bard's equipment

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my main character is a bard and to keep things interesting I decided to took only 2 more people along. Monty and Xzar would be ideal but yet again I found myself unable to play with evil little bastard that montaron is so I restarted the game and took Imoen and Kivan along

we're about to go into the nashkel mines, so far it wasn't that bad but I just realized that there's no armour or robes that I could put on my bard without restricting her spellcasting abillities.
for roleplaying reasons I wanted her int, wis and cha maxed out and luckily I managed a good roll so I could maxed out her dex as well. but now I guess that the only way to lower the ac would be the bracers?

and do bards ever get any good through the bg1 cus she def isn't a power character ( even more so with lousy 12 strenght and 10 con) but so far it's been fun, so I hope I'll be able to get through this

 

You definately have a challenge with your bard (some characters are easier to play than others, you've chosen a difficult one -- but in BG2 she can become quite powerful). Imoen and Kivan are good companions, but you should think about having a cleric along -- Branwin is a good choice (she's the statue at the carnival next door).

The only armor for a bard is Drizzt's armor. Good luck with that. He's only hit on criticals and can kill you in a single round.

IIRC bards can use shields -- that will help your AC when not equiping a two handed weapon. Your best bet is to equip your bard with good rings, cloaks, bracers, boots and girdles. You should be able to get a good AC with the right mix of equipment.

 

If you had a higher STR, I'd say keep a suit of chainmail on hand for after your spells run out. As it is, you're just going to have to be a back-up character. Bards work best in BG1 with a large party.

@T2B:
Drizzt's armor allows thieving abilities but not spell-casting. And with such a small party he'd have trouble taking out Drizzt anyway. Personally, I'd give the armor to Kivan so he could sneak around.

 

thanx boys, bummer about the armour but it's still ok, I just found out armor (level1 spell) lasts for 9 hours - I never ever used that spell before. Plus Mulahey presented no problem to my party thanx to a couple of potions and those 4 fire arrows that my bard was able to identify

I'll wait a bit before solving the prism quest though, they're only level 3 right now. and if I kill that insolent party south of nashkel and buy the night armour in beregost immy and kivan will be set up as well

oh and I would never kill drizzt, I tried to be evil once but was actually happy when he hacked my entire party for it

don't like branwen though she's amazing cleric, I'll stick to my current plan and just keep it small. hopefully they'll level up quickly enough and thus make it somewhat easier for me

 

the best bracers u'll find will make ur ac - 6 .. I would assume with maxed dex that wont help much? u'd be better off finding gountlets of weapon expertise or bracers of of archery, the last option is gountlets of ogre power for more damage..with a nice ranged weapon u'll be good to go (suggestions, light crossbow of speed or eagle bow)...
Also if you can keep ur bard in the back all the time you only have to worry about ur ac vs ranged weapons, and you can up that very easily (boots of avoidance, cloack of displacement). maybe get shield amulet? so you dont have to memorize armor.. there are far more usefull lvl 1 spells (sleep/charm).. that would probably be my tactic with ur party, equip immy with algernon's cloack and just mass charm everyone, and stand back with ur party shooting people from afar.. cuz really none of you can tank..

 

Kivan can thank decentlly enough. If you give him the Tome of Con he also gets some decent HP.

 

If you install some mods like Vault or Darkside of the Sword coast or CoM Adventure pack mod. You should find some very good equipment for Bard.

 

I don't believe a bard can use Ogre power gauntlets.

 

A bard can't use the GoOP. However they can use the bracers of AC 6, which are the best equipment for a Bard. As for weapons I would go with 2-Handed swords and long bows.

 

sry, that restriction slipped my mind.. tho if he cant use them then he cant use 2 handed swords or long bows iether..
and as for those bracers being best equipment for a bard with 18 dex, IIRC that's a -4 ac adjustment? making it 6 to start with? what's the point for them bracers

 

For my bards I ussualy keep some good armor around for in general fights and only remove it for big fights where hopefully my tactics will protet him from the bum rush. Also if you pick buffing style spells the armor restriction is not a big deal because you cast them and then you put back on your armor and voila instant awesome warrior!

 

Bards can use 2 handed swords and bows. I usually stick Spider's Bane and Eagle bow or Crossbow of Speed on mine.

 

I'm exploring the wild areas atm before going after the bandits, just got the level 2 spells, so I can use web now
I'm relying heavily on different potions though, usually I just sold them.
thanx for all the suggestions, currently I've put bracers of archery on my bard cus she still miss more often than hit, I need to get her a better bow.
the bard songs last for a while even after she attacks, so usually I wait a bit before the next encounter for the song to take effect and roleplaying wise she's just perfect

 

I got whiped.. shows how much I know

 

Actually, there is only one type of weapon Bards can't use: the composite longbow. They are restricted to shortbows and regular longbows.

 

There are numerous armor spells that will give your bard very good AC when not wearing any armor at all. Most have very good duration, so that's not an issue.

 

Go for those darts with special abilities, and a bow, or a crossbow. With special arrows and bolts even your bard can wreak havoc. Bracers of archery helps here.

This way your bard won't have to go to melee, since a bard's not a front row -fighter.

Save every useful spell-scroll you find, and use those wands, there's plenty of them around. Have your quick item slots filled with scrolls and a wand. You can buy extra scrolls if you have money for them.

With a bards versability, you won't need an extra arcane spell caster. My party of Garrick, Kivan, Imoen and my thief did just fine, through and through. Not one of them had over 50hp in the end, but they still managed to wipe Sarevok's big butt.