Love my Bard!... oh yeah and one question regarding thaco (item spoiler ahead)

[Harkoliar]

I decided on doing a mutliplayer game of my bard (blade) and wild mage (perfect backup). and of course NPC to make a full party. So far Im loving it.

(i did have another one with a shapeshifter(weimer) and druidic socerrer but Im going to finish this one first.)

Now, the question.. how can I make my thaco as low as possible with my bard blade. I want him to be a killing machine with spells to complement him. At lvl 15, he rocks with protections like fireshild, minor spell turning, stoneskin. Then he has buffs like strength (to improve thaco), haste. Then offensive spells when needed like magic missles, vampire touch, and flame arrow.

With the offensive spin plus his two +2 dual wielding longswords(adjartha the drinker, daystar or flame tongue), gaunlets to +1 to thaco, then with his str up to 18/50 (since his original str is just 14), his thaco is like around 7/8 main/offhand with up to 4 rounds (that includes offensive spin, str, and haste).

Can you guys make any suggestions for improvement? I dont have any +4 or +5 weapons to lower his thaco further for that. He is still lvl 15 though, and im hoping like the manual says, his thaco will go down as low as 10 base when reaching lvl 20 and then with his str adjustments like belt of something to give a +4 at least to thaco, and some stuff to help out as well.

I want a consistent hits when during offensive spin to achive maximum damage as you may have noticed .

I was thinking of him dual wielding with crom foyer (at 25 str +7 to thaco) and flail of ages and not being stuck to longswords all the time

he has a bow in case he needs to be a long range trouble maker as well .

Any suggestions would be good. Is it possible to him to achieve a 0 or even negative thaco at around lvl 20- 25?? I know with lvl 40 he can do that but he is still a long way to go.

Edit:
I remember reading with a kensai, he can have as much as a -2 thaco which is pretty impressive. Although I wish my bard could aspire that, I know he cant simply because he aint a fighter and a main tanker however, since his lore, pickpoket, and complement spells helps alot, I wont mind at all if he is second best to a kensai [img]smile.gif[/img] .

With defensive spin he can have as much as -13 ac in case he is in trouble.

[ 08-15-2004, 04:40 AM: Message edited by: Harkoliar ]

[Leslie]

You're on the right track. Crom Faeyr is a must for helping THAC0 go down. The last option for you is Tenser's Transformation, which will give you fighters THAC0 but you won't be able to cast spells anymore. So if you are in the middle of the fight and your Stoneskin is gone you will not be able to recast it. It's up to you to decide when TT is worth it.

When I played a solo Blade I never used it. HIs THAC0 was good enough. Maybe he didn't hit everytime like Kensai but his protections surely helped him last through the fight.

[Harkoliar]

yeah, your right about that one. I did forget that I was planning to have a tenser transformation to have a fighter thaco which would be pretty cool since he has double his hitpoints as well .

you can cast all your protections first before doing the tenser transformation. That would be good [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Harkoliar]

Originally posted by Leslie: You're on the right track. Crom Faeyr is a must for helping THAC0 go down. The last option for you is Tenser's Transformation, which will give you fighters THAC0 but you won't be able to cast spells anymore. So if you are in the middle of the fight and your Stoneskin is gone you will not be able to recast it. It's up to you to decide when TT is worth it. When I played a solo Blade I never used it. HIs THAC0 was good enough. Maybe he didn't hit everytime like Kensai but his protections surely helped him last through the fight.

how low was the thaco of your solo bard by the time you finished? Just curious as well as what level?

[JrKASperov]

But with TT you gain 200% HP. Which emans, even when the Stoneskin is gone you'll probably hold out.

[Xen]

BTW, you do have +5 weapon. It`s called Melf`s Minute Meteors and it is in your Spell Book.

[Harkoliar]

Originally posted by Xen: BTW, you do have +5 weapon. It`s called Melf`s Minute Meteors and it is in your Spell Book.

i have a question on that one though, do you lose your weapons ability's once it is replaced with the meteors?

[Xen]

No. If you have for example Celestail Fury or Flail Of the Ages in your off-hand then Stun/Slow still effects enemy even with MMM. This is why Blade can be so cheesy.

[Harkoliar]

or a fighter/mage who can do that . thanks xen!

[Thrain]

THAC0 progression stops at the fighter's equivalent level 20 (it's a certain exp value) so the base THAC0 for a high level bard is always 10.

SPOILERS:


lowering THAC0 comes in the form of strength enhancments (the crom, or a strength belt so you can keep your longswords). there is a sword in ToB that will up your strength if you're going to the expansion. There are two sets of gauntlets that lower your THAC0 in SoA, so you can use one of those. Is you stick to longswords you will only get +3 THAC0 from any longsword in SoA, but it all counts. There is an ioun stone that lowers THAC0 as well as the helm that you get at the start of the game. However, with stoneskin, the fireshields, the protection from normal and magical weapons and the other magical enhancements the bard has, THAC0 should not be a big issue as you can protect yourself for rounds at a time, thus giving you loads of time to bash away.

you can also have a mislead clone sing the bard song for the bonuses there. and the cleric spells chant and bless are not to be overlooked