Well, my bard blade playthrough in BG1EE went great; with his dual handed offensive spin (2p), he was consistently on par with his pure (up to 7/8 early levels) warriors colleagues for the attack speeds and damages and all in the front row.. i consistently used bows for the long ranged attacks, even without specs points in them (especially with a little offensive spin working on distance too in EE if necessary apparently!^..), were largely deadly enough with the best ones and numerous kind of arrows available..was more than enough. 2 points n dual hand (DH), 1 in long sword and 1 in axe (for the excellent +2 throwing axe adding dam, and an easy +2 axe available too in BG.. and to prepare for some of the BG2 specialized axes.. though i kinda regreated the choice later, precisely..in BG2). The main problem of the blade is the very limited number of spec points to get : will have to choose the weapons used very carefully... personnally, i think an early point in scimitar could be excellent too (instead of the axe) [and literally 2 scimitars +2 to get early FREE in BG1!.. if you know where to look at..with that you are almost set for the whole DH BG1 game..apart for some more specialized also +2 swords to use sometimes/ )... a lot of scimitars in BG2 useful too (early +1 speed one for ex..).. and in BG1 bows are largely enough even without points... and everything distance is less effective in BG2 anyway..
The main troubles come with BG2EE though.. already there in BG1 but much less crucial (low levels, less differences with pure warriors).. for exemple the attack speed thing.. becomes crucial in BG2 and, alas.. much slower than equivallent pure warriors the more time passes.. even compared with a more simple multi warrior/mage (elf^) especially with the very annoying bugged speed potion / offensive spin interractions in the EE, at least till patch 1.2 (or free action / defensive spin). In the originals you could combine those ones (even if the speed bonuses did not stack simultaneously, of course) ; in the EE, you have a speed bonus +1 IF you drink your potions before the OS, if not, you are wasting ALL your always too much limited but more and more precious OS charges here again (or the potions, according to the order used)... and if you had the very bad idea to throw a collective or individual speed spell BEFORE launching your OS, you lost all your OS charge again, of course, etc.. in the end you are naturally way slower than the now much stronger/quicker warriors AND are spoiled with that OS/speed interractions bugs - and free action once great things (on some weapons for ex^..) now can also destroy your DS too, etc!.. You also have weirdly/buggy implemented high level specs, like 'flute' for exemple..or use any objects, etc.. In the end, the experience of the blade in BG2EE is much less fun/pleasant, much more annoying/irritating (and effective^) it could be in the originals.. at least up to patch 1.2.
Well.. i personnaly already did a few months ago a mini patch to reintroduce the original speed/OS interractions (DE too), plus tried to correct the 'flute' thing too, etc.. don't remember exactly the procedures now, but all i remember is that was possible but a pain in the *** to have to do that to recover the original fun of the blades (in BG2 was obvious, much less in BG1, were, i have to say, the new bug speed potion + OS - not the reverse!^- was initially very nice/fun though..even if just a never corrected bug..placed the blade on top par with the best warriors then..was nice.. but already less effective in BG2 compared to the inconvenients of the wasted Os if used in the wrong orders, etc// ) ^^ ..
waiting for patch 1.3 now)
ps; in the originals, the bard blade class (well built/used) was one of the very few perfectly able to soloing till the very end... of course. //
All them potions of invulnerability will come in handy in BG1, that's for damn sure. Never did a solo bard run before; since bards are that type of class I could never do well with.
Comments
The main troubles come with BG2EE though.. already there in BG1 but much less crucial (low levels, less differences with pure warriors).. for exemple the attack speed thing.. becomes crucial in BG2 and, alas.. much slower than equivallent pure warriors the more time passes.. even compared with a more simple multi warrior/mage (elf^) especially with the very annoying bugged speed potion / offensive spin interractions in the EE, at least till patch 1.2 (or free action / defensive spin). In the originals you could combine those ones (even if the speed bonuses did not stack simultaneously, of course) ; in the EE, you have a speed bonus +1 IF you drink your potions before the OS, if not, you are wasting ALL your always too much limited but more and more precious OS charges here again (or the potions, according to the order used)... and if you had the very bad idea to throw a collective or individual speed spell BEFORE launching your OS, you lost all your OS charge again, of course, etc.. in the end you are naturally way slower than the now much stronger/quicker warriors AND are spoiled with that OS/speed interractions bugs - and free action once great things (on some weapons for ex^..) now can also destroy your DS too, etc!.. You also have weirdly/buggy implemented high level specs, like 'flute' for exemple..or use any objects, etc.. In the end, the experience of the blade in BG2EE is much less fun/pleasant, much more annoying/irritating (and effective^) it could be in the originals.. at least up to patch 1.2.
Well.. i personnaly already did a few months ago a mini patch to reintroduce the original speed/OS interractions (DE too), plus tried to correct the 'flute' thing too, etc.. don't remember exactly the procedures now, but all i remember is that was possible but a pain in the *** to have to do that to recover the original fun of the blades (in BG2 was obvious, much less in BG1, were, i have to say, the new bug speed potion + OS - not the reverse!^- was initially very nice/fun though..even if just a never corrected bug..placed the blade on top par with the best warriors then..was nice.. but already less effective in BG2 compared to the inconvenients of the wasted Os if used in the wrong orders, etc// ) ^^ ..
waiting for patch 1.3 now)
ps;
in the originals, the bard blade class (well built/used) was one of the very few perfectly able to soloing till the very end... of course. //
I enjoy watching the last part, if only to hear Sarevok say "I do not fear death" in Polish. ;-)