Bard multiclass question (ranger too)

[Cornbread]

Ok, I was reading a few class reviews and it seems the bard peaks kind of early. Basically you max music, then start turning your bard into a melee or range person depending on taste. I was thinking about multiclassing my bard to a ranger. The first question I had was how the critical strike with rangers work. Is it totally dependant on ranged attack? Or does level come into play some how. The next question is if you are able to play musical instruments after changing classes, as long as you have the music skill. My thought was to max the bard out in music by playing the hell out of it all the time, and put 3 into ranged attack every level. Then once music is up there, switch to ranger and start getting ranged crits off the bat. Is this a viable strategy? hanks in advance!

Cornbread

[EEWorzelle]

"I was reading a few class reviews and it seems the bard peaks kind of early"

Cornbread, that is only true if the Bard is developed poorly, focusing on only a small subset of her capabilities, or if you play way past the normal end of the game (smaller parties, going for level 50, etc.).

If what you want is a singing Ranger... then by all means go for it, but the Bard's potential is much greater than that.

The Bard is a wonderful character that has incredible potential in Melee, and possibly Ranged (depending upon development choices) capabilities as well as Music.

The only problem with making the Bard good at Music is that it's too easy. If you pump the heck out of Intelligence and Music as well as Dexterity at character creation time and level-ups, their Music skill will rocket to the top.

But then what? Boring. Actually, that's a little harsh because the wisdom of these choices depends upon your party. One really smart player recommended using the Ranger (or was it fighter) for Haste, by class changing to a Ranger after the Rousing Drums could be played by the Bard at Power Level 7. Within a particular party this can be the right choice, but it doesn't take full advantage of either the old or new class.

What is much more interesting is to build up either the Bard's Melee or Ranged capability, including either Powerstrike or Eagle Eye (a strategy involving both is also possible). The Haste spell and Bard special equipment can be used to give the Speed needed, so Attribute points can be focused in Strength, Dexterity, Senses and Vitality.

The Melee capability of the Bard is awesome, especially with the right equipment. Some players feel only the Fighter and Rogue are actually better at Melee than a Bard can be.

Skill points can be put into Close Combat, Sword, Ranged Combat, Bow, and either Shield or Dual Weapons (not both). The Bard sings so much that even at the minimum Intelligence (50+5) and not putting any points in Music at character creation or Level-up, Music skill will still rise to the top. It will just take a little (not much) longer.

Also, many players mistakenly think that the Bard has peaked at Level 18 (or earlier for certain instruments) when all Bard instruments can first be used, but those highest level instruments will not be played at Power Level 7 until several Levels later (somewhere in the 21-23 range). At that point the game is close to over. Bard casts improve with higher Bard levels, too (fewer backfires, greater chance of higher Power Levels even when Stamine lower). Would you really prefer that they were a Level 1 Ranger at that point?

I would suggest that if you want a Ranger in your party, go for it from the beginning. If you push their magic enough they will get a Portal Spell sometime after level 15 that will greatly assist your Party's mobility on the map. That can be key for portaling directly to the best ammo and then (given other characters in your party with Portal) back to where you were. Don't get me wrong, I think the Bard is one of the very best characters in the game, but if you are set on having a ranger, will some Bard levels or many more Ranger levels, help your Ranger more? Special Ranger capabilities such as ranged criticals do depend upon the Ranger Level of your Ranger, or so the players who specialize and have become expert in the Ranger class report.

If you want both Ranger and Bard capabilities in your party, include a Ranger and a Bard. Then you will have two characters who are the very best at what they do.

Lots of players really love class changing, just for the fun it gives, but for that I would recommend going back to Wizardry 7 (dated interface, but still a great game!). There, when you started out in the new class the cost of going from level 1 to 2 was the same as it would be for a new character of that type in the beginning of the game (1000 experience or so). In Wizardry 8, after class changing at class 18, for example, the cost in experience to go from level 1 to 2 is as much as it would be to go from 18 to 19 (tens or hundreds of thousands of experience). There is no inherent benefit to class-change in Wizardry 8. Blending characters is very expensive. The Best uses I have seen of it is for Solo characters, combined with cheating/tricks to maximize capabilities they would not ordinarily have at all (like a Solo Bishop with Stealth=100). Earlier posts (by others) cover these very specialized tricks/strategies.

[ 06-06-2003, 04:38 PM: Message edited by: EEWorzelle ]

[ChaosTheorist]

quote: "I was reading a few class reviews and it seems the bard peaks kind of early"

Cornbread, that is only true if the Bard is developed poorly, focusing on only a small subset of her capabilities, or if you play way past the normal end of the game (smaller parties, going for level 50, etc.).
....
Also, many players mistakenly think that the Bard has peaked at Level 18 (or earlier for certain instruments) when all Bard instruments can first be used, but those highest level instruments will not be played at Power Level 7 until several Levels later (somewhere in the 21-23 range). At that point the game is close to over.[/QUOTE]Apparently it's even higher than that. Everyone in my current "no magic" party is level 23 (except RFS-81), and the two Bards still have about a 30% fizzle rate and 15% backfire rate on the top instruments. I remember seeing a similar discussion on another site, and the number given for the level at which the Bard can consistently hit Power Level 6-7 on the top instruments with minimal problems was character level 25-26. As you point out, other than in much-reduced parties or games that are artificially prolonged, the game will be over long before the Bard "peaks" in her musical ability, much less other skills.