On Thu, 20 May 1999, Reece, Tom CPT - 30th Signal Bn wrote:

>
> Isn't the effect of the Lament only temporary? For example, lets say there
> are four orcs standing together. As a 10th level bard, I know I can't
> handle them all at once. I target the first three in order and sing the
> Lament. In my experience so far, by the time I finish singing the Lament on
> the 3d orc, its effects have already worn off on the first one I targeted.
> If I move in at that point, two will attack me (#1 and #4). Isn't this
> tactic really only useful with the Bellow (which I don't have yet)?

I haven't had a problem with duration. I'll have to time it
to be certain, but last night I lamented one dervish (not sure
if I had my mandolin equipped), we attacked and killed the
other, and the first dervish was still lamented. If you /con
the target you just lamented, you'll notice it changes from
threatening or ready to attack, to apprehensive. This is a
good way to check if those four laments you just did are still
holding as you get ready to take out the fifth mob.

Lament seems to work for a very long time for me, enough so
that duration has never been a problem and I have never
bothered experimenting with it with a mandolin. Maybe
charisma has something to do with it since it is a charm-type
song. I'll try timing it and report back.

Also, I'm not sure there's a four target limit for lament. I
know there is for area-effect songs, but the /con message
above tells me the song is changing an attribute in that
particular mob which lingers for x seconds after your song.
That is, it works differently from area-effect songs in that
the effect is not linked to the bard (i.e. no connection
between mobs that have been lamented).

--
John H. Kim
kim@...