Bards in IWD2

newguy

After playing through BG 1 & 2 with no bard, I finally decided to try one in IWD1. I used the vanilla bard...and loved it. He was able to function as both my buffer AND my caster, which allowed me to have another heavy-armor toon. (I typically don't rely heavily on casting.)

So I'm wondering...with skills as they are in IWD2, how many levels of rogue would I need to take in order for my bard to be my buffer, mage, AND thief? (I should mention that I don't bother with backstabbing, so MS and HiS are not that important to me.)

On a side note, just curious, would it be smart to have all of my fighters start with 1 level of rogue or paladin, just for the extra skill points or benefit to saves?

Acrux2

If your bard has high INT, then 0 levels of rogue are needed (it's pretty common to run a Wizard as a de-facto rogue in IWD2, with no or very few rogue levels). If you really feel the need for a rogue level, just use the first character level so you get the 4x multiplied skill points.

Pickpocket has little payback for investment, so there's another skill that can be de-prioritized. Your main issue will be if you want the bard to be both "face" and trap/lockpick expert.

newguy

sounds great, thanks!