pure bards?

[vontez]

Can anyone give me a little info on pure bards? I was considering fixskilling to one after the next fixskills. What level do they start to get nasty? Any and all info I could use to help build the character

[Latrinsorm]

Get 15 ranks of manipulation lore for focused Disruption. That's pretty much the key to any pure bard. Unravel is mega-useful too, you'll need at least 20 ranks of MMC for that to be worth it, I'd recommend getting 30. Eventually get up to 75 ranks of manip to make Disruption super-awesome.

As for when they get good, they get good when you've got enough mana to disrupt stuff. The more mana you start with or the better your unravel is, the sooner that will be. Before Disruption, pure bards aren't very impressive.

[vontez]

so what would be the training plan? 1x armor til double or brig, 1x shield, 2x brawl, 2x spells, 1x HP, MMC until 20-30 ranks, and 1x manip? Is that it? I'm a voln master so i figure that would help.

[Latrinsorm]

I'd 2x HP if you can manage it and maybe get 0.5x Dodge. 2xing spells isn't really necessary, just keep Bard circle singled and pick up MnE when you can. Bardic TDs are notoriously low for creatures and Unravel gets a TD pushdown anyway (which is related to songs known) so you should be able to get mana ok. Creature selection is important as far as that's concerned. You can't really train up a pure bard from level 0 unless you love using wands so it's more'n'likely a fixskills-based plan, just so you're aware.

I wouldn't go higher than studded leather (20 ranks) with a bard-pure. You won't lose mana or have a cast RT with armor failures and songs, but they're still annoying. Also, don't be afraid of going past 30 ranks of MMC. 40 ranks is about the ceiling there.