Anyone care to share their bard tactics?

I think a good PC blade is underrated in this game. He can do a lot because his hp are better than Minsc or Keldorn with a familiar in his pocket.
Here's what I suggest: stone skin the blade (and possibily use other protections), give him fireshield or protection from go into a defensive spin (getting down to -14 ac or better) and start blasting fireballs on yourself, the other level 5 exploding spell, and the horn of blasting. Pretty effective crowd control and you won't be taking damage. What other class can do that?

I think the jester is a very underrated class. Chaos song will put paid to most groups and he can learn to be a decent fighter too.

Good on you Memnoch, GW, glad to hear praise for a damn good class instead of ridicule.

When I played the Ultima games,
(Bouh-ouh ! Why did Lord British retire !),
there was always this Jester at Lord British's Castle,
who used to talk with riddles.
It would not have been the same without him !

Chuckles! Ah, I loved him. Always killed him, of course, but nonetheless, he was good for a laugh. Richard Garriot retired after the farce that was Ascension was released.

I do not agree !!!
For me Utltina was THE game.
I have played all the Ultimas since Ultime III
(when Iolo was only a green square on a black background ! we needed a lot of imagination at these times ...),
and this series of games was different from all the other games, even BG,
essentially because all the characters felt like friends.
The only "bad" ultima was Ultima VIII, where the Avatar was all alone.
I never found such a feeling with another game,
and Ultima IX was full of melancholy, saying goodbye to friends and Britannia
(And the Irish music was great too).
Plus, Ultima was always full of little technical improvements; I remember Ultima IV, when the mirrors reflected the characters ! It was NEW ! And it was all these little things that made Britannia a great world. It made you feel like you were really there.
Okay, I am a little bit fanatic about Ultima !
But I am a bit sad that my son will never play these games (Have you tried to play Ultima IV again ? I did ...)

I'm an Ultima fanatic as well. Played all of them back to four. That's why Ascension was such a disappointment for me. It was so much less of an RPG than its predecessors, and I just think that Ultima began to fall apart after VII part 2. After Sosaria, Britannia was a nice, perfect land, with the dark little orcs and things causing only a minor ruckus. Then it began to fester and the land's people grew more selfish and caniving. I felt something could have been done to prevent the collapse of Britannia had Lord British not left Origin. Very sad.
Yes, you're all thinking 'This coming from HIM!?' Well, I'm sentimental about Ultima. First RPG I played was Ultima IV when I was nine or ten, and I've played all of them after that, including Savage Empire, Martian Dreams, the Underworlds and UO for a few months.

(blinks)
Never realised you were such a bleeding heart Armisael.

Hahaha! Touché.

Tenser's transformation looks real good. I have it in my spell book. When my blade can use it (along with the offensive spin) he will have 210+ hit points; a thaco of an equal level fighter, three attacks from his celestial fury and +2 katana, each attack having +4 to hit, +4 damage, and maximum damage per hit. No one will ridicule bards again.