Blade instead of Bard/Skald?
Skyllaros
Member Posts: 2
So I'm wondering how necessary a vanilla bard or skald is to the party. I'm playing on ios and finding it annoying that every time I select all in my party to attack, the bard song stops playing. Maybe it's easier on the PC, but I get almost no use out of my bard song. Truth is I just don't want to deal with micromanaging the bard song. I played a Blade in BG2, and am thinking of re-starting with a blade instead of a skald. I've never played IWD before and am worried, based on the bard songs popularity on these forums, that later in the game I'll be at a disadvantage if I don't have one.
Any advice on this? Is a bard song truly necessary? Or other iOS users, how do you deal with the annoying mechanic of keeping the bard song going without selecting each individual party member to attack?
Any advice on this? Is a bard song truly necessary? Or other iOS users, how do you deal with the annoying mechanic of keeping the bard song going without selecting each individual party member to attack?
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If you want that Blade playstyle in IWD, I suggest you create a fighter/mage instead.
Of course, if you don't have another bard, the blade will still be useful for lore and bard-only items. So overall I'd say the blade and the fighter/mage are actually fairly evenly matched, especially if you've got other physical damage dealers.
Now, as for the blade in comparison to the other bards... I really like the blade, but the vanilla bard is pretty clearly king in IWD, imo. That said, if you're not using the bard songs anyway, you aren't gonna lose anything by switching to blade.
The loss of robes is, honestly, unimportant. Bracers and elven chain fill in perfectly well. Would robes be better? Yeah, marginally, but not enough better to counterbalance Defensive Spin. The loss of rings of wizardry is by far the most important loss, but the gain in caster level is a larger advantage for the most part. And, of course, both these restrictions go away long before 9th level spells are on the table.
The first point is valid though: in normal play, neither bards nor fighter/mages get 9th level spells.
In IWD, arcane spells are trivial anyway, all that matters is how hard you can hit stuff, and fighter mages easily beat Blades in that department.
And i'm not sure if there are elven chains in game.
About experience, that's hardly are problem in iwd, with doubling exp on insane and you can easily select hof option and kill mobs then you are ready then switch to normal mode and exp rewards from quests, etc.
If you're new to the games, look at the character record screen -> customize -> script. I mean, if you're not new they're still there, but just so you know. Y'know?
Elven chain mail of the hand +3 and my favorite, Kaylessa's armor + 3
From glancing at charts, it seems like the Blade will typically have a slightly lower THAC0 and less total spell slots, but have access to similar level spells. So, you'd need to make very optimal buffing routines or use Spins to be competetive. The Blade gets some Bard only gear, which isn't really spectacular (but not bad. Mage only amounts to Mage Daggers mostly), but he's better offensively when you get to cast Tenser's... though thats pretty late! Unless you scroll cast. HAHAHAHA! Yeah, right. But still, if your party doesn't need speed weapons, the Blade doing a Spin is at least competetive.
Fwiw, the Blade has a much higher caster level, but that doesn't actually come up terribly often. You will be very buff spell dependant, so you won't be casting many damage spells, and Dispel rsrely comes up. But, your buffs last a bit longer.
If I would choose a Blade, I would go longsword dualled. I don't know what others mean when talking most of a bards spells are used as buffs. Once you find bracers ac6 or any robe similar, mirror image is the only buff he needs. That is only if he is mobbed. Skull trap and lance of disruption seem to payoff big time for my bard as softeners.