Hello all I just wanted to say hi. I am a new member to the forums. I am glad to see there are still people that play IWD and Balders Gate series games. I am just now playing IWD for the first time in a long while. I bought the game a long time ago but EQ took a lot of my time and I never got very far in the game. So now that I am done with eq I am playing IWD then BG2 and then IWD2. I have read through a lot of the older posts on here and have learned a lot. I started a new game with a bard which I would have never decided to use until I read post on this site. Just wanted to say thanks for the tips and expect more questions [img]smile.gif[/img] I am in the second level of dragons eye just to give you an idea of where I am. I think I was through here before. More of my characters are level 9 and 10 except for the new bard.

I don't have Hearts yet. Can I still buy it? From reading about it on here I really would like to.

Thanks again.

browns1977,

Welcome to the forum! I haven't been playing IWD for that long, and this forum has been a big help.

HOW is still out there, but may be moving over to the discount rack. The only way I found it was packaged with IWD, but it was still cheap and it includes the soundtrack, which is surprisingly good. Another program you should add is Trials of the Luremaster. If you do a search for that (or TOLM) you can find other posts here that include links to download sites. It's free, btw.

Lymond.

Welcome to Ironworks browns1977! [img]smile.gif[/img]

You should be able to find Heart of Winter somewhere though you might have to look for it. It adds new stuff into the game such as some very good bard songs, new spells, new items and assorted other goodies.

Thanks for the welcomes. I am glad to hear that I can still find it in stores. I will definately look more closly for it. I guess I could look online for it also.

If anyone has good tips for making the best bard I am all ears. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Some things come to mind...

*Pick a half-elf for the pick pockets bonus.
*Try to get 18 in dexterity and 16 in constitution to give yourslef as low AC as possible and get the most Hp when leveling up. You don't need more than 16 Con. for non-warrior classes.
*Either buy a best armor your Bard can wear and use it until you've leveled up a couple of times or pick and use the Armor spell ( or was it Shield? ) from the beginning.
*Use a ranged weapon.
*Be on the lookout for items that will benefit your Bard, there are several in the game.
*Also remember that you can cast up to lv. 6 spells, there's plenty there that are very useful.
*There's a chainmail in the game that allows you to cast spells while wearing it so be on the lookout.

Edit: Remember that the Bard doesn't get really good until you've installed HoW. The expansion gives you access to different Bard songs and at least one of them is very useful.

[ 09-02-2003, 02:54 PM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

<font color = mediumspringgreen>browns1977,

At the risk of being redundant, I'd like to also say,


--> [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] Welcome to the IWD Forum!!! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]


Just a note about Bards (bless their singin' hearts) and HoW: It is very good you are looking for HoW, for several reasons.

In addition to the added HoW adventuring areas, the HoW expansion gives you gobs of game improvements, including the game interface improvements and rebalancing of the classes and (non-HoW) IWD areas.

It is the bolded part of the above comment that brings us to the topic of Bards. All those great things you read about Bards were written about Bards in IWD/HoW. As much as I love my Bard, I have to admit that Bards in IWD (no HoW) are fairly lame. The Bard (in HoW) has many shiny and useful features, improved magic using, new songs, and the bardic horn of Valhalla being the most notable; but the backbone of a Bard's utility (THE reason for getting one) is the song "War Chant of the Sith," gained at clvl 11; and this is a HoW only feature.

Similar story for Druids: They got beefed up big-time for HoW.

Edit: I'm such a slowpoke. I see Stratos slipped in a message after I started to write, but before I posted. I'd like to say one more thing: I used to say that my Bard never fired her crossbow (+3); rather, she spent 97% of her time singing "War Chant." Now that the party is in HoW, she spends 15% of her time casting spells, 5% of her time singing some other song besides the chant, and 80% of her time singing "War Chant." She *STILL* has never used her fancy crossbow. I've started letting her pack arrows for the other characters, instead of bolts. War Chant is that good.

What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK! <--- in IWD/HoW
Party On!!
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[ 09-02-2003, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

Hey! I would also like to say welcome!

It is kind of weird how you really don't know alot about the game until you come into this forum for help.. Everyone has been really nice!