In Neverwinter night 2, just like any other role playing games, character development is very important. In this article, we will talk about how to create a high quality Bard What race you should choose,how to distribute your ability and skill points, and what kind of feats you should take during the game.
Race
As a Bard charisma is the most important stat, so avoid to choice a race with charisma penalty. A Human with extra skill point per level (4 extra at 1st level) is a good candidate as a Bard.
Bard is a favored class for a Rock Gnome. With his constitution bonus, and +1 to attack from Small Stature makes up for his STR penalty. The Gnome's affinity for the Illusion magic school is good forBards, since some of their better spells are Illusion spells. The fact that Bard is the Gnome's favored class makes multiclassing easy, too.
With +2 to CHA allows Aasimar to get CHA to 16 an ideal CHA for any Bard. Those free +2 to WIS are ideal to put into other ability scores that need it more, such as STR or DEX. Level adjustment of +1 isn't that big a deal.Since the Aasimar's favored class is Paladin it wont be easy to take multiclass.
Beside those races wood elf, Moon Elf, Drow and Strongheart Halfling are also good candidates as a Bard.
Multiclassing
There are many ways to develop a bard, so there also a lot of combinatin of multiclassing bard
You can make a bard with better fighting ability with Bard 16/Barbarian 1/Eldritch Knight 3. Using this combination you will get Martial Weapon and Medium armor Proficiency for free. Also gets one use of Rage and faster movement as added bonuses.
Bard 16/Fighter 1/Eldritch Knight 3 is another variation of a bard with good fighting ability. You still will get faster movement plus one bonus feat. This bonus feat will make you more flexible in designing your character.
Bard 16/Blackguard 4 will give you CHA bonus to saving throws and some
Sneak Attacking, as well as 4 attacks per round. Aura of Despair complements
Bard inspirations and Curse Song pretty nicely.
Bard 15/Divine Champion 5 will give you +2 addition to all saves, and 2 bonus feats that can be spent on Blind-Fight and Improved Critical. You will also get Divine Wrath which is avery good buff.
Ability Scores
Listed below are the basic ability that you should get base on what race you are.
Human: STR 14, DEX 14, CON 12, INT 14, WIS 10, CHA 15
Rock Gnome: STR 12, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 14, WIS 10, CHA 15
Aasimar: STR 15, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 14, WIS 10, CHA 16
Charisma is very important as a Bard so it should be at least 16. CHA of 16 will allow access to the Bard's entire spell list. Because a bard never wear heavy armor, your Dexterity Should be at least a 14 in order to increase your armor class.
Skills
These are the skills that can be important for a Bard: Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Hide, Lore, Listen, Move silently, Parry, Perform, Sleight of hand, Spellcraft, Taunt, Tumble and Use magic device.
Perform is the most important skill for a Bard. Perform score govern bard’s ability to take advantage of their inspirations and songs. Bard is also a spellcaster, so Concentration will be very useful for a Bard. Concentration helps those castings from fizzling out when taking damage.
It would be better if a Bard has high score in Spellcraft. Spellcraft will boost your saves vs. spells and allows you to discern what the enemy is casting at you.
Because Bard never wear heavy armor, Tumble score will help you alot. Tumble allows you to avoid Attacks of Opportunity when moving, it also gives you a modest AC boost (+2 at 20 ranks).
Sometimes bard play role as a diplomat or negosiator. Diplomacy and/or Bluff will enhance your conversation skill together with bard’s high charisma.
Spell Casting
A bard casts arcane spells, which are drawn from the bard spell list. Just like sorcerer, a Bard doesn’t need to prepare it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a bard must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level (Cha 10 for 0-level spells, Cha 11 for 1st-level spells, and so forth). Starting at 8th level, and every three levels after, bards can replace one known spell with a new spell of the same level. The spell that can be replaced must be two spell levels below what the bard can currently cast (1st level spell at 8, 1st or 2nd level spell at 11, 1st or 2nd or 3rd level spell at 14, and so forth). Bards do not suffer from arcane spell failure when wearing light armor. Medium and heavy armor, as well as all shields, still incur the normal failure chance.
