Playtesting the Bard.

[Variaz]

So, after Gando's not so pleasant playtesting with the Bard class, I've decided to run a human Bard, and give a pure songs Bard a shot.

Unfortunately, it seems like Gando may have been on to something here. This very short playthrough has been one of my least enjoyable playthrough ever.

So here starts Cacophonus' Portralis adventures! Cacophonus began his adventure in Udor. He went to slay some rats with his trusty bronze dagger, and leveled up. So at level 2, he placed 10 points in Music, and 2 points in Improved Songs. Problem was, no instruments or songs were available. And no shops to buy them either. So Cacophonus scummed Udor's cave until he got some rhythms. And he got a radius 2 one. But there was nothing else. So he went to Fidac, and scummed the Black Market enough times to buy the Sound melody for about 1500 golds. Then he had to go back scumming Udor's Cave some more, because he didn't have the 400 golds required to buy a power 5 Harmony.

A total of about 20 minutes were spent scumming.

Phew! Cacophonus finally gets all parts. Great! Let's compose a song! So here we go, a nice Power 5, radius 2, Sound type song that requires....arg, 35 charisma!! Cacophonus only has 13! Darn it...

Desperate to find something, Cacophonus went to a depth 30 dungeon(at level 2...), and scummed to try to find something to boost his charisma. He had to Abort the game several times because Phantom Necromancers weren't very nice with him. After about 15 Aborts(deaths), he renounced, and went back to Udor's cave, hopeful that he would find the low power 2 Harmony. And he did! But, it was guarded by a pack of fearsome CROWS!

So he rushed to get to the Harmony, but it was too late. He got surrounded, and Cacophonus died a horrible death in the beaks of these terrible creatures. And that ended this Bard's career. With no money to buy anything good, no Create Songs, not enough charisma to use the song he made and a mere bronze dagger and leather armor as protection, he couldn't face this nightmarish beast that is the Crow.

Rest in peace, Cacophonus.


All right, this class needs some work(or maybe it's the Music skill more than the class, that and the songs themselves). There's a definite need for a music shop, and lower the price of the basic songs. Some cheap instruments would be nice as well. I will most likely reduce the charisma requirements for them as well, because a power 5 song shouldn't require 35 Charisma. In comparison, a Power 5, radius 2 spell would require 6 Wisdom to free-cast, with a book that can cost as low as 200 golds(Missile), while here about 2000 golds went into that song, and that's because I didn't purchase the rhythm, or it would have been a bit more.

[Gando]

lol I wasn't even complaining about the gold problems. I figured it added to the challenge but yes does increase the difficulty a lot. One thing is I thought music skill would increase damage and perhaps radius as per school skills. I know its primary purpose is to reduce charisma cost (so your 35 cha song should have been doable with 25 cha actually.) but giving it some addition edge for use of instruments/damages would be good too.

By the way I noticed instruments get dice like weapons but they don't deal damage directly so what is the point of that?

[Variaz]

Actually, Music increases damages just like the spells school does, in addition to lowering the cost.

The damages dice of instruments is added to the base damages of your song. It works exactly like rods.

[rotekian]

I notice you didn't use Create Song which has no charisma requirement among other things.

[Variaz]

May 16, 2009 8:54:59 GMT -5 rotekian said:

I notice you didn't use Create Song which has no charisma requirement among other things.

I know. With it, it would have been much easier. But Create Songs should be an option, not a must-have. I wanted to see what it is to play without it.

[Variaz]

Ok, so the code for the Music shop is pretty much done, all I need is to add the actual shops and that'll be done. I've also lowered the charisma requirements of the songs components a bit, so I'll do another run with a new Bard, and see how this one turns out. I'll keep you posted, and if it turns out OK, I'll release the patch.

[Variaz]

So far so good, the music shop helps A LOT.

Only level 10 so far, but it works well. Damages-wise, it's lower than a mage and limited to circles, but the passive healing song is very useful! High charisma will also mean low stores prices, so upgrading the Bard's equipment might not be too difficult. I'll continue playing, and see how it turns out.

I did some changes to some abilities. Charming Deamanor will now give +10% to Charisma per points instead of 5%. Bardic Reputation will now stun enemies instead of scaring them, though the effect is still based on fear resistance(they are stunned in fear!). It will also work on elites and bosses now.

I also figured out why Gando has problems with Harm songs. I forgot to have Harm use Charisma for saving throws when used through songs, so it was using intelligence and wisdom instead, which is why it didn't work too well. It's now fixed.

[Gando]

Any idea why the heal spell wasn't working? Or the Heal song for that matter?

[Variaz]

I don't know. Maybe you used Passive instead of Effect? Other than that, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[Gando]

May 20, 2009 8:14:46 GMT -5 Variaz said:

I don't know. Maybe you used Passive instead of Effect? Other than that, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

This is the third or fourth time you said that after I took the time to make a detailed account of what I did. I am a little concerned you don't read all the posts. Or skim them and then lose interest maybe.

No I did not fail to make it an effect. Either with Create Song ability or with the built in music feat. And yet the heal effect song never once worked. Not even a little bit.

[Variaz]

"Heal" won't work, Heal Other will, though I know you tried it, and I do read the posts, don't worry about that.

But it doesn't seem like I am able to reproduce the problem.

[Variaz]

All right, so Bardic Reputation wasn't working AT ALL. It's now repaired.

[Variaz]

May 20, 2009 4:29:46 GMT -5 Gando said:

Any idea why the heal spell wasn't working? Or the Heal song for that matter?

All right, I have reproduced the bug! Not sure what causes it yet. I will take a look at this, and fix this problem.

[Variaz]

The problem was that in passive.lua, it checks whether you still have enough charisma to continue using a passive or effect song. However, it did not apply the Music skill cost reduction there, so while I had enough charisma to activate the Heal song, I didn't have enough to continue singing it due to this bug.

[Variaz]

I reverted Bardic Reputation back to a fear effect instead of paralysis. Paralysis is too powerful for this ability and makes mobs ridiculously easy to kill.