Quick Bard skill/instrument questions

[jolanar]

If a song is a brass song for example, but I don't have a brass instrument equipped, does it still use the brass skill to determine whether or not the song fails or does it use the singing skill?

What exactly do instrument skills do, besides determine whether or not the song fails? (Do they even do that?)

[thebutthat]

The instruments are a modifier if I understand correctly. If you don't use an instrument then yes it's singing, aka base value. Could be wrong though. Still working on my p99 Ph D.

[zanderklocke]

Instruments do not determine if you miss a note or not when starting a song up.

Instruments are a modifier to a song's effectiveness. Let's say you have drums of the beast that lists "Percussion Instruments: 26". Any song you use that is percussion based will get a 2.6 multiplier to the song's effectiveness. So a spell like Tuyen's Chant of Frost (a dot) will do 2.6 times more damage each time it ticks.

Certain aspects of spells are not modified by instruments, like haste or mana regeneration. Checking out the bard page on the wiki should give a lot of helpful information on this.

[Troxx]

If your brass skill is 10 and singing skill 200 you will miss more notes trying to sing a brass song with horn equipped than without.

If skill is equal, equipping or not equipping an instrument makes no difference. In that scenario it's just luck and your dexterity/charisma.

[jolanar]

If your brass skill is 10 and singing skill 200 you will miss more notes trying to sing a brass song with horn equipped than without.

If skill is equal, equipping or not equipping an instrument makes no difference. In that scenario it's just luck and your dexterity/charisma.

Thanks that's the answer I was looking for.