Tips for New Players

[76561198827547584]

Wanted to make a post for veteran players to leave some "best practices", suggestions, and personal preferences for players new to these games. Try to limit yourself to one post. Let new users "window shop" for suggestions that suit their own sensibilities. Thanks, all!

[Ceana of the Crags]

Originally posted by Lord Retro:

First of all: in the first levels you save your game AFTER.EVERY.SINGLE. FIGHT.

Second: If you dont use the pregenerated A-Team, check their equipment. The bard has a Fire Horn you can steal from him that casts a high level damage spell on an entire enemy group.

HEAL yourself. DONT EVER go into combat without full health when you are level 1 or 2.

Make a BALANCED party. Use AT LEAST 2 spellcasters.

If odds are against you: RUN AWAY.

Buy Halbards for your main tank.

Use Sanctuary Score to lower your armor.

Give your tank the best armor available.

If you follow those guidelines, you will still die. But since you save AFTER EVERY FIGHT, that wont matter that much.

This game is HARD. Getting killed in low level is part of the experience.

Putting a period behind individual words displays a lack of education. You already capitalized them. That is shouting in the internet. At least shout using proper grammar.

[swtdwy]

Originally posted by RJM:

The Fire Horn is mentioned already. Don;t forget to sell it to Garth's before it runs out of charges. You can immediately buy it back fully restored to 50 charges for 1200 gold. A bargain price compared to restoring spell points at Roscoe's even after your casters are high enough level to inflict AoE damage.

Apparently not anymore. Didn't work for me. I sold it back with 4 charges. I could immediately by it back with 4 charges and was notified that once I left, this item was no longer for sale.

[GandGolf]

Originally posted by swtdwy:

Originally posted by RJM:

The Fire Horn is mentioned already. Don;t forget to sell it to Garth's before it runs out of charges. You can immediately buy it back fully restored to 50 charges for 1200 gold. A bargain price compared to restoring spell points at Roscoe's even after your casters are high enough level to inflict AoE damage.

Apparently not anymore. Didn't work for me. I sold it back with 4 charges. I could immediately by it back with 4 charges and was notified that once I left, this item was no longer for sale.

You need to have certain legacy options enabled also, if I'm not mistaken.

[swtdwy]

IMO, the most important attribute is Dexterity. Especially in a caster, since dexterity determines who acts first. It is a huge benefit to cast an AoE on a group of casters or dragons before they can get a spell/breath off.

[Sir Bryond]

Well, my two cts as a veteran player are:
As soon as you get the FLRE spell to cure POIS the game is won. From that point you can farm the catacombs and level up your party.
Regarding the legacy options: be aware that at least in my settings I did not find any bracer armor. So even if you're old school (as I am) it might be a good idea not to enable legacy mode, at least the one check with "align all item of all three games".
Of course, neither my spellcasters nor my monk really need that item, but it was in the game back in 1985.

[Marcycle]

- At the beginning of the game, you may want to savescum and reroll, but near the end of the game it doesn't matter much. I don't ever reroll character stats anymore, even at the beginning of the game.

- Monks are great at the beginning of the game and pretty useless near the end. Hunters are better near the end of the game with their ability to crit at a distance using any long-ranged weapon.

- Rogues are great to disarm traps, and to sneak up on and crit Foes that are far away from you (until your Archmage can cast the MEME spell in BT2 and BT3)

- AC prevents physical damage, while LUCK prevents damage from spells/breaths. Consult the F3 bestiary to determine how high your AC and LUCK need to be to avoid certain attacks from certain enemies.

- Take advantage of Bard Song stacking during combat, especially if you have an item that allows the Bard to sing unlimited songs. Stacked Traveller's Tune and Lucklaran can make your party invincible to physical and magical/breath attacks if they're stacked high enough. You can even stack Badh'r Kilnfest to heal a great deal during every turn. +15 is the max attribute that songs can stack to, and at high enough levels a single song will bring you to the +15 max. This is particularly useful in the beginning of the game when your AC and LUCK is not very high.

- Spell equivalents to Traveller's Tune are INVI, MIMI, and PHBL. The spell equivalent to Lucklaran is ANTI. A Luckshield and a Breathring also increase your LUCK.

- Your monster companions can equip two items: Kato's Bracer and Breathrings, which are VERY USEFUL. They can also equip some misc Death-Snare only items in BT2.

- If you get stuck, try to explore EVERY SQUARE in a dungeon before trying to look up a walkthrough. There are often clues strewn about a dungeon. This is particularly true in BT2, where clues for one dungeon may be hidden in another dungeon.

- Unless you have LEGACY mode turned on where you can only save at the Guild, money will eventually be a joke. (In LEGACY mode, players would frequently die before they can save their game lose all their money) Spend your gold freely on items. You only really need to be miserly when it comes to healing at temples, and even then only until you gain the ability to heal using spells.

- If you're starting BT2 or BT3 with a new party, your Bard's Zanduvar Carack song will be important to prevent death by traps

- Anti-magic squares only dispel magic that has been cast by a party member, not spells that have been cast by an ITEM. This is particularly useful in BT2 Death Snares where Anti-magic squares abound, but you want to be able to see.

- Read all item descriptions carefully. Some items have very special features when equipped.

- You can prevent illusions from being summoned using DILL, prevent monsters from being summoned using PREC, and a Bard can prevent allies from being summoned using Sir Robin's Tune (BT3 only)

- All statuses can be healed at temples, but only some can be healed using spells.

- Spell Bind is a fantastic spell to get some of the best enemies to fight for you. Use the F3 Bestiary to see what attacks different Foes have.

[bluemonkey]

When starting out fresh, don't be too attached to characters. Buy the best equipment possible for the front line. And after the first 5-10 levels, a struggling character should be re-rolled and replaced.

Bard's Tale is about experimentation and exploration. Try out the effects of different bard's songs, different spells and different equipment configurations. Songs & spells used during traveling will remain active during combat--use that to your advantage and always start fights prepared with the best bonuses available.

Top BT1 songs for early travelling: Traveller's Tune for AC or Badh'r for healing. Then swap later to Wayfarer's for melee damage reduction or Lucklarien for magic resistance.

Use magic items to conserve spell points on your mages. An unused fire horn is pointless if the magician is exhausted from nonstop Starflare.

Generally it's best to fill all slots with characters. If you're playing BT1 with the special slot, try to keep it full always. Not only does this maximize your effectiveness, it minimizes the opportunity of a doppleganger wrecking you.

Pay attention to which groups of enemies inexorably advance to melee range: start swinging your melee weapons at dangerous monsters to get free hits as they arrive. Conversely, if you are advancing into a large group of monsters, be ready to receive a pummeling.

[AlterEgo45]

Originally posted by NoNihilism:

My father said he beat this game with six wizards. I've duplicated that by building a party of six magic-users that could take the 400 berserkers over and over. It took some doing, but it can be done. There's little doubt in my mind that's actually the most effective party possible.

I never finished any Bard's Tale games, but I've heard you didn't actually need a bard in the 1st, a paladin in the 2nd one or a rogue in the 3rd one. There was also a starter dungeon in each game designed to boost low-level characters up quickly, so you definitely don't need to make a party for all three games.

A bard isn't required in this remake and I won't need the others later on? I'd like to clarify that.

I did finish the original BT and there was one area which you specifically could not pass unless you had a bard. It was the only reason I used a bard at all. I'd love to not use a bard or rogue and have 4 melee characters and 3 mages.

I never liked being forced to use what I saw as an inferior character so I'd be great with the idea of these requirements not existing.

[Marcycle]

Originally posted by AlterEgo45:

A bard isn't required in this remake and I won't need the others later on? I'd like to clarify that.

There's another thread on here that goes into more detail on that, and other, requirements.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/843260/discussions/0/3196988875697601257/

For BT1, a magic-user can bypass the spot where the Bard is needed using a PHDO or an APAR spell.

[680x0]

i beat all three games on c64 (and almost finished with trilogy) with the same party and i found the bard to be indispensable. not only for extra armor all the time but also for double spell regen while magic users use staves for half cost.. not to mention stacking songs during combat. keep monsters from summoning is a fav. i know there are lots of people that will scream and yell and argue about my party choices but i romped through the games. i also use a thief.. let the battle commence.

[Marcycle]

Originally posted by MO 6502:

i beat all three games on c64 (and almost finished with trilogy) with the same party and i found the bard to be indispensable. not only for extra armor all the time but also for double spell regen while magic users use staves for half cost.. not to mention stacking songs during combat. keep monsters from summoning is a fav. i know there are lots of people that will scream and yell and argue about my party choices but i romped through the games. i also use a thief.. let the battle commence.

Yeah, when I was a kid I just used the bard a bit here and there. But now that I'm older and understand how Bard Songs stack in these games, the Bard is essentially another Mage whose buffs can stack on top of the Mage's buffs. The Bard is an excellent support character.

[Montiness]

Play with legacy option regarding item charges pretty much only. This will have a semi more realistic charge mechanic on items that have it where once Garth buys it they recharge it and charge you accordingly to buy a full charge item, instead of essentially just giving you money and is very handy throughout all the 3 games. Recommend this because I believe at least in the rework roscoe should have the ability to recharge items and this should be included with Garth by default.

Don't worry about respawning fights, there is absolutely zero need for it with the reworked exp and single fights, it just makes levelling longer and distracts / wastes time instead of progressing. It isn't really even helpful for getting a character to 50 for the achievement.

If you take a hunter monk and thief to run the frontline, at higher levels the hunter always crits and both the monk and thief can use a death dagger. Later in the series even the monk can not one hit critters with pure damage nearing 3000 so 3 characters that guarantee crits is great.

If you decide to start with 3 mages and transfer with full power to the next in the series, at stages when you need an ally, about 4 in total, one needing to drop 3 members of a 7 member party, always drop the same mage. This mage you can usee to be a chronomancer in 3 and will get 0 exp when that happens anyway so it's not a loss in the long run. Drop the monk hunter and thief for the 3 slot, it's a tonne easier for the three mages to get to it with a bard to spell song and load up on mangars mallets, only really needing 2 to get rid of the critters leaving the third for trapzapping chests if you care for loot and replenishing exploration buffs.

If you feel like a geomancer, use the hunter and equip your monk with a death dagger. He attacks earlier, has a lower ac and doesn't need items due to his monk ac bonus, allowing you to equip loot to free up space to carry more and unequip to sell.

The Paladin only items really aren't great, the warrior damage falls off so very fast and a hunter can essentially wear all the ac stuff they can with like a -2 AC total in exceptions,

If you're looking to get the most out of your front line the best way to start is ensuring the characters have a high con and base hp. If you're not save scumming to get the best (or hex editing to correct them) since all stats will eventually get to 18 this ensures they get the most hp per level and the dex will eventually follow. For casters you want a high int, gnomes are best to get a 17+

If you wish to play as close to the 80's versions as possible don't use the item recharge option, use the no charge with chance of being used up option and all others

[Jarad2012]

Roll a team -- all hobbits. All need 18 dexterity as the other stats are not that important for this strategy. 4 monks, bard, mage, conj. Run between houses located across from Thief Temple which is where you will restore health (any time you take damage after a fight). Thief Temple is the one near starter dungeon. Rinse and repeat throughout a game day, especially that first night to make a lot of gold and experience. Use the fire-horn that the bard has equipped on encounters. Do this until fire-horn is gone. By the time the fire-horn is expended, the monks will have enough AC and hits per round to take over damage output during fights. You supplement their damage with caster spells. I don't give monks weapons but let them wear applicable armors. When you are ready to do the main quest, leave a mage in Adventurer's Guild and summon a Demon Lord or spellbind a dragon to the party, etc. If using classic settings in BT1, drop to 3 monks and summon whatever you have available to fill the Special slot or leave it empty until you get Wind Dragon or higher since the others are 'paper tigers'.