Vanilla Bard or Skald?

superliminaldude

In short, about to get off work and go make my party. Which do you recommend? The thaco bonus for the Skald song is just killer, but I do have fond memories of the War Chant of the Sith. I'm completely on the fence. Also, are their good pick pocket targets in this game? I can't remember. That may be the decider.

RAM021

There are some Pickpocketable targets...

Generally if you are a melee heavy party, Skald; otherwise True Bard for versatility.

SharGuidesMyHand

RAM021 said:

Generally if you are a melee heavy party, Skald; otherwise True Bard for versatility.

Agreed.

A skald is probably most helpful if you have warriors with armor restrictions in your party, like barbarians.

JuliusBorisov

Just because you won't be able to do it in BG: Vanilla IWD Bard!

You can have a Skald in BG but you can't have all those wonderful songs an unkitted IWD Bard can play.

superliminaldude

Thanks for the input. I decided ultimately to go Vanilla for the variety and versatility. Also it takes a substantial time for the Skald's song to improve (even though it's quite powerful right of the bat.)

LordRumfish

I chose to do both and forego having a wizard. In fact, I even went with the Priest of Tempus so I can get yet another random bit of combat bonus in the mix. Anyway, I couldn't stand not having a skald, and I couldn't stand not having access to the cool bardsongs, so there you have it. Those three can sure boost the heck out of my dwarven defender, barbarian and swashbuckler (and the priest can fight too). ^_~

Mathsorcerer

My recommendation is vanilla bard. Yes, the kits are interesting but truthfully they pale in comparison to the vanilla bard in IWD. I had tried skald, jester, and blade in my beta test parties and, although they worked well enough, not having access to the other songs was a significant drawback.

Infiltrator

Ok so what is the skald supposed to do except stand there and sing all day? Do they get arcane spells by themselves or you have to feed them scrolls?

bob_veng

same as bard, they can learn spells from scrolls, up to level 8. their spell-level progression lags not too much behind mage, but they get less than 1/2 the memorization slots.

standing there and doing nothing but singing is just fine, believe me. you'll hit lvl 15 with him quickly and +4/+4 bonus produces better effects than having another frontliner

Infiltrator

bob_veng said:

same as bard, they can learn spells from scrolls, up to level 8. their spell-level progression lags not too much behind mage, but they get less than 1/2 the memorization slots.

standing there and doing nothing but singing is just fine, believe me. you'll hit lvl 15 with him quickly and +4/+4 bonus produces better effects than having another frontliner

Oh I agree even on level one, the bonuses outweight heavily anything else that he might be doing, I guess it's alright if you have one character on auto-pilot.

bob_veng

it's not impressive before he gets to level 15 and your meleers have many attacks per round.

superliminaldude

So, ultimately I'm glad I chose Vanilla. I had forgotten how useful War Chant of the Sith is. That regeneration is just phenomenal and completely cuts down on your need for constant healing.

ReadingRambo

Vanilla is awesome, but a skald in the far north just drips RP flavor. Ultimately I'm going to go vanilla personally, but a skald really sounds awesome lore wise.

Abel

I chose Skald, since someone pointed out it gets so good with summons out.
I think his song is more useful than the Bard ones, but then I play HoF. And I have a Thief to pickpocket.

steinmoves

So I like skald, at least for right now. I haven't heard anyone bring this view up yet so check this out:

I'm currently rolling with a skald, fighter/Druid, and monk. Lots of melee and summoning.

Well, if you use the berserker horn, and just pick summoning spells, you can summon and have good beasties to change battle. This strategy isn't really the same with a vanilla bard.

For example, if I summon 4 berserkers, give them bless, haste, and play my bard song, then they're basically all hitting for about 10 damage per hit. About 40 damage per round +!

Grum

Always been tempted to run both...

Skald song with war chant of the sith? Add in 4 other characters who fight on the front lines...in theory it sounds brutal.