I’ve just gotten the new Bard’s Tale for PC, and it came with the original three Bard’s Tale games.
What’s a good party to go with for a newbie playing the first game? I’ve been in the mood for some old-fashioned dungeon romping.
Can’t go wrong with a warrior, paladin, monk, magician, conjurer, conjurer.
I played a bit of the second one, but those stupid spinner traps made me give up. Navigating those mazes was annoying as it was, even with the map sitting in front of me. The spinners just made it an exercise in frustration.
Wouldn’t I need a rogue?
Nah, they do it from behind.
I remember BT1 being particularly cruel to you early. Your freshly-minted party would walk out of the adventurer’s guild and take two steps towards the weapon shop, then be jumped by a random encounter of, say 7 skeletons, 4 rogues, 2 barbarian, and 8 kobolds.
Cool, here’s the original hint book in PDF form:
Yeah, I died sooo many times before I finally finished the sewers. After that it wasn’t too bad.
Edit: BT3 was the best by a wide margin, imo.
You need a thief for BT3. Unfortunately, you don’t find this out till the end-game. Other than that, I think any reasonable party makeup works.
I’d say only BT3 is worth the effort.
Automapping FTW!
/M.
You need a thief for BT3. Unfortunately, you don’t find this out till the end-game. Other than that, I think any reasonable party makeup works.
I can’t remember how or why, but somehow I knew that when I started playing on the Commodore all those years ago. I probably saw “Thief of Fate” on the box decided I should definitely have a thief along for the ride.
I’d say only BT3 is worth the effort.
Automapping FTW!
I remember mapping the dungeons/towns to be quite enjoyable. In fact, it was one of the highlights of playing the games for me. Every map was 16x16 on the grid paper so you know when you were wrapping around and such.
Of course, that might have been because I was in high school and had little else to do with my time…
You will need a Bard during at least one dungeon of each of the three games.
Bards are reasonably handy anyway.
I seem to recall I would go with:
Paladin, Monk, Bard, Rogue, Magician, Conjurer.
I never had BT3, but I played both BT1 and BT2 to completion, albeit with the hint books. The hint books were pretty impressive as I recall - written as the “adventuring journals” of the parties that tried before and failed.
22 by 22.
Actually, I did a piece on Bard’s Tale for Gamer recently, going back and actually playing a decent chunk of the first one. In fact, I decided that without the manual mapping there’s absolutely no point to playing it now. It’s basically a game about mapping. Everything else has been completely superseeded and embarassingly clunky, but the basic puzzle aspect - i.e. getting the space down on paper - actually is relatively compulsive.
I was also absolutely shocked by how much muscle memory of the routes through Skara Brae I appeared to have. I was finding my way from the Guild to the Catacombs blindfolded worryingly quickly.
KG
22 by 22.
Hey, I was close. Heh.
Hunter, Monk, Bard, Rogue, Magician, Conjurer for me. The early game is fatal enough, however, that you can pretty much change it on the fly.
Heh, I know Skara Brae better than my home town.
I loved all 3 games, but the third one has the most ease of use features (specifically automapping), so it’s the only one I go back to at this point. The hint books can keep these games from becoming exercises in frustration.
How do I restore HP in the first game, anyway? The manual’s being obtuse.
As far as I can recall, you can pay to heal at temples. One of the bard songs (maybe number 4?) gives healing. Your conjurer will start getting healing spells at spell level 2. Magicians get the best healing spell in the game - Restoration, at spell level 7. There are also various magic items that can provide healing, most notably the Staff of Lor, which casts restoration when used.
And one of the best reasons to get this game imho…it’s a shame the xbox version didn’t include them also(well not really - they would be very awkward to play on console). This is a handy site for some info on the old games(maps/tips etc):
Hah, I have the GS/OS updates of the IIGS versions of Bard’s Tale I and II. I have automapping. I wanted to put these on the GBA years ago, shame there isn’t really a market and the IP issues are a bit dicey.