On Sat, 4 Mar 2000, Daniel P. Sniderman wrote:

>
> Most casters' spells do not increase in power as they level and become
> obsolete as the new spells are granted... I would guess that the universe
> of useable spells is pretty similar for Bards as for casters at any given
> level.
>
> And perhaps we have it BETTER... At 36 with Celerity - I use our Level 1
> Song - Chant of Battle - it gives AC +4, STR and Dex +14. How many casters
> use spells granted at level 1 when they're level 36?

I debunked this in the bard petition thread on the official
boards. At level 40, a shaman can outbuff Celerity + Chant,
using mostly L16-24 buffs. Doing so takes less than half his
mana regeneration rate - he has the rest to nuke, heal, etc.

The primary advantage I see bards having is the combination of
abilities they can provide - healing, clarity, stat buffs,
crowd control, speed buffs/debuffs. No other class covers
such a wide variety. But in terms of quantity (number of
buffs at once) or quality (power of the buffs, resists
excepted) a bard comes nowhere near the other classes.

--
John H. Kim
kim@...