My Wee Bard

[HSB]

My wife and I are playing forest gnomes, and my little bard is level 11 at the moment. There are a few questions I've got at the moment...

My loresongs only work... maybe 40% of the time? I do all the things you're supposed to do, meter and keywords and all that. Is this a factor of my level alone, or does training play into the success of it?

Because I'm a gnome, I think it's silly to be swinging a falchion... though I might have to. I've got a 4x shortsword, and even on high endrolls I'm lucky to get a bleeder, much less a crit. And... since I'm level 11, I have zero chance of buying anything crit weighted... any advice? Throw away the RP aspect and grab a longsword or falchion? I'd like to maintain my mental image of my character, but it that's going to make him exponentially harder to hunt with, I might have to swallow it (besides, he'll be fixskilled into a pure at some point anyway).

Society advice... my wife and I are both intrigued by Guardians of Sunfist, as we're both coming back and have obviously never done it before. Is this a horrible idea? She's a pure empath, and I'm a swinging bard...

FInally... at this point I'm pretty much a warrior. I hunt sword and board, and have barely enough mana to keep 1003 and 1007 running. I've got 1010 but can't use it, and Lullaby, which is awesome, I get one shot of before I worry about fryin my nerves on the next renewal. Is this normal? Am I just going to be doing this for a while, or am I doing something wrong?

[thefarmer]

Age and bard song ranks play a big part in loresongs.

Post your skills and stats too.

Without looking at your skills, I'd suggest getting mental mana share to take advantage of your empath wife.

[Ogreslayer]

Loresinging is heavily level-based, and eventually level outweighs nearly all other factors, to the point that you can sing complete gibberish and still draw all of the information from the item. At level 11, you'll need to take advantage of other factors that aid in success:

- Be on a node
- Use both the noun and the adjective of the item rather than just the noun
- Sing extra lines. Longer songs incur more roundtime, but they also increase your chances of gaining information.

If you fail to successfully sing to an item, start a loresong on a new item, then you can retry the first item again.

You'll need something better than a shortsword. As a gnome, you should be able to swing a slow one-handed weapon at the minimum roundtime, even at lower thresholds of encumbrance. If you're going Sunfist, fire flares are a plus. If you're going the swinging path, MOC is important for a bard. 5 ranks lets you hit two targets at once, 15 lets you hit three targets at once. Sunfist has a lot of swarming.

Sunfist with a partner is fun, but warcamps are hard at low levels due to the lack of crowd control and mana to power it. You can still do tasks outside of warcamps until you get stronger. With two players, you can share tasks ("Ask Taskmaster Joe to Add Wife"), and if both of you are requesting tasks, you have twice as many opportunities to get tasks that are feasible. If you two go Sunfist, make sure you are at least fully singled in PF and your Empath wife should probably be fully doubled. You'll need the stamina for your sigils.

The farmer is right that mental mana control is good with your wife being an Empath. It also improves the amount of mana that you gain when using 1013 on creatures or objects.

[HSB]

>psinet scan
Beginning character information collection.
Scan: Requesting INFO
Name: Cannel Race: Forest Gnome Profession: Bard (shown as: Poet)
Gender: Male Age: 0 Expr: 149491 Level: 11
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 100 (15) ... 100 (15)
Constitution (CON): 65 (17) ... 65 (17)
Dexterity (DEX): 57 (8) ... 57 (8)
Agility (AGI): 73 (21) ... 73 (21)
Discipline (DIS): 72 (16) ... 72 (16)
Aura (AUR): 93 (21) ... 93 (21)
Logic (LOG): 66 (13) ... 66 (13)
Intuition (INT): 62 (6) ... 62 (6)
Wisdom (WIS): 45 (3) ... 45 (3)
Influence (INF): 63 (1) ... 63 (1)
Mana: 38 Silver: 4
Scan: Requesting INFO START
>
Level 0 Stats for Cannel, Forest Gnome Bard

Strength (STR): 100
Constitution (CON): 60
Dexterity (DEX): 50
Agility (AGI): 70
Discipline (DIS): 70
Aura (AUR): 90
Logic (LOG): 65
Intuition (INT): 60
Wisdom (WIS): 40
Influence (INF): 55

Scan: Requesting SKILLS BASE
>
Cannel (at level 11), your base skill bonuses, ranks and goals are:
Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks Goals In-Game Time to Goal
Armor Use..........................| 62 13 13
Shield Use.........................| 62 13 13
Combat Maneuvers...................| 62 13 13
Edged Weapons......................| 108 26 26
Physical Fitness...................| 62 13 13
Dodging............................| 62 13 13
Harness Power......................| 62 13 13
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 62 13 13
Perception.........................| 62 13 13
Climbing...........................| 35 7 7

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 11 11
Training Points: 47 Phy 0 Mnt (10 Phy converted to Mnt)

237 days remain until the annual FIXSKILLS is to be granted, on 05/20/2009.

You started this migration period on Monday, 9/8/2008 at 00:28:45 EDT. You have 12 days, 8 hours, 50 minutes remaining in your current 30 day migration period.

You're currently migrating at a rate of .001 skill points per pulse, and have converted 1209.00 training points this migration period.

Further information can be found in the FAQs.
Scan: Requesting CMAN INFO
>
Cannel, your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Feint feint 2

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 6
Scan: Requesting SOCIETY
>

Current society status:
You are not a member of any society at this time.


Past society affiliations (resigned or cast out):
You have no past society affiliations.

You may reset your society status one time. Enter SOCIETY RESET for details.

You may view your society task information via the SOCIETY TASK command.

Scan complete.

**********************************

I know his stats are... interesting. But I'm still in the grace period, and can monkey with them once I get past the Swing/Dance stage, which was always my intent. That being the case, any advice on stats would be welcome, as well as the normal skills training advice. I know my manipulation is a bit high, but I like the idea (not yet a reality) of gemsinging, as well as the (as-yet-unrealized) possibility of shattering weapons and shields with 1002.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Danical]

Do not be forest gnome. Reroll.

[HSB]

Do not be forest gnome. Reroll.

So far we're loving them, from the RP aspect, and we seem to be pretty viable. What sort of things are we in for, that make you warn us off? We already got encumbrance issues, but if we're both pures (which she is now), then that doesn't really pinch too much (save for the verdammt bridge in RR).

[Danical]

encumbrance, general lack of health, gnomes are retarded, ridiculous strength, etc.

[Stretch]

Gnomes do in fact blow donkey balls.

My advice...if you're in your first 30 day period, set your stats to maximize AGI/DEX, STR, and LOG, and set your skills to maximize Dodge / THW / CM. Buy claidhmore for 1200 silver. Pwn.

Then at the end of your 30 days set your shit to long term growth.

If you're not in your 30 days...reroll into a race that doesn't blow.

[Lumi]

Shift a couple spell ranks into MinE and try to get to 406 ASAP. You and your wife can swap spells for some extra DS without having to beg 'em off of others, or scrolls.

I haven't played a gnome, so I can't comment on that, but most of the problems you describe don't sound too unusual, especially the mana issues at that level.

If you can get a flaring short sword, you might try that. Flares are a big help for small, light weapons.

[nocturnix]

Dont listen to them. If you want to play a forest gnome for RP reasons, go for it! This game is about having fun not being the most elite character out there. Yes you will have difficulties with things like low health, encumberance etc. But thats part of the challenge, and as you get further race is less important anyways.

I have a baby bard I am working on too. I have followed Stech's advice and am swinging a claidhemore. This is working for me, but do what you prefer. Try some different weapon types, experiment, you are still in your 30 day mode so you can do whatever you like. But save 1 stat reset for the end of the 30 day period when you finally decide. Stat placement is important also for long term and I have screwed this up on a few of my older toons already.

As for flaring weapons, now I will shamelessly plug my shop (you can select flares > ascending to sort the list by flares) :) http://sites.google.com/site/gs4shop/Home/weapons

I dont think I have any flaring short swords currently but I have 3 or so fire flaring weapons to choose from. Let me know, and I am always open to offers or negotiating.

Good luck, and have fun! Thats the point of this game anyways :)