con or cha for level up ability point....

[~Tokii]

i have a lv 7 bard about to be lv 8 and i think i will be getting an ability point. my question is should i get it in cha or something else? i have a plan for some con increase as mine is kind of low at the moment. here is my plan...

current stats @ lv 7
str: 15 +3 item= 18 total
dex: 11 +3 item= 14 total
con: 10 +2 item= 12 total
int: 10
wis: 10
cha: 20 +2 item= 22 total

i did take the toughness feat so my hp at lv 7 is 78. and i can never seem to find a false life item other than lesser, and the +2 con belt helps more i think.

i know i can score a +3 con belt from tangleroot pretty easily, with that and a lv 8 stat increase i could have 14 con. i think i need the extra hit points cause as i am doing harder quests i seem to be a little too fragile.

my question is are +4 or higher con items common enough in the higher level chests that i will end up with one eventually? keep in mind that i am not playing a ton or doing super loot runs. if i have to do a dragon raid 10 times to get one then i never will cause i dont play often enough for that. heck, it takes me a month just to level up lol. i prolly cant plan on a tome either, unless they are getting kind of common.

anyways, does this seem like a good idea or should i keep building my cha? is the amount of hp gain from the 12 to 14 con even worth it?

thanks in advance!

[Club'in]

You will experience benefits either way. Currently, you would gain an additional hit point per level, if in fact you were able to go from 12 to 14 con. This would equate to a 10% boost in your hit points. Never a bad thing.

However, I would typically promote the charisma upgrade as a better move in the long run. You would gain both a spell DC increase and a spell point boost from the greater charisma. Both of which will be very important for you going forward.

My argument would be that if you are doing a lot of fighting, drop a haste and a displacement on yourself before the big encounters. That would make up for a lot of extra hit points. As you go up in levels, your spells and songs should result in your opponents being relatively incapacited at the moment you engage via melee, thereby reducing the value of the extra hit points.

You cannot respect attributes, so it is usually a better idea to plan those out more for the long term, rather than for an immediate, short term benefit.

[Xirxx]

You cannot respect attributes.
You have to respect the attributes - they keep you alive!

[Schmackdown]

I'd take CHA. More bang for the buck(UMD, DCs, SP). Everyone's loot luck seems to be different, but I'm guessing you'll find a +4 CON item eventually. Whether it's in the right slot for you would be something else.

Did you take 20 CHA at start or put a point in at level up? If you went 20 from start I'd definitely take all level-ups in CHA just to keep your DC potential maxed.

[Club'in]

You have to respect the attributes - they keep you alive!

Lol. Good one. Perhaps I should have said "you can't respec". My bad.

[~Tokii]

i think my cha was 19 when i started <this is a drow by the way> and i put 1 point into cha at a previous level to bring total base to 20. i got the spellsinger enhancement which takes up a lot of my action points so i dont have any cha adds there at the moment. but i do get a nifty 100 mana point increase!

so the consensus is that the long term benefits to cha will out weigh the benefits in con for a bard? after reading your replies it sounds like with a con gain i will only get an 8hp gain now and 14hp gain at level cap (which will probably have gone up to 20 by the time i get to 14 lol). with cha i will get added manna, spell dc, better umd, perform, haggle, etc. wow after typing that i can see why added cha would be hard to go against. lol

i was just thinking of more con and hit points after getting whacked really hard a few times by elite giants and minotaurs while running into a fight and trying to use ottos dance. but when that stuff happens i guess an extra 8hp would not have made enough difference, i would still have to run away as fast as i could...lol

thanks, im going to hold off on taking level 8 for a few days so i can decide but looks like it will be a cha point.

[Girevik]

Stick with your plan or reroll.

At character creation you decided to use 3 build points to go from an 18 to a 19 Charisma. You could have used 2 of those for +2 more Con and still had a point left over for +1 to Dex.

Whether this min/max approach was the wisest plan or not is debatable, but it needs to be maintained in order to make it a good choice.


If you want a Bard with more Con, go back and create a Bard with 1:1 Con points and save your level-ups for 2 and 3 point starting buys. Otherwise you are cheating yourself.

[Zenako]

Go for the CHA increase.

As for the other question. +4 Stat items are pretty common now, you can even find them at the vendors in the Marketplace tent pretty often. Thus you can plan on having at least a +4 in any stat pretty easily these days. You can also find items like False Life, Improved False Life and Greater False life but they have higher level restrictions on them so they will come into play later in the game.

As for being fragile in battle, yup, but use your skills and spells to good effect. You are not a low HP fighter, but a BArd! Cast defensive spells on yourself, cast Blur or Displacement. Sing songs and entrance the mobs. Work those pipes and put the enemy into a song loving stupor.