The Bard Not-Quite-A-Challenge Challenge

[Languard]

Well, in the original challenge thread, someone mentioned that Bards might be a good choice to try and solo the game with.

I'm here to tell you that after level 13 with a female bard, there is no challenge

The setup: An elven female bard, Charisma at 17, starting hp of 15 I believe, using 2.01b. Started off abusing my charisma by haggling the shop keeper below 50% on purchase price, then selling back. Earned enough to get my AC down to 2 before losing patience :p Started the die/reload cycle until I was level 3 and had enough gold to buy the sleep song and get the bluesteel short sword. Life is much easier at this point, and slowly crawl my way to level 13 fighting townies.

At this point, you can hear a nice little 'crack' as the game balance shatters

Play Proud Mary, get a +2 to charisma. Save game, go to palace, and look for Warmongers (I think that was the name, don't have the game installed on this machine). First round, use Charm to give another +2 to charisma. Second round play sleep song, third round cancel, and forth and subsequent rounds, wail on the critters. Do this a few times and you'll end up with a wedding ring that gives yet another +2 to charisma. You'll also rapidly level up to 25, at which point you can make an amulet with yet another bonus to charisma. At this point you will sleep anything and everything.

Oh, and to make it worse, if you feel like exploiting the code you can do this: Play Proud Mary, play the Combat song, then play Proud Mary again. You now have a +4 bonus to charisma. Repeat for a total of +6 to charisma. You are now God, assuming you get your sleep song off before something hits you.

Currently have my bard at level 46, and I just cleared the catacombs.

[Growler]

Most interesting...Most intriguing.. maketh moi wish to give ye olde Bard a beastly skirl. Never gave a Bard a chance to test his/'er mettle on the field o' battle.

Well, just wait 'til ye enter the Guard's Dark Tower.. Then see if the lack of challenge grinds to a bloody halt--or not.

Best hope for ultra-High Dexterity to play ye sleepy tunes 'fore the agile murderous ones stab yer handsome Bardic lass in her lithesome back!

So what are ye Bard's other stats?
And what other gear is she sporting?

[Languard]

Song Bird - Level 49 Bard

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 17
IQ: 13
Wisdom: 17
Charisma: 24
Comeliness: 22
Luck: 20

AC: -15
HP: 327

[Languard]

And done. At level 57, Devil Whiskey has been completed.

And it was still easy street in the tower

[Growler]

All Hail the Mighty Song Bird! 8)

Rather impressive, M. Languard.

So how did ye ease your way through the gallows of the Guard's Tower?
How did ye survive in those times when big baddies got 1st licks??
Approx how many hours did yer solo quest require?

Guessing you played/completed the game prior to Bardly solo'ing?

Regardless the how's'n'y's--Congrats!
Ye've done a man's job--if with a girlie's bod.

[Languard]

Hmm...I'd say about 6-8 hours of playtime to do this. Probably would have been faster if it hadn't been so long since the last time I played.

I ran from all but the treasure chest fights and the stairway fights in the guard tower. I did end up fighting maybe 5 random fights that I failed to run from. I lucked out and got two +dex items, raising it to 19. That plus the fact that almost everything starts out 20' or further away, I almost never got hit. I had to reload a few times on one of the stair battles because of the darn green things that spray poison. About half of that group would get to attack me first, so I had to wait for them to not poison me Also had to do a reload twice on the final fight due to getting stunned on the first round.