff/disabling casters with good melee potential. As for a Skald specifically, you definitely might want to use your song, especially if you're a fighter heavy party. Your song is one of the best, and you can make everybody deal some real damage. (Especially in BG1)

Hope that helps! I'm a big fan of the bard(s), so I'm always happy to see someone else play one!

SweetMagooMagoodle

Bards are great dispellers -- they level up faster than a mage and especially faster than a mage/thief or mage/fighter. My skald is a singer first, a dispeller second, then a buffer and finally a ranged fighter and fireballer/magic missler/melfer. Very rarely a meleer but on occassion.

Anyway dont forget them as your primary dispeller unless you have an Inky. Although I do like having keldorn in BG2 along because I imagine my chaotic good bard would tease Keldorn mercilessly and then duck and run when Keldorn lobs a quarrel at him in anger.

Bards are the best support character there is, plus your lead talker, purchaser, and all around wise guy/gal. Great role playing goodness. With buffs can hold his/her own in single combat if absolutely necessary. A skald versus a ravager is hard but totally do able (and fun!). Rogue Rebalancing mod is a plus because skald song becomes obsolete w/o it because of regular Bard HLA. RR skald song HLA makes the skald the coolest bard in my book. Any bard though is fun, even vanilla, with Blade being the least bardy and is more of a swashy/mage. Blade is great fun to play but not a real bard experience.

Armor wise i use spells only until elven chain and what not come along. I may have some kick ass armor around if I know I am going to be meleeing ahead of time and want to buff up first and then spend .01 seconds putting on heavy armor. Which is really ridiculous (but the game engine allows it out of combat) -- most of my buffs except stoneskin would have worn off in the hour it took for my squire to help with me armor.

Anyway, enjoy your skald. Sing out loud... sing out strong... sing of good things, not bad (unless you are evil)...

Vylla

Thank you so much for the replies! Great tips from you all. I think I'll go with a nice armor untill I get that chain from Haer'Dalis Meanwhile I can switch on-an-off before battle do be as useful as possible with my shortbow/longsword. And since I play "myself" as a bard, I only have buff-spells and just 1-2 offensive ones.

DJKajuru

Bards are really fun .

-They won't cast all spells , but will cast your favorite ones at higher levels. They're not that good at combat, but will use any weapon (including powerful bows or swords).

Vylla

I think the reason I havn't played bard before is that they can't do anything during singing. They kinda have to stay close to the other members, but singing only. But I shall learn how to play this, it seems like a good choise

CaloNord

It's not to bad really. With a Jester it's a lot of fun being invisible and watching them scurrying around like ants attacking each other and fleeing.
It's also fun to come up with cool ways to use your songs and spells to help your party kick ass!