Shattered Kingdoms

I'd like to build a bard to play around on but I'm a bit concerned about failing hard at the creation hall. Specifically, I'm curious as to how much int/wis is necessary to get things done. Any input's much appreciated.

I have heard that bardsong+dance has a fairly hefty concentration cost, but I've never wanted to suffer enough to try making one. The players of Syrina or Tyna would probably be good sources for tips.

Bards can be pretty hard to build. They really have to rely on all their stats. Int and Wisdom as well as Cha are the 3 most important stats for a bard.D ancing / Singing takes an absolute TRUCK LOAD of concentration, especially the later level mentor songs and later.

Cha affects the saves of your songs and such. The higher your cha, the more effective your songs will be, that's why Elves make really good bards. They have the highest cha in the game.

Con, Str, and Dex are also important as well for survivability. Without them, you're gone in one round should you ever reach front row. A bard's place isn't to be there, but it can and it will happen, more often than you'd think. Mood defensive for a bard is typically your best friend unless your training because it offers the best survivability.

Art affects scrolls that bard use and I think minimally their songs, things like songs of dancing, silence and such that have a save are affected by art, though I'm not entirely certain on this. Typically 3 art is about the most you can splurge for scrolls. Art isn't all that important.

Mana is actually incredibly potent for a bard as mana trains increase natural mp regeneration. Since you don't have meditate or trance, mana regen is very, very, VERY slow. This helps lighten that a bit, though admittedly there are some nice items out there for bards with scripted mana regen.

Finally is MOVE. Some people say it's useless. I was experimenting with my bard and maxed Move on him (3 trains) and it makes an absolute huge difference in long time combat. Dancing, attacking and singing sucks PE like nobody's business. Even a scout using a bow with haste doesn't lose PE as fast as a singing bard that's fighting and dancing. Typically most fights are over in a short time, but for extended skirmishes, it's nice to have PE left over for words of recall.

Bards are incredibly stat heavy and you'll find you rely on mods a lot. Typically unless you use a ton of scrolls, you won't need art. People say MOVE is also negligible, which I can agree. It's all up to you. Max the normal stats then shove the rest into mana is what I suggest.

I am fairly certain high DEX is important for them as well, str and con are really the only two that can suffer, and even then you want SOME

I'd say strength is the only stat you can pretty much ignore. The true power of a bard has nothing to do with dealing out melee damage, and they get lighten load anyways, so I don't think strength needs to be high at all. After that, you could let CON suffer a little bit, but you can't completely dump it. I'd get it as high as possible while getting INT, CHA, DEX, WIS all maxed.

Art will make scrolls more potent. If you don't plan on using very nice scrolls that can be saved against, though, it's not clear if art is useful for a bard. I don't think anybody knows for sure if art affects songs. You are probably better off investing in mana trains.

I would suggest halfling, elf, or half-elf as viable races. Humans/sprites are okay too, but human's low dex means they -need- haste to do some of the dances, and sprites only get 20 charisma.

Elf, helf, and sprite are my suggested races for bard. Each brings a benefit over the other race options for bard, but there isn't a race in SK that is perfectly suited in all ways to the bard class. There are just too many statistical requirements for the "perfect bard."

Elf brings the huge CHA, which is the bard's main stat and is extremely important to the class. Helf brings a general improvement over human, but not to any one specific area as my other two suggestions do. Sprite brings massive DEX and solid INT to the table, which really helps with top-tier songs. DEX goes into the calculation of how much concentration is needed to sing and dance at the same time vs multiple enemies. Sprite also brings an innate extra attack, which at end game can make your second row, secondary tank role effective if you have enough enchants on your bwhip to overcome the tiny-size damage penalty (songs of war, and the occasional chord mid-combat helps with that too).

STR is necessary at low levels, but becomes less important down the road. Mod it early, and save your stat points for INT, WIS, or DEX. Those three stats are critical to the bard. WIS and DEX is critical early, INT becomes do-or-die a bit later but still plays a lesser role early, depending on how you level. You'll want a high WIS early, because C Major is what will do most of your leveling, and at early levels it will sap your ME quite fast.

CON is pretty important to a bard, but should be modded for the most part. With a high dex, light and well-enchanted armor, a middling HP pool, and debuffing songs, along with the dancing state and a shield, bards can make passable secondary tanks for a round or two until someone else can jump in. Being that most bards will be in second row for almost all combat, they're okay to throw in front of a back row healer as long as a meat shield is still standing up front. In a close fight, if the tank goes down at the last minute they are an okay sub for a few rounds. Tumble makes sure that they can get out, as long as they aren't bashed or tripped, which makes the sprite size and dancing state more attractive again.

Art is effective for bards, but should probably only be bought with mentor points later towards end-game. Given the mana-heavy nature of some of their songs, and their lack of meditation or trance, mana is a more effective use of "extra" stat points since it buffs your regen a bit. Training move is beneficial, but not critical until you get closer to end-game where you'll be expected to be buffing, healing, and fighting for relatively extended periods of time. Early on, you'll be blowing through ME a lot faster than PE.

I'm sure that some of this is reproduced from what Kin said, but I didn't read his post because he often takes a glass-is-half-empty view of bards, which I disagree with. Bard is my favorite class to play and it can be an incredibly potent one if you are paying attention and have a decent WPM rate. It's also one of the richest RP classes in the game, and is in demand for a lot of reasons at any given time. Just be ready to wear a lot of different hats at any given time, and try not to get frazzled with the effort of keeping up with switching them on the fly.

I'll obviously defer to you, since I've never played bard, but why not halfling? 22cha 22dex 21int, size small, only racial weakness is to blunt damage, and innate resistance to magical damage makes me think halfling would be one of the best choices for bard.

Not even sure halfling is an option. It's been a long, long time since I made a character on this game, and I've never personally been partial to halfling as a race in general. If it is, it would have some benefits, yes.

EDIT: Just checked, and it is an option. It wouldn't be terrible, but I'd still opt for elf, helf or sprite first myself.

Halfling is an option for bard, and halfling is one of the best choices for every class available to them besides scout, imo. Halflings rock.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion on the matter. As I said, it just wouldn't be my first choice.