Skald

Lotti

I am slowly discovering the strengths and weaknesses of different classes in this game.
In Icewind Dale I liked the Felicia bard character, but after some playing there, I decided I liked the open world of Baldur's gate more than the more linear story line of IWD for now, so I started a new BG campaign with a bard based on Felicia (took her picture and name).

I saw the Skald kit, and it seems to me that her chanting is pretty strong: in a party of six, when the other five members are fighting, each of them doing +2 to damage alone makes the skald dealing 10 damage per turn through chanting, and that is even without the extra To Hit modifier taken into account.

So only if she can deal more than 10 damage herself (which equals 1d6 + 6.5), chanting will be better than fighting. (When she levels up to do so much damage, her chanting skills will also improve though?)

Do I interpret this ability correctly?

Grond0

You do - it's very powerful in a party. You haven't factored in the bonus to hit, but for most enemies in BG1 that helps a lot more than the bonus damage. You've also allowed only for 1 attack per round, but many characters will get more than that.

JuliusBorisov

And in SoD you will be able to find an item boosting your contribution as a skald.

The only downside of playing as a skald is your character being less involved into swinging weapons. If timed right, though, you will be able to combine fighting/casting and singing.

ShadowGambit

@JuliusBorisov

By "timed right" you mean song switching? Skald only gets 1 song, so I don't see how you can "song switch".

Or do I misunderstand when you say "timed right".

JuliusBorisov

The effect of the song can still be intact, if immediately after "Charname - sings" you switch to an attack (or a spell that is casted quickly), make it, and then switch back to singing. I've learned it when played as a solo jester.

ShadowGambit

ok, so the duration of the song is 1 round... that means a lot of pauses but doable

gorgonzola

I had a method using autopause on the end of round, but it works well in original and does not work in EE.
In EE there are two different but identical messages in the text box for the bard song. the first is when you press the song button, and the song is not still active, the second appears at the moment the song becomes active, and then it stay active for the whole round.
In the BG series a character can do 3 different things in a single round
- 1 magical action (cast a spell, use a potion or an item with chages, read a scroll)
- physically attack for the allowed APR
- move around.
Obviously inside the limitation of the 6 seconds of the round, if he cast a spell that take long time he will not have time to do many physical attacks or to move for a long distance.
The sing and attack of the bard and cast and attack of the mage or fighter/mage are based on this feature of the game.

Be aware that the skald song has a little AOE, the bard must be quite close to who he want to buff with his song, when you, in BG2 will get the enhanced bard song, at 3M Xp, the song will affect the whole area, until then a little tactical attention is needed to have your skald boosting the whole party, both the ranged and mlee comrades.

RelSundan

Take into account that probably not all of your characters will be fighting as you mentioned. Sure, your spellcasters will probably resort to slings when they exhaust their spellbook in the first chapters, but as the game carries on, these occasions will most likely become more rare. But sure, it is still usefull, especially early on where almost 5 hp makes a difference.

Skatan

Personally I think skald works best with ranged weapons since they can't damage stack as easily as melee (though of course it's good with melee as well). So if you play a party with lots of ranged, as is common in BG1, with ie 1-2 bow user, 1-2 sling users, a xbow user, maybe a knife or dart thrower etc, the damage bonuses can become quite extensive since you get alot of APR but with lower damage.

gorgonzola

RelSundan said:

Take into account that probably not all of your characters will be fighting as you mentioned. Sure, your spellcasters will probably resort to slings when they exhaust their spellbook in the first chapters, but as the game carries on, these occasions will most likely become more rare. But sure, it is still usefull, especially early on where almost 5 hp makes a difference.

It really depends on play style, and the number of the casters, but my casters always attack, ranged or mlee.
In a round is possible to cast only one spell, and in the rest of the 6 seconds is possible to attack and move, and is better to do it than stay inactive waiting for the next round.
A good sling with a good bullet make good damage, both clerics and mages have spells to buff the STR and get even better damage, a speed potion or spell double the only APR when needed, if you add the DMG from the bard song even better, and even the thac0 is improved, they will hit often as stack natural thac0, weapon, bullet, song and for clerics dex bonuses. An Aerie buffed late game make more than 60 dmg/round, while she is casting. But let's take an average of 25 dmg/round for caster trough the saga, multiply it for the total numbers of rounds and of casters and you will get a really high dmg output.
I can not make a calculation, but I suppose that considering the whole saga the difference between attacking each round and attacking only when you don't cast is more than 100K dmg.