Come and listen to the Music.

[Law]

I am playing a game with only Bards. I created them from level 1 thieves and without giving them any experience, changed them into bards. I then trained them once in Music so they could play something. I then Reset Adventure.

A bard can enter the Wizard guild but so far I am not training them except for one in Artifacts and Forge. It took a long time to be able to start in Artifacts since I had to go over to Ishad N'ha to get to level 3 in the Wizard guild and Forge was almost as bad since I had to get the sword from the crypt. It is so much easier to get the level 3 in the Priest guild (Drop off a potion and pay 500 gold and you are there).

Some things that I have found out so far:

A bard goes from Winded to Weary to Tiered to Exhausted.

The bard's Music skill limits what instruments they can use. So far it seems that the Music level must be as high as the level of the spell that the instrument "casts".

In the previous game I had found two Pipes of Pain and two Flutes of Flames. So far there are the most useful instruments and until they got to a Music level of 2 they could not use the Pipes of Pain. When one finally got to level 5 she could use the Lute of Miracles which is a healing realm spell and the only healing instrument that I have found. Of course it seems that whenever they are hurt and need to be healed she is out of breath so it has not been very useful.

Others have commented that there is no way for a Bard to quickly recover from being Winded or Tired after using an Instrument. A character will get full mana by going into and then out of a town but the stamina bar is not changed in town, even though both are the blue bar.

One exception seems to be if you are hurt and get healed at the temple then it seems to restore the full stamina bar as well! My latest trick, before entering town, is to climb the gate and jump off. This hurts them all a few hit points and then enter town and heal then at the temple.

And Another way to recharge stamina. Bards can use the fountains!!
So far I have found out that the fountain on level one of the Crypt as well as the one down the broken stairs by the rat guy will both recharge your stamina (blue) bar. It is the "you feel refreshed" that is doing it. I find it interesting that one restores Mana and the other Heals and Cures Poison but both restore the stamina. I will try other fountains as I continue. I am hoping that the pools that "revitalize you" will also restore stamina.

Well, the "vitalizing" pool on the Wizard or Warriors path restores both mana and hit points but did not restore stamina. I was hoping that it would. Also the fountain in the Serpent Temple in Krueg's study (above the library) will also work. It also will Cure Poison but is not a heal.

I have opened the serpent head but have not fallen down to face the Naga and Elyssia and they have just killed the Salads. Who knew, plants don't like music. Yes, I killed them with only the Pipes of Pain and Flutes of Flames.

Since the Bards fizzle almost all the time after they use up half of the stamina bar this took a lot of: fire until everyone is exhausted and then restore their stamina and do it again.

I am not sure if I am going to finish this game.
Since this group get winded so fast they are resorting to using hand weapons more and more. So far I have not had them use the Moon attack spells even though that would do more damage and not fizzle until you are completely out of mana.

At the moment they are level 10 Bards with Music of 4 or 5 and only 30-40 HP.
Since I do not have any instruments that are higher level attack spells they frequently can't kill a group completely with instruments anymore, heck they can't even kill one whole spider let alone the 3 or 5 that seem to show up. And I am assuming that soon the monsters will be immune to burn and pain or will have so many HPs that using up all their stamina will not make that much of a difference. So far the Salads and Spiders are definitely in that last category.

[Wyvern]

Wow!!! Lots of good information about bards and the pools too!!

I had no idea that Salads didn't like music!!

I tried a bard once, wasn't too impressed and reloaded a previous game and went a different direction/class. I certainly never played one long enough to learn that things that you are learning, Law - Thanks for sharing!!!

[Bungleau]

I'm impressed! You've done a lot of research and analysis on these bards!

I'll take another look at this when I get back... interesting, for sure!

[bsftcs]

Really interesting... And very useful! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I always have a bard in my party, but I have never done any thorough research.