Lady Tanna
The Realities of Being a Bard:
Bards are warriors. Yes we have a few spells at our disposal, but not enough to make it possible for us to succeed in combat without making use of our sword and shield. So plan to train your bard to be a fighter. Bards are versatile fighters however, we have many skills available to us at a reasonable, if not exactly inexpensive cost. With planning and careful training, you can make your Bard into an excellent fighter and train him/her in other useful and interesting skills. You can create a Rogue Bard with hiding and ambushing abilities, or a Rogue Bard with lockpicking and disarming skills, or a Sorceror- Bard with the ability to wave CS based wands and use scrolls. (I would not recommend the Mage-Bard route since spell aiming is very expensive and using mental points on spell aiming will hurt Bardic progression in other areas.)
However, keeping in mind that bards are primarily warriors, let's look at Bard Stats and Bard Training.
Statistics:
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First rule of stats - unless you simply can't stand to
roll anymore, don't accept a set of stats if any of them are under 36,
preferably no stat should be lower than 40. In the long run, you
are better off with all your stats over 40, even if all of your high stats
are in the 70-80 range, than to have a couple of 100 stats and other stats
in the 20's and 30's. Roll until all your stats are over 36.
Aura, Constitution, Charisma and Strength rise rather quickly for bards so you don't want to put your very highest rolls in these stats. You need Aura for manna points, spirit points and spell effectiveness. Charisma for lore singing. Strength for your attack strength (AS) and Constitution for hit points and the ability to withstand poison and disease attacks.
Wisdom, Dexterity and Discipline tend to rise very slowly. Wisdom is needed for skills like manual box disarming, dexterity for dodging attacks like 'boil earth' and the infamous ro'ater attacks. Discipline is important for training points.
Reflex, Logic and Intelligence seem to take a middle of the road speed in rising. Reflex is very important for your defenses. Logic and Intelligence help you to gain and absorb experience at a more rapid rate. Logic is also one of the bardic primary stats.
When choosing where to place your stat rolls, keep in mind the racial bonuses and profession bonuses that may apply to your character. Bards get an automatic +10 to aura and logic.
The table below shows the bonuses available for each race in GemStone. Remember that racial bonuses add to (or subtract from) your BONUS, and NOT the statistic itself, but it's the bonus that is usually used to determine whether or not a spell, or a roll based maneuver attack, succeeds.
Race Selection Table
Race ST RE CH WI AU CO DE DI LO IN HPF Max HP
Human
+5 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 +5 +5
6 150
Giantman +15 -5
+5 0 -5 +10
-5 0 0
-5 7 200
Half-Elf 0
+10 +5 0
0 0 +5
-5 0 0
5 135
Sylvankind 0
+5 +5 0 +5
0 +5 -5 0
0 5 130
Dark Elf 0
+5 -5 +5 +10
-5 +10 -10 0 +5
5 120
Elf
-5 +15 +15 0
+5 0 +5 -20
0 0
5 130
Dwarf +10
-5 -10 0 -10 +15
0 +10 +5 0
6 140
Halfling -20 +10
-15 0 -5 +10
+15 -5 +5 +10
4 100
My personal recommendations for stat placement:
1) Put your highest roll in discipline. This rises very slowly and has a large effect on your total training points. Bards need all the training points they can get since they have to train in such a diverse number of skills.
2) Put your next three highest rolls in reflex, strength or aura. The order you place these stats should depend on the race you want to choose for your character (you can, for instance, do well with a lower strength if you choose Giantman or Human) and the spread of your stats. If you have, for instance, a low 70 as one of your high rolls, you may want to place the 70 in aura since you'll get a +10 profession bonus added to the 70 and aura rises very quickly. (You definitely don't want to place a 90 in Aura.)
3) Put the next four highest rolls in Dexterity, Charisma,
Intelligence, or Logic. Again, place these stats according to what
skills you'd like your character to excell at, and what race you plan to
choose for your character.
(For instance, Humans get a logic/intelligence bonus,
Half-Elves get a charisma and reflex bonus).
4) Bards don't really have much use for wisdom - about the only thing it will help you with is finding traps on boxes, so you can put your next to lowest roll in this stat. If you plan to have your bard spend a lot of time opening boxes, you might want to consider swapping with one of the skills in recommendation 3 but.... you might be better off training a lot in perception.
5) Put your lowest roll in constitution. This will make your hit points low and you will be prone to catching disesases and poisons in your early years, but constitution rises so quickly, you'll soon outgrow such minor problems. If you choose a Giantman or Dwarf for your race, the constitution bonus will alleviate the negative bonus you'll get by putting your lowest roll in this stat.
Races:
A bard can be pretty much any race that he wishes to be. However, bards do need to be able to fight, so if you choose one of the traditionally weaker races (elves, halflings, dark elves, sylvans) you'll need to pay particular attention to your weapon training and make sure you've got a high strength roll. Life will be somewhat easier if you roll up a dwarf, human, half-elf or giantman bard but the roleplay possibilities of other races are quite appealing if you are willing to put up with some of handicaps that come with the physically weaker races. (I for one, would love to see a few more Sylvankind Sirens, Tart-eating Poets, or Dark Elven Dirge singers running around in the game.)
Training:
Much of training is based on your own personal desires and the kind of character you want to build. However, remember (if I haven't said this enough) bards are primarily fighters. So consider sword swinging to be your major skill.
Combat Skills:
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Weapon Use: Once a level, preferably twice.
Shield Use: Once a level, preferably
twice.
Combat Maneuvers: Once a level if you can afford
it. At least twice every three levels.
Armor Training: Once a level to a 20 bonus for full leather. More for reinforced or double leather. Bards generally don't want to wear metal armor (spell failure considerations) so you probably won't need more than a 30 armor bonus to wear most of the common leather armors.
I don't recommend spreading training points over specialized weapon skills such as two handers, or multiple weapons. If you plan to have your bard join Voln, or cast CS based spells in battle you may wish to train in brawling every level, but other then that, put your training points into one single-handed weapon of your choice (edged or blunt is generally the cheapest way to go).
Ambush - Very helpful if you can afford it. If you are training in Combat Maneuvers, it's worthwhile to get some ambush training every three or four levels for when you get older. You can also train in hiding but to be a good hider, you have to sacrifice other skills and you'll never be as good at it as a rogue. I never bothered to train in hiding but I've still found ambushing to be quite useful.
Physical Training - Once per level until you reach your maximum hit points.
Magic/Mental Skills
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Spell research - once every level. I would advise
training in the bard circle to level 3, then switch to minor elemental
until you are at least level 14. At that point, you can continue
in minor elemental, or switch to bard circle until you get Kai's song (1007)
before going back to Minor elemental to level 430. If the bard spell circle
is ever fully implemented, this advice would probably change, but for now
there is no point in training in bard spells past level 1007 until your
character is very old, and you are likely to find the minor elemental spells
much more useful in the lower levels.
Perception - Once per level at least to a bonus of 120. I skipped a few levels after reaching the 120 bonus, but I still try to train almost every level.
Manna Share - every two or three levels until you reach a bonus over 100. Manna share determines the number of charges you can imbed into a magic item. In addition, once you reach lord/lady level it is generally expected that you will attempt to return at least part of the manna that fellow players use up when extending services such as healing and magic spells on your behalf.
If you have any mental points left, scroll reading and magic item use can both come in handy. It takes a bonus of about 70 to use these skills with any proficiency. Neither skill is vital to character advancement, but if you have some spare points, you might want to get a little of both for use in the far future of your characters life.
Utility Skills:
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Climbing- You'll probably want at least a bonus of 40
by lord/lady level. 50 wouldn't hurt.
Swimming - You'll eventually want a bonus of at least 20, and 30 is helpful by level 30.
Picking/Disarming: I personally wouldn't bother with picking since 407 does a perfectly good job opening everything but glyph trapped boxes. Disarming will help you spot traps when you manually disarm which is a little more effective (and uses a lot less manna) than 408. If you have enough points to handle a few trainings in disarm, it doesn't hurt but it is not necessary to train in either picking or disarming.
First Aid: I would recommend single training every few levels up to a bonus of at least 50. This will let you tend most of the less severe bleeding wounds. First Aid also improves your ability to skin so if you can throw in a first aid training every once in awhile past the 50 bonus it can come in handy.
Good fortune to you and may you travel the lands in safety!
Lady Tanna