EllaThePuppy Posted February 21, 2020 Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 SUMMARY Bards are a versatile hybrid class that boasts a frankly incredible number of absolutely unique class mechanics. Often described as “jack of all trades, master of none,” bards really can do it all – the question of how well stems from a combination of factors, including race, repertoire/vogue, and cabal selections. From singing songs to building instruments, bards offer a complex variety of options that make them well-suited to meeting most challenges that Aabahran has to offer. So without further ado, let’s dive in. PLAYABLE RACES Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Half-Drow, Avian, Faerie, Halfling, Gnome Perfectly Average If bards are a “jack of all trades, master of none,” then humans are their racial counterpart. Good at everything, but great at nothing, humans have average stats across the board, with a maximum of 20 for strength, intelligence, wisdom, and constitution, and a maximum of 21 in the bard’s primary attribute of dexterity. Musical Nerds Of the available bard races, a few shine through in particular with regard to their above average wisdom and intelligence. These races will benefit from fewer practices needed to learn each skill/song, a larger end-game mana pool, and a whole host of other benefits related to their inherent smarts. Faeries, elves, and gnomes all fit into this category, and bards of these races will likely find themselves relying less on the brute force of their instrument’s melee attacks and more on their songs to debuff, damage, and destroy their opponents. Speed Singers The remainder of the selectable races for the bard class are primarily dexterity based. Their naturally higher armor class will benefit them in battles against melee opponents that seek to bash, bodyslam, and otherwise stomp out the bard’s scintillating serenades before they can take hold. What they gain in extra defensive ability, they lose in mental capacity, and so halfling, half-elf, half-drow, and avian bards may focus more on melee advantage or true hybrid playstyles to be successful at the height of their power. SKILLS/SONGS Bards have a wealth of skills and songs – so many, in fact, that they’re tied with healers for first place as the most ability-heavy class in the game. What does that mean for you? Well, for starters, it means that you could be training for a while to boost proficiency in a fair number of your utility skills. But also, on a very basic level it means that the bard class requires more practices to become proficient in all of your abilities than most other classes. Therefore, consider wisely when choosing your race and/or whether or not to select adventurer as a starting point. With all of that said, let’s talk about the core abilities of the class: SKILLS Instrument Crafting Mining/Harvest: These two abilities sit at the core of successful construction of a viable instrument. Mining (which requires a pickaxe) and harvesting (which requires a lumber axe) are how you will develop a collection of source materials from which you can build your instrument. Note that farming for higher caliber materials is based on two core factors – your proficiency in the relevant gathering skill and your “luck” stat. Therefore reaching 100% (or more, via items) on your skill proficiency, and maximizing your luck, are key to building up a stockpile of the very best materials. A complete listing of materials and their effects during instrument composition can be found here: https://wiki.theforsakenlands.com/Information/Materials Note: Materials that have a score of 7 or higher in the weapon type that you are trying to create will fashion a weapon that is rare. These weapons never crumble. Compositionalist Learned at level 15, compositionalist is perhaps the most important ability in your entire repertoire as a bard, because many of your songs and skills rely on you having an instrument in hand at all times. This skill lets you construct instruments out of the materials you collect throughout Aabahran in one of four categories: strings, brass, winds, and percussion. Each instrument category is tied to a repertoire and vogue (mastery-type ability), and to its own spectrum of materials. A material that is top-notch for one instrument type may be mediocre at best for another type, so it’s important to reference the materials chart above when thinking about what type of instrument(s) to craft. Weapons can be further enhanced using the "maintain" ability. Maintaining a weapon can be done twice and adds enhancements to the weapon based on the material used. What enhancements are added with each material can be found in the same material chart listed above. Ventriloquate A long-standing hallmark of the bardic repertoire, ventriloquate allows the bard to throw their voice and mimic the sound of another's. When successful, doing so can make it seem as though someone else is in the room and speaking. Analyze This ability is completely unique to bards in that it can use the bard's knowledge of mythos, lore, and history to "analyze" any opponent and identify their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. It's a great tool for new adventurers to get some helpful information on how to defeat some of the realm's more elusive player and non-player enemies. Bardic Skills Bards have some substantial vulnerabilities as a hybrid rogue-type class, but they've developed certain skills to help compensate for these weaknesses. Bardic Student, Bardic Expert, and Bardic Mastery each provide, at mastery, a chance for a bard to evade attacks of a certain type. Bardic Student helps the bard avoid thrown items (such as daggers and shurikens), Bardic Expert gives the bard a chance to dodge out of the way of kicked dirt, and Bardic Master can cause bashes, bodyslams, and other lag attacks to fail. Duet Simultaneously the most and least useful in a bard's repertoire, Duet is a phenomenal ability... but it requires the cooperation of a second bard to pull off. When you duet, each bard can still sing any song they like as normal (with a slight exception for four seasons). Both bards will sing a verse of the song, however, and the effect of the song will be doubled. For example, if two bards are dueting, they can each sing a "Reverberate" every round, which would yield a total of four reverberate effects. The same goes for healing songs. Refrain The refrain ability allows a bard to play a song without thought, freeing them up for other things in battle. The only song that can be refrained, currently, is reverberate. Refraining the song will sing it once initially, and then again in combat shortly thereafter. Note: Other songs cannot be sung until after the refrain is complete. Tune A tuned weapon, at first glance, may appear to only increase the "luck" modifier on that weapon. But in reality, a tune weapon does so much more. Tuning your weapon increases the "spell level" of your songs, causing them to be substantially more effective. It also cuts their mana cost in half. Brawl At home in the cities of Aabahran, bards can use their natural environment to their advantage in combat. A brawling bard will attack their enemy with greater strength and fervor, increasing the number of attacks they get each round. The bard will also defend better, using terrain and their environment to dodge out of the way of attacks that might have punished them outside the city's walls. This skill functions very similarly to a warrior's pugil, but is confined to only working in City-zoned areas. Taunt Bards can use their exceptional ability with words to taunt their opponents in battle. This can result in an intimidating fear-like effect for the opponent; but it can also backfire and send the opponent into a wild fit of anger. Uppercut This ability is also unique to bards and comes with a whole host of useful potential outcomes. An uppercut can do three things to an opponent: Dislocate their jaw, causing a silence-like affect (deals no damage in this case), stun the opponent and deal a modest amount of damage, or even knock the opponent out cold. Dissonance Dissonance is a particularly unique ability for the bard. It damages the bard's opponents with a sharp, discordant sound that causes them to double over in pain and be stunned for a brief time. But the ability comes at a cost: damage to your instrument. Repertoire & Vogue The bard's repertoire and vogue are their defining abilities. The equivalent to the ranger or berserker's path, or a warrior's mastery, a bard's vogue is a defining ability at their pinnacle; however, the path is decided with the repertoire skill at Level 5, so some planning may be required. Repertoire | Instrument Type | Vogue | Ability Jocular | Wind | Piercing Note | Massive Damage, 2 Round Lag, damages opponents armor, causes damage to non-wind instruments Calamitous | Percussion | Drumroll | Group Haste, drains the user if not using percussion Majestic | String | Powerchord | Moderate Damage, can cause opponents to rage Amorous | Brass | Resonance | Moderate damage, low chance to cause opponents to forget their spells Other Skills Bards get a number of other skills, many of which are fairly self-explanatory or commonplace. Those skills will be summarized in brief here. Weapons* - Sword, Staff, Dagger, Mace, H2H, Instrument *Note: Bards will almost never use any of these weapons; however, they play an important role in the bard's ability to defend against their use. Peek/Steal - Allows you to see an opponent's inventory and steal items from them Sneak - Causes you to move quietly, so you can't be seen walking from room to room. Fired Weapons - Like warriors, rangers, and ninjas, bards can use ranged weapons to fire projectiles at their opponents Tarot Cards - Bards can draw from a deck of tarot cards; depending on the card drawn, a random affect will be added to the bard temporarily. Unlucky tarot readings can be detrimental and even deadly. Disguise - Bards can choose to don the mantle of another class, confusing their opponents and allowing them to slip past guild guards. SONGS An important note about songs, before I provide the effects. ALL bard songs, unless otherwise noted, are "area of effect" - meaning that an offensive song, both damage and debuff, will affect (and therefore draw aggro) from any player or non-player entity in the room. Water to Wine - Converts a container full of water to a container full of wine or other alcoholic beverages Marriage Song - RP only, this song has no combat effect but can be used in roleplayed marriage ceremonies Ballad to the March - Refresh-like effect, restoring moves for the bard and their party Leviathan's Passing - Creates a spring that the bard and anyone else nearby can drink from Battaglia - Causes a frenzy-like battle affect for the bard and their party. Will also cause an enemy to start targeting the bard, if they're targeting another member of the bard's party. Totem's Canticle - Grants a blessing-like affect to the bard and their party. Suledin Nadas - Heals the bard and their party for a moderate amount of HP. Lullaby - Attempts to put any non-undead, non-grouped players and mobs in the room to sleep. Arduous Regret - Applies a weaken-like affect to the bard's enemies. Pastoral of Mind - Restores the mana of the bard and their party for a moderate amount. Tranquil Ballad - Calms any enemies in the room the bard is currently in. A King's Feast - Can be used on food items in the bard's inventory to increase both the longevity of the food and the rate at which it fills the eater's stomach. Let It Be Known - Improves the bard's reputation, causing their haggle skill to work better and more often. Elegy of Solitude - Isolates the bard's foes, instantly sending any pets, charmies, and zombies packing. Bagatelle of Bravado - Increases the armor and luck of the bard and their party. Carol of Lethargy - Causes a slow affect when used on the bard's enemies, causing them to hit less frequently and be less defensive, but also increasing their regeneration like a normal slow affect. Reverberate - One of the bard's primary damage spells, reverberate causes just one round of lag for substantial damage to the bard's enemies. Is easily saved against, though, so may not work on very well-equipped opponents. Divertimento of Horror - Causes the bard's opponents to flee in terror from combat. Chorus of the Revealed - Creates a faerie fog-like affect that will make hidden enemies glow. Flight of the Condor - Temporarily gives the bard and their party the ability of flight, meaning they can walk over water and fly through the air. DOES NOT grant protection from tripping or any other benefits (i.e. movement reduction) of the actual flight spell. Rest in Peace - Like the lullaby, this song causes opponents of an undead nature to fall asleep. Rhapsody of Delusion - Creates a veil of darkness-like effect for the bard's opponents, causing them to be trapped in a delusion where they can only see their immediate surroundings. Enemies affected by the Rhapsody cannot effectively use "where" and may lose track of what room they're in. Lamented Tears - This song removes the ability of the bard's enemy to see status affects, the condition of the bard, and other useful information that may be indicators of when to retreat from combat. Echoed Voices - Causes a blur-like affect that is localized on the bard's enemy, forcing the enemy to swing wildly and miss the bard often. Remembrance - Forces the listener to remember any spells they may have forgotten. Fairly useless. Four Seasons - The bard's capstone song, this ability does damage to an opponent PK STRATEGIES Many of the successful bard's PK strategies vary depending on both their repertoire/vogue choice (and therefore their instrument choice) and their race/cabal combo. Here are some examples of approaches a bard could take to be successful in player vs player combat: 1) Attrition Bards have access to both HP and mana restoring songs. Therefore, a bard can injure their opponents with melee damage and offensive songs, then retreat and heal. This tactic can be accentuated with the use of weapons that cause "bleed" and "poison" procs in battle, which would prevent their opponent from taking advantage of that downtime to heal themselves. 2) Debuffs As a hybrid class, bards have a unique blend of melee combat ability, damaging skills and songs, self-buffs, and debuffs. When it comes to the latter in particular, bards can excel when they get the jump on their opponent. One of the best combat tactics a bard has at their disposal is to put their opponent to sleep (using lullaby, or rest in peace for undead). Once knocked out, the bard can start layering these crippling songs to make their opponent much easier to beat. The debuff songs that should be applied in pretty much every case are: Arduous Regret, Tranquil Ballad, Rhapsody of Delusion, Lamented Tears, and Echoed Voices. Carol of Lethargy is a judgment call, in these situations - the slow affect can great improve a bard's combat standing against the opponent, but they can also grant the opponent higher regeneration. Therefore, the Carol should be used sparingly on opponents that likewise rely on attrition, or the song could backfire and grant the opponent an advantage. 3) Straight Damage Using either drumroll for its haste or piercing note for its massive damage, along with the damage of Four Seasons and a damage-focused instrument, a bard can quickly pile on the hurt in combat. This tactic is especially useful against mages that rely on a long, drawn-out battle to overcome their foe. It may not be as effective, however, on opponents such as warriors and blademasters as these opponents will often still have the upper hand in a pure melee battle. OTHER TIPS - One of the bard's greatest limiting factors is their mana. A low intelligence bard with a small mana pool may have a very difficult time maintaining enough mana to sing their songs, use their vogue, and keep up with an attrition-oriented opponent. In these cases, it is likely best for a dumber-yet-stronger bard to focus on their melee capabilities. - All bards are going to require, to some extent, a decent amount of melee capacity to be truly successful. Therefore, when considering equipment my recommended order of priority would be to focus on hitroll/damroll first, then saves and -AC depending on what enemies you typically find yourself fighting. +HP and +Mana gear are a nice addition if your equipment list has room to add them in. - As most successful PK strategies for a bard will involve some amount of attrition, I would strongly recommend obtaining the "Strong Mind" and "Restful Body" RP edges, as these will enhance your base regeneration. Beyond that, I would recommend finding some +hitgain and +managain gear to synergize with all of your other armors, as they will greatly enhance your ability to wear down your foe while not entering dangerous territory on your own. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seravin Posted February 21, 2020 Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 I like it. Well written. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EllaThePuppy Posted March 4, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2020 If nobody else has any comments on this, would it be possible to get it moved over to Essays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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