Combat
Discordance
Discordance is the other half of the bard: instead of stopping the monster, you make it materially worse at its job, cutting both what it hits for and how well it defends itself for a duration. Unlike Peacemaking it survives being attacked, so it is the song you open a real fight with and let run while everyone else works.
How hard each monster is to discord
The tougher the monster, the more skill it takes before your songs land reliably — and the top three tiers never become a certainty at all. The skill here is the skill your INSTRUMENT lets you play at (see the next table): the Grandmaster column is a Grandmaster on Valiwood. The last column is the hard ceiling on GAIN: play to a monster of that tier and your Discordance trains exactly as far as that tier can teach you, then stops. Training past it means finding something worse.
| Monster | 90% chance at | Never fails at | Grandmaster on Valiwood | Trains you to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trivial | 10.0 | 20.0 | 100% | 20.0 |
| Easy | 20.0 | 30.0 | 100% | 30.0 |
| Moderate | 30.0 | 40.0 | 100% | 40.0 |
| Challenging | 40.0 | 50.0 | 100% | 50.0 |
| Tough | 50.0 | 60.0 | 100% | 60.0 |
| Dangerous | 60.0 | 70.0 | 100% | 70.0 |
| Deadly | 70.0 | Never | 97% | 80.0 |
| Lethal | 80.0 | Never | 95% | 90.0 |
| Legendary | Never | Never | 70% | 100.0 |
What your instrument lets you play at
The wood caps how well your songs land, whatever your skill: Valiwood plays up to a full 100, each wood below it 11 less, and Blackwood a little past 100. A novice on a plain lute loses nothing until their skill outgrows it — then the next wood is what they need. The chances are a Grandmaster discording each kind of monster.
| Wood | Plays up to | Tough | Deadly | Lethal | Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood | 12 | 30% | 20% | 16% | 10% |
| Dullwood | 23 | 47% | 33% | 28% | 17% |
| Shadowwood | 34 | 65% | 46% | 40% | 24% |
| Copperwood | 45 | 82% | 60% | 52% | 31% |
| Bronzewood | 56 | 96% | 73% | 64% | 38% |
| Goldwood | 67 | 100% | 86% | 76% | 45% |
| Agawood | 78 | 100% | 92% | 88% | 52% |
| Veriwood | 89 | 100% | 94% | 92% | 59% |
| Valiwood | 100 | 100% | 97% | 95% | 70% |
| Blackwood | 111 (past Grandmaster) | 100% | 98% | 96% | 75% |
How far it drags a monster down
Flat penalties, not percentages, and they scale with the monster's tier as well as your skill — a few points of armour is a real dent in a rabbit and nothing at all to a balron. The figures below are what a Grandmaster strips; a complete novice manages 25% of it, rising steadily with skill.
| Monster | Damage | Armour |
|---|---|---|
| Trivial | -2 | -3 |
| Easy | -3 | -5 |
| Moderate | -4 | -7 |
| Challenging | -5 | -10 |
| Tough | -7 | -13 |
| Dangerous | -9 | -17 |
| Deadly | -11 | -22 |
| Lethal | -14 | -28 |
| Legendary | -17 | -35 |
How long it lasts
- Duration
- 30 seconds
- Does hitting it break the effect?
- No — unlike Peacemaking, it runs its full course