Solo bard: does the song help on your first swing?

Klorox

I’m trying out a solo blade. Does it do any good for me to sing the bard song?

Grond0

Yes - the song will still be active when you first attack. You can see the icon on your character showing when the song is applying.

Klorox

Grond0 said:

Yes - the song will still be active when you first attack. You can see the icon on your character showing when the song is applying.

Cool, thank you!

What does the bard song actually do in BGEE? I’m playing a blade.

Humanoid_Taifun

I think in BGEE the bard and blade song are still identical. They protect you from fear. It is only later that the fact that the blade's song does not improve will make itself felt - until you get HLAs.

In theory you can micromanage your singing thus that you activate the button at the start of a round to get the song bonus and then you spend the remainder of the 6 seconds to fight. But since all you are getting for that trouble is the equivalent of a level 2 spell (or a potion of Clarity or one charge from the Greenstone Amulet), you will probably not want to bother in most cases.

One particular instance where you might choose to go to the effort it is when you first reach the Friendly Arm Inn.

Grond0

Humanoid_Taifun said:

I think in BGEE the bard and blade song are still identical. They protect you from fear. It is only later that the fact that the blade's song does not improve will make itself felt - until you get HLAs.

Assuming you're playing an updated version of BGEE, the blade song is identical to the standard bard song.  In addition to protecting against fear that also gives a +1 luck bonus - which helps attack and damage rolls and reduces magical damage taken.  The standard bard song increases to +2 luck at level 15 and +3 luck at level 20, but the blade song remains at +1 (but that difference would be rendered moot if you choose to take the enhanced song available at HLA anyway).