Guide: Building a Bard

[dewinter]

(This is my alternative take on the newbie help docs for character “builds”. The aim is to give players enough info to make their build decisions through to level 3-6ish. This is just a quick write up and some of it I have kind of winged as I am not totally)

Introduction
Welcome to the bardic profession. Bards are an extremely versatile class; they can cast spells, heal, provide buffs for the parts and engage in some melee and ranged combat. Be warned that the bard’s “jack of all trades” nature does not make it the strongest solo class and a bard is strongest when providing utility and support to a group.

Choosing ability scores
The list below sorts abilities into three levels of importance: high, medium and low. Please keep in mind these recommendations do not take into account any future multi-classing prerequisites and are only general advice, there is no right and wrong way to build your character.

Str – Low – While strength is useful for combat, you should prioritise dex and con for the reasons listed below.
Dex – Med – Essential to accommodate light armor. If you plan to be melee this will also be used for “weapon finesse” (feat info weapon finesse)
Con – Med – The Bard has a poor fortitude save and extra hit-points come in very handy.
Int – Low – Bard’s don’t use intelligence to cast and already get a high number of training sessions. That being said, they can always use more.
Wis – Low – Not important as its only used for will saves and the Bard already has good willpower save progression.
Chr – High – The most essential stat for a bard. Used for spell-casting and performances.

Example: Str 10, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Chr 16

Choosing feats
The following feats are useful for bards to select early in character development.

Lingering performance – Extends your song verses, very useful.
Combat casting – Gives a concentration bonus when casting during combat.
Weapon finesse – Perfect for the swashbuckling bard, uses dexterity bonus for hit roll of weapons (if better than strength bonus). Only works for light classed weapons and does not benefit archery. This feat will not be available at level 1 but can be taken for your level 3 feat.
Able learner – Due to the wide range of skills used by Bard’s, this feat could be worth taking as it adds a +1 to all skills.

Choosing skills
As a bard, you will have a lot of skill points to distribute. The skills listed below are some priority skills you may want to ensure you are putting points into early in your character development.

Perform – Essential for performing your songs. This skill should be your top priority.
Concentration – Concentration is required to complete spells during combat. Another must-have for bards.
Lore – Lore is a generally useful skill in Lumari. Your Bardic Knowledge (HELP BARDIC KNOWLEDGE) feat will add your bard level to your lore skill but is only activated if you have put points into the skill. In your early levels, you should still invest heavily in the skill.
Acrobatics – A situation skill but can be useful for a bard when they are fleeing or managing inventory items during combat (which can happen due to instrument swaps and magic device use).
Use magic device – Bards are well positioned in groups (or solo) to make use of magic devices.

The following skills are generally useful for characters in Luminari: riding, climbing (?), lore and appraise.

(note: I don’t know how useful all the social skills are at the moment, this takes away a lot of the benefits of being a bard unfortunately)

Build styles
While this document only gives general advice for building a Bard, you may want to consider a direction for your bard. Here are some ideas which might help you build a more unique bard:

The swashbuckler: a high dexterity bard. Weapon finesse and weapon focus in a suitable weapon will come in handy here.
The tuneblade: A high strength bard. This bard will look to take on feats like weapon focus, power attack and cleave.
The spell-singer: This bard will have a high charisma build and focus on feats which improve performance, spell power and combat casting.
The night song: A ‘rogueish’ bard, requires high dexterity and reasonable intelligence for extra skills. Focus on the variety of rogue skills available, a multi-class dip into the rogue class would also be advised.

Respeccing
Don’t worry if you make a mistake, Luminari allows characters to reset their stats/feat/skills and reassign them through a ‘respec’. For more information see HELP RESPEC.

More information
The following HELP files have useful information on Bards:
CLASS FEATS BARD
CLASS INFO BARD
SPELLLIST BARD

• This topic was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by dewinter.

[dewinter]

Argh, I can’t edit it now but there are some typos! Sorry.

[Ornir Elunari]

This is excellent Dewinter, thank you so much for putting this together!

– O

[Author]

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