“You played the most beautiful tune I’d ever heard! I knew then…that you were spending far too much time on recreation!” - Sentinel Treak
Despite the best efforts of their adoptive guardian, Sentinel Treak (who’d much rather the Bard be a dedicated soldier, discipline above all!), the Bard devotes themselves to their craft and to protecting Arden. They were either exiled, a prodigal talent, or trained for other arts, but how their ballad in Sunderfolk is crafted depends on you!
The Beat of Combat
Using the power of music, the Bard focuses on map manipulation as well as supportive buffs to make their team shine. Their passive, Two-Step, can really help a melee teammate close the distance, or allow for quick and easy buffs right before getting into attack mode.
You can drop their Music Notes by swapping positions (as long as Two-Step is available), using certain abilities, or utilizing select trinkets and weapons to fill the battlefield with buffs. However, those can be trampled by enemies, so choose your positioning carefully!
Once you’ve completed the tutorial missions, you’ll have the following spells in your repertoire:
- Sharp Refrain: Move, deal single-target damage, then summon a Music Note next to the enemy you hit.
- Siren Song: Move, enchant a friend or foe to walk towards you, then move yourself again!
- Beat Drop: Leap right into the fray, push enemies away, then strut away in style.
Controlling the map is truly their speciality, though, with abilities that can move either allies or enemies, depending on the situation! While their ability Siren Song is picked up right at the beginning of the game, being able to position allies or enemies for setups gives it longevity that’s truly unmatched.
To complement their early board-blocking and bestie-boosting beats, the Bard will also receive the following abilities at higher levels:
- Shield Sonata: Hit an enemy, shield whichever ally was next to that enemy, then walk towards friends and shield them again!
- Power Chord: Deal damage to enemies around you, push them away, then buff your allies with some Strength!
- Crowd Surf: The best movement and repositioning spell, use your Two-Step passive to great effect then deal damage based on how much you moved!
Of course, you’ll get even more abilities as you level up and get stronger! And, with a clever selection of trinkets and/or weapons, you might even leave the Arcanist weeping in jealousy of your ability to manipulate your surroundings.
Playing With Fate
Just like all of our playable characters in Sunderfolk, The Bard’s Fate Deck will begin with the standard suite of cards that affect their attack damage output.
As they level up, more nuanced Fate Cards will appear! Many of these cards will provide the Bard self-buffs, so that they can stay alive even if they've beat-dropped themselves into a sticky situation, while others may kick off a buff-et for your friends to feast on!
The Bard can use Fate Cards to turn their builds into:
- ALL of the Music Notes: Deal -2 to your roll? Get some Music Notes. Extra Move on a Neutral card? You guessed it, Music Notes to accompany your small journey.
- Vicious Enemy Mockery: Become the debuff champion and make enemies regret even targeting you.
- Inspire and Revive: Want to Inspire your allies to attack enemies near them, without moving or using an ability card? Your Fate Decks can help! You can also set Fate Cards to Heal allies! All it takes is a lucky draw.
Ultimate Performance
Their Ultimate Ability, Mosh Pit, is the grand finale to the Bard’s kit once they reach level 6.
This ability gives the Bard five spaces of movement then deals area-of-effect damage to nearby enemies. But that’s not all! It also enchants all fellow party members, compelling them to move towards the Bard and attack any enemies within range after reaching their destination. It’s so punk rock.🤘!
No matter how good the Bard may be with positioning and support, they still can’t tank ALL of the damage…which leads to our next deep dive: the Berserker!
Stay tuned for more info on our beefy ursine guardian!
- The Sunderfolk Team
