The Starting Bard

Article written by Whistler, February 24th, 2010. Originally posted to his Blog on the TFC Forums.

So you wanna be a bard, eh?

Ok, the first thing you need to know is that bards SUCK at combat. What this means is that you'll need to get the best armor you can--push the AC, dragon scale if possible.

It also means that you want to consider every mob before you get into combat, but the challenge rating is off for bards. What this means is that when something cons 'perfect' it's going to be a tough mob to kill. A mob that cons 'easy' may require you to have several potions/spells handy to take them down, 'no problem' should be a good fight and 'naked' is easy, but not Necessarily a cakewalk. I generally avoid combat with mobs that con 'lucky', and by level 25/20/15 have taken down a total of 1 mob that conned 'laughs'. Forget taking on anything that cons death, because they WILL kill you.

Bards can only use one handed weapons, so forget picking up a sweet two hander and getting it restrung into an accordion. (Although you could do this with a one hander.)

Before you can up your spell (mage) and skill (thief) level, you need to up your fighter level. An easy way to do this is to stay in the arena until your bard (fighter) level is 9 or 10.

At these low levels memo every score you find, and feel free to try to memo scrolls as well. Keep a few magenta potions on hand because occasionally, you will get confused by the memo process.

Once you have decided to Learn even one spell/skill, you need to start iding every score before you memo it, because it will mess up whatever you've learned by rememoing the same thing, AND some scores that you might want to learn could burn off pretty easily. What this means is that one of your 4 mage slots should be spent on identify. It’s kind of a Necessary evil.

Learn (general) dodge and parry as soon as possible. The level that you learn these does not affect the efficacy of the skill when you level as certain other spells/skills do.

for example: if you learn Magic missile at level 1, then even when you're level 20, you'll only be throwing level 1 missiles. Other skills which do not seem to be level locked are: sphere use, second attack, third attack, and enhanced damage.

I have been told that pick lock is not level locked but am unconvinced. Hide and invisibility ARE level dependent, as are the associated detect spells.

You cannot learn a spell at a level higher than your own, even if you've memoed a lvl 30 scroll of that spell just before you learn. You will cast that learned spell at the level you learn it. (Sorry Logos, live and learn.)

Generally, if you are the minimum level to cast a spell, you shouldn't bother learning it because it's not going to work as well as you hope.

If you learn something and then realize you shouldn't have, don't give up hope. There is a way to reclaim that lost slot, but it isn't easy.

One of the drawbacks of the musical lifestyle is the constant call of pills and potions. Some of these can be of inestimable value to a bard, but a word of caution about becoming overly dependent on them: Shopkeeps don't have an endless supply of those wonderful pills and potions.

if you find yourself returning to a couple of shops regularly, you may want to learn (general) the language of that shopkeep, but don't spend more than a 2-3 (general) slots on languages. You may also want to hold onto a few vials of dragonsblood-a potion of tongues/comprehend language- which is available from Fuego in Cindellia and the Elf wizard in Dwarvenhold.

Few lyricals give the low level bard any true benefit, but a couple do. If you come across them, feel free to study them, and learn thereby. Perhaps you can teach the rest of us something about them.

CHR is the primary stat for bards. Int/Dex are next most important, then con/str/wis. It is easy to neglect wis when working on your characters stats and equipment, (because you don't gain pracs,) but if you do, you'll find that the clerical and shaman spells you've memoed will have little effect. As I have stated previously though, Watch your AC. If all your stats are maxed out and you've got an ac of 'unarmored', you're gonna die.

When you cast a memo'd spell, the total number of that spell in your memo inventory drops by one. When that number reaches 0, the spell disappears from your memo inventory. What this means is that to level your spell level, you need to cast some spells, but not too many of them--because by doing so you're increasing the number you have to memo to level. at higher levels it takes a ton of scores to up your spell level, so before you cast a memo'd spell, ask yourself if you could get the same benefit from some magic item, potion or pill. personally, i've become quite fond of spell rings and spheres.

Next: The Intermediate Bard