Un-kitted Bard song Level 11 "The War Chant of Sith" is awsome!

[Hamish]

I mean, this song for me is an absolute game changer, the regeneration rate for me is rather fast.

This is my first time playing though Icewind Dale (currently on console) and I have to say, it is way more fun than I expected! Back in 1999 I had it on CD Rom but never got out of Easthaven (I also wasn't as good at Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 Back then either, so with age comes better gaming experience!

Personally, I think the Regen Rate of 2 HP per round, negates the need for many healing spell slots - prior to this, I had most of my Druid/Cleric slots on heal spells - at this point I plan to reduce that significantly!

My undead hunter got stunned by the mechanoids, and got close to death - I just left him next to my bard singing while the rest carried on, killed a bunch of stuff and by the time I got back, he was healed! It really is fun!

[JIK]

depends on how much you rest and if like me you like to get as long as you can before resting, but you run out of defensive spells first do to time limits and when you do you get much higher hurt rate.

[Hamish]

yeah I prefer minimal resting - and mostly in an inn or guarded

[JIK]

if you really like the chant there is a mod at gibberlings 3 site that allows the use of it in bg and bg2 and lots more, unfortunately it's in beta right now so bugs. named Talents of Faerun (ToF).

[Hamish]

Originally posted by JIK:

if you really like the chant there is a mod at gibberlings 3 site that allows the use of it in bg and bg2 and lots more, unfortunately it's in beta right now so bugs. named Talents of Faerun (ToF).

that is pretty cool! Thanks.

[Zotliatlicor]

The lvl 11 song War Chant of Sith is alone more than enough reason to play with a Un-kitted Bard. You can focuse double on the Offense Spells for both Druids and Clerics, and i default to have one of each.

Every effect from every song stack with similar efefcts from spells and class abilities. So you Dwarven Defender or Barbarian gets extra resistances vs Damage if you have those with you.

The Sirens song is hilarious (the lvl 9 one?). It can confuse / disable large groups of enemies, and this is one of my Cheeses on Insane Difficulty (much more monsters in every fight)

I love Bards, and i love their kits. I am big fan of the Blade Kit, and often include Haerdalis (the Bard) in my BG 2 adventures. But in IWD i always use just the Plain Bard. There is lots of items to Steal, and some of them are so good, so early, that hard gets easy

My Bards start as Support, but end up as really Strong Fighters just like Fighter / Mages. I spell my Bard with mostly Buffs (i give the mage the most offense early) but i favour the Bard for the "effect pr level" spells. Dispel Magic, Skulltrap, Flame Arrow and so on.

The IWD campaign is just Built for a Bard.

[a_delo3]

Having a bard is definitely a plus for IWD campaign: there are good class items and can scrap a few extra XPs if use the bard to speak to certain NPCs. Furthermore the bard solves the issue of identifying stuff.
In IWD my favourite one is the skald kit: the bonuses to damage and Tac0 are really good (2 at L1, 4 at L15) and at L20 there is also immunity to most disabling effects.
The bonuses to hit and damage are all the more relevant if play HoF with L1 party since turn lowly minions into killing machines

[Hamish]

I noticed one of my achievements was related to a prologue bard quest and so few people have it... I am not sure how great the item you get later is, but I do know it's a great amount of exp in the prologue! I 100% agree - this game is very bard friendly! if you get your hands on one of those eleven chains, along with some AC weapons... Just singing War Chant of Sith makes you pretty tanky allowing others to mow things down.. I often hide my archer behind my bard for example.

[Nukoolamukmuk]

Bards are very good in these games. In Baldur's Gate 2, I was using a Jester which can do a confusing dance like mentioned above which is fun. I also like how bards can use any weapon so they can pick up and use anything especially if the + is enough to overcome the bard's lack of proficiency with the weapon. They also make it easy to identify every magic item you loot and can pick pockets if you are the shady type. I don't like reloading to avoid problems, so if I pickpocket, first take a potion to make it nearly impossible to fail.

And I also am the type to drag out my party as long as possible before resting because I think it is more tactical and realistic that way. So we go into fights worried about our lack of spells and have to use potions often so I buy a lot of them when I can. I like using druid spells like the nymph summon and the spike spray which makes me feel like an angry porcupine hosing down the enemy party during their approach. My mage throws down a pig fat to slow them down for the spike spray to be applied before the baddies get to us.

[Hamish]

Spiky Pig Fat attack! That's funny! My Berserker Druid has been having lots of fun being a grand master in Scimitars and dual wielding the Lucky Scimitar and Frost Brand with Iron Skin on! Turns those mobs into diced beef in no time!

There is defiantly some great pick pocket items - the best I have found is a ring of free action, and free action in Icewind Dale is a 100 times better than Baldur's Gate. I always found it stupid that free action blocked haste in Baldurs Gate, glad it doesn't in Icewind Dale!

I have this game on Switch too, but stopped playing it now - it has a terrible bug that I didn't know about in the beginning, as I played on Core Rules at first - quest experience isn't increased with difficulty level. I saw a 4 year old post on Beam Dog's forum and they still haven't fixed it - hacked me right off! The PC version works as intended,

[Zotliatlicor]

The Easy Pickpocket items that a normal bard can get, with very little savescumming:

Kuldahar, from Druid: Ring Of Free Action
Kuldahar, From Garrick: Ring Of Free Action, Necklace Of Metaspell (extra lvl 2 spell)
Kuldahar, From Oswald the Gnome: Ring of Protection +2, Ring Of Missiles (8) (6d6 Fireball)

In Addition you can get 2 potions of Cure at Prolouge from the Temple, and some more potions from Oswald in Kuldahar.

The 3 rings, grabbable by a low lvl Bard, is more than enough reason to have one for me. You can even sell one of the rings right away and get lots of other goodies with the money. It sells for 8-9000 gold -ish.

[Hamish]

Lol can't believe I never tried pick poketing the druid

[Nukoolamukmuk]

thanks Zotliatlicor. That saves us trying to pickpocket every person in the area and risking them all going aggro on us.

Edit: I had to edit to spell your name right. Did you make up that name? Would be funny if someone with that name became a front runner in the presidential election so everyone has to say it millions of times everyday.

[Zotliatlicor]

Originally posted by Nukoolamukmuk:

thanks Zotliatlicor. That saves us trying to pickpocket every person in the area and risking them all going aggro on us.

Edit: I had to edit to spell your name right. Did you make up that name? Would be funny if someone with that name became a front runner in the presidential election so everyone has to say it millions of times everyday.

Came up with that name myself, all by my lonesome. It has been my gamer-tag for years on most platforms i use, like Youtube, Forums and so on. But i am not very active theese days. My dreams on becoming the next YouTuber was never realized.

In Age of Conan, the MMORPG, there was a class called Herald Of Xotli (i think), which was a Fusion of Mage and Swordswinger. My first character there was Zotliatlicor. Played Conan for years.

Odds are if you ever come across that overly complicated name elsewhere, it is most likely me :)

And i do not think i will run for President of anything, lol.

Cheers & have Fun :)

[Nukoolamukmuk]

That's good way to make a unique name and use it everywhere so people can find you easily anywhere they see you.

[Hamish]

Hold on.. I just got my Bard to level 21... and he got a level 7 spell slot? is THAT the max level spell for Bards in this game or is it even higher?