What does the bard sing!?

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After I returned to you goofs here on SP and some Machiavellian schemers managed to increase the re-playability of BG2 by creating Dungeon-B-Gone, I'm picking up the game. Again. This time I'd like to play a bard.

Bards are known for their songs. I don't really know what the song is about and cause I like to know what I play, I never really played a bard before. The bards lore appeals to me, because I don't want to be sleeping half the time to cast Identify again. Besides that, they seem fun. "Except for that Haer'dalis jackass, of course".

Thing is:
The kits' descriptions for Blades, Jesters and Scalds say that their songs are different to the regular Bard song. Blades get melee advantages, Jesters confuse enemies and Scalds invoke some sort of raging abilities in their friends. This all comes with numbers, like +2 on attack and damage or -1 to AC, etc.

Question
The regular bard's song, though, is a bit vague to me. "While the bard is playing, the party morale and luck is higher."
How much higher? For how long? Is it any good?
The manual falls a bit short here. Do party members basically get a Luck spell cast on them? And should I care about morale? Cause I could cast fear-immunity spells when I know I'm gonna fight a red dragon.

 

Congratulations MoN, you've just pointed out one of thre greatest mysteries of all time.

For information about bard related things though you should definitely check out Scythesong's guide on Blades, it's quite informative.

 

Regular bard song gives +1 luck bonus to all rolls AFAIK. It does not protect from magical fear (induced by horror spell, or dragon fear) but it will boost the 'morale', an invisible stat so NPCs will less likely go morale failure panic when quickly badly wounded or fighting against a superiour foe.

If you are going to play a bard, I highly reccomend Rogues Rebalancing and Song&Silence mods. They add many cool fixes and flavour to bards, with more suitable HLAs, new items, and kit options to boot! Those mods also fix the bard song so its bonuses scale with level, you might check the readmes for more info. Bards are much more fun with these mods!

 

Does this mean that (vanilla) bard song does not improve with levels in an unmodded game?

 

When playing a Bard I play a Blade. I've never considered taking him out of melee for the +1 to be worth it. I ignore Bard's song in the game and load him up with Dire Charms.

 

Thanks Car! I always feel like a Master of the Obvious or Captain Evidence, though. The guide gives some nice info as well.

Thanks for the input, Silverstar. +1 luck bonus on rolls is a bit more concrete than just "luck is higher". I fear numbers of the boost to morale remains a mystery, though. So the Bard kits seem a better choice.

I use my bard as a secondary spellcaster, a loremaster and for ranged attacks. I got many fighters already and because of the penalty to lore (only half the value), Blades are no option for me. I must admit they seem nice, though.

Jester and Skald are the kits left.
Skald seems nice, but because of roleplaying aspects, I'm looking for something a bit less battle-minded. (But it's just a build and seems a good pick)

I hear the Jester's song is quite good in the SoA part, but with tougher opponents (ToB) he becomes less effective. Is this true?

Great! I'll have a look at it. Thanks!

 

I've heard the opposite actually (I think someone posted that it actually bypasses MR). In my experience it's very good in SoA but I can't comment on ToB (yet).

By the way, "rebalancing" should be understood as making them totally overpowered so exercise caution (have a look at the changes and see if it fits you're playing style).

 

The Jester song has a very limited range though. I find that enemies that become confused within the song range wander outside the song range. The effects wear off within a turn and they're back at you again.

 

The vanilla song seems to grant immunity to fear rather than just increasing your morale, for as long as the bard is singing (and around two or so seconds after you stop). It can also be used to remove fear effects (great for BG1). If your bard himself get's fear-ed though, you have a problem. I'm not sure if the "lucky" effect has any real value combat-wise. Based on practical experience, nada. Maybe it improves thieving chances?

The bard song with the +1 to rolls is the IWD2 version. The Blade's song does not improve with levels and is basically a low level vanilla Bard song.

If you download all the official patches one of them improves the Jester's Song so it scales well into to ToB (the +4 to enemy saves slowly vanishes and even becomes a penalty, iirc, and the song gains additional effects like sleep, stun, etc on top of confusion).
Carad is right, the Jester's song ignores MR and any other protections short of outright immunity. Tested and brought this to other people's attention myself.

I'm guessing since someone took pains to improve the jester, then the vanilla bard's song might have some other redeeming effect (ToB-wise) I'm unaware of.

 

Thanks Scythesong, that was nagging me, I knew I had read it somewhere and I could have sworn that you were the one who pointed it out but I couldn't confirm it.

 

Sure thing. Heh that line does sound more a shameless plug. Ah well.
It was on Sir Rechet/Jukka's thread, he was also gonna try use a bard NPC in his party. He hasn't posted back though, he could've told us if he learned something new.

 

Interesting, I check my characters via character sheet screen, and as long as Garrick sings, their THAC0 is one better. My game is modded though Garrick is still a plain bard (he is not suitable for any kits, really) I never tried singing when my characters are affected by horror or spook (sure happens a lot via smarter mages of SCS) so I do not know if it is true.

 

Well, I've never noticed my THAC0 increase when I sing in BG (except when playing a Skald or using Enhanced B. Song) and more than half of my PCs are bards.

There are many mages who cast Horror in BG1, you should have no problem finding a test subject somewhere.

 

^Righto. Just entered BG2 part and those pesky duergar mages in Irenicus's dungeon (imp. Ilych) love casting Horror all day long, but when my MP-created blade sings it overrides and cancels the panic effect. Such a boon, we made short work of them!

 

Here's the official list of all Bard songs in BG2:
"MC Hammer - Can't Touch This":
All partymembers gain a +2 bonus to AC.

"D.A.D - Sleeping My Day Away":
Causes enemies to fall asleep if they fail their save against spells. Add a -4 to save if the Bars sings really loud.

"The Dubliners - Whisky In The Jar":
All partymembers gain a huge morale boost. Additionally, Metallicas version beserks all warrior-classes.

"Frank Sinatra - The Way You Look Tonight":
All partymembers gain infravision.

"Shaggy - Boombastic":
Bard gains +5 bonus to Charisma.

"Pantera - 5 Minutes Alone":
Acts as the spell Timestop with a minor duration.

Queen - It's A Kind Of Magic":
Removes all spell effects on partymembers.

And, of course, the Luck Spell is also covered:
"Ace of Base - Lucky Love":
All partymembers are affected by the Luck Spell.

These are just off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure I got'em all.

 

Well, actually, it is pretty easy to find and change the songs for bard kits (with IEEP + InfinityExplorer, DLTCEP, or even NearInfinityBeta) , but I couldn't figure out how to change the plain vanilla bard's song.

The kits use .spl files to affect the bard song, but I can't find the plain vanilla bard's song .spl file.

Thus, why people mod the bard kits but not the plain bard.