Spellsongs & the Bardic Codex¶
Bards build up spellsong charges with successful barding. They then release a Spellsong, an area buff, heal or debuff. The Bardic Codex adds Tempo auras that buff your whole party.
How barding itself works (difficulty, success, durations) is on Instruments & Bard Skills.
Spellsongs¶
Charging¶
- Every successful targeted Peacemaking, Provocation or Discordance (with Musicianship effectiveness 50+) gives 1 charge. There's a Musicianship / 500 chance for a second one (+1% per Lyrical mastery level).
- A successful self-taunt also gives a charge.
- Each charge makes your next bard skill 2 difficulty easier.
- At 6 charges your chosen spellsong plays automatically and the charges reset.
Range¶
Songs hit everything valid within 6 tiles (+2 with Lyrical mastery, more with the codex, max 12). Silence and Repugnance hit at most 5 targets.
Each song has its own XP, which raises its duration. In the table below, "XP" means that song's XP.
Song list¶
| Song | Effect on you | Effect on others |
|---|---|---|
| Heal | Heals 15% of your max HP (+1% per Lyrical level) | Party members get 35% of that |
| Pet Heal | — | Heals pets for 7.5% per control slot of their max HP (+0.5% per Lyrical level) |
| Regeneration | Heals 2.5% HP every 2.5 s (double when you're low), for 5–15 s | — |
| Mana | Restores 15% of your max mana (+1% per Lyrical level) | Party members get half |
| Armor | 10–25% less physical damage from monsters for 10–35 s | Allies: 5–12% |
| Spell Resistance | 10–25% less spell damage from monsters for 10–35 s | Allies: 5–12% |
| Cure | 35–70% poison resistance for 10–45 s | Allies: 15–30% |
| Quicksilver | Faster attacks for 5–15 s | — |
| Concentration | Never miss for 5–25 s | — |
| Perfectionism | −25 bard difficulty for 10–45 s | — |
| Evasion | Monsters are 25% less likely to hit you, for 10–30 s | — |
| Retribution | Healing damages enemies for 10–30 s | — |
| Savage | — | Your pets go savage (+10% damage, +5% per control slot) for 10–30 s |
| Silence | — | Up to 3 monsters can't cast for 10 + Musicianship/10 s (Legendary: 5 s) |
| Repugnance | — | Pushes up to 5 monsters back 3–6 tiles |
| Hex | — | Hexes monsters, boosting your spell surge damage |
Durations grow with the song's XP (+1 s per 10,000 or 20,000 XP depending on the song).
Bardic Codex: Tempo auras¶
Buy the Bardic Codex from Selwyn the Archivist (1,500 gold).
Requirements¶
To use auras you need either:
- all three bard skills at 100, or
- one bard skill at 80+ and Musicianship effectiveness 80+.
Tempo¶
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Tempo pool | 1,000 (+100 per Tempo Capacity tier) |
| Cost to start an aura | 75 Tempo (min 50 to activate) |
| Drain while active | 4 Tempo every 2 s |
| Aura range | 8 tiles (your party) |
| Switching auras | 10 s cooldown |
Gaining Tempo:
- +10 per successful targeted bard skill, +5 per area use,
- +5 on monster hits and spell hits (with a chance based on Lyrical mastery),
- on kills (Death Dance talent),
- when you heal.
Auras¶
Only one aura at a time. Allies keep the best aura affecting them.
| Aura | Skill | Party bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Discord | Discordance | Armor and spell penetration: Discordance / 10 % × Virtuoso, +1.5% per codex tier |
| Provocation | Provocation | Damage reduction: Provocation / 10 % × Virtuoso, +2% per codex tier |
| Peacemaking | Peacemaking | Accuracy: Peacemaking / 10 % × Virtuoso, +1% per tier. Also mana regen |
An aura needs at least 80 in its skill.
Virtuoso multiplier¶
| Bard skills at 100 | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 0–1 | ×1.0 |
| 2 | ×1.5 |
| 3 | ×2.0 |
The Virtuoso talent adds +0.1 per tier.
Example: all three skills at 120 with a Discord aura gives 12% × 2.0 = 24% penetration to everyone in range.
Big parties: above 5 members, aura strength drops 2% per extra member (max −30%).
Codex talents¶
Codex XP comes from killing monsters. See Bardic Codex for every talent, its per-tier value and its cost.