Bard Armor

[Trask]

Thinking of trying a bard. I want to be a CC type bard so spells like hypnotize are going to be what I will get. My question is in regards to armor. As a bard should I be concerned with Light armor and the Arcane failure from it. Or should i be wearing robes and carry wands/rods/staves like a mage.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Bards do not suffer ASF in any light armor (regardless of ASF% listed). This includes all Light amors, Elven Chainmail, Darkleaf Breastplate, and Mithral Breastplate.

[CSFurious]

i would suggest that you wear either light command or fearsome (best is combined, i.e., fearsome leather of command)

as a bard, you are never going to have a very good ac so you might as well make your diplo & umd more powerful & make the bad guys run away

later

[Freeman]

I second the Fearsome motion. Find the best light Fearsome armor you can. I think I'm currently using something like +3 Fearsome studded leather of False Life, or something close to that. I get teased because it looks almost just like some of the starter armor you get when you roll up a new character, but it has saved my hind quarters on several occasions. I keep my pretty armor for wearing around town and to parties though :)

[Mad_Bombardier]

i would suggest that you wear either light command or fearsome (best is combined, i.e., fearsome leather of command)

as a bard, you are never going to have a very good ac so you might as well make your diplo & umd more powerful & make the bad guys run awayAn excellent suggestion. My Bard wears Fearsome Elven Chainmail of Command. I hardly ever bother with the Cartouche for UMD since I always have the +2 from Command.

[EinarMal]

I would suggest switching to robes once your AC stops helping you at all. Robes are swappable, and you can find fearsome with lots of great second mods like command, resists, etc.... There is no real point to wearing light armor once you hit level 14 or so, you are just limiting your swapping speed and your AC, unless you focus some gear slots on it, will be useless at that point.

[BLAKROC]

i would suggest that you wear either light command or fearsome (best is combined, i.e., fearsome leather of command)

as a bard, you are never going to have a very good ac so you might as well make your diplo & umd more powerful & make the bad guys run away

later


well if not very good ac is 47 then i guess not ;)

[Westerner]

well if not very good ac is 47 then i guess not ;)
47 can matter depending on the quest.

I did not think I could get my AC high enough to matter on end game content, so I dumped DEX in my build, planning to rely on blur, displacement, and stoneskin.

For a short time, around level 10-11 I was able to hit a useful AC ~35 between light armor, shield, barkskin pots and protection items which did help. Once I got to Gianthold though I switched back to Fearsome robes.

[Varis]

HP are key unfortunantly, I would give that priority.

[CSFurious]

while quite high for a bard, i am counting current end-game for ac which based on my understanding from the experts around here means that it better be close to 60 or even higher


well if not very good ac is 47 then i guess not ;)

[CSFurious]

you still want to look sort of tough


I would suggest switching to robes once your AC stops helping you at all. Robes are swappable, and you can find fearsome with lots of great second mods like command, resists, etc.... There is no real point to wearing light armor once you hit level 14 or so, you are just limiting your swapping speed and your AC, unless you focus some gear slots on it, will be useless at that point.

[CSFurious]

that is some great armor

anyway, with my capped bard, i wear command armor & with the medium green steel goggles & gh, i can get a umd of 40

no more cartouche


An excellent suggestion. My Bard wears Fearsome Elven Chainmail of Command. I hardly ever bother with the Cartouche for UMD since I always have the +2 from Command.

[skraus1]

you still want to look sort of tough

I disagree. Pink is the way to go especially because it makes it very easy to match weapons. Pink can still be scary. I have mobs run away all the time.