Shattered Kingdoms

True.

I feel like I can battle the MC all day and all night with any team of lighties who comes along with me. They can have their lame magic-immune golem, though I wish it were not a barbarian (its not enough that it is magic immune, you have to make it charge immune too?). That being said, when they bring in a bard, its game over. GAME OVER.

Everyone wants a bard on their side, but no one wants to play a bard. Someone go make a lightie bard. Hell, go make 5 lightie bards!

And while we're on the subject of bards and tribunal NPCs, why have we never seen a tribunal bard NPC?

On the subject of bards: I think you should take some of the punch out of their group abilities and give them a little more durability in and of themselves. I mean, honestly, it must be pretty dissatisfying (mechanically) to play a bard. It's easy to level at lower levels, sure, but it's easy for everyone but priests to level at lower levels, and at higher levels they can be a real pain in the DER-REE-ERE. Plus, once you get into PK all you can do is sit in the back and sing songs of silence, and your enemies will immediately target you first. Yes, your group will get hella benefits, and they're sure to love you, but it just sounds kind of same-y and boring to me. I think you should give them shield block and maybe even enhanced parry, buff persuade and debuff songs of sleep. I'm sure I just created a completely unbalanced class with that description, but you get my point. Moar interesting stuffs, less sit-in-the-back-and-screech-till-it-dies.

On the subject of the MC: giant barb? Really? I'm pretty confident that if I went up against Turon solo with no dominate involved, I would do pretty well for myself. He's equivalent to having a mentor-master PC on your side, but even if he was decked out with adamantite and a pretty shuriken or something, a PC merc/barb could take him out and squish the pretty meatball behind him. Unfortunately, the MC are too smart to engage the melee kings (read: fist and hammer) without working a little magic to get the upper hand. That, and the fact that Turon's just better than we are, is the reason we've been losing. Well, that and that god damn bard. Regardless, I don't think the MC's NPCs are much of an issue.

Personally, I've never liked paladins much, so I can't pretend to be very excited about the Keeper NPCs. Chirk is cool, though, and when I fought him I really hated his script.

The biggest "problem" with bards is that they're such a finesse class. If played correctly they're actually quite survivable. They're also far from incompetent alone if you factor in third attack and songs of sleep. I remember Gasbah used to beat mercs in duels via songs of sleep, trip and disarm. (To say nothing of the persuade XXX concede) They've also got access to every castable buff in the game via persuade, and high charisma makes it more likely to perform a lifesaving order all rescue.

And even though songs of sleep are overpowered, Bards still get tumble, trip, disarm, and scrolls as far as combat skills go. That's easily more complex than a barbarian or swashbuckler.

Can a bard dance, sing and recite scrolls at the same time?

No

[quote="stratford"] The only change that needs to be made is buffing Talons. [/quote]

This. This right here.

*cuddles strat*

I also agree with Stratford, but refuse to offer any affection due to my morals.

Sorry, but it only seems to me that you have no idea about bards and how to REALLY counter them. It's really easy to counter them with another bard in group PK if you have a bard in your group too, and not with countersongs. Just get a bard, too, instead of complaining about them

In general, two bards in group PK can be negated if played smart.

I love all the attention I am getting because of my character. Yay bards involved in Pk.