Bard Modification
Paradox
Member Posts: 31
Is there anyway (any way at all) to have the Bard play the song and attack at the same time.
I find it crazy to have one character just standing there not fighting.
Yes I do realize that if the bard was on a street corner he could not play a lute while firing a bow, I don't care.
Basically I just want to toggle it on and leave it on, would be good if it was the same for Find Traps also.
I find it crazy to have one character just standing there not fighting.
Yes I do realize that if the bard was on a street corner he could not play a lute while firing a bow, I don't care.
Basically I just want to toggle it on and leave it on, would be good if it was the same for Find Traps also.
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Comments
As far as I know, you can't do the same thing with Bards. At activation, the Bard song gives its bonuses at the beginning of every round and lasts until the end of that round if you turn it off. So I suppose you could turn it on and then attack for less than a round, and turn it back on before the round is over so the bonuses stay.
It takes some micromanagement to pull off and I generally find it to be more trouble than its worth if you don't have the Improved Bard song in BG2; a Skald, or vanilla Bard in IWD.
Now the rules allow the song effects to last 1 rd/lvl, but require 3 rds of buffing before taking affect. However, while actively singing, the Bard is limited to walking...
Nevertheless, since with serious micromanagement one can sing and fight (or at least shoot a bow) while keeping the Bard song up and active, it obviously would not be game breaking to permit it by default. This would greatly increase the Bard's use, for currently the choice is generally either sing or something else - and the song is a defining characteristic of the class.
Sounds like it is as close as I am going to get
At first I was a bit concerned as well that my Bard would do nothing but sing, but after keeping an eye on it I've noticed that it will do other things as well. Especially casting spells.
In detail.
Bard Song is supposed to be a pre-battle buff that lasts 1 round per level. (I implemented it in my game by disabling the bard song button entirely and designing a custom ability that takes 1 round to cast and cannot be used in LOS of an enemy similar to how traps are implemented, in accordence to the PnP restriction that bard song needs the combatants to pay attention to it to have any effect and most likely cannot be reapplied during most combats, though specifically mentions if the group pulls back to rally, the bard can reapply the song during that window before they re-engage.)
Skald song is similar in activation but has an unlimited duration as long as the skald is engaging in melee combat (if they stay at ranged, such as using a bow or avoiding combat the duration beings to count down, since the Skald inspires through action just as much as through their battle song), until they're wounded (this is less an issue for the PnP skald which can use any equipment a fighter can except Tower shields and Full plate, meaning they're actually quite tanky), at which point it lasts for 1 round per level as with the regular bard song and can't be re-applied unless the group rallies.
On the other hand, the jester song does indeed require the jester to do nothing but "sing" and requires that the targets be able to see and hear them to have any effect.
And blades don't sing at all.
According to @Gotural (http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/572639/#Comment_572639) several Skald songs don't stack in IWDEE.