hey. bards are one of my favourite chars, but i haven't had much experience playing them in 3E rules. good i get some pointers on tatics and whatnot? thanks in advance.

[ April 26, 2005, 08:24: Message edited by: Beren ]

Bards are cool but they are not super powerful in Icewind Dale II as a single classed character. The main reason for this is that they don’t get many extra benefits beyond level 11. Therefore, unless you want to play a pure bard for roleplaying reasons, it can be more beneficial to plan for a multiclass after level 11, which would mean choosing your race and starting ability scores carefully.

In any case, remember that Charisma is the spell-casting stat for Bards.

Tactics #1: lick your way to level 11 ASAP.

Tactics #2: stay out of the way unless you are forced to fight or all of your capable fighters are dead.

:D

Seriously though, I haven't found any use for bard beyond his songs and healing magic, he is not very good at either fighting (low damage, no sneak attack) or magic (lack of offensive spell, mostly just support magic). He is probably only useful for multiclassing (to either a cleric or sorc, or even wizard), since he can still sing once all of his spells are used up.

Greystar is correct.
Get the bard to L11 and then keep him singing.

Frankly the minimum Char14 puts a damper on trying to create a good multiclass. As an option of what class to switch to once your bard gets his 11 levels (dont bother even with L12, its just not worth it):
Sorcerer - Probably the most famous choise. This way you can permanently keep him at the back. This guy is the support arcane caster and his DC is not going to be very high. So he still concentrates on buffs and the occasional fireball.
Rouge - Take two charecters whom you dont need full time and merge them into one. You can even pick some cool feats which no one otherwise sees.
Druid - Shapeshift into a bear and go to the frontlines. Not very advisable ofcourse but still pretty interesting. You can safely ignore physical stats for this guy.

Bard/Barbarian is a great concept but very short of stats.

Btw, the Shapeshifted Bard can still sing.

One of my favorite classes is the Druid/Bard. Song and summons makes a nice combo, and he'll never be useless once he runs out of spells. As Shrikant suggested you can also ignore Strength, Agility and Constitution if you decide to make this guy - the classes pretty much complement each other. 14 Char, a few points in Intelligence and Max Wisdom and you have a spokesperson, summoner, singer and attacker in one, with the added bonus of being able to cast a few useful mage spells.