Bards

[DeathCow]

I was working on some class balancing and I got to bards.  Does anyone agree with me that the way the greatermud engine work that bards are almost a perfect class...ie doing exactly what they should be?  They arent limited to 10 spells so they can really bless the shit out themselves/party.  So when equiped and played properly they should have a very nice mix of offence and defence.  Do they need any work(if the engine was to remain how it is now)?

[geeogree]

I think Bards are fantastic. You can party bless, self bless, room spell.... the only thing they don't have is a healing spell (I know they have life but it's not the same as priest healing) and I don't think they should have one. I personally think they are one of the best classes out there. They are a party class for sure but aren't too bad on their own either.

I think they should remain effectively the same although maybe a little work in what sorts of spells they can get might be interesting. Like you could have a party spell tree, a self buff tree, attack spell tree.... stuff like that and depending on which one you chose you would have more access to those spells.... or something like that. Just an idea.

[The Crazy Animal]

The only thing that I thought should be changed with bards is how they learn their song spells... I always thought that it should draw more on their experiences in the realm. I.e get more special spells from fighting bosses or completing quests. Beyond that they have plenty of ability to continue to be a viable class much as they are now.

[schwagg]

  Do they need any work(if the engine was to remain how it is now)?

The status quo of encumberance bonuses warrants an exp increase for bards, imho. But as we know, the encumberance system needs quite a bit of work, so...

[Jigga]

Hrm... maybe the song of charming needs a rework? it's pretty useless now... maybe bards could get a room charm spell that would work on only animals, and as the bard's level increased, so would the ability to cast it on larger animals? or even other creatures too at higher level

[kalus]

Most of my legit mud life was spent playing a Bard to 75. They have had their ups and downs over the years but have mostly ended on a down.

My suggestions would be...

More healing. Song of life is garbage and same with soothing. Something like the old song of battle with +5 hp per round would be perfect.

Spell duration should be longer, much longer. Like 30 mins for common buffs and the more powerful spells would have much shorter times.

More items that affect your casting abilities such as spell length and power. Much much much more! I can't stress this point enough. Ever play WOW? Getting a bit off topic here but the game only just begins once you hit max level, mud needs to be a bit more like this. Hard bosses dropping awesome gear that binds to a player once they pick it up (meaning you have to actually go out and kill it yourself to get items). A system of rolling on rare items would also be needed.... hey it works in MMPORGS, why not put it in mud?

[geeogree]

I like the song of battle suggestion. I think at higher levels it wouldn't have an enourmous impact on staying alive in a single battle but it would improve long term survivability on a script. And I think we all like that :)

I don't think soothing is totally useless, there is some mana regen in there but it definitely isn't a great healing spell.

Common buffs being what? Stat buffs? The only problem I forsee with that is the annoyance of training while having increased stats unless GreaterMud has fixed that.

As for the more powerful spells, I think we should just remove the upper limit on the spell duration. So instead of having the level cap at 40 or 45 or whatever we just let the spell duration get longer and longer with the formula. Or, maybe we could do that with all the spells that have a level cap on their duration to make the bard better. It does make sense that as the bard increases in level that the spell could last longer then before.

I do like the idea of increasing spell duration and power. I think items with properties like that would be extremely cool. I'm not sure how it would be coded under GMud but I think it has potential. It would definitely allow for more variety in the gear available. Speaking of item properties - is there any way to create items that have a random set of stats when dropped? As in no every single (I guess I can't use limited items cause that would make no sense.... but in non-lims it would) Stormmetal Scalemail Tunic would be 30/10 -3 ACC Rlit +20 etc etc... but maybe it could be lighter, or have better AC or DR or more Rlit.... etc etc. Maybe have a range on what the stats are when the item drops. This would prevent characters from looking exactly the same once they hit a certain level cap. The items themselves would be at least variable enough that not every class would be wearing the exact same non-lims.

I'm gonna leave that last part there but I'm going to add it to GMud ideas in a minute if I don't see a similar thread.

[Sandoz]

I was working on some class balancing and I got to bards.  Does anyone agree with me that the way the greatermud engine work that bards are almost a perfect class...ie doing exactly what they should be?  They arent limited to 10 spells so they can really bless the shit out themselves/party.  So when equiped and played properly they should have a very nice mix of offence and defence.  Do they need any work(if the engine was to remain how it is now)?

Ok.. I do believe that pretty much everyone else in this thread is off topic...

I think that you are right DC.. in the current engine bards are working exactly as you'd expect.  The only 'issues' would be universal ones involving acc/dodge and crits.. and the debate on whether they should be capped or more free as they currently are. 

Aside from that, the bards are finally a class worth playing that can hold their own or party it up for full usefulness.

I have had more fun with this bard than any bard i've played previously.

[kalus]

Ok I was largely off-topic. But nice easy improvements I think Bards should have are:

Song of Life - duration and strength needs increasing. Compare it to rhel and you'll see how bad it is
Song of Soothing - duration way to short
Song of Battle - Just a useless spell it has been downgraded that many times. Not even worth casting now, as the pinnacle bless spell of a blessing class it is crap.
Song of Shockwave - give it some decent damage, or give Bards a higher level room spell like bliz

Fix these and bards would be worth a look