Now, here's the part where you come in: I need entertaining character ideas! The Bard's Tale doesn't actually have all that much plot, so if I'm gonna make this boss, I need some fun and interesting characters. They aren't available at chargen, though, so we won't worry about them for now later our casters can evolve class change into other caster types. There are two other caster classes available: Sorcerer and wizard. Races allowed: elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, hobbit, human Jesus, who does that? Also, sometimes you could swear it's looking at you. ![]() Weaknesses: Also like the conjurer, squishy. Knows a magical hangover cure and trust me, in this game, you'll be grateful for it. Strengths: Like the conjurer, starts weak and gradually develops PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS. Magicians deal with magic as it applies to enhancing or altering the properties of physical objects - what the hoi polloi call "enchanting." Their low-level spells are largely unimpressive, concentrating on buffs and debuffs that are mostly too slow and subtle to be useful, but at the high end they get handy little tricks like instantly striking enemies dead, large AC buffs for the whole party, and deflecting enemy spells. Have I mentioned it's a great site and you should check it out?) (Images are once again linked from Bard's Tale Online. Here are the classes available in The Bard's Tale. And that doesn't give me much wiggle room, so I'd like to leverage your suggestions and your character ideas. On the other hand, I don't want to exploit changes in power level by changing party comp partway through the game I'd like to complete the whole game with a single party. So while it might be funny to create a deliberately suboptimal party (say, with a stabbin'-mad wizard in the front line), I want to put together a decently effective lineup so I don't need to spend hours grinding up Wizknife the Stabomancer (and then another hour grinding the gold to rez him after a monster one-shots him). Smart party composition means putting your Wall Of Meat up front and your squishes in back accidentally leaving a clothie in the front row usually means a dead party member.Īnd oh yeah, resurrection and healing are expensive in this game. Most monsters can only attack the first three party members, and tend to focus most on the first party member your last three party members are immune to most non-special, non-magical attacks. your party size is six, and position counts. but by the late game, warrior classes are merely ablative armor for the arcane demigods who rain down merciless thaumaturgic death on your enemies. And it's an 80s CRPG based quite closely on 80s D&D, so it suffers from "linear fighters, quadratic casters." Early on, your fighters do most of the killing, while your pathetic apprentice mages cower behind them and hope they aren't accidentally killed by a kitten scratch. Second, this is an 80s CRPG so the class balance is awful. (Besides, a rogue is necessary to complete The Bard's Tale III: The Thief of Fate, and I'd like to think our heroes live that story as well, even if this LP doesn't tell it.) (Fun fact: Originally the series was to be titled Tales of the Unknown, with each game highlighting a different class, but Tales of the Unknown: The Bard's Tale was such a breakaway hit Interplay chose to keep the name for future installments, so we got The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight instead of Tales of the Unknown: The Destiny Knight, et cetera.) We'll also need a rogue, because the game really wants us to have one, even if they aren't actually much use in the first game. First, this is The Bard's Tale, so we need a bard. Unfortunately, we're tightly constrained on party creation for a few reasons. Of course, the first consideration of any tale of heroism is: Who are the heroes? Or, at the very least, he'll sing a really sad song about it when we get gruesomely killed. ![]() The journey may be long, but we will persevere with a few stout sword-arms, a mage or two, and most important, a bard to inspire and enchant us with his music. So tonight, my friends, let us set out on an adventure begun thirty years ago! Together, we shall free the town of Skara Brae from the eternal winter loosed by the wizard Mangar. ![]() (By the way, the image and MP3s above are hosted at Bard's Tale Online, an excellent fansite you should definitely visit.)Īnd here's a thing: Technically, I never finished it. I know it's not terribly impressive by modern standards, when games often take up thirty gigabytes and includes a soundtrack performed by a live orchestra, but 30 years ago that was pretty darn posh. Frex, here's another clip of Wayland's Watch, as played on a different instrument. The Adventurer's Guild music (Wayland's Watch)Īnd even fancier, because the game took advantage of the IIGS's wavetable synthesis capabilities, the bard's songs would sound different based on equipped instrument.
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