Bards
nemesis
Member Posts: 49
I would like to take a bard with me and I will be playing as a cavalier. Which would be the best to take with me?
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Or are you speaking of kits?
That leaves you with Garrick. He's funny and interesing to have around, but he has poor stats and is really kind of a lousy bard. You can use him to identify items, back up a few arcane spells if you can get him to learn any, and have him fire his crossbow. People who want a power-party don't use him.
I wouldn't use his song, because plain bardsong doesn't do anything but protect from fear, (unless they fixed it to Do What It Says On the Tin), and you have a cleric spell that does that better.
Bards are really only good when you use their kits - skald, blade, jester. That means you have to play one yourself if you want one.
I like to play a skald, just so I can be doing something unique from the rest of the party, and I think the bonuses are good, plus it suits me from a roleplaying perspective to stay out of direct combat.
between the two, take eldoth. he can at least create poison arrows, a pretty awesome ability. however, you are a paladin and he is evil. In other words, if you're set on bards, you have to choose between evil and useless.
There is one more thing to put in the bard's plus column, though: his fast leveling. A lot of people don't think about this, but a bard can be up to level 10 by the end of BG1, which means, his Chromatic Orb can potentially petrify Sarevok. Also, his higher levels give his Dispel Magic, Remove Magic, and Fireballs more oomph.
EDIT: Edwin, not Eldoth! Duh.
Few things for you to consider before saying bards suck is that bards spells are more powerfull than mages, bard can use any weapon he/she pleases, bards can sing, bards can shoot with any weapon they please, bards get pickpockets so your thief dont haveto (for those few items), bards have lore to identify items which doesnt sound like a big of a deal but in the end of the game you can easily have saved around 5-10k money on identify only.
Skald kit helps you mostly in the early stages of the game when its hard to hit enemies.
Jester makes enemies run aimlessly so they are easy to pick.
Blade is just utterly annihilating thing with right spells.
been playing on bards 95% of the time allmost and completed the game around 200 times.
BARDS!!!!!
So it was really a question about Garrick and Eldoth, although, I suppose that does invite discussion about bards in general. We already had a thread about it, though.
That being said, I'd love it if there were additional bards in BG:EE.
Eldoth is a prick.
I use him to identify items, carry the gems, potions, scrolls, extra ammo, cast a few choice spells, and in battle I most often have him sing Bard Song. If Garrick sings Bard Song then the party's cleric need not allocate spell slots on Protection From Fear or Remove Fear.
The priest is mainly going to spend slots on healing early on, and in my games also casting buffing spells for major battles. Eventually the priest will cast offensive spells. But anyway, it's not for nothin' that a bard can help free up the cleric to cast more spells by using Bard Song.
I will sometimes have Garrick use the crossbow to fire bolts of lightning and stunning, if it seems that the threat of an enemy mage casting Horror is negligible.