Soloing a Bard
YupImMadBro
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 347
I want to do a solo play through and I'm thinking of doing a Bard. I would play through BG1 and BG2. Possibly ToB. I have little to no experience playing bards. Any tips would be appreciated!
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There are also many types of useful potions that will buff you, heal you, protect you against magical attacks etc. The exploding potions are very good as well (at least in BG1). The same with scrolls. You'll want to copy level 1-6 spells into your spellbook, but it could be wise to hold on to any scrolls you have already copied or high level spell scrolls you won't be able to cast from your spellbook as a Bard and simply cast them in difficult battles.
As a solo character, summons will be very useful. They can help distract enemies and they can even be useful allies in battle. Use your magical buffs and perhaps your song to boost you summons into fairly hardy combatants.
Bards level up very fast, which means that they'll be very effective casters of spells that scale with caster level (for example Spook, Magic Missile, Mirror Image, Skull Trap, Dispel Magic, etc). You could look into that a bit.
MMM are good for Bards especially. Wear armour and use ranged weapons early, kite if necessary. Crossbow is worthy of consideration, and you don't need maxed str. Crossbow of Speed is a beast imo (Bolts of Lightning!), though Longbow of Marksmenship is effective. You will want to boost your THAC0, so the +1 Composite might be less ideal.
Count on Wands for most damaging spells, and recharge liberally.
A helpful idea I was given was to start with an 18 CON, use a +1 tome and Buckley's Buckler. A 20 CON is very good in this game.
In short, I'd go for one pip in Scimitars and one in Daggers/Axes at character creation, and then build toward dualwielding.
If you're going with any other Bard you'll have more flexibility because you have less options for weapon (style) specialization. At character creation I'd invest in one ranged weapon and one melee weapon.
Personally I'm quite fond of darts because they give 3 APR, very useful for disrupting spellcasters, and the Darts of Wounding and Stunning are amongst the deadliest weapons in the game. Apart from Darts, there are also very good Crossbows available relatively early on in both BG1 and BG2. Short bows are nice in BG2 (in BG1 there's a good one that you'll only get pretty late in the game, so I wouldn't invest early on in the Short Bows proficiency).
As to melee weapons, I like Halberds because they deal both piercing and slashing damage and they're long reach weapons. There are very good Halberds in both BG1 and BG2. A blunt weapon, such as Quarterstaff, Flail and/or Mace is also recommendable because crushing damage is the damage type that enemies with resistances (skeletons, jellies, golems etc) tend to be least resistant against.
Blades can't specialise in the unmodded game, only warriors, swashbucklers & Haer'Dalis.
My advice still stands though.
And while the subject is up... If you're soloing a bard... Get Rogue Rebalancing... It's a significant improvement.
Don't forget to rest often in order to always have fresh spells that you can use. Rest as soon as you go out of spells.
Cast Invisibility on your familiar and explore every map by it. You will see enemies, will know how to attack them, will be ready.
In gerenal, always have an Invisibility spell ready - if you're in a trap/waylaid by enemies/have to retreat to rethink your tactics - just cast and you'll be fine.
Choose spells according to the type of a problem you face.
A group of tough enemies/assassins not far away? Web + Web + Skull Trap/Fireball + Skull Trap/Fireball.
A difficult single melee opponent? Shield + Protection from Evil + Mirror Image + Blur + Haste (or the Offensive Spin if you're a Blade) + Stoneskin (later).
As soon as you get Stoneskin, make sure it's ALWAYS active (it lasts more than you rest - so you can cast it before each rest/rest once more).
Always try to use all the items available. Greenstone Amulet FOR EVERY mage/cleric fight. Darts of stunning and darts of wounding make wonders. Sell wands to the merchants when they have only 1 charge left. Buy them back (you'll have lots of charges then).
And yes Haerdalis also sucks, worst and the most useless char in BG series...or some1 really expect him to compat with such low hp? Prolly only possible option is to give him a bow...i dont see any other possible ways of usage, his melee still sucks, i doubt that even spells will help, better to have some fighter-mage
Anyone who can use arcane magic shouldn't be getting hit at all, so there's no reason why their HP should be crucial.
As noted, Haer csn just stock up on defensive magic, and with a strength boosting item (or even yhe Strength spell early) he's pretty damn solid. You are probably using too many of his slots for offensive magic. Depending when you get him, iirc, he can start with 2 pips in SS and LS, which is illegal but handy indeed. He can use Kundane effectively, and unless you have someone else needing it, he's a great candidate. That sets him to 3 apr without his handy spin, and Tenser's Transformation is not a bad trick later game.