Bard Spells, Volume 1

[Birile]

This idea comes from a larger idea I have for bards but I wanted to start here and see what peoples' thoughts were.

Bards/Battlechanters are severely lacking in the spell department when compared to other hybrid melee/caster classes (yes, you can argue that our songs are spells but I'll save that argument for another post). We have fewer spells and less variety in our spells than the other hybrids. With the help of Hoppel and Mimble, I've come up with two bard/battlechanter-specific spells that I think would enhance the flavor of these two classes without making them overpowering.

Spell #1: Phantom Accompanist. This spell would summon a doppleganger of the bard/battlechanter to come to the singer's aid, providing extra melee and (most importantly) accompaniment to the singer's songs. As with the Illusionist's Doppleganger spell, the phantom accompanist would disappear with one hit from a mob. This would prevent this spell from being too powerful and acting as a sort of tank for the singer. Unlike the Illusionist's Doppleganger spell, this spell could only be cast on the caster him/herself (of course). Also, a bard/battlechanter with a Phantom Accompanist cannot have Doppleganger cast on him/her, and vice versa.

Spell #2: Sonic Wave. This area spell sends out waves of sonic energy that can affect everyone in the room not grouped with the caster. The spell lasts 3 rounds and randomly affects one mob in the room, with the possibility of affecting a different mob each round. This spell is much akin to the Anti-Paladin's Tazrik's Frenzied Hound and the Dire Raider's Poltergeist spells and does an equal amount of damage as these two spells.

It is my thinking that Sonic Wave should completely replace Chain Lightning/Firestorm for two reasons: 1) Chain Lightning/Firestorm are WEAK--too weak to even be considered viable when they are paired in the same circles as Displacement and Stone Skin, and 2) Chain Lightning/Firestorm lack a unique flavor that Sonic Wave would give to two classes that are, well, all about class.

Thoughts? :)

[chandigar]

I love my bard, but I have to admit I think the phantom accompany would be way too powerful. Even at lvl 40, my bard accompanied gets 150 hps per verse of song of healing, I think a solo bard being able to do that would be pretty overpowering. Even offensive harmony is like +10/10 haste accompanied at that level.

(not playing bard atm, can't get exact values for ya, but you get my point)

[Delmair Aamoren]

I agree chand. i played a bard for a bit, then abandoned it, as i really
don't like playing rogue classes here. (did it all through soj 1 -2 and
toril, and i'm tired of em) The Tazrik's like spell wouldn't be a bad idea
but you're probbably looking at an 8th or possibly 10th circle spell.

*shrug* when you look at the whole of lets say anti vs bard spells
(since you want tazriks type spell) you have to look at the other
spells the classes get. Anti's don't get anything NEAR displace.
I don't think bards were meant to be spell damage machines, more
of utilitarians. Just a thought.

[Gura]

I just think bard/battlechanter song of healing should cure blind at high level..like 41 or so. Hell just get rid of song of the elements and give us a 49th or 50th quest song song of knowledge...for skill notching or somethin. Would be a nice bonus imo.

[Shevarash]

I like the sonic wave spell idea, if only because it fits the bardly theme better than chain/firestorm. Phantom accompany does sound too powerful.

Song of healing having a *chance* to cure blind at high levels is a nice idea as well..will think about it.

[Eilorn]

Also, seeing as how we get a limited amount of spells/day, AND we only get every other circle... how about making them nofail from the start?

Eilorn(Mirebas).

[Delmair Aamoren]

Methinks your spellcasting is limited so much because a bard is a jack of all trades. yet a master of none. If they got nofail spellcasting from the getgo they would be pretty darn impressive spellcasting. spellcasting better than all other spellcasters wouldn't sit well with the idea of a jack of all trades. hell, as it is, there is still a chance of failing 10th circle for 50th level casters. the fail bit is prettymuch a nuisance, but it makes sense that if you still aren't super proficient at that circle that you could possibly fail.

[Tubos]

Give bards with high lore skill a chance to identify, or at least learn something about !ID items.

Sort of off topic, but a reason to practice lore.

[Maedor]

Song of healing having a *chance* to cure blind at high levels is a nice idea as well..will think about it.

Bards already have managed to seriously infringe on the shaman's niche...allowing bards to remove blind with their heal song (which heals nearly as much as a shaman, for a much longer duration...) would be yet another nail into the coffin of shamans. I'm all for giving bards something, without furthur hurting an already outdated and overdowngraded class.

Okina and I were debating the bard/shaman group healing thing...the only point Okina had on me is that shaman group heal removes blind..other than that, bards own them :)

[Gurns]

Bards already have managed to seriously infringe on the shaman's niche...allowing bards to remove blind with their heal song (which heals nearly as much as a shaman, for a much longer duration...)

only point Okina had on me is that shaman group heal removes blind..other than that, bards own them :)

*cough* Who's intruding? Some of us still remember back when shamans first got gheal, and took away the only reason bards got invited to group. :p

:) That was then, this is now, bards got serious upgrades recently, and add a lot to a group, other than healing. Indeed, in most circumstances, healing isn't our best choice of song. Especially if there's a ghealing shaman along. And even if bardsong cured blind, bards shouldn't replace shamans in a lot of cases, because shamans can get a couple of gheals off in the time it takes me to sing a verse. During some battles, you gotta have all that ghealing in a very short time, and one verse every four rounds isn't near enough.

All that said, I don't think bards need their heal song to be more powerful. But then, I'm the one that thinks that, as a 12th or 13th or whatever person in a balanced group, bards add more than any other class. An unbalanced group will always need some other class more, but if you've got all the required classes, that bard will add more power to the group than any other class.

[Delmair Aamoren]

Horry shit. never thought i'd say this, but i agree with gurns. Bards are by FAR the best addition to a well balanced group. I would bring a bard to almost any zone over... hmm, a ranger, an elementalist, quite possibly even over a rogue (depending on the zone). Bards need nothing else to be a useful/desired class for groups.

Soloing, however, might be another matter. Never seen one solo exp. espeically because after you get song of healing you are welcomed by almost any warrior/anti/paladin. Just a thought.

[Dalar]

all bards do are heal. offensive disruption is for tanks who don't understand how AC works. offensive harmony is for lazy hasters. defensive harmony just looks pretty on your prac list. defensive disruption is worthless b/c u only need it on high MR mobs, but then again healing would be smarter. song of harming does lame damage. miscast magic doesn't really work. the magic song is ok for the 1 star spell haste, but not worth the slot they take up in group. what we need is an area MR reducing song, a song that makes mobs switch less, or a song that blocks spells or something. I don't know, anything but what they got now.

[rylan]

Would be cool if offensive disruption kept mobs from switching, or made them fail switch a lot.

[Birile]

miscast magic doesn't really work.

Miscast magic pwns, people just don't know how it works and/or don't like holding their breath while a mob casts waiting for it to abort so it's never requested.

Honestly, while I would not turn down the chance to cure blinds I don't think bards need to be able to cure blinds with song of healing. I mean, my god, I'm so sick of zone leaders telling me to sing healing for an entire zone as it is. Just what I need, another reason to be reduced to a one-hit wonder. And honestly, oh my god, the shaman class seems so boring to me (no offense to the shaman lovers out there) and seem to need some lovin' themselves, why do I want to take their one true niche in a group completely away from them?

As for the reason bards aren't proficient at spells, yeah I understand we're a jack of all trades and I love that. But why are our spells so much more limited than any other hybrid melee/caster class? Rangers, dires, anti's, pal's--they all get 10 full circles of spells. Bards get 5. Why? Because we get songs and they're "just like spells"? Heh. Frankly, some of our songs are basically useless. Any situation where things like song of protection and the like would be helpful in the least any sensible bard would use healing or the like. And what about song of harming and song of the elements? I play those in zones sometimes just to piss off people in the group who think my sole purpose is healing and for the thrill of seeing the pretty ansi on elements and the laugh of seeing song of harming kill a morted mob. These two songs in particular are rather high level bard songs. Make them a little more useful or something. Song of harming should deal more damage than it does and elements would be ultra-useful if we gave it an elemental ward-like proc. You know, kinda like the proc on certain weapons from a certain "dead zone." That would pwn. Giving renewal or sorcery the same type of proc that the SC mage staff has would, um, rock too.

I think that kinda got off the bard spells topic but it would certainly help to have something like these procs to help keep bards from just being ghealers in a zone. *shrug*

[Depok]

The only reason to make shaman more useful is to get more people to play them. As it is now I rarely get to zone with my alts because everyone wants a shaman (ok it could be because my alts suck but that is a story for another time).

Of course that time is apparently coming to a close as I level up my bard! Time to delete depok I guess.

[Dalar]

when lyria and talsor were both active we tried it on tower mobs and it never worked, i guess it was upgraded. iyachtu did say he would fix it b4 but i hadn't seen him in ages

[Birile]

*bump*

Any news on getting any of this implemented? :D

[Birile]

I like the sonic wave spell idea, if only because it fits the bardly theme better than chain/firestorm. Phantom accompany does sound too powerful.

*bump*

Any news on this?

[Imis9]

When did bards get resurrect???

[Birile]

When did bards get resurrect???

The second Tuesday of last week. Or were you making some obscure point that went over my halfling head?

[moritheil]

I like the sonic wave spell idea, if only because it fits the bardly theme better than chain/firestorm. Phantom accompany does sound too powerful.

Song of healing having a *chance* to cure blind at high levels is a nice idea as well..will think about it.

Uh, I think we discussed this before, but it makes a big difference whether said cure blind chance would apply to mobs or not ;) What do people say?

Imis, bards got ress fx song, not ress ;)

[Birile]

I don't care about the cure blind on song of healing--I said that in a previous post to this thread. It's the sonic wave idea I'm interested in!

[Imis9]

rofl mori, indeed. I was just kidding about bringing back an old thread. :)

[vallis]

/bump

Whatever happened to sonic wave? :P

[Eilistraee]

I'm looking into it :)

[Birile]

I'm looking into it :)

*snuggle*

[Pisalos]

My friend has a D&D game where bards can cast some spell called Sunfire. Looks cool. Is there a spell like that here? If I remember right, the sunfire spell does quite a bit of damage, but a bard has to be like really high level to cast it.

[Pril]

IT'S IN! *cheer Eil*

:p

[Birile]

Nice, Sonic Wave is in!

Oh my goodness! I haven't had a chance to check the spell out, but I'm excited nonetheless!

[Birile]

Would be cool if offensive disruption kept mobs from switching, or made them fail switch a lot.

I must've missed this for the past... year... this has been up *blush*

Seems like a good idea to make a mostly-unused song useful. Causing them to fail bash more, etc, would also be nice.