Reduced arcane spell failure

[seriouslynow]

Some light/med armor with reduced spell failure for bards would be cool. Could be scripted to require at least 10-15 lvls of bard to prevent mages from just taking one lvl to use it.

[Kromix]

bard = arcane casting... use still spell... or get naked

[Myrdyr]

I always assumed that War Cry was not unique being a bard spell that has no spell failure penalty due to wearing armor, but never looked. Are there any others? A quick search turns up:

Amplify, Displacement, Balagarn's iron horn, Darkness

There are also other arcane spells that have no armor failure penalty: Greater sanctuary, Mordenkainen's disjunction, Power word kill, True strike, Wail of the banshee.

[MLoki]

It actually is dependant on the Somantic componant of the spell. If their isn't one then armor shouldn't affect it. If you have to wave your arms and jump on one foot then arcane failure applies.

MLoki

[Myrdyr]

It actually is dependant on the Somantic componant of the spell.

Yep. I did a more thorough search of spells without a somantic component:

Bard-only: Amplify, War Cry
Bard/Sorc/Wiz: Displacement, Balagarn's iron horn, Darkness, Blindness/deafness, Flare, Light,
Sorc/Wiz: Greater sanctuary, Mordenkainen's disjunction, Power word kill, True strike, Wail of the banshee, Power word stun.

[seriouslynow]

Sounds like you guys don't care much for playing bards.

So how do you use still spell for the lvl6 stuff? Some of the best spells were meant for combat and a bard wearing cloth armor and not using a shield so he can cast is sacrificing a lot for combat.

[Metis]

I can't find my old post but, one of my favorite builds is bard wearing robes and small shield. I put away the shield for buffing but even in combat only a 5% failure. There is a ac hit but not as bad as you think. Compared to other melee including the high end cleric/fighter the combination of bard/curse song, cant be dispelled, is great.

Just my input

[Death Dealer1]

bards with auto still at epic lvls takes care of all bard spells...its great cuz you only need auto still 2 to use all the bard spells.

[ihuntudown]

bard = arcane casting... use still spell... or get naked

NOOOO. I like my full-plated-non-still-spell-with-95%-arcane-failure-bard. Wondering what decent spells you gonna cast in combat anyway? War cry extended lasts long enough for a combat

[Sparky]

Bards with Autostill would be great, if they could somehow qualify for it.
To my knowledge, they cannot qualify for it unless they have access to 9th level spells, meaning a bard would need to multiclass heavily just to qualify for the feats.

That said, regular Still Spell works nicely for any in-combat spells you might need.

[seriouslynow]

bards with auto still at epic lvls takes care of all bard spells...its great cuz you only need auto still 2 to use all the bard spells.

Ugh, you can't get autostill spell as a bard without being able to cast 9th lvl spells = no sure way to use 6th lvl bard spells in combat without giving up all shield ac + benefits and 7-8 ac for armor = pointless to have 6th lvl spells if the slots are only for stilled 5th lvl spells. (unless autostill spell is scripted differently here)
And that 95% spell failure bard might as well just be a barbarian or other fighter build. Basically you can still use bard song (which is good no doubt), but you're trading some ab, possibly an extra attack, a large number of combat feats (by not taking a fighter or WM) for it, devoting pts to charisma instead of another main combat stat, and then ignoring the spell versatility of the class almost entirely.

[Celorn]

Sounds like you guys don't care much for playing bards.

So how do you use still spell for the lvl6 stuff? Some of the best spells were meant for combat and a bard wearing cloth armor and not using a shield so he can cast is sacrificing a lot for combat.

My bard/bg 'Sister Sin' is my best toon yet!

Still spell was a must, I strip to cast the lvl6 ele.prot spell and mass haste sometimes, but other than that, a lasting bardsong and a few stilled spells seem to work out quite well against a wide range of opponents. Also - the UMD gives me all the arcane power I need from scrolls.

DEVS: One thing that'd be GREAT would be some -decent- gear that gives bard spell slots! (also; Is it possible to give bard spell slot 7's? then you could still-spell level6 spells).

[kgb]

Thought I would resurrect this topic since it is close to what I want to talk about without starting a fresh one.

With the Still spell feat it is mentioned by some that it allows you to cast spells in armor which is a given. There are also spells listed by Myrdyr that do not have a somatic component so can be cast with out the feat whilst wearing armor.

Now I would like to know whether the still spell feat extends to when you are held or paralysed or in a bigby. Can you still cast stilled spells seeing as you dont need to move your arms to cast spells or is that too realistic.


Cheers

kgb