First time playing a bard...

[Mihorkan]

First time playing a bard... Got a few days left in my 30 days.. Going for a pole-arms build, but I want him setup for loresinging gems asap...

Oh, and hunting with a cleric so will have 307,310 and have a pocket wizard, so will always have full wizard spells and full spirit spells

Race: Elf Profession: Bard (not shown)
Gender: Male Age: 0 Expr: 323342 Level: 16
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 70 (10) ... 70 (10)
Constitution (CON): 85 (17) ... 85 (17)
Dexterity (DEX): 56 (8) ... 56 (8)
Agility (AGI): 74 (27) ... 74 (27)
Discipline (DIS): 90 (5) ... 90 (5)
Aura (AUR): 63 (11) ... 63 (11)
Logic (LOG): 91 (20) ... 91 (20)
Intuition (INT): 85 (17) ... 85 (17)
Wisdom (WIS): 75 (12) ... 75 (12)
Influence (INF): 46 (8) ... 46 (8)



(at level 16), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 82 18
Combat Maneuvers...................| 82 18
Polearm Weapons....................| 132 36
Physical Fitness...................| 82 18
Arcane Symbols.....................| 66 14
Magic Item Use.....................| 62 13
Harness Power......................| 82 18
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 82 18
Perception.........................| 82 18
Climbing...........................| 50 10
Swimming...........................| 50 10

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 16
Training Points: 65 Phy 7 Mnt
(Use SKILLS BASE to display unmodified ranks and goals)




Thoughts?

[Kitsun]

If you can't make a bard work with a partner and pocket mage, I don't think any advice would work.

Assuming you meant purification of gems and not loresinging, the best bet is to know your range and/or get lots of bard ranks. If you're happy with just hitting each gem a few times you'll be fine. My goal was to be able to max purify everything and that only happens after 100+ bard song ranks.

[Mihorkan]

lol thanks - just seeing if there's anything drastic I'm missing...

[Suppressed Poet]

You need some dodge ranks. I find that more important than MIU / AS.

Drop harness power to equal your level. Those two expensive ranks are netting you 2 extra mana,

Other than that your build looks fine.

As said, its not difficult to purify gems. My bard has no manipulation, isn't anywhere near cap, and does just fine. I can do about 4 casts safely without much risk, and that's usually enough to get the value up there.

[mgoddess]

You need some dodge ranks. I find that more important than MIU / AS.

Drop harness power to equal your level. Those two expensive ranks are netting you 2 extra mana,

Other than that your build looks fine.
^^ That... if you absolutely MUST have MIU or AS, I'd go with MIU, since both your caster characters can imbed stuff that you can use; not so with scrolls. But, Dodge is so much more important than MIU/AS, especially with doing polearms (or two-handed weapons), since you don't have a shield.

[Mihorkan]

thanks for the help all

[WRoss]

Don't do it! Bards are sissies.

[Zelas]

I'd echo the sentiments of others. Drop the AS, you don't need it and it doesn't help you. Crank the bard base and manip lore for gem singing and get some sovyn clove! Other then that dodge is good if you don't have a shield, but mobiles + blurs + mirrors is a hard combo to beat for dodging.

Enjoy