Alignment and Familiars:
Bards are limited to any Neutral alignment. Roleplaying aside, this only affects which Familiar you can summon, as there is no such thing as a “fallen” Bard. The familiars you can have are a Pseudo Dragon, a Rabbit, Ferret, Cat and Dust Mephit.
Note: If you talk to your familiar, you can put them in your backpack, which will keep them safe. I recommend keeping doing this and only let them out when you need their abilities, because if they die you lose 1 point of constitution permanently.
Of the five of them, I recommend the Rabbit (True Neutral), because it has the highest values in Detect Trap, which lets them find and disarm traps, rounding out the Blade’s abilities as a thief.
Familiars passively increase your max HP for as long as they are alive. The bonus HP is equal to half of the familiar’s max HP.
Possible bug: You automatically lose your familiar between BG1 and 2 without the penalties that normally comes with a familiar dying, which means you keep your bonus to max HP. This bonus then stacks with the bonus from summoning a familiar in BG2.
If you begin your character in BG2, your alignment will also determine which innate abilities you begin with. In BG1, these abilities are determined by your Reputation when you get them. As a rule of thumb, I find the good aligned abilities to be significantly better than the evil ones.
Innate Abilities:
These abilities are given to you over the course of the first game and work as instant cast spells that are not affected by your armor. The abilities are:
High reputation (10 or higher):
Cure Light Wounds
Slow Poison
Draw Upon Holy Might
Low reputation (9 or lower):
Lardoch’s Minor Drain
Horror
Vampiric Touch
BG2 characters that are not imported will begin with a selection according to their alignment.
Neutral Good: All high reputation abilities x2.
Neutral Evil: All low reputation abilities x2
Lawful Neutral: All abilities x1.
Chaotic Neutral: Slow Poison x2, Lardoch’s Minor Drain x2, Vampiric Touch x2.
True Neutral: Cure Light Wounds x2, Horror x2, Draw Upon Holy Might x2.
Spells:
Here is a list of some of the more useful spells for a Blade or Skald to have for each spell lvl. Bards only get up to 6th lvl spells.
Because the Bard comes with rather terrible base stats, mastery over their arcane tricks is key to utilizing them well.
Lvl 1:
Magic Missile - Just a fast damage spell that scales reasonably well. Useful for interrupting mages or finishing fleeing enemies.
Blindness - A powerful debuff, reducing THAC0 and AC of the enemy.
Find Familiar - Summons your familiar. Can be cast from a scroll if you don’t want to scribe it to your spellbook, since you should ideally only cast it once per game.
Armor - Gives you a bonus to AC that does not disable spellcasting. Useful until you get Bracers of Armor or Elven Chain.
Shield - A Stronger form of Armor, but with shorter duration.
Sleep - Completely breaks the lower lvls, as almost nothing will resist it. Party friendly AoE crowd control.
Spook - One of the Strongest fear spells in the game, as it comes with a significant penalty to saves as you lvl up.
Protection from Evil - A useful buff.
Protection from Petrification - Useful when useful. Makes you immune to Basilisk petrification attacks, which is necessary for some areas in the game.
Lvl 2:
Blur - Increased AC and saves. Just a solid buff.
Mirror Image - Sort of passive attack redirection, creating fakes of yourself the enemy might hit instead. This is mandatory for going into melee due to your low HP.
Web - AoE crowd control, locking enemies in place for you to pick them off with ranged weapons. Does not work on spiders, but it is amazing.
Resist Fear - Mandatory to have this or Remove Fear (Cleric spell) in the party, though the Bard Song can fill in for it when it has nothing better to do or you can’t put it up. A feared party is a dead party.
Strength (spell) - Sets your Str to 18/50, which is a +1 / +3 bonus to THAC0 / AC. Stacks with other 18/?? values to a max of 18/00, so it can be a significant buff for martial characters. If you have 18 Str, this is not worth using a spellslot on.
Invisibility - Become invisible until you attack, cast a spell or interact with something. Useful for scouting or running away.
Glitterdust - AoE blind and dispel invisibility. Useful to have.
Vocalize - Allows you to cast spells while silenced. Mandatory for casters.
Lvl 3:
Skull Trap - The fireball for Bards, as it does pure magic damage and scales to lvl 20 instead of 10, taking advantage of the Bards having the highest caster lvl in the game.
Ghost Armor - A better Armor spell, but worse than the lvl 4 spell Spirit Armor. Mostly usable in BG1 and SoD, when you don’t have spellslots for using Spirit Armor.
Haste - Amazing group buff, giving +1 APR and doubling movement speed.
Melf’s Minute Meteors - Summons 1-20 ‘meteors’ for the caster to throw, which bypasses almost all weapon resistances and attacks 5 times per turn at a +5 THAC0 bonus. This is, in short, an absolutely amazing spell and should be in everyone's spellbooks.
Invisibility 10ft - AoE invisibility. Useful for the same reasons invisibility is, just better.
Protection from Fire / Cold - Useful defensive buffs when engaging enemies using said elements. Makes you immune.
Remove Magic - Enemy only dispel that scales in effectiveness with your lvl. This makes Bards the best users of this spell.
Slow - Reduces enemy movement, lowers THAC0 and AC and dispels Haste. Really good to have.
Spell Thrust - Removes spell protections of 5th lvl and lower.
Lvl 4:
Confusion - AoE CC. Useful.
Greater Malison - AoE reduction of enemy saves. Super helpful against harder enemies.
Improved Invisibility - A fantastic buff, giving you an invisibility that only partially breaks when you attack someone. Gives you increased THAC0, AC and saves.
Minor Globe of Invulnerability - Makes you immune to nearly all spells of lvl 1, 2 and 3. Useful if you have spare spellslots.
Minor Sequencer - A complicated effect. You can ‘pre-cast’ two weaker spells so you can activate them instantly later. Really useful.
Secret Word - Removes a spell protection. Useful against mages.
Spirit Armor - A better Ghost Armor that can be cast on others. Very useful until you get more powerful elven chain armors.
Stoneskin - Gives you layered protection from physical attacks. Mandatory when engaging in melee.
Lvl 5:
Animate Dead - One of the best summons in the game. Lvls with the caster, so it remains useful into higher lvls, particularly against Beholders and mages.
Breach - Removes combat protections. Super useful against magic wielders.
Chaos - A better confusion that gives the enemies a penalty to save.
Cloudkill - AoE poison damage over time. Super powerful.
Lower Resistance - Nearly irresistible debuff to one’s magic resistance. Useful against most powerful foes.
Spell Immunity - Makes you immune to a specific school of magic. Very powerful.
Lvl 6:
Contingency - Like Minor Sequencer, but works on a trigger. Very useful.
Death Spell - Instantly kills weaker enemies and all summons.
Improved Haste - One of the best buffs in the game. Doubles movement speed and APR, to a max of 10.
Protection From Magic Energy - Makes you immune to ‘magic damage’.
Protection from Magical Weapons - Makes you outright immune to all weapons that are considered magical. Short duration, but absolutely amazing defensively.
Tenser’s Transformation - Disables spellcasting, but buffs the caster significantly. Makes you ‘into a fighter’ for the duration. Be careful when casting it around enemy casters, as they can dispel it.
True Sight - Continually dispel enemy illusions for 1 turn.
Equipment:
In addition to spells, it is access to power magical items that define the Blade and let them become a true powerhouse. Items that boost THAC0 and damage are particularly valuable. This section will be divided into BG1, SoD and BG2, seeing as there is a great divide between the games in terms of item power. This also means that Blades will naturally be better off in BG2.
BG1 Items of Note:
Body armor
The ideal set of armor is the Elven Chain, which is a rare type of chainmail that does not disable spellcasting. It can be found during Dorn Ill-Khan’s companion quest after you can reach the city of Baldur’s Gate.
Helmet
You cannot wear headgear, except Ioun Stones, which show up in SoD at the earliest.
Gauntlets
Gauntlets of Ogre Power - Sets your Str to 18/00. Looted in the Low Lantern from the bodies of the women who want to teach you about ‘entropy’.
Legacy of the Masters - A somewhat common set of gauntlets that gives you a +1 / +2 bonus to THAC0 / damage. If you have 18 base Str and use a Tome to increase it to 19, these are the best gauntlets.
Bracers of Armor - Bracers that can be used to increase AC in place of armor until you get the Elven Chain without disabling spellcasting. The best ones are found during the main quest. Weaker versions are commonly found on enemies.
Boots
Paws of the Cheetah - Doubles movement speed, making combat positioning much easier. Stacks with Haste, but not Offensive Spin. Found in the Cloakwood.
Cloak
Cloak of Balduran - +1 AC, +1 saves, 25% magic resistance. Found in a sidequest in Baldur’s Gate.
Cloak of Displacement: Good alternative to Balduran. Bought in Ulgoth's Beard at the Inn. Ugly visual effect though.
Amulet
Amulet of Spell Warding - Looted in Dorn Ill-Khan’s companion quest.
The Amplifier - One additional 2nd lvl arcane spell slot. Looted from Ramazith.
Rings
Ring of Protection +2 - Looted from Ramazith.
Batalista’s Passport - 40% resist fire.
Belt
Destroyer of the Hills - Increases AC against crushing/blunt damage, removing the weakness of chainmail armor.
Weapons
Whatever the highest enchanted weapon you can find, usually a +2 item. Sometimes +3 items exist. Some are easier to find than others.
SoD Items of Note:
As an initial note, you will keep everything from BG1 when going into SoD, so some of these items will likely remain the best for the duration of SoD. So here is a list of some items of note in no particular order:
Weapons
Severance - +2 bastard sword. +5 HP and can drain HP from enemies.
Spell Breaker - +2 longsword that casts Dispel Magic on target on a critical hit.
Fractal Blade - +3 shortsword that has a chance to trigger Mirror Image for the user and a very high chance to dispel illusions on enemies.
Body armor
Elven Chain +1 - The +1 bonus does not stack with a Ring of Protection, limiting the usefulness of this item, but it is an option even so.
Amulets
Lon’s Amulet - Permanently gives the wearer Bless. This is a +1 to THAC0, dmg and morale.
Medal of Valor - +2 THAC0.
Amulet of Whispers - Vocalized.
Belts
Cloverleaf - +Luck.
Cloaks
Cloak of the Gargoyle - Protects from critical hits.
Ioun Stones
Troolblood / Pearly White - Regenerate HP.
Rings
BG2 Items of Note:
Body armor
Melodic Chain - Elven chain +3. Found during the Bard class quest.
Bladesinger Chain - Elven chain +4. Found during the endgame. Can be upgraded to +5 in ToB with a Scroll of Protection from Normal Weapons. It should be worth noting that the defensive benefits of the +5 version compared to the normal one is limited, because nothing dangerous will use non-magical weapons and +1 AC is not a significant bonus in ToB.
Robe of Vecna - Usable with HLAs. Unique Archmage Robe that speeds up spellcasting. Usually better used by dedicated casters, like Aerie.
Helmets
Helmet of Balduran - Usable with HLAs.
Ious Stones
Pale Green - +1 THAC0. +10% max HP.
Pearly White - Regenerate HP.
Purification - Immunity to poison and disease. Neutralize Poison 1/day.
Gauntlets
Wondrous Gloves - +1 THAC0 and AC. Additional Bard spell slots.
Xarrnous’ Second Sword Arm - THAC0 +1. Found during Bard class quest.
Boots
Paws of the Cheetah - Doubles movement speed. Stacks with Haste, but not Offensive Spin. Found during the Bard class quest.
Cloaks
Cloak of Mirroring - Immunity to a load of different magical damage effects.
Amulets
Amulet of Power - Vocalized. Magic resistance +5%. Immunity to lvl drain. Improves casting speed by 1. Found during the main quest.
Rings
Ring of Regeneration - Pickpocketed from the man behind the counter at the Adventurer’s Mart.
Belts
Girdle of Fire / Frost Giant Strength - Sets Str to 22 / 21.
Weapons
Usually you can just go with whatever the highest enchantment you have in your proficiencies.
Shortsword of Mask +4 - Of particular note, because it can be bought early in BG2, outside Watcher’s Keep.
Kundane +2 - Shortsword of Speed. Found during Bard class quest.
Belm +2 - Scimitar of Speed. Found near the Druid Grove.
Ninjato of the Scarlet Botherhood +3 - Bought in the Copper Coronet. Can be used once you get HLAs.
The Answerer +4 - Longsword found in ToB that puts a stacking penalty to AC and magic resistance on the enemy, making it one of the best weapons to give to a Blade, as it passively deals with their largest hindrance; THAC0. And one of the best weapons to have in your party, as it provides significant benefits to everyone.
