Bard's Tale thread

Lucky Day

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It seems odd to create a thread for such an old game.

But I wanted to start out with asking about the best build to start with.

I've not seen a whole lot of talk about best race and class combination. There are more races and classes then there are slots. The initial attributes appear to be just starting amounts so there's little point in worrying about that initial roll which can set you back so much in AD&D for the rest of the campaign.
 
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I assume you're talking about the Remastered version.

My party, certainly not optimized:
Dwarf Warrior
Half elf Bard
Human Hunter
Hobbit Rogue
Elf Magician
Half Elf Conjurer

They are currently lvl 9 and I am on the first floor of the sewers, doing fine. I left the 7th slot open for summons/wandering monsters, but I think I may add another magic user instead. MP, not HP is what is in short supply when in the dungeon with this team, especially with the Bard's HP regen song.

As for stats, I went with the logical choices: high STR and CON for fighters, DEX and LCK for my rogue, INT and DEX for mages, etc. I would argue that DEX is important for all classes as it affects when the character acts during the turn. Earlier is better.

One surprise I didn't expect with the game is how stingy with magic items it's been so far. I've roughly 12 hours in game, have cleared all of Skara Brae, Tavern Cellars, and Sewers lvl 1, and other than the Fire Horn the bard starts with, the only good loot I've found is a Mithril Sword, which is marginally better than what's in Garth's. It this stinginess with magic items normal or am I just extremely unlucky???
 
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I've only played three hours so far, but my set up is: Paladin, Warrior, Bard, Rogue, and two mages. I leave that last slot open for summoned creatures or wandering monsters that can join, as I remember some of them being quite useful to have in the group. And just as soon as I complete the Trails in the Sky game that I'm on, I'll be back to this one!
 
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I have some doubts here:

1) Can't we choose our character's portraits? I mean, is there only one portrait for each class?

2) About character's positioning in our group: how many are in the first row, how many are in the second row (or doesn't this concept exist in the game?) Are the 2nd-row chars able to attack enemies? Can a rogue in the rear row find a trap ?

Thanks!
 
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rogues are universally accepted as useless - of course you will need one for BT3. use trap zap then run back to roscoes when you get low. The difficultly in recharging your spell points makes for an interesting dynamic and gives you somewhere to dump your gold.

My Party
Paladin
Hunter
Monk
Bard
Conjurer
Magician

Its funny in these old games the "row" dynamic. It really only exists for enemies. Your party is technically in one row.

However, just as only the front 4 can attack, it seems they are the meat shield unless the enemies target the whole party.

I'm at level 13 now - took about 3 days.

After I gained level 7 spells I switched my casters Sorcerer and Magician.

--

I've got into the habit of hitting J every other move. These dungeons are so complicated its a real shame. Its a real work of art. The automap takes away from the way this game is designed and makes the compass next to useless.
 
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Rogues were useless in the original game, but they've made them a little stronger in the remaster. They have the 'hide in shadows' ability which they didn't have until BT3 in the original trilogy.

They're still pretty weak though, and there's talk that they might be further upgraded in the next update.
 
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Rogue is definitely the worst class, but I wouldn't go as a far as to call them useless, especially after the latest patch. They can provide a guarantee crit kill with a one turn setup requirement (hide in shadows) that works even at 20' without a bow equipped.

As I usually run with the bard's hp regen song going, I find MP to be my most critical resource. Thus I'd rather disarm most traps with my rogue and eat the occasional sprung trap with HP that is easily regenerated. (Except for Gas Clouds, I always Trap Zap those bastards.)
 
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Rogue's are great! Once you gear them up that is. My Rogue using a Death's Dagger (+3 accuracy and every hit kills) kills almost as much as my monk and also has the benefit of hide in shadows to get at long range enemies and also avoid damage. My rogue took out mangar quick smart in 3 turns.
 
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It seems odd playing this old relic again. I went with Dwarf Hunter, Half-Orc Monk, Elf Bard, Hobbit Rogue, Gnome Conjurer, and two Elf Magicians.

Magicians get Quick Fix, giving substantial healing early on, and by L5 have Starflare, which is handy for clearing groups of enemies out quickly. They'll switch to Sorcerer together at 13, with the Conjurer switching to Magician. My goal is to end them as Conjurers, because it's funny, and the Gnome ending as a Sorcerer.

I may ditch the Rogue later and swap in a Paladin. It's nice not having to TRZP everything, but at the same time, I'd be better served with a Paladin or Monk instead. On the other hand, if I keep playing through 2 and 3, I'll need to develop a Rogue eventually.
 
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Rogue is useless in 1, but needed for 3. Barehanded Monk is awesome. I have 3 casters and am covering all bases; they and the Bards Fire Horn can wipe out any and all mobs easily. Paladins make good tanks, but decrease in value at the higher levels.
 
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Rogue is useless in 1, but needed for 3. Barehanded Monk is awesome.

My Rogue disagrees with your statement. So does Mangar's corpse with a dagger in his back :)

But more seriously. While they are useless for 95% of the game they really do become useful in the remake once they get some of the high end rogue gear. On level 4 and 5 of mangars Tower my rogue was getting more kills than my monk (due to higher accuracy).
 
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Well I ended up using my 7th spot for a Rogue which I levelled. He was constantly getting killed even at the end at 18th? level. I couldn't get him high enough to bother opening a high level trap. I stuck him in front so he could run away with those speed boots if need be and this left my bard in the 5th spot where he could stack his songs once I found out you could do that.

He was ultimately useful in taking a few creatures out 20' away but it was slow going and he often got killed doing that.

In the end the Hunter with Stoneblade turned into my best character. The critical hits combined with instant kills were far more reliable than the monk or anyone. Surprising because they seemed so nerfed at first.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/843260/announcements/detail/1699439264749269718

Bard's Tale II remastered is released! I'm excited to jump in and import my characters from BT1.

Woohoo! Just in time too! I've finally done everything with Into the Breach (no real bonus for the completionist unless you count the secret mech party itself) and I missed the sale on X-Com 2.

With any luck the the rogue gets the ability to Identify weapons (and not just traps). InXile had been debating retroactively adding it to BT1 but were not sure what it would do to balance.
 
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Well they retroactively added all the spells from BT2 and 3 to 1 and added a casino to Skara Brae for some reason. I'm not sure why because the best stuff is found, not bought. The shoppe is more a place to dump your junk - it would be nice if they added stuff next to impossible to get (or unique) like the blade cuisinart but they didn't.

Casinos in games always get exploited, especially in SP where you can save scum.

--

Anyways, any strategies to BT2? With the new spells I'm thinking it might be worth it to dump my 7th character and try out the summons.

When I need a thief for BT3 I will need to start at level 1 anyway.

Another question, can it be more fun not to import your characters and start from scratch? Is it still possible to import your characters from other games?
 
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As the classic games are pretty much finished at this point I was considering to start them as well and got a couple of questions:

1. You were talking about keeping a slot open for summons. But they aren't anything necessary or something which you carry over from game to game, right?
2. How do you actually carry over characters? YOu just export and import them? Didn't see a savegame import feature or something similar upon starting bt3.
3. Is my assumption correct that sone stats like INT are completely useless on Warriors and STR are completely usless on Casters?
4. The "normal" mode is exactly the same as the legacy mode if you unselect everything?
5. As you have 7 slots, would it be viable to just take all classes except the monk (He sounds the least interesting to me) and all races?
6. I saw weird stuff regarding spellcasters becoming arch mages and that you should not become a Wizard as the level more slowly...so how does that work? Is that even true in this remastered version? Do all casters eventually become Arch mages?
 
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