This page is specifically made for bards in Baldur's Gate (game). See Bard for the page for Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.
Bards are jack-of-all-trades because they travel much to get inspiration for their songs, learn about local legends&tales and have learned many different abilities during their travels. They are able to cast wizard spells, are able to pick pockets and have a decent selection of armor and weapons, but their broad range of skills comes at the price of not being specialised in most of them, except for interaction with people. Bards are neutral characters, they come and go when they want, and are usually not bound by obligations, countries and organisations. There aren't many bards who are either good or evil aligned.
Ability Scores[]
| Ability Score | Min. requirement. | Max. requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3 | 18 |
| Dexterity | 12 | 18 |
| Constitution | 3 | 18 |
| Wisdom | 3 | 18 |
| Intelligence | 13 | 18 |
| Charisma | 15 | 18 |
Note: For the information of this table the human race was used, because they have no character bonunes/penalties related to race and therefore act like a 'neutral'. For half-elves this is slightly different. See Ability Scores and Thieving Abilities for more information on the effect of Ability Scores.
Abilities of the bard[]
Bard song[]
According the manual, the effect of the song is a boost to party morale and luck.
Morale
Can be used to remove fear from party members for a duration of 1 round/bard level minus the 3 rounds needed to apply it. Bard song by itself will not break invisibility so a bard can repeat the fear dispelling routine once the last song's effects have ended, undetected by those without magical means to bypass the concealment effects. There are an unlimited number of bard song activations available to the vanilla Baldur's Gate bard class regardless of class level (compare to standard D&D rules where the number of songs per day is limited to once per class level per day).
Luck
While active, will reduce the THAC0 and damage of enemy physical attacks. Note: This claim has not yet been confirmed or documented by the community through a statistical analysis of combat sessions.
Pick pockets[]
A bard can steal items from characters. The chance to steal an item depends on the percentage. Bards start with 25 ability points in Pick Pockets, along with any bonus from race and dexterity. They gain 5 points per level.
Wizard spellbook[]
Bards are able to cast wizard spells when they reach class level 2. In Baldur's Gate, this is limited up to level 3 and lvl 4 with Tales of the Sword Coast. For the complete list of spells, see Spells (Baldur's Gate) or if you want a list with only wizard spells, see wizard spells.
Spell progression[]
|
Bard / spell level |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Total # of spellslots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| 4 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 3 |
| 5 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 4 |
| 6 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | 5 |
| 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 6 |
| 8 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 7 |
| 9 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | 8 |
| 10 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | 9 |
Experience table[]
| Level | Experience needed | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | |
| 2 | 1,250 | |
| 3 | 2,500 | |
| 4 | 5,000 | |
| 5 | 10,000 | |
| 6 | 20,000 | |
| 7 | 40,000 | |
| 8 | 70,000 | Highest level for bards with Baldur's Gate. |
| 9 | 110,000 | Tales of the Sword Coast is required to reach this level. |
| 10 | 160,000 | Highest level for bards with the expansion pack. |