Shattered Kingdoms

It's an absurdly powerful skill. Throw in an advanced trainer for it and things will be fine.

Bards got mega-wimped with the change to ordering NPCs to cast religious spells on you, but they are still quite solid.

Gilgon, I never said that bards were not solid chars still. It is that the usefulness of Persuade is so tiny that any good caster will kick the holy living crap out of you before you can even get the persuade off in battle. The skill itself sucks, in that it has no place being a mentor lvl skill, it is much less useful than charm person.

Persuade is mostly useful mid battle because it can be used ethereal and on ethereal players. It is incredibly useful outside of battle. Persuade does not suck, people just need to be smarter in what they do with it.

If a caster sees a bard walk in ethereal, the caster will walk away before the persuade goes off, unless they are a newb.


[edit]
Persuade outside of battle is useful, to get buffs. There is one more thing but I forgot. Also, the success rate is horrid even for an elven bard with max cha against a griffon/giant. So, in this instance it is infinitely less useful than leadership.

Dude...how do you walk away before an instant skill goes off, let alone walking away after checking to see if an enemy is ethereal before typing a direction? Think about stuff before you write it.

Because, it isn't an instant skill, you should look at what you write.

Persuade is instant, because it is a skill. That's what skills are - they are instant spells.

You make babies cry.

It has a delay.

No, it doesn't. It has lag after its use, not before it. Hence it can be used _instantly_.

That's what skills are - spells that have their lag after their use rather than before it.

Gilgon is right, the lag happens after the skill goes off.

HOWEVER, its success rate is low, and anyone with a modicum of willpower will run a bard out of ME before a single persuade works on them... and people who can go ethereal are much more likely to have their kit well enchanted.