HUman bard

[garyd]

Don't ask me why I just ike the idea for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with logic or the game itself.

But anyway the usual route I take starting out is a quick trip to get a first kill in the Bandit town preferably someting easy like a cutpurse leaves a lot of options open for later. Also learn pp if I don't already have it, and investigate the shop to identify as many potions and scrolls and possible other things as well. (damn gauntlets of peace).

Next stop is usually a quick tour of the SMC trying to find the stair casedown before I hit level four and then bail Whether i get the blanket or not isn't a question of import for me. As soon as I find the down stair case i leave for Terinyo and some food purchases stop back by lowenthol to sell of excess booty and then hit the ID until I'm within a couple of hundred point of level six

Then back to Terinyo for the raider lord hunt. Hint for anyone thats trying the last leave your really bad to the bone pets in Terinyo before the hunt you don't get credit for killing the Bozo if one of your pets does it for you. Then it's on to the puppy cave.

Make pets of the ants on second level and just leave every thing but gems lay as you can come back and get it later. When you hit the cavern layer don't fight any more fights than necessary just find the way down as quick as you can. When you hit the bottom you'd prefer not to be much higher than level 8. As near as I can tell if you enter at nine or ten you run a whole lot better chance of find vaults with things like Revenants or werewolf lords that you just won't be able to handle at level nine or ten or even higher unless you've lucked in to a really top notch non artifact magic weapon.

You will also likely find at least one tension room with luck it will contain orc or goblins where you can obtain all the pickpocket successes you need to get you what you need to access the other thief skills in lowenthol. Save your money for that especally. This also lowers the shop prices in Lowethol. Not that this matters a lot they simply go from rediculously outrageous to mildly outrageous. Once you 've learned everything that dude can teach you can kill him and take over the thieves guild and lower the prices even further.

Now comes the dividing line and it all boils down to what your current skill set is and what ending you're playing for. You've got two possible quest in your immediate future. The Druid's and the village elder's which are mutually exclusive.The former seems to me to be much the harder of the two but it is also the easiest way to get both herbalism or gardening. The other gets you bridge building and healing. As a human bard the only one you don't have at least some chance of having at the start is bridge building.

I usually take The elders quest. By now I am about level ten. What I do after finishing this one depends on how far the down gate is from the entry in the SMC. If it is close to the entry I will simply - after making sure I've plenty food for the trip - head for the HMV.

If not its back to ID until I've acquired teleport control and a means of teleporting. If I couldn't find the down stair case I'm also hunting blessed scrolls of magic mapping. It's also a good source of treasure for acquiring those new skills and a convenient place for training them up Spend a lot of skill points and cash on detect traps because you get to go visit the mummy king at the pyramid soon and that place is trap city.

[spectre]

A good step near the beginning is to get yourself a tame Grizzly Bear from the wilderness woods. It can really help in the beginning, not like the silver wolf cannot hold its own, it's just it doesn't last that long.

Don't dismiss the pets when hunting the raider lord, they make good meat shields, just command them away from Kranach.

[The Metro Gnome]

I'd just skip the raider lord unless i'm feeling bold or stupid. But that huge wad of cash as the reward is pretty tempting. Me as a bard, I go for as many pets as possible, and don't feel down about leaving one or two behind, at least until I got some good equipment.

[garyd]

Works if you don't have too many pets and a good charisma. One of the nice things about that part of the map is you get the ability to acquire a lot of pretty much useless pets like jackals. Don't dismiss your good ones just lose them temporarily in Terinyo They'll stay there and stay tame essentially indefinitely.

I've hit the raider lord more than once with a force of jackals that was bigger than his army. They mostly die but they take his help with them and then it is down to me and him. As I've said before this is a very tactical game.

By the way by the time I'm hunting him I've usually got a strength of at least 15 with a PV/DV in the range of 4/20. Don't stand and slug until you get surrounded go coward run until you've got only one adjacent to you switch back to normal and swat him and repeat as often as needed.

Oh and one other thing with Bards put a lot of point into literacy makes it a lot easier to learn spells and spell can save your butt.

[Ferret]

Is it true that mixed vaults in PC are more likely to be generated at higher levels?

My take on Bards is a bit more streamlined. I go straight to BUGWIL and tame a greater clawbug then hangout in the small cave letting the bug kill everything. Monster generation is so high that you generate some really good stuff fairly quickly. After getting some decent armour etc descending to the HMV is a piece of cake.

Check out the shop loot, kill the malicious doctor for some easy exp and then it's off to the CoC for the rest of the game.

[garyd]

The human part is the problem. Even with quickness you can get hunted down and killed in the wilderness on the way there. Unless I start out with a good stealth score i try to keep my bards out of the wilderness as much as possible until I've got enough stuff to deal with those pesky outlaw bands.

[Ferret]

Yeah, normally I go with gnomes to make sure I get Seven League boots which solves that problem. You can get round it with humans by getting quick-->very quick as your two starting talents. You can just outrun anything on your way to BUGWIL then.