Combat

Musicianship

Musicianship is the gate in front of the other two bard skills. Every attempt to peace or discord something rolls against it first, and a fumbled note wastes the attempt and a charge off your instrument either way. At Grandmaster you stop fumbling entirely. It is also a hard ceiling on the other two — neither Peacemaking nor Discordance will train past your Musicianship, so this is the one to raise first.

How you train it Play an instrument at something. It trains whether the song lands or not, so the early failures are still progress.

What you need An instrument in your weapon hand, with charges left. Carpentry makes them.

Instruments

Every instrument is mechanically identical — pick whichever you like the look of. What changes the numbers is the WOOD, which sets both how many charges you get and how steadily you play. All five cost 6 boards of the chosen tier and are made through Carpentry.

Instrument	Boards
Lute	6
Drum	6
Lap Harp	6
Tambourine	6
Bamboo Flute	6

What the wood is worth

One charge is one attempted song. It is spent whether the song lands, misses, or falls apart in your hands — so a poor musician gets through a lot of instruments. Instruments cannot be repaired: when the charges are gone, the instrument is gone. The finer woods also play steadier — each tier is worth +5 Musicianship for the fumble roll — and, far more for a seasoned bard, they play BETTER: the wood caps the Peacemaking and Discordance you can land songs at, so even a Grandmaster needs Valiwood to play like one.

Wood	Charges	Steadier by	Songs that come out at 0 skill	Plays up to
Wood	40	—	20%	12
Dullwood	52	+5 skill	24%	23
Shadowwood	64	+10 skill	28%	34
Copperwood	80	+15 skill	32%	45
Bronzewood	100	+20 skill	36%	56
Goldwood	128	+25 skill	40%	67
Agawood	160	+30 skill	44%	78
Veriwood	200	+35 skill	48%	89
Valiwood	260	+40 skill	52%	100
Blackwood	320	+45 skill	56%	111

Getting the note out

At 0 Musicianship, plain Wood: 20% of your songs come out at all
At 50: 60%
At 100: 100% — a Grandmaster never fumbles
Your instrument: Its wood is added to your skill for this one roll — see the table above. Worth a great deal to a novice; a Grandmaster never fumbles anyway, but still needs the finer woods for their songs to LAND (the Peacemaking and Discordance pages have the numbers)
A fumbled song: Still costs the charge, and still trains Musicianship
What the wood cannot do: Lift the ceiling. Peacemaking and Discordance train against the Musicianship you have actually earned, never the instrument in your hands

🎵

An instrument goes in your weapon hand, so you fight bare-handed while you play — your swings use Wrestling — and you can still cast spells as normal. Punching never wears an instrument down; only songs spend its charges.

How quickly you can play

Between songs: 6 seconds at 100 Dexterity
At 10 Dexterity: 17.1 seconds
Why: Songs are paced by Dexterity exactly as a weapon swing is, so Agility Potions and Bless speed your playing up too
Stamina: Every song costs 10 Stamina, played or fumbled. Too winded and you cannot play until the bar comes back — even holding a single calm slowly wears the bar down, and singing flat out empties it fast

🎼

Raise this first. Peacemaking and Discordance can never train past your Musicianship, so a bard who neglects it stalls both other skills at once.

Other Combat skills

Swordsmanship Poisoning Fencing Macing Archery Throwing Wrestling Tactics Arms Lore Parrying Healing Anatomy Peacemaking Discordance