Help With My New Bard Please

[unionyes]

I have recently made myself a bard for the first time. She is a 28 pt build, Str, Dex, and Con are 14, Cha 16. I have been soloing with her a lot, and she is now Level 4, about 4K away from Level 5. I have to admit that I twinked her with a sword and bow, and a little plat for cure wands, even though my main is a poor sorcerer with not a lot to spare.

I have found that she is pretty fair at everything but not really great at anything. She can range - but not as good as a ranger. She can heal - but not as good as a cleric. She can fight - but not as good as a barb or fighter.

My question is this: With those stats, which of the specialties would you reccomend? I didn't even know about them when I was making her, and I like her too much to re-roll unless she will be TOTALLY gimped with those stats. I have spent my AP's, but that can be undone if need be. I also have a few shards on my alts that I can use to respec feats if necessary.

[Zenako]

First off - What race? and What feats.

Bards can be almost anything they want to be. The ONE thing they do that no one else can is the SONGS. Those songs can be free hitpoints, buffs to hit and damage, and more. Are you thinking about any of the Bard Specialties (Spellsinger, Virtuoso and Warchanter?) They are plenty useful. But you will need to plan a little to get them as soon as you might want.

With those physical stats you will do ok in melee or ranged attacking. I assume you have UMD skill maxed out (and Haggle too).

A good bard with a group that listens can rock any quest. A good bard with a tone deaf group that is clueless will die. Due to the limited number of Spells you get, Wands will be your friend. Collect them, and use them.

[Dariun]

My question is this: With those stats, which of the specialties would you reccomend? I didn't even know about them when I was making her, and I like her too much to re-roll unless she will be TOTALLY gimped with those stats.

What do you want to do? Your build looks flexible enough to go in any direction.

I have a human bard with 16 cha, 16 str, 12 dex, 12 con (pretty similar to you). I decided to go with Spellsinger as a specialty and focus on crowd control and healing with a little fighting on the side.

He is only lvl 6 and just got Spellsinger, but so far I've found it to be fun.

My feats are Spell focus: enchantment, Greater spell focus: enchantment, Mental Toughness, and Extend. If I were not human, I would have gone without Greater spell focus: enchantment. At lvl 9 I think I'll take skill focus: UMD, but I'll wait and see.

For spells I have cure light, cure moderate, hypnotism, charm, ottos, and heroism.

[A_Sheep]

Spellsinger is probably the easiest to fit on a bard build. When training action points, click the "Show unavailible" checkbox.

Spellsinger Requirements:
Enhancemnets: Bard Energy of Music II AND Bard Song Magic II AND Bard Lyric of Song I AND Bard Concentration II

Any one of the following feats (your choice! ):
Empower Spell OR
Heighten Spell OR
Maximize Spell OR
Spell Focus: Enchantment OR
Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment OR
Magical Training OR
Mental Toughness

[unionyes]

She's a human, for feats I took mental toughness and Extend. Of course, I don't have enough manna to cast Blur and Heroism extended on the whole party (that was kinda embarassing when I was buffing and ran out before the caster was buffed), but I am sure that will get better with time, for now I cast either unextended buffs or just one or the other extended.

Spellsinger looks pretty good to me, I think I will follow that path. I always wondered exactly what spell or effect it was that kept giving my sorcerer a sale on sp cost, that would be very handy to have. I may have to respec some, but thats not a problem. Thanks for the advice guys, and see you in show business.

BTW, her name is Howlingcat on Sarlona, if you see me out there give me a shout.

[Zenako]

Spellsinger is a great group/party bard. The Spellsong is very very powerful in a party with casters. Make sure they know you have it BEFORE they cast any buffs. The 10% spell point savings add up. Daniko (14th level Drow Spellsinger) loves having notes coming out of everyone.... The extra DC on all spells is huge as well, makes every Crowd Control or Attack hit just that much better. Add in the 100 Spell points and UMD boost, and it is probably the most popular bard Specialty.

At end game I have 18 Songs with topped out time extension, Both Songs of the Dead and Makers, over 1000 sp and a 50+ haggle score. The right Songs will stop almost ANYTHING in its tracks. It can be tricky learning how to fascinate mobs succesfully.

Remember, you can Run while playing a song, so learn to run up to the mobs, herd them close together while playing a song. The key point is that you can begin playing as you are running up, the targets/victims only have to be within range at the trigger point in the song. With Haste and Displacement going, you can pretty safely herd them together and get a roomful of music lovers.

Mid game, blur and then displacement will be your friend, the mobs cannot hurt what they just outright miss. Extend is still a good choice for BARD in my opinion. Heroism, Good Hope and then later Greater Heroism are cool and much sought after buffs.

If you are going to be mixing it up in battle, be sure to buff the battle boosts to your songs.

[Dariun]

Of course, I don't have enough manna to cast Blur and Heroism extended on the whole party (that was kinda embarassing when I was buffing and ran out before the caster was buffed), but I am sure that will get better with time, for now I cast either unextended buffs or just one or the other extended.

Yeah, I didn't take Extend until lvl 6 for that reason. Good thing about Spellsinger is you get 100 extra spell points. I also got lucky and got the Crimson Gemstone from Tangleroot, so I find that I have a decent number of spell points (450+ I think). I've been casting Blur from scrolls, but I'm definitely going to pick it up as my next spell so I can give everyone extended blur/heroism.

[Zenako]

Dont forget wands. You can get some of those spells in wands and it will be cheaper than scrolls. Blur for example.

[unionyes]

Remember, you can Run while playing a song, so learn to run up to the mobs, herd them close together while playing a song. The key point is that you can begin playing as you are running up, the targets/victims only have to be within range at the trigger point in the song. With Haste and Displacement going, you can pretty safely herd them together and get a roomful of music lovers.

Did I ever find that out running solo. I figured that would be great to try out my new stuff without looking like a tool. After I figured out there is no save for fascinate (or if there is it must be way up there, because I have never seen an creature that can be affected not affected), I had a question, why isn't it used more often.

Then I ran with a PUG. And answered my own question. I actually fascinated twice while running in a circle. They were hitting them each one time as fast as I was fascinating them. I actually was clearing out the kobold brothers and their entourage in Durks faster and with way less damage being done by myself than with a full party.

But I digress. Bards are great, I don't know why I didn't make one before.

[Dagone]

A good bard with a group that listens can rock any quest. A good bard with a tone deaf group that is clueless will die. Due to the limited number of Spells you get, Wands will be your friend. Collect them, and use them.[/QUOTE]

Couldn't be more right. I'm trying a bard for the first time and typically run with a high intimidate fighter who grabs mob aggro and I fascinate. But don't limit yourself to buff and CC. You can do much more that; love seeing elementals dance.

Dag

Sorry for botching your quote Zenako..kinda new to the forums

[Zenako]

Couldn't be more right. I'm trying a bard for the first time and typically run with a high intimidate fighter who grabs mob aggro and I fascinate. But don't limit yourself to buff and CC. You can do much more that; love seeing elementals dance.

Dag

One of my side goals is to see what dance every mob in the game does.... Rust Monsters do push ups... Hobgoblins have some sort of funky groove going on.... Watching a whole line of trolls doing a Rockettes thing while roasting in a fire wall is kinda amusing...

[bigj1608]

my bard's armor class comes from blur/displacement so i didn't worry much with dex. i started with a 14 str and con for a decent base to hit to get through lower level quests and a 20 str at 14 isnt terrible, after bard songs and GH and such.. im right over 200 HP at 14 which isnt much but its enough to be able to live through a hit or two.. my bard went max cha though.. right now he has 32 cha and has the spellsinger enhancements and such, extend spell, heighten spell, mental toughness and improved mental toughness and i'm playing with the other two feats every week. but she has plenty of spellpoints to buff the group and keep em hasted from shrine to shrine, and maxed song enhancements.. so she's basically a buff bot with maxed crowd control capabilities.. after those two jobs are done, i step in with specialty weapons such as vorpals or W/P but i dont bother much with dps.. i tried improved crit pierce for a while but it just isnt all that important IMO as a bard.. but thats just another route..

Buff/CC all the way

[~Jules921]

One of my side goals is to see what dance every mob in the game does.... Rust Monsters do push ups... Hobgoblins have some sort of funky groove going on.... Watching a whole line of trolls doing a Rockettes thing while roasting in a fire wall is kinda amusing...

My personal favorite is the Trog's (its the shoe dance - from the PeeWee Herman movie).

Jules

[Frodo_Lives]

Bards are tons of fun to play, and are good for making/saving money as well. I found that I really started to enjoy my bard once he hit level 7. Good Hope and Haste are my bards new best friends.

A bard can be an very useful addition to any party, even more so when the party lets them fasinacte. Unfortunately, there are many people who do not let the bard do it properly. These are the same people who cleave fasinated mobs.

I have found that you can't go wrong with a well rounded bard. Certianly once you have played a bard or two for a while you may want to try something a little more specialized, but for your first bard a well rounded bard seems to be a much better choice.

[unionyes]

Just tried the Otto's Dancing spell for the first time last night. I pulled not one but two featherfall rings in STK last night, one in the chest and a bound one at end reward, so I swapped out featherfall for Otto's. This just may be my new favorite spell, just because I get a kick out of the different dances. Is there anything that they don't work on, like red names, orange names, elementals, etc?

Now if only I could upload MP3 clips for the different Bard songs.............

[Dariun]

Just tried the Otto's Dancing spell for the first time last night. I pulled not one but two featherfall rings in STK last night, one in the chest and a bound one at end reward, so I swapped out featherfall for Otto's. This just may be my new favorite spell, just because I get a kick out of the different dances. Is there anything that they don't work on, like red names, orange names, elementals, etc?

Now if only I could upload MP3 clips for the different Bard songs.............

Oh, yes. Otto's is a great spell. Much better than feather fall.

It doesn't work on undead, spiders, or oozes. Should work on mini-bosses but not end bosses (I think).

Works best against things with poor will saves: ogres, giants, earth elementals, minotaurs, etc.

link to DDO dance video

[unionyes]

Bards are tons of fun to play, and are good for making/saving money as well. I found that I really started to enjoy my bard once he hit level 7. Good Hope and Haste are my bards new best friends.

A bard can be an very useful addition to any party, even more so when the party lets them fasinacte. Unfortunately, there are many people who do not let the bard do it properly. These are the same people who cleave fasinated mobs.

I have found that you can't go wrong with a well rounded bard. Certianly once you have played a bard or two for a while you may want to try something a little more specialized, but for your first bard a well rounded bard seems to be a much better choice.

Did a little respeccing and took the Spellsinger enhancement, makes friends with the casters for sure. Was pugging last night and was the last one standing in a near party wipe. Did the fascinate thing, grabbed the stones, and back to the shrine. So we head back to the fight...and in they go again, swinging like crazy. This time no wipe, but a few near death experiences. I hung back to heal (and it was badly needed, let me tell you, the cleric was great but only so much one cleric can do when the red bars are dropping that fast all at once), which probably kept us from wiping. Is there some sort of mental block PUG's have against fascinate? While I was playing the fascinate song, and they were swinging away, I thought that if they wipe again I am gonna fascinate, take the mobs out one by one myself, THEN take them to the shrine. Probably wouldn't have made me any friends though.....anyone ever try that?

[DasLurch]

One of my side goals is to see what dance every mob in the game does.... Rust Monsters do push ups... Hobgoblins have some sort of funky groove going on.... Watching a whole line of trolls doing a Rockettes thing while roasting in a fire wall is kinda amusing...

Hobgoblins is more of a "Hammertime!" dance. It's my favorite

[DasLurch]

Dear OP,

As for the fact that you took your spellsinger, I think that you will have lots of fun with that one. And just for the record, your starting stat's were pretty good for any bard. You could have taken any path and been very happy. The 3 specialties I have found are pretty different in what they enhance. So it all comes down to playstyle for you

Spellsinger is more for those caster types. It gives a great boost to spells for you and your party. The bonus 100 sp are very nice too. Since you seem the type that likes to buff, it seems ya picked the right one

Warchanter is a nice bonus for all the melee type players and their group. It is a bit more complicated than a staight forward tank, but it is a nice change as well. A very versatile combat force.

Virtuoso is great for powering up the one true bard aspect. The songs. There is a lot of nice gifts in that set that people don't look at much. The bonus to spell dc's, the extra songs, the added bonus of being able to mez undead and constructs. This one really makes a strong crowd control bard.