Bard/Tamer : what would be a good template ?

[popps]

Mainly for Peerless and Doom.

Any advice ?

Particularly, since Taming takes up 3 of the 6 possible skills, and magery takes up another, basically, since musicianship is a must have for barding, a Tamer can only pick either Discord, Peacemake or Provoke.

Question is, for a tamer, not being able to pick more than one, which of these 3 (Discord, Peacemake or Provoke) is better and for what high end monsters ?

Or just scrap the Bard/Tamer althougether and go for a Spellweaver/Tamer ??

Thanks.

 

[Auladan]

This will be my first post on the Stratics forums; I'm a newly-returned player to UO, having never gotten very far, but now that I'm back I've wound up building what I call a "War Shepherd".

The template is:

Animal Taming (110)
Animal Lore (110)
Veterinary (100)
Herding (90)
Magery (100)
Musicianship (110)
Provocation (110)

*Note: I'm not GM yet on any of my skills, so the caps are subject to change.

Now I don't know how this, the War Shepherd, will fare in places like Doom (as I've never been to such dungeons), but so far it's been a blast. The general theme is that I can herd an army of creatures behind me to sling in to battle on my behalf, beside the might of my diligently trained pet, with Provocation.

 

[Aibal]

Disco tamer is probably the most practical/useful. I switch between bard/tamer and mage/tamer, as needed. I roll with

120 Taming
120 Lore
120 Vet
120 Magery
120 Music
120 Disco

You could take a few points from tame/lore/vet if you need them, you really can control anything with 110 taming/lore, but I want the extra stall spaces. I also have peace and spellweaving on stones to make the templates more versatile. When I'm rolling as a mage/tamer I replace the music/disco with eval/med.

 

[Kazumi the Wild]

This is the template I'm currently using (not quite fully trained) for my bard/tamer:

Taming 90 (110)
Lore 105 (110)
Vet 100 (100)
Music 110
Peace 120
Disco 110 (120)
Magery 85 (95)

I use a +15 taming/+10 disco ring and a +10 magery bracelet, alongside the Birds of Britannia Talisman, to bring the skills up to the paranthesed skills.

That gives me nearly the best bard skills, both defensive and offensive, alongside the ability to control with 99% Greater Dragons and below, as well as decent healing (magical and veterinary) and the ability to cast Invisibility without fail.

Had I the money for it, I might try soulstone hijinks to trade peacemaking and discord around, but I don't, so I won't.

 

[Wenchkin]

I've got a very similar template to Kazumi's, just using real skill for the taming skills and with provo instead of peace. I wear +10 music arms and provo jewels if necessary.

If I need the boost to magery eg for resurrecting folks in a group I'll take out a magery item or two, or just use scrolls, but I find 85 does me pretty well.

Wenchy

 

[Kazumi the Wild]

That tells me I'm doing something RIGHT for once... Thanks, Wenchkin!