TOPIC: Lute of Fury Discussion

Probably way too late for this, but I was thinking about the new UR lute and had a question. (And please forgive me if I overlooked the discussion in the pages upon pages of threads.)

How do bard players feel about the UR lute? The +1 hit is awesome (the party can’t do damage if it can’t hit!), but is it awesome enough to justify both dropping the damage to +1 AND not allowing multitasking? If I understand correctly, all of the other UR instruments allow one type of multitasking AND +2 damage (but no bonus to hit). Is this a balanced tradeoff?

The absence of multitasking is what troubles me because it makes playing the class less interesting. Instead of getting the effects of bard song and doing something cool (swing, shoot, cast, or scroll), it relegates bards to one dimensional singing and/or thumb twiddling.

Again, I know it is probably way too late, but it I think it would be AWESOME to resurrect Hawk Fingle’s idea from last year for a UR fiddle that allows wand use while singing. (Get it - the wand is the bow!) I think wand use is the only bard ability that cannot currently be multitasked while singing. Might have the side effect of restoring some excitement about Mystic Mouth, Fluorite Cube, and wands.

Boilerplate wrote: Probably way too late for this, but I was thinking about the new UR lute and had a question. (And please forgive me if I overlooked the discussion in the pages upon pages of threads.)

How do bard players feel about the UR lute? The +1 hit is awesome (the party can’t do damage if it can’t hit!), but is it awesome enough to justify both dropping the damage to +1 AND not allowing multitasking? If I understand correctly, all of the other UR instruments allow one type of multitasking AND +2 damage (but no bonus to hit). Is this a balanced tradeoff?

The absence of multitasking is what troubles me because it makes playing the class less interesting. Instead of getting the effects of bard song and doing something cool (swing, shoot, cast, or scroll), it relegates bards to one dimensional singing and/or thumb twiddling.

Again, I know it is probably way too late, but it I think it would be AWESOME to resurrect Hawk Fingle’s idea from last year for a UR fiddle that allows wand use while singing. (Get it - the wand is the bow!) I think wand use is the only bard ability that cannot currently be multitasked while singing. Might have the side effect of restoring some excitement about Mystic Mouth, Fluorite Cube, and wands.

I definitely wouldn't get the Lute for our Bard to use, because it's important to me to allow him to be able to slide. But, I might get it as an ingredient for the Legendary, if there is an alternate recipe involving trading in all the various UR Bard Instruments.

Yeah, I think think the UR is good by the Relic is great. I will try to be getting a Relic to loan out in any of my pug groups. Letting the Bard slide or cast spells is a great feature. The +1 to hit and damage is also great. As you said if you don’t hit you do 0 damage.

Ed

I think this is just how it is going to be for the class specials; the UR will be special in some way but slightly underpowered for an UR. Which allows the relic upgrade to be a nice boost without being overpowered (for a relic).

Since I sometimes play Bard, if there were no Relic or Legendary instruments, I would still get the Lute of Fury for the occasional time where the party is really having trouble hitting. In that case I would switch away from Widseth's and bust out this new one. If nobody is really hitting, including me, then that is an obvious good strategy. But I don't think I would use it much.

Kirk Bauer wrote: Since I sometimes play Bard, if there were no Relic or Legendary instruments, I would still get the Lute of Fury for the occasional time where the party is really having trouble hitting. In that case I would switch away from Widseth's and bust out this new one. If nobody is really hitting, including me, then that is an obvious good strategy. But I don't think I would use it much.

Widseth's is all our regular Bard really needs - pretty much all he does is sing and slide, which he enjoys. When he had to leave GENCON early and another party member filled in as Bard, she was amazed to find out the Bard actually had spells. I think she was the first Bard in our group to actually cast a spell.

Feedback from my bard.

He uses lyre of lore first round, and will likely continue to do so even with the UR. Most useful to him would be if the lute of fury to allowed lore checks.

He is slightly bummed that its +1 / +1 instead of +1 / +2. For a UR he didn't expect to have damage reduced from an uncommon (magnificent bard's instrument)

His final thought was it should have a damage wheel and be a 2 handed melee weapon. To quote him "Doesn't the Lute of Fury sound like something you would bash an Orc in the head with?"

Right now I believe his plan is to get it mostly to transmute it to the lute of free fury - little bit of a bummer for his first purple.

Endgame wrote: Feedback from my bard.

He uses lyre of lore first round, and will likely continue to do so even with the UR. Most useful to him would be if the lute of fury to allowed lore checks.

He is slightly bummed that its +1 / +1 instead of +1 / +2. For a UR he didn't expect to have damage reduced from an uncommon (magnificent bard's instrument)

His final thought was it should have a damage wheel and be a 2 handed melee weapon. To quote him "Doesn't the Lute of Fury sound like something you would bash an Orc in the head with?"

Right now I believe his plan is to get it mostly to transmute it to the lute of free fury - little bit of a bummer for his first purple.

As primarily a bard player with mostly reds, I share this sentiment. First round of combat I would open with the Lyre of Lore, and each subsequent round would be with the +1 Blowgun Flute so I could bardsong and slide.

As Kirk mentioned, if the group was having trouble getting hits in, that's when I would switch to the Lute of Fury to help ensure the rest of the group can hit. knowing that I'm still contributing to group damage that way.

Otherwise, I would also just keep the UR as an ingredient for transmuting to the Free Fury relic.

This is all very interesting to me. Still eager for other thoughts, but it sounds like people might see the chief merits of the UR being as a transmute ingredient and as a limited use token for when the party is really struggling to hit. And people seem to dislike the absence of multitasking relative to other UR and rare instruments.

If that’s the case, would be nice if the UR lute could stand on its own as a token of comparable value and use to widseth, briano, and amorgen. Kinda sad to hear people say they are only interested in it for transmute purposes (and rather limited tactical situations).

I can see why it is missing the additional action portion, since +1 to hit is probably a lot more important than +1 damage for a Bard instrument. It does seem like the main purpose is as part of the path to the Relic or Legendary.

Maybe it should have been +1 to hit with no damage bonus, and allowed attack slides as well. +1 to hit might have been balanced with the +2 damage from Widseth's.

I think +1 to hit is important, but it takes the bard out of the combat more by not allowing them to do anything else.

As initially written it a was +2/+2
Relic +2/+2 and actions
Legendary +3/+3 actions, and save reroll

Which were probably all too good.

Though the sting of not sliding would be helped a LOT by the additional + to hit.

I could see +1/+0 and may attack with this weapon in melee on the UR lute.

I agree this ur meh.

Certainly I wouldn’t get it to use it, given the difference between it and uncommon or rare instruments.

It’s a nice pickup in a pyp pack.

But! The relic is amazing - it combines the powers of every existing ur bard instrument and extends them.

So I View this as a stepping stone to the relic.

I hope lots and lots of relics get made so future bards can benefit.