Character build help

[Ross]

Hello everyone

I've just joined after listening to some of the old UO music on youtube. My heart panged and I instantly craved UO of old. I played on Europa at around 2000, I had UO Renaissance but never stepped into trammel.

I wanted to ask. I used to have a slightly more creative character that almost exclusively used provocation and archery for PvM. I think I also had hide to escape pk's.

Can anyone suggest a similar build that might work? I don't think I want much magery (only enough to recall).

I think I like the idea of provoking two monsters, hiding and then stealthing around to the corpses to collect the cash. Every now and again I would like to use archery to finish a monster off. So I think I want:

Musicmanship
Provocation
Archery
Anatomy
Hiding
Stealth
Tactics
Magery?
Healing?

Not sure about stats?

Anyway, thanks for listening and any help would be great

I plan on playing once or twice a week so maybe see you around

Ross

[archaicsubrosa77]

Music
Provoke
Magery
Stealth 80
Hide
Resist 80
Wrestling 80
Meditation 60

Might work a bit better for a stealth provoker. Provoke, cast an EV, cast invisible, tab then stealth out some more kills. The problem with any template is you can't do it all. Believe me I tried

[Ross]

Thanks for the reply

Do you think there could be a possible build without such high magery and with archery instead?

[archaicsubrosa77]

Two things...you need to be able to heal, and you need to be able to defend.
With Stealth in the template I don't think it's possible.

Archery
Tactics
Anatomy
Healing
Music
Provoke
Magery 30
Resist 70

You'd have to use scrolls to mark and recall. Personally magery is the best companion for a bard. If I had to choose a weapon though it wouldn't be archery. If you wanted a stealth archer I would make a seperate character.

Archery
Tactics
Anatomy
Healing
Stealth 60
Hide
Magery 40
Resist

Magery at 40 so you can cast invisible from a scroll and stealth to reposition after intial attack.

[benny-]

A friend of mine used to play a similar build back on Chessy during T2A, I liked the char so much that I made my own when I first came here.

Provocation 100
Musicianship 100
Archery 100
Tactics 100
Magery 100
Meditation 80
Wrestling 60
Resist 60

Probably not the best template, but its fun to play nonetheless.
The basic tactic is to use provoke and rely on your archery to keep each mob balanced (hitting the one with more hits) and then finishing the remaining mob with a shot or two. The magery is used more for utility spells such as recall, invisibility, summons, and healing...with just a little bit of wrestling and resist so that you have a better chance of surviving should you get into a tough spot.

I think no matter what, you're going to need a good bit of magery when dealing with higher end mobs. Just my opinion, but if you're taking magery, may as well take enough to heal with it, rather than sacrificing two other skills for bandage heals....Hope that helps.

[Ross]

Ok fair comment about magery

What if I was to give it a more interesting slant and had a provo who could detect and avoid all of the pkers I will no doubt bump into in the dungeons?

Provocation
Music
Magery
Hiding
Detect?

[benny-]

Could cast reveal instead. =)

But really, hiding pks really aren't that common from what I've seen.

[Ross]

Sorry I meant tracking. Was on the phone and tried to type too quickly.

[archaicsubrosa77]

Talk to Malice about Panpipe he is exactly what you are talking about.

Tracking
Hiding
Detect Hidden
Music
Provocation
Magery
Resist, Wrestling, or Meditation...

basically he is your gating scout resser that can provoke things should you die while you loot your corpse

[Ross]

Thanks for the reply dude.

I've GM'ed Music now and am working on Prov (currently 50). So I need to start thinking about the rest of my build to work on next:

GM Music
GM Provocation
GM Magery
GM Hiding
GM Wrestling
70 Resisting Spells
70 Meditation
60 Tracking

The question is, how does tracking work exactly? With this build will I be able to provoke two monsters, hide, use tracking and watch to see if a PK is en-route a few screens away? Then rinse and repeat?

I'm thinking 70 Meditation will be ok because I won't be casting much.

I'm thinking 70 resisting spells will be enough to take the edge of off a spell or two if I ever get caught unawares.

GM Wrestling for when it does get hairy and I need to recall out of there?

I know some people will offer a pure stripped down Bard where everything works 100% effeciently but I really want to put a bit of a spin on my build and do some sort of character that can track any threat coming in and hide out of trouble and recall if need be. I am mostly going to be provoking two monsters on each other and then hiding.

Ideas?

[Ross]

Talk to Malice about Panpipe he is exactly what you are talking about.

Tracking
Hiding
Detect Hidden
Music
Provocation
Magery
Resist, Wrestling, or Meditation...

basically he is your gating scout resser that can provoke things should you die while you loot your corpse

I quite like the sound of this Bard. Do you think it would be pretty successful at PVM?

I really like the idea of a chicken shit "safety first" Bard.

[archaicsubrosa77]

Basically it is Malice's alt who is reknown to frequent dual balrons. It's more or less a blue PK that either tries to give you a criminal/murder flag thereby making you painlessly killable, reveals you as you hide before the deadly balrons, traps you in the hallway as you run from said balrons, then he provokes the balrons to put an end to them.
He is famous for setting them up in a recall spot many used to get into the area causing many to be killed upon entry having the only exits blocked forcing you to melee them both.

Also stealth is on that template. So I am guessing there is no resist or wrestling on him. I know he tracks, I know he provokes, I know he stealths, I have seen him cast so I am just assuming it's those skills.

Mage Bards don't have to be cowards, they just need to summon daemons instead of EV's...they are mages' pets.