1. What's important about charisma isn't the ego pool, but the damage it adds to your magic-source damage, like minorsecond (your bashing attack and partly PK.) I think int increases it too. Strength is indeed ignorable for you.
2. Dexterity for you will only affect your stance/parry. It's not THAT critical to have it high, but you'd notice yourself dodging a lot more blows with it at trans combat than without it at trans combat. At low combat it makes no difference.
3. Music is eq driven, yes. The speed is also affected by an instrument bond, but that just means you're faster after a certain timeframe.
4. Most of eco is eq (hunting has like zero combat powers IIRC) and if you're using ecp you're relying mostly on music active effects anyway, currently
5. Most of glamours is eq
6. Tarot is balance, yes

Faeling stats seem a little iffy then. If there was some use for +3bal then shadowsinger might work. I guess I'll wait and see.

Sadly, Aslaran and Furriken seem to have decent stats for bards. Kephera look decent too. From a roleplay angle though, neither fur nor exoskeletons really do it for me.

So I guess its down to one of the neutral speed races (elf, fae, trill).



Edit: Actually the fur didn't bother me so much.. until I saw THIS:
http://scryingpool.wikispaces.com/Aslaran+racial+sexuality
(Its more than a little creepy that someone wrote that. Aaaaalllll of it. Its kinda.. large. And detailed.)
I really hope that kind of thing isn't you know.. THAT important as an aspect of the game.

Speed and sip bonuses were both nerfed, rather dramatically. They'll be nothing like you're used to on other IREs.

Except that there aren't any level 3 sip and speed bonuses in other IREs.

EDIT: Do not recommend elfen unless you're in Seren

I don't think many, if any people even remember that stuff anymore. It was an attempt at a specific racial culture by some aslarans like 3.5 years ago. It certainly wasn't (and wasn't intended to be) important to Lusternia at all.

EDIT: Although there HAVE been at least two attempts at making a whorehouse. Heh. But it really isn't a big deal.

Eq balance won't matter as a bard for two reasons. 1) Only furrikin and Aslaran have lvl 1 and lvl 1 might as well be nothing. 2) Mugwump has lvl 3 but mugwump is bad. Very bad. Oh, one more. Things like minorsecond are already very fast. When looking at a race for bard, don't look at racial speed bonuses. Your choice will also depend on what city/commune you are in. The specs are usually the best choice (maybe not merian)

A tanky race with not so great int/cha with ecology isn't a bad choice.

Dexterity will help with stance and parry.

1. Ecology. Fetish is balance, smudges are eq. Communes only
2. Glamours is entirely eq.
3. Tarot is balance, and crap for bards. Cities only.

Celina's probably right on this one, disregard my earlier comment about it I guess.

Actually, Syrii uses it almost exclusively, or used to. He still uses the random vocab toward the bottom, though he's integrated Celestian culture to the point that even the vocabulary is mostly vestigial. Come to think I think he only uses four words with any frequency...Actually...with Saaga now in Glom it's down to...two phrases. Huh...When did that happen..? I will say though that he's quite fond of 'Purrsheh' and fights fang and claw for the use of the phrase.

One person stated that minorsecond is already very fast. I've timed it at 4 seconds. Is that fast for a skill in lusternia? From what I understand in IRE mud dev, 4.0s is considered a -base- neutral race and neutral ability speed.

L1 fast balance on a 4-second ability in Aetolia reduces the balance taken to 3.5s (its actually 10% but because everything is rounded to the nearest 0.25s tick, the average there turns out to be 3.5s).
L2 fast balance on a 4 second ability in Aetolia reduces the balance taken to 3.25s only. For whatever reason that is some oddity in the math.

So what sort of effect is fast balance here, then?


Side question:
Also, one person recommended not being elfen is most of the city/communes. Any particular reason why not in Glomdoring?


How much does pvp damage scale to max health, here?

The reason minorsecond is considered fast is that it's not 4s when you have your instrument bonded. Essentially before playing a bard as a combatant you need to spend a certain amount of days playing your instrument each IG day, which makes you more bonded to it. When it finishes it becomes no decay (I think) and your speed goes up.

Elfen is basically strictly worse than shadowsinger faeling for Glooms.

Pvp damage barely scales at all. Sipping scales a lot though.

Minorsecond will speed up!

Speed bonuses to equilibrium and balance here are half (maybe less then half) of what they are in other IRE I -think- they got a complete nerf here a while back due to many complaints about speedy affliction classes.

Now you mentioned using weapons, just to clarify unlike in other IRE games in which as long as you have learnt the skillset "Weaponry" or whatever it is named you can quite competently use a range of weapons. Here is very different. Unlike in other IRE games warrior classes here are not reliant on the venom delivery system present in the other games but on there own afflictions which can only be gained via learning knighthood and then specialising in Blademaster/Bonecrusher/Axelord/Pureblade without having one of those specs you will be useless with weapons. These Specs are of course only accessible to the warrior guilds...

Elfen is for serenwilde not Glomdoring!! (Seren and Glom are at constant war...)

Just to clarify, the "no elfen" is for combat reasons, or RP reasons?

Faeling are deathly squishy (low constitution), though, compared to Elfen. For me, elfen are the most balanced Bard race - int, cha, and an okay-constitution. I, for example, am an elfen bard in Glomdoring.

Each City/Commune has a race that is affiliated with it.

Celest - Merian
Magnagora - Viscanti
Serenwilde - Elfen
Glomdoring - Faeling

Though you could play one anywhere it isn't always appreciated..I as a member of glomdoring wouldn't want Merian Viscanti or Elfens around..


Edit: Saying that once you have proved yourself for Glomdoring race isn't really important at all..

To be truthful, race doesn't seem to play much of an impact in Glomdoring these days, the only IC concern is unwithering loyalty. I note that we were 'designed' to be primarily faeling due to shadow/lord/caster/singer faeling specs, but with the changes they've made something like a Shadowlord Faeling is only there to gigglefit at. All in all, however, you can be largely any race RP speaking in Glom, save the bugs. The only reason Sili mentioned not being an elfen is that Seren are largely more 'specced' for elfen than Glomdoring. Then again, there's no reason why you couldn't be a faeling in Serenwilde in much the same fashion.

Combat-wise, go with a race that has stats to suit your spec, that's really all there is to it. Don't be deceived by races like mugwump though. lvl3eq/bal doesn't hold much weight anymore.


This being said. Viscanti and Illithoid are a no-no for Celest. You may be tempted to roleplay the underprivileged and attempting-to-reform race choice. I wouldn't advise it unless you're by and large masochistic. They aren't fond of the tainted there.

Illithoid are also a no-no for Serenwilde, for the same reasons as Celest - Issues with being the shards of a soulless god. Apparently Viscanti are allowed. I still wouldn't advise it for the same reason I wouldn't advise being an underprivileged and trying-to-reform race in any other org, unless constant oppression and IC racism is your thing. I mean, IC racism is an excellent roleplaying tool, but you'd be dealing with quite a bit.

Merian, Elfen, and Kephera are the no-no races for Magnagora, strictly roleplay-based.

Kephera are probably the only really 'bad' race to pick from in Glomdoring, as we loathe the things. Then again, though... we probably wouldn't care about that either. It's all about the loyalty. We may frown on Viscanti for some random reason also, but I suspect you can get by just fine. Forgive me if I'm just spewing lies and there's some law somewhere I'm unaware of though.

Talking about Glomdoring, though - While we most certainly do believe ourselves to be the best ICly, it's a quiet sort of arrogance. Too much of it is likely to get you smacked in the head a time or two, be it verbally or physically, by people who are -in- Glomdoring.

It's likely I'm made myself a broken record and repeated a bit of information already given and I do hope you'll forgive it, but I couldn't be arsed to go and check.



edit: Would it be wrong of me to go and assume that Exarius wrote that Aslaran thing? -shudder-
edit2: Fixed a bit.

Just to clear this up, viscanti are actually allowed in Seren, it's only a couple of its guilds that ban/screw around with them.

In Lusternia there is a lot to take in so don't let it overwhelm you.

Glamours is mostly affliction, hindering, and some damage.

Ecology is all that and a bag of chips, currently op and will probably get hit with the nerf bat soon (please, please, please)

Tarot has many utility abilities, a decent insta-kill but the skills in no way at all complement bard skills -at all- and is generally thought to be a poor choice for bard combatants. If you aren't going into combat it can be handy for the utility part but otherwise a bad call.

Bard instruments don't technically become non-decay. If you use them they won't decay and if you go for a while with out using it, using it will restore the decay time, slowly. If you go about more than 4 rl months of not using it though it will go bye-bye. If you rune it or get it made non-decay then you don't have to worry about that. Runing an instrument will make it instantly maestro level. I suggest you take the time to find a good instrument design and spend the extra money on one that you really like since it will be your new best friend.

Edit: In Magnagora Merians and Elfens are literally second class citizens, they are power blocked and more often than not considered a food source or spare parts for decoration rather than people.

No, it was likely him that did. I don't think I've ever met him though, that might've kept Syrii doing the Aslaran racial bit.

As far as Mag and Celest are concerned, both will show outright racism toward the other's specs. With the Viscanti in Celest it's more piteous than disgust usually, but it's still a good idea to not be one. Last I checked, Elfen have to be VERY careful in Mag or they can earn a capital punishment for the smallest things. Which is one of the reasons one of my alts left it for Celest.