Bards and Shield Arcane Spell Failure
Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 11:25 am
In all my years of playing NWN1+2, I've never once rolled with a bard. I know...for shame. Well I'm quite enjoying playing my level-7 bard now, kind of like a whole perspective on the game.
But I find myself wondering how people go about mitigating for arcane spell failure while using a shield. Heavy shields impose a 15% chance of failure, and light shields reduce that to 5%. I find few things more frustrating than failed spells, so I'd like to get that down to 0%.
I know there are light shields out there with -5% spell failure; but the ones that I've seen don't appear to come with any AC bonuses, so it's only a +1 to overall armor class (maybe a Magic Vestment scroll with UMD can help that). I haven't seen any heavy shields at all that help reduce arcane spell failure.
So do most of you shield-using bards stick to buffing spells and avoid casting damage spells in combat? Bards get a nice mix of buff/damage/utility spells so I'd prefer not to limit myself to buffing only. Does that mean I need to forego shields and aim more for a 2H-weapon? Or I guess try for that -5% ASF light shield for a whopping +1 AC.
Up to this point, I've just hotkeyed my shield so that I can unequip when I want to cast a spell in combat, fire off that spell, then re-equip to keep fighting. But it can be tricky to get the timing right, and it just plain feels clumsy.
I'm sure there are better ways to go about this. Anyone have any helpful tips to offer on how bards can make best use of shields while avoiding that annoying ASF?
But I find myself wondering how people go about mitigating for arcane spell failure while using a shield. Heavy shields impose a 15% chance of failure, and light shields reduce that to 5%. I find few things more frustrating than failed spells, so I'd like to get that down to 0%.
I know there are light shields out there with -5% spell failure; but the ones that I've seen don't appear to come with any AC bonuses, so it's only a +1 to overall armor class (maybe a Magic Vestment scroll with UMD can help that). I haven't seen any heavy shields at all that help reduce arcane spell failure.
So do most of you shield-using bards stick to buffing spells and avoid casting damage spells in combat? Bards get a nice mix of buff/damage/utility spells so I'd prefer not to limit myself to buffing only. Does that mean I need to forego shields and aim more for a 2H-weapon? Or I guess try for that -5% ASF light shield for a whopping +1 AC.
Up to this point, I've just hotkeyed my shield so that I can unequip when I want to cast a spell in combat, fire off that spell, then re-equip to keep fighting. But it can be tricky to get the timing right, and it just plain feels clumsy.
I'm sure there are better ways to go about this. Anyone have any helpful tips to offer on how bards can make best use of shields while avoiding that annoying ASF?
They are rare but available.