Should I bother getting power cast for my bard? Does it matter with the instrument effects? If not, what stats should i concentrate on?

To the best of my knowledge, Power Cast only affects spells, not gadgets or bard instruments.

The biggest concerns for a bard and Gadgeteer are Strength to carry their items, Vitality to have enough stamnia to use them, and Speed (especially for the Bard with the Haste instrument). In my experience, anyway.

A gadgeteer might want to concentrate on Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, and Senses instead of Speed for using the omnigun more accurately.

[ 11-22-2002, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: Kerneth ]

In particular the Bard (though I think this applies to both) aren't Intelligence and Dexterity attributes that effect Music and Engineering?

I agree that Vitality is crucial as my bard was unconcious about half the time during combat.

I guess all I'm saying is Kerneth is right...power cast doesn't do anything for instruments and gadgets so, I would only up Int to about 80 and use items to increase those stats. I'd max Dex for reflexsion.(sp?).

Depends on how you want to use your Bard in terms of the stats you want to raise. But Int is pretty much worthless for them; and powercast does nothing for either a Gadgie or Bard.

For Gadgies, senses is nice for eagle eye, dex is nice for reflexion; then work on str/vit. I like to have Bards that melee with bloodlust, so I work on 3 stats, Str/Dex/Vit.

Don't forget that there are some magic items that can only be worn by Bards. One of them will give you a boost to intelligence (though I can't remember which one) and there's always the intelligence well at Trynton.

No real need to concentrate on Intelligence then - best to spend your level up points in another direction.

I thought I would mention that in my first game I actually went for Powercast in both the Bard and Gadgeteer. I can personally verify what was said above that it has no effect on the spells cast via instruments or gadgets. Powercast would only rise when I put three points into it at level-up, there was never an increase by casting via these in battle. It was a stupid thing to do and I hope other players reading this can save their precious attribute points and spend them more wisely than maxing out intelligence for those characters.

I like the Bard on the front line with strength and dexterity first. My current party has Bard, each of the 4 specialist casters (all with Powercast), and Ranger in the rear. For the Ranger I started with Intelligence (for Powercast), Senses (for Eagle Eye) and dexterity as third priority. The Alchemist is the most powerful attack caster (which is why I want more of that in the Ranger), and the Priest is the most powerful overall (all IMO, of course). Bard attack spells suffer from lack of Powercast later in the game and do not blow through resistances, so I use the Bard for melee/buffing then (my characters, after all, have no resistance to my Bard's buff spells). Developed right, with the right sword, the Bard turns out to be a great fighter.

I like have one character capable of fighting in a pinch in the rear. I am thinking of using the Gadgeteer for this in a future party. That would have the same composition as my first party (Bard, Gadgeteer, 4 specialist casters), but would use and develop them differently. It could be interesting to compare, not that I don't have to waste attibute points for the Bard and Gadgeteer on Intelligence any more (get it via items instead).