How do I...?

How do I....

- Fascinate (Bardsong) multiple creatures? Seems I can only target one creature with my level 8 Bard.

- Use a Bard's Intimidate song on a Fascinated creature? No such option on the radial.

- Aid another? Again, no such option on the radial.

- Grapple? Haven't seen that one either. Are these all hotkeys or something?

- Find those hidden objects (such as Child's Toy, hidden scrolls, etc), other than clicking on every single pixel? Search, tab key and detect magic all fail, which frankly is dumb and irritating. Would even True Seeing show them?

 

I have only answers for two of the questions, so see below.

 

I don't mean this in a rude or judgemental way, I'm just shocked nobody here knows the answers. Given the depth of knowledge around here, I can't believe nobody has ever tried any of these actions. They appear in both context help and the original manual, and in some cases are fairly essential. After a certain level, it's fairly pointless to continue adding bard levels if you take additional Fascinate targets and the Intimidate song out of the equation. And this game's primary focus is on getting the very most out of the combat engine, so I have a hard time believing nobody ever tried Aid Another, Grapple etc.

 

Well YMMV with how you play and extra bard levels do give you more spells and skills. As for the others, I personally think the game does the best it can for a system that was rushed into production and the great effort of the Mods in improving all they can.

 

So do I. I'm very impressed, both with the original game and CO8's improvements. It's just weird that I'm the first person to notice these discrepancies. I figured there would be seasoned veterans who have played every different class, alignment, etc. who would immediately know the answers.

 

Hi Ted. Sure thing. I'll also note where they appear within the in-game help system hierarchy in parentheses.

Aid Another: pp. 107-8 (Combat->Special Attacks->Aid Another)

Grapple: pp. 84, 94, 107 (Combat->Special Attacks->Grapple)

Fascinating multiple targets: pp. 40 (Classes->Bard->Fascinate)

Bardic Intimidate ability: pp. 38, 41, 150 (Classes->Bard->Intimidate)

And a couple more I didn't mention in my OP:

Bull Rush: pp. 28 (Combat->Special Attacks->Bull Rush)

Drop Prone: does not appear in manual, appears in in-game help under (Combat->Free Actions)

If these are hidden inside the game somewhere and unimplemented, it would be awesome to see them reactivated as restored content. I tend to be good at digging up these kinds of tidbits...obsessed with details, I suppose. I found a few bugs and such that Drog missed in Arcanum too.

On the other hand, maybe they wrote the manual and the in-game help first, and then wrote the game

 

That might be more true than you realize. Typically, documentation has to be finished well before the coding is complete (localization, printing, and so on). So, it could be that these are items that were fully intended to be in the final game, but got cut for various reasons (dev cost, time to release, etc.)

 

I know, I've written them. A VERY long time ago, in another life, I've been both coder and doc writer.

 

So I guess two of the best reasons to take a Bard didn't make it into the game. Sadface. That's really dumb. Next time it's just fighter/wiz I guess :|

 

They are still worth it, just the first bard's song is worth it with +1 to attack and save rolls. The competence song can help out on that tough, locked chest and i always sing to any wizard scribing scrolls (+2 to all skill checks).

 

Sure, all the way to level 3. I'm level 9.