TOPIC: Advice- Bard and Cleric builds

So my wife and I just experienced True Dungeon for the first time last year and got hooked. Looking for some tips on outfitting our characters for this year. She is pretty set on playing a bard and I am heavily leaning towards cleric but could be convinced otherwise.

We aren't ready to drop hundreds on UR tokens quite yet, so we're hoping for some tips on making sure we can at least get a full-red set (and maybe a UR or two for a good price). Are there any absolute must-have tokens or ones that really shine that I can buy/trade for beforehand so we're ready to go?

Thanks for any help!

I outfit a party in mostly reds here is my current cleric build:

Melee: +1 Silver Heavy Mace
Ranged: +1 Gnomish Throwing Hammer
Armor: Defender Platemail
Off Hand: Defender Shield
Head: Defender Helm
Eyes: Goggles of Seeing
Earcuff 1: Earcuff of Intellect
Earcuff 2: Earcuff of the Vale (upgrade: Earcuff of the Wind)
Neck: Amulet of Armor or Amulet of the Wind
Back: Shadow Cloak or Cloak or the Wind
Shirt: Shirt of Health or Silverweave Shirt or Silkweave Shirt
Wrist: Bracers of Fire
Hands: Guantlets of Ogre Power
Ring 1: Ring of Fortitude
Ring 2: Ring of Reflexes
Waist: Girdle of Dwarven Health
Feet: Boots of Traction (not alot of cheap options here)
Ioun Stone 1: Ioun Stone: Beryl Prism
Ioun Stone 2: Ioun Stone: Cooper Cube
Special: Holy Symbol of Pelor

I just went through a bard on the character generator and came up with this. I put prices on the tokens as they are on gamingetc.com but did have to guess at a few.

I am sure with a little trading and wheeling and dealing you can get them for about half that price from forumites or if you wait until the convention.

One interesting thing to note is the footman's set. The Bard I run with used it on last years Nightmare run. Unless you have the Mithral Set it is best in slot for the Bard. Comes out to the same AC as using Ultra Rare armor for the Bard and it is MUCH cheaper.

I really would call the Footman's Set for the Bard a must have.

+1 Silver Short Sword (2.99)
Footman Shield (1.99)
+1 Elven Long Bow (2.99)
Archer's Buckler (1.99)
Footman Cap (1.99)
Goggles of Seeing (3.99)
Amulet of the Wind (4.49)
Cloak of the Wind (4.99)
Shirt of Health (16.99)
Footman Chainmail (1.99)
+1 Bracers of Defense (4.99)
Gauntlets of Ogre Power (9.99)
Ring of Protection +1 (7.99)
Ring of Dire Warning (8.99)
Belt of Ogre Power (14.99)
Boots of the Leopard (3.49)
Ioun Stone Beryl Prism (15.99)
Ioun Stone Iridescent Spindle (5.99)
Ioun Stone Copper Cube (0.49)

All uncommon (green) Bard instruments (about 8.00 for all) and rare Lyre of Echoes (2.99)

Charm of the Urchin (2.99)
Earcuff of the Vale (0.49)
Earcuff of the Wind (5.99)

$137.77

Here is what we came up with on the Bard armor.

Footman Cap No AC but cannot be surprised
Footman Chainmail +5 AC
Footman Shield +2 AC
Set adds +2 AC

total of +9 AC

All Greens, less that $10 for all of them


Mithral Chain or Dragonhide +6 AC
Dragonscale Shield +3
Mithral Cap +1 AC

Total of +10 AC

All purples but not on the hot list so $200-$250

I know you said you want to avoid the $$ but for bard, here is a situation that a single token can greatly alter how the class is played. The OOP widseth's loot allows you to combat slide every round if you want in addition to having bard song rolling. The Briano's Blessed Bodhran allows for spell casting in addition to bard song.

The Lyre Echoes is a decent red replacement but it allows you to act every other round.

As a bard you will want to have bard song going all the time.


One final thing to consider, both classes you listed are singular so if your in a random group its possible you won't get to play them if they get picked, depending on your level and how that situation goes down. Always best to consider a backup class. (Both switch to fighter pretty easy.)

Wow - Footman set gives bard the same ac as purps - what a great bargain!

Footman set is obviously great and cheap. A couple other options for a bard this year could be Chainmail of the Vale. Who knows how significant it will be to be able to sleep in your armor. Also, the Shield of the Tinkerer gives +4 vs. constructs.

bpsymington wrote: Wow - Footman set gives bard the same ac as purps - what a great bargain!

yeah the +2 AC set bonus is big especially when you know the best bard head slot is only +1AC.

valetutto wrote:

bpsymington wrote: Wow - Footman set gives bard the same ac as purps - what a great bargain!

yeah the +2 AC set bonus is big especially when you know the best bard head slot is only +1AC.

We really couldn't believe it last year and went over it several times. Our Bard is fairly well purple'd out, has Widseth's Lute, yet wears the green footman's set.

Speaking of which, something is way off on the graphical character designer with the footman's set. I think it is not giving out the +2 AC bonus.

Would sound like the set bonus isn't working.
It is also supposed to reduced the cold damage by 1 point.


I believe the set bonus of +2AC was probably just too strong since it more than makes up for the no ac helm. +1 was probably where it should have been. That being said, the Mithral set power isn't total crap.

Great advice, especially the footman set. I have a couple of the chainmail pieces and thought I had the helm, but I can't find it. I'll look around and try to find a helm+shield for her. I don't think gamingetc has any in stock, so if anyone is willing to sell off some extras please let me know.

As for secondary classes, I do plan to be able to play warrior as a backup and I think she would be happy to play any class, but would probably pick rogue or monk.

One other question if I may- do you think the medallion of heroism is worth not being able to wear rings on most classes? I have a horribly addictive personality and right now I'm considering dropping $250 on tokens and choosing it as my UR.

Doc

It depends on if you are likely to continue buying tokens. The level boost is great, but there are some really good rings out there. If you are going to continue to buy tokens the medallion could be upgraded to the charm allowing you to have the level and use rings. If 1 UR is likely to be as much as you spend on tokens in the near future (2 to 3 years) then get the medallion and don't sweat the rings. If you do get a great ring at some point you can always sell or trade the medallion.