Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback The Bard Class

The Bard songs require 3 times the memory to use.
Level 1 Songs take 3 memory slots
Level 2 Songs take 9 memory slots

The effects of a song start off weak and gradually increase with potency as the Bard "performs" the song. During this performance stage, the Bard is "stunned" with concentration.

Songs take 3 turns to perform, after which the effects remain on until the Bard starts a new song, gets stunned, or dies.

Any movement or action will cancel the song's performance and the song's effects end immediately. So it is best to perform the song before combat. Being attack does not stop the performance.

There are two types of songs, "Combat and Non-Combative". The songs are half as effective in their opposite setting.

Thier regen song is a Non-Combative song. The song heals Vitality, Magic Armor, and Physical Armor each turn. During the performance the song heals 6, 8, then 10 vitality, physical armor, and magical armor. After which the song maintains healing 10 of each per turn.
In combat, the song is reduced by 50%. If performed during combat the song heals 3, 4, then 5 of each and remains at 5 of each per turn.

The Bard uses Instruments as their weapons. They shoot out magical notes in all directions that hurt all enemies within range. Each instrument type does a different effect, like piercing, magical, slashing, poison, etc (Up to the developers).

Since Bard's instruments cause Area of Effect (AOE) damage, they generate threat from every enemy. This makes them larger targets of being stunned, ending their songs.

Damage with instruments and the effectiveness of songs is based on a character's WIT (as any storyteller knows, it takes wit to keep your audience on the edge of their seats).

Wit: a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humor.

There is no Bard class. There will be no Bard class. The new skill schools were chosen by the Kickstarter backers months and months ago. Maybe in D:OS 3. But I'll put that aside.

No one would ever use such an overpriced and underpowered school.

• That Memory cost is insane. It is way too high to be useful.
• Needing three turns to prepare a song is equally insane, that is way too much prep time.
• You are also having the song start out as weak too?
• What the heck game do you think this is, The Last Remnant? Combat does not usually last for 20 turns.
• Moving or taking any action cancels it? To repeat myself, that is insane. How, exactly, would a Bard beat the first encounter in the game? It also prohibits any hybrids. I have my doubts that you have played this game at all, if you did, you would know that the combat system includes lots of surface creation and moving.
• So... what the fuck does the Bard player supposed to do, exactly, when their turn comes around? They cannot move, they cannot attack, they cannot use skills. You have designed a player character whose job it is to literally spend the entire game pressing "Skip Turn".
• Your regen song is insanely weak. 10 armor a turn will be negligible by level 4-5. Oh wait, I have to CUT IT IN HALF IN COMBAT. Make that useless by level 2.
• You definitely have not played this game at all, because outside of combat armor regenerates to full immediately, and a bedroll does the same for health.
• Oh and Bards also become the biggest targets in any combat and being hard CC'ed ends a song. Of course I would expect hard CC would end a song, but drawing aggro from all enemies means the bard will be focused down and killed on Turn 1, which is easy because several enemies attacking one character is enough to kill them. And the Bard is not allowed to move or to do anything else.

Take this idea, crumple it up and throw it in the trash. Go back to the drawing board.

Have you tried to reply to a post with more of a positive criticism than the one you offered me?

The Bard's songs are meant to be more powerful. Since they are Area of Effect (AOE) they are by design more powerful. A heal that heals everyone with no cooldown, to health, armor and magic armor, each turn, with no duration limit sounds powerful.

It may start off "weak", but it can be started before combat and once the performance is complete the Bard is free to move and attack at will, the song is maintained indefinitely.

The Bard could sing a damage song that will damage every enemy, every turn. If that song was started before any battle, the prep time is like 3 seconds to start, not that long.

This would allow the Bard to do the first encounter with his instrument hitting both enemies with his song and weapons each turn. It would be a very powerful class.

The offset of the class is if they are stunned, their song ends. So once they are un-stunned they have to decide if they fight with their instrument, or start another song, as both cannot be accomplished at the same time for the next 3 turns.

If you do not like my idea, instead of being rude, take what I have offered and offer changes that would fit your expectations of the game.

Unless you are working for the company (which I doubt) do not tell another person who is interested in the product to go and "(censored) off".

Have a great week.

I really appreciate the effort you put into this suggestion for the Bard class.

As rude as the other comment might have been, it was not entirely wrong. You might want to take a deeper look at the current battle system, because your suggestion simply is difficult, if not impossible, to work.

Being an AOE does not make an ability powerful. Almost every ability in this game is AOE.

The AOE regen song could be strong if the numbers were right. But the number you suggested simply was not worth dedicating a party member to do it. And it's probably better to put the regen thing on a summoner's totem, which you can summon and then leave it be.

Using an ability before the battle starts is a common strategy. Why should I use the song when I could precast better stuff like fortify or high level AOE spells?

And yes, there will not be a new class or new skill tree unless someone in Larian REALLY want to make one.

The closest thing that could be similar to bard songs would be channeling spells: Spells that take effect continuously throughout the entire battle until the channeling is broken by damage or CC.

Yes. But those ideas usually had fewer flaws.




It might sound powerful, but it does look at all powerful even at low levels. And the way health and armor numbers scale up (and enemy damage), it would not remain powerful. You didn't mention if those numbers would scale (or how), so I have to assume they do not.




Ah, you did not make that part clear. But another obvious flaw is that if you can start this outside of combat, no one will knowingly start it inside combat if they know a combat is coming. Hence, they will wait for their songs to be at their full strength before starting combat. So the weak song increasing in strength won't matter, and it will only lengthen the amount of time the class has to stand around waiting.




You said it takes 3 turns to perform. A turn is 6 seconds, not 1, so that is 18 seconds. Now it's true that combat is not especially frequent, but I can see a prep time that long getting tiring. Especially if you tack on additional turns waiting for the song to reach full strength. So it'll probably be more like half a minute just waiting.






Everyone has the "get stunned and can't act" drawback.

Absolutely no one will attempt to start another song if their first one gets interrupted, because they will almost never get a chance to finish casting it, thanks to almost certainly having lower HP and armor than when combat started, leaving them vulnerable to further CC or death. Being unable to move or act for three turns is absolutely crippling for survival. Even if they do get a song restarted, the combat will be over (or it will have been so easy that a song wasn't needed in the first place).




My criticisms were pointing out major flaws and issues based on your description. It's hardly being rude and certainly not telling anyone to F off, so don't put quotes around things I didn't say.

If you really want suggestions on how I would change it, fine.

Bard songs cost 4 AP to cast. have a 3 turn Cooldown and last for 4-6 turns, affecting targets in a good-sized radius around the Bard. Only one song active at a time. Songs end if the Bard is hard CC'ed. Bards use standard weapons like anyone else, but pull out instruments to perform a song.

It would be cool if the game also came with a Guitar-hero guitar and you could play the songs yourself.