The Intermediate Bard

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This article was written by Whistler and posted to the Forums.

Ok, so you’ve got a few levels under your belt, and have done one or two performances, what now? Well, this is the time you are going to define who your character really is.

You should have an Instrument. There are several scattered throughout the realms. Though these rarely make good weapons, you should be on hand for your bard reviews and any time you feel it appropriate to break it out. (For example, if another character is whining about something, it’s wholly appropriate to pull out that violin and “Emote plays ‘my heart bleeds for you’.”)

One of the first challenges the intermediate bard may face is the bottleneck. This occurs when your skill level is the same as your spell level, and your base level is 10 levels higher. What this means is that you can’t level until you get those scores. See my post at: http://forums.tfcmud.com/entry.php/1...The-Scores-Are to deal with this problem.

Largely what defines your character will be the skills and spells that you learn. Although I had intended to include this in this post, the relevant information ended up being so lengthy, that I’ve set it as a separate post at: http://forums.tfcmud.com/entry.php/1...t-not-to-learn) . In short, let me say that what you learn will define your character more than just about anything; whether you chose to be a combat bard, a sighted bard, a traveling bard or some amalgam of all of these.

As an intermediate bard, you will discover that bards can be PK magnets. Two easy ways to deal with this are to make friends with everybody, and don’t keep any equipment on you that anybody else would want. (This is the method I’ve taken.) The easiest way to deal with PKs is to join a following.

Bards are most effective in a group. Other characters grouped with them become ‘fortified,’ (which is something like a special bless,) and many of the bard performance spells are group oriented. Furthermore, a bard can serve as excellent bait to get pkers to reveal themselves. If summoned, feel free to use Maurices Bargain to switch places with that high level invisible tank from your group. The attackers are likely to be somewhat dismayed at combat with someone a lot tougher to deal with than they expected.

But, even if you don’t join a following, you have two big advantages over other characters for dealing with pk attempts. Those advantages are the wide range of spells you have memorized and combat lyricals (see below). DON’T bother trying to get pills/potions out of containers in combat. By doing so, you are giving your opponent an action advantage on top of the preparation advantage they already have. I cannot recommend to the intermediate bard to fight it out when they are the target of pk attempts, although they may be able to do so when they advance to a high level bard. Just get out. flee quaff— if this doesn’t work, C dark c jump c word. If you are in a no recall zone, necroport works to get you out. necroport may hurt, but its better than certain death. If you have been cursed, c remove curse. Remember, if you’ve neglected your wisdom, those clerical and shaman spells aren’t going to work to well, so pump your wis at least a little.

Lyricals—Once your skill level has reached about 8, lyricals will start doing you some good, so find some and study them. The higher your skill level, the more effective most lyricals are. They can give you an inestimable advantage, and make you far more combat capable than a comparable level bard without any lyricals.

Lyricals I find to be the best incentive for working on your skill level—more so than the advantage gained by learning thief skills—but this is just my opinion. Getting your skill level up to 18 will allow you to learn second attack in a thief slot. Beyond that, I see lyricals as the only reason to pump your skill level.

Focusing on your skill level can be expensive xp-wise, as every lq or mobm you fail to complete ends up adding to your tnl for your primary level. To get the maximum return for your xp, once you get your mage level to 20 and your skill level to 10, you can concentrate on getting your primary level to 30. Once your primary is up to 30 you really have no loss by failing lqs or mobms, as there is no more ‘tnl’ to worry about, BUT—(funny everyone’s got one of those,) leaving your skill level so low will prevent your spell casting level from increasing even if you’ve cast and memoed enough to do so, AND most of the lyricals you find will be far less effective than if you had bumped your skill level up.

From what I’ve seen, the optimum maximum level difference between bard levels is about 4-5.



Intermediate Bard: More Notes

  • When your skill class is going to 16, you will have a big bump in your required MobHunts (around 200)! You can lessen the pain of this by continuing to mob hunt even when it isn't required for your prior levels. - Samiyah
  • Keep track of your Location Quests!! You will find yourself going back to the same places over and over. - Samiyah (talk) 06:57, 7 September 2012 (MST)
  • Keep track of your scores and scrolls! Make note of what level you have most recently memorized, and don't memorize something LOWER than what you've already learned. - Samiyah (talk) 06:57, 7 September 2012 (MST)