Working on a new bard

Dragonspear

I'm working up a new bard to play through the series.

On the general board I mentioned having issues determining which alignment to play as.

But considering I know what type of bard I'm using, I'm also having an issue on weapon proficiencies.

When you have an intro quest in Candlekeep, they mention breaking out your quarterstaff. So I know for my Blade, Quarterstaff will be one of my starting proficiencies.

Now I'm left debating between longsword, granted I might have khalid around for a bit. Or Dagger to give myself an ranged option while I get pips into two weapon fighting. Obviously, the last option might be light crossbow of speed. But considering I'm already taking Quarterstaffs, it doesn't really fit RP wise.

Thoughts on this?

NPCs are a concern for this character, cause there's going to be no quick loading to bring people back. If I like you and can afford it, you'll get rezzed but otherwise. What's done is done. Trying to make myself branch out and explore different NPCs than I normally would.

ThacoBell

Short swords and daggers are fun to dual wield. Or longsword in the main hand and a smaller blade in the off hand, purely for RP reasons mind you.

DJKajuru

Following your intentions I would proceed as :
Level 1: quarterstaff (the prof you chose and there are good ones in the game, not to mention its usefulness against skeletons)
And dagger (for ranged weapon , and you can buy dagger of venom later).

Level 4: * 2 weapon fighting


Level 8 : ** 2 weapon fighting

Level 12 : short sword, longsword or scimitar, as there are good ones in SoA.

Level 16: ***2weapon

Considering that you can use strength enhancing spells in bg1, dagger is actually a good option for dual wielding initially (not the best but bard is a support character, you've got spells, scrolls and wands to use as well while , say, khalid doesn't) and you can get a staff+3 at ulgoth's beard. Follow my advice in that case, buy the dagger of venom and assign it to your bard, if you got boots of speed he can take the first strike (low weapon speed) and poison opponents while stepping back from melee and let the fighters/tanks approach enemies in close close combat. In SoA your thac0, items and AC gets better so you can make great use of your abilities .

Dragonspear

ThacoBell said:

Short swords and daggers are fun to dual wield. Or longsword in the main hand and a smaller blade in the off hand, purely for RP reasons mind you.

I likely will eventually go Longsword/Shortsword or Longsword/Dagger for DWing, simply for RP as you said. Although I do enjoy Longsword/Longsword as well.

ThacoBell said:

Short swords and daggers are fun to dual wield. Or longsword in the main hand and a smaller blade in the off hand, purely for RP reasons mind you.

DJKajuru said:

Following your intentions I would proceed as :
Level 1: quarterstaff (the prof you chose and there are good ones in the game, not to mention its usefulness against skeletons)
And dagger (for ranged weapon , and you can buy dagger of venom later).

Level 4: * 2 weapon fighting


Level 8 : ** 2 weapon fighting

Level 12 : short sword, longsword or scimitar, as there are good ones in SoA.

Level 16: ***2weapon

Considering that you can use strength enhancing spells in bg1, dagger is actually a good option for dual wielding initially (not the best but bard is a support character, you've got spells, scrolls and wands to use as well while , say, khalid doesn't) and you can get a staff+3 at ulgoth's beard. Follow my advice in that case, buy the dagger of venom and assign it to your bard, if you got boots of speed he can take the first strike (low weapon speed) and poison opponents while stepping back from melee and let the fighters/tanks approach enemies in close close combat. In SoA your thac0, items and AC gets better so you can make great use of your abilities .

I kinda thought the same thing, because it works so well. But longsword is also so very iconic for a bard.

One question, with how much I'll be using a quarterstaff early on, should I consider a point in Two-Hand Fighting, for the extra crit chance?

Zaghoul

For a blade using a QS I would definitely add a pip to 2HS. Staff of Striking, (+ the silver staff of Aule mod for werewolves) and a blade make a pretty good mix. That little extra speed factor is nice considering QS's as well to help get in that first strike. Shoot for that matter, carrying over one staff mace from BG into BG2 starting dungeon with another easily purchased in BG2 early on is darn nice IIRC. Least it was with my beastmaster for 2WS at times.

Valci

I don't get why you would waste one of your first level pips on QS?... I don't recall ever seeing that mentioned but I could be wrong... I never go staff on my blades personally... I usually figure out what my main focus is going to be weapon wise (long sword/short sword/scimitar etc.) and put a pip in 2WS right away. I use one weapon and a buckler for a while until 2WS becomes better but it seems a waste to put a pip in staff...

Zaghoul

Maximum damage with OS and better crit chances aint to shabby. But more importantly, rather than getting into the math of it though, just something different to RP and another option other than the usual 2WS all the time. Why not both eventually? Take a dagger through as suggested for throwing and work up to another weapon eventually for the other hand as well.
I kinda like this idea of starting with staff as the PC starts with one in CK now that the OP mentions it, for RP purposes.

Dragonspear

It's not only that you start with a quarterstaff equipped in Candlekeep. It's also that there is a Candlekeep quest that specifically asks if you've brought your staff for training. Granted you can use any weapon to complete this quest.

Finally, flavor wise, it fits (spinning a staff around instead of swords early). But also, it's a great choice during an iron crisis. Particularly if you're stubborn enough for 18 Cha (Doubt I will be), but you get a blunt weapon (best overall damage type in game UNLESS the target is in chain mail), and a magic +1 dagger for melee.

And I don't think Throwing Daggers can be destroyed during the Iron Crisis.

As I read it back, it almost has a power-gamey aspect to it, although not intended.

Also the reason for Longsword or Dagger is because if you look at the AD&D kit from the complete book of bards, at least half your proficiency should be spent on blades/daggers.

The only potentially power-gamey thing I could do, is give the blade the 3 pips in TWF that it's supposed to have from the start.

I haven't decided on that yet, cause I'm trying to avoid any EE-keeper for the run =/

Zaghoul

You would like RRebalancing then as you start with three pips in 2WS already as a blade, so all you would need is the QS, dagger (already starts as a knife man - throwing and 2WS master), and then the next skill going to 2HS for the QS. Full coverage by 4th lvl, 2 types of hand to hand maxed out and a ready missile weapon.
This QS use has got me reminded of Morgan on The Walking Dead, heh.

Skatan

You can get two staff maces in BG1 so you can dual wield them with the pips you get, two in TWF, one in qstaff and one in ranged weapon of choice. I'd save the other weapon profs for BG2 if I were you. As with both of the fighter-rogue types (blade, swashbuckler), you need to plan ahead since even if you level quickly, you get very few points and if you want to spend 3 of them in TWF it doesn't leave much left.
EDIT: A good thing about staff mace qstaffs is that they retain their longer range even if used in one hand. I dunno if this is intentional but it looks really weird when you can hit from afar with your small "mace" (it uses the club/mace graphics I mean). This can help a lot if you are stuck in defensive spin and enemies move about and you stand still. The extra range from qstaff can let your blade reach enemies anyways. Not very common, but could situationally be a boon.


So, go with qstaffs if you want. Use the other point for ranged of choice (I prefer xbow with bard, but YMMV). Then go for TWF and pick your next weapon of choice later on, ie scimis/shortswords/daggers, whatever grant you the APR you need and fits your RP idea about the character. Each adds APR, but only the combination of dagger and scimitar can add +3 enchanted options with +1 APR (Firetooth and Scarlet (post UAI)). Other options are not as good, though you could ofc trade APR for higher damage weapons, ie going with katana in main hand for 10 base dmg (1D10) with offensive spin +3 +STR using ie CF, or pick Usono's blade for a quick and easy +4 weapon at the loss of an APR.

Dualwielding staff maces with offensive spin will give you 8 dmg per hand (2D4) +2 +STR compared to a dagger's 4 base damage with off.spin. 4 extra damage is nothing to scoff at in BG1 for a non-fighter type character.