# Bard

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Bard v0.9

Author

André Bertelli Araújo

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Wikipedia has an article about:
Bard

The Bard is a role added in the Bard patch.  It has been included in SlashTHEM as well as dNetHack (as the Troubadour role, starting in v. 3.10).
One of the distinctive features of the Bard patch is the option of casting enchantment spells as songs, performed on a musical instrument.
The musical versions of the spells have some advantages and disadvantages over their regular versions.  The patch gives several roles this ability, but the Bard excels at it.  This feature has been carried over into some of the variants that include the Bard role.  
For an explanation of the role by the patch author, see here.
For a discussion of the role, see 
here.

Contents

1 Starting inventory
2 Intrinsics
3 Skills

3.1 Musicalize spell
3.2 Songs in SlashTHEM
3.3 Songs in dNetHack
3.4 Success chance in dNetHack

4 Techniques
5 Strategy

5.1 dNethack

5.1.1 Early game
5.1.2 Mid game
5.1.3 Late game

6 Rank titles
7 Quest
8 Gods
9 Origin
10 References
11 See also

Starting inventory
Each Bard starts with the following:

Wooden harp or wooden flute (with a 50% chance of each)
+1 leather cloak
3 apples
3 oranges
2-10 potions of booze
A tin whistle (85% chance) or a bell (15% chance)
A +1 silver dagger (SlashTHEM)
From the start of the game, the Bard can recognize all musical instruments, including the magical ones.
In dNetHack, Troubadours' lore also includes knowledge of several basic wards: Circle of Acheron, Hamsa, Elder Sign, Elder Elemental Eye, Sign of the Scion Queen Mother, Cartouche of the Cat Lord, the Wings of Garuda, and the Toustefna and Dreprun staves.
Drow Troubadours will get droven chain mail and a droven cloak instead of a leather cloak.  Half-dragon will always get a leather drum as their starting instrument.

Intrinsics
XL 5: magic resistance (downgraded to sleep resistance in dnethack)
XL 10: stealth
Skills

Bard skills

Max
Skills

Basic

Weapons: knife, short sword, scimitar, flail, polearm, spear
Spells: escape

Skilled

Weapons: dagger, club, quarterstaff, javelin, sling, crossbow
Spells: enchantment

Expert

Weapons: dart, farm implements(dnethack only),
Combat: bare hands (martial arts in dnethack), musicalize spell, Beast mastery (dnethack only)

Bards start with Basic skill in Musicalize Spell and bare hands.
The Bard's special spell is sleep.  Spell success is determined by charisma.
In SlashTHEM, escape spells are replaced by body spells; otherwise, the maximum skill levels are the same as in the patch.  This variant includes the Musicalize Spell feature (as "Music"), starting in version 0.8.

Musicalize spell
The Bard's distinctive advantage is mastery of a skill called Musicalize Spell, which gives the character the ability to perform magical songs.  For the most part this is just a special way of casting enchantment spells, by (a)pplying a musical instrument instead of using the spell menu (though there is one song, "Inspire Courage", which is unlike any regular enchantment spell).  For roles who can reach at least Basic in the skill, this will bring up a menu with the option of casting a spell in addition to the existing options of improvising or playing a series of notes.
Spells performed as songs have two advantages over spells cast in the usual way.  First, songs require no energy to perform, and second, songs affect all monsters in an area, instead of all monsters in a specified direction.  However, the advantages of using songs are balanced by several disadvantages:

The performer must have an appropriate musical instrument. For every magical song, there are two instruments that can be used: one that is "preferred" and less likely to be resisted by monsters, and an alternative that can be used if the preferred instrument is unavailable, but with a lower chance of success.
The performer must have learned the spell corresponding to the song being used.
Songs take several turns to perform, and can be interrupted.
The effects of spells cast as songs tend to be less powerful than their regular forms.  For example, the Lullaby song, if successful, puts monsters to sleep for a shorter period of time than the sleep spell.
At Unskilled or Basic, songs affect pets as well as hostile monsters, though the effects on pets are milder.  At Skilled or Expert, tame creatures are not affected—except by "Inspire Courage", which only affects pets.
Songs in SlashTHEM

Song

Description

Spell

Preferred Instrument

Alternative Instrument

Duration

Lullaby

Puts enemies to sleep

sleep

wooden harp

wooden flute

4 turns

Cacophony

Confuses enemies

confuse monster

leather drum

tooled horn

5 turns

Drowsiness

Slows enemies

slow monster

wooden flute

wooden harp

5 turns

Despair

Causes enemies to flee

cause fear

tooled horn

leather drum

6 turns

Friendship

Temporarily tames monsters

charm monster

wooden harp

wooden flute

6 turns

Inspire Courage

Increases the damage done by pets

cause fear

bugle

leather drum

6 turns

Note that "Inspire Courage" does not mimic an existing enchantment spell; however, the character still needs to know a specific spell (cause fear) in order to use it.
In the patch, Monks and Priests can advance the Musicalize Spell skill to Basic, while Tourists can advance it to Skilled. In SlashTHEM, Musicians can also reach Expert in Music, and characters can perform any song without having to know the corresponding spell.

Songs in dNetHack

Song

Description

Spell

Preferred Instrument

Alternative Instrument

Duration

Lullaby

Puts enemies to sleep

sleep

wooden harp

wooden flute

4 turns

Meditative Healing

Heals pets, at the cost of immobilizing them

extra healing

wooden harp

wooden flute

4 turns

Lethargy

Slows enemies (including sleep-resistant foes)

slow monster

wooden harp

wooden flute

5 turns

Friendship

Permanently tames single adjacent monster

charm monster

wooden harp

wooden flute

6 turns

Rally

Teleports pets to you, heals pet status ailments

teleport away

bugle

tooled horn

1 turn

Charge

Pets move and attack faster while the song is playing

haste self

bugle

leather drum

5 turn

Disruption

Interferes with monster spellcasting while the song is playing

cancellation

tooled horn

bugle

5 turn

Inspire Courage

Increases the damage done by pets

cause fear

bugle

leather drum

6 turns

Fear

Causes enemies to flee

cause fear

tooled horn, leather drum

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6 turns

Cacophony

Confuses enemies

confuse monster

tooled horn

leather drum

5 turns

Success chance in dNetHack
Success chance is calculated as:
ATTRIBUTE x 2 x MUSICALITY_SKILL + experience level
Where:

ATTRIBUTE is strength for drums (either leather or of earthquake) and dexterity for all other instruments.
MUSICALITY_SKILL is 1 at unskilled, 2 at basic, etc.
Bonuses are applied (in the following order):

If the instrument is an artifact or the instrument is the song's preferred type, increase the chance by 50%.
If your health is lower than 30% of your maximum, increase the chance by 100%.
If the instrument is a drum or a harp, and you are wearing a shield, decrease the chance by 50%.
If you are blind, increase the chance by your experience level.
If you are using the Lyre of Orpheus (Bard's quest artifact) and you are not playing one of: Rally, Meditative Healing, Lullaby, or Friendship, decrease the chance by 50%.
Note: The chance is only capped to 0/100% after all bonuses have been applied, so you can still get to 100% success chance with the Lyre of Orpheus.

Techniques
In SlashTHEM, the Bard gains techniques at the following experience levels:

XL 1: Primal roar
XL 10: Booze
XL 20: Rage eruption
The Booze technique allows the Bard to simulate the effects of drinking booze without needing the potion ("You procure some refreshing drinks.")  This provides some nutrition.

SlashTHEM tech.c line 148
Strategy
dNethack
Early game
Early game is all about training up your musicalize skill by spamming it as much as possible, with the ultimate goal of getting Musicalize up to expert as quickly as possible. Use Lullaby on every enemy your pet fight to limit damage to your pet, and heal your pet with Meditative Healing as much as possible. As you begin to progress deeper in to the dungeon and find slightly stronger monsters, consider using Lethargy and Friendship to slow them down and capture them. Keep your eyes peeled for a magic whistle as this is essential to keeping your pets in position as you travel through the dungeon. When possible, upgrade your Beast Mastery skill to maximize your pets' effectiveness.
Exercise your dexterity as much as possible in the early game to build up this trait. As increased dexterity decreases the chance of failure from your Musicalize skills, most importantly the Friendship spell, you will need this trait at maximum as quickly as possible.

Mid game
As you progress through the mid game, keep a look out for an altar you can sacrifice on (or convert) and try to get your hands on the Singing Sword, which is essential for the mid game. Rushing the castle so you can get a few wishes, if you haven't received any already, is a good idea - that will allow you to take your time on the other quests once you're better equipped.
As you get stronger in the mid game, you should be constantly recruiting the most dangerous monsters you can find as pets, and you may have to lure strong monsters into isolation from other nearby monsters to capture them as nearby monsters may interrupt your musical spellcasting. During the Gnomish Mines, the Minetown Watch can serve you well, and Cerebus in Vlad's Tower will carry you for a quite a while. Mind flayers, dragons, orc kings, and even a few elementals are all good pets in this part of the game. The master mind flayer on throne at the start of the Neutral Quest is particularly good if you can get him - just make sure to surround yourself with enough disposable pets that you won't get hit with every attack. Metroids will also work well mid game, but as they level, they will eventually turn into an untamable metroid queen, so this is not a viable long-term option. 
The mid game is a good time to consider using scrolls of genocides to exterminate monsters that will instakill your pets. Purple worms, trappers, and cockatrices should all be eliminated if you're not going to use them yourself.
Keep an eye peeled for smart situational branches that could help you in creative ways. For example, if the Sunless Sea is the sunken city variant, you can recruit a few deep ones and then kill the constantly spawning hoarde of deep ones to create massively overpowered deepest ones that will help you tremendously in the mid and late game.

Late game
In general, as you progress deeper towards the late game, more and more monsters will shout down your Musicalize spells, making it difficult to heal monsters or recruit new monsters. All but the strongest of monsters should be considered disposable, and you should be constantly using your pets to protect you with their lives. When you actually complete your own quest, make sure to ring the Bell of Opening once to teach it to your Singing Sword - the five percent change of instantly killing monsters will be essential for killing demon princes and other strong monsters.
Demon princes in Gehennom will be a problem, and should be avoided as much as possible. Archons and other strong pets (like Lady Oona or Tulani Eladrim) that have lasted you well will not survive demon princes in a toe-to-toe fight. If you have to fight, ward a square, as a scared demon prince often won't attack either you or your pets. Good monsters to keep an eye out for include master mind flayers, orcs of the ages of the stars, Angband orcs, and ancient nagas. Ancient nagas particularly can be useful in Nessus, as these can kill Nessian pit fields quickly without triggering their summon nasties spell, though they may turn on you. Be careful in capturing pets that might turn traitor, but don't be afraid to include a few in your entourage - traitors will distribute their attacks against other pets as well as yourself, at which point you can just heal your pets with Meditative Healing.
Most likely, your stable troops will be a supply of dragons. Higher level dragons can take quite a lot of punishment, and the period summon nasties spell that starts to trigger after you've slain the Wizard will provide you with a ready supply. Keep your eyes peeled for summoned jabberwockies as well - these are somewhat fragile, but can dish out a lot of punishment and compliment a corps of dragons nicely.
In Moloch's Sanctum, avoid fighting the elder priest - you can wait for the Wizard of Yendor to spawn and then steal the amulet from him. Just make sure you have enough wand of death charges to kill him quickly as you make your final escape.

Rank titles
The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

XL 1-2: Bard
XL 3-5: Lyrist
XL 6-9: Sonneteer
XL 10-13: Jongleur
XL 14-17: Troubadour
XL 18-21: Minstrel
XL 22-25: Lorist
XL 26-29: Well-known Bard
XL 30: Master Bard
Quest
Main article: Bard_quest
The Bard quest sees the Bard traveling to the island of Anthemoessa to fight the siren Aglaope for the Lyre of Orpheus.

Gods
Main article: Religion
In SlashTHEM, the Bard's pantheon combines music-related gods from Greek and Roman mythology:

Lawful: Minerva
Neutral: Apollo
Chaotic: Linus
The dNetHack Troubadour's pantheon is Greek, perhaps Thracian (Thrace was the home of Orpheus):

Lawful: Apollon
Neutral: Pan
Chaotic: Dionysus
Origin

Wikipedia has an article about:
Bard (Dungeons &amp; Dragons)

The Bard is inspired in large part by the bard character class in Dungeons &amp; Dragons, and similar characters.  
The quest and mythos also draw on Greek mythology, including the myth of Orpheus.

References
SlashTHEM role.c line 147
dNetHack role.c line 450
dNetHack u_init.c line 1613
See also
Musician, another music-themed role, from an early version of SLASH'EM

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