Template: Provocation Bard (Tri-Bard)

Unverified community build

A classic-era community bard build (Stratics / UO Outlands wiki / UO forums) adapted to this shard’s caps, not yet field-verified here. Bard ranges and success rates await in-game confirmation; file discrepancies per wiki conventions.

The provocation bard wins without a pet and without out-damaging anything. You stand at the edge of a fight and make the monsters kill each other — provoke the dragon onto its own kin, discord whatever’s left, peace the one that’s still angry at you, and walk in to loot the survivor. The “tri-bard” runs all three song skills plus a weapon to finish stragglers. It is pure crowd control.

The build (seven GM, ~700 total)

On this shard skills cap at 100.0 each and 700.0 total (Config/PlayerCaps.cfg). The four bard skills are the core; the last three slots make you self-sufficient:

Skill	At	Role
Musicianship	100	Gates and boosts every bard skill
Provocation	100	Turn monsters on each other
Discordance	100	Debuff a target’s resists and skills
Peacemaking	100	Stop a monster attacking (calm/area peace)
weapon skill (Swordsmanship / Fencing / Mace Fighting — pick one)	100	Finish stragglers
Tactics	100	Damage multiplier for the weapon
Anatomy	100	Damage + bandage healing

Total: 700.0. The weapon/Tactics/Anatomy block makes you a competent dexxer between songs; swap that block for Magery + Meditation + Eval Int if you’d rather finish with spells and have Recall built in. Either way, the four bard skills are non-negotiable.

Power scrolls go past 100 here

On modern OSI this build runs 120s via power scrolls from champion spawns and treasure chests. Power scrolls raise a skill’s cap past 100.0 on this shard too — useful here because every point of bard skill extends your range and success. Treat the 100s above as the default endgame, not a ceiling.

What it does

The three songs are a control toolkit; Musicianship gates all of them (each attempt rolls against Music first), and Music over 100 adds extra success to the other three.

• Provocation — pick two monsters; on success they fight each other. This is the engine: a roomful of spawn becomes two sides killing themselves while you watch. A failed provoke can turn the target on YOU, so success rate (and therefore Music) matters a lot.
• Discordance — debuff a target’s resists and skills so it loses the duel you started, or so your weapon finishes it faster.
• Peacemaking — calm a monster so it stops attacking; area peace shuts down a whole pull. Your panic button when a provoke goes wrong.

Range. Bard skills reach about 8 tiles, +1 per 15 skill — so at GM you work from a comfortable distance and don’t have to be in the scrum. That standoff range is the build’s safety margin.

Stages and playstyle

• Early: Musicianship first — it gates everything and gains just by playing near creatures. Start Peacemaking (safest to train) and your weapon block on trash mobs.
• Mid: introduce Provocation on paired spawn — two of the same nearby monsters provoke most reliably. Learn the rhythm: provoke A onto B → disco the winner → peace anything that targets you → finish with the weapon.
• Endgame: stand at range in a dense dungeon, set the whole room against itself, and loot the survivor. You clear group content solo because you never take the hits — the monsters do.

The feel is a conductor’s, not a fighter’s: positioning, timing, and managing several targets at once. See bard and combat (advanced).

Gear and pets

• Instruments: carry several — they wear out. A slayer instrument improves bard success against its monster type and is worth buying for tough spawn.
• Weapon + armor: for the dexxer finish — a fast weapon and a real suit, since you do occasionally get hit.
• No pet — this build’s “army” is the enemy. That keeps your control-slot and upkeep costs near zero.
• Stats: STR/DEX for the weapon half (or INT if you take the Magery variant).

Money

Excellent gold-per-hour at the top of the hunting ladder: dense spawn is where provocation shines, so you farm packed dungeon rooms and champion spawns that would overwhelm a solo dexxer. You loot every corpse including the ones the monsters killed for you, and champion spawns drop the power scrolls that extend your bard skills. Slayer instruments and a good weapon are the only real upkeep.

Decision points

• If provokes keep failing (or turning on you), your Musicianship is too low — Music gates and boosts every song. Grind it first.
• If two monsters won’t provoke onto each other, they may be too far apart or out of range — close to within ~8 tiles (+1 per 15 skill) or pick a closer pair.
• If a provoke turns the monster on you, Peacemaking it immediately — that’s what the song is for.
• If you want a pet army instead of an enemy army, see the Bard Tamer — same Discordance core, very different feel.
• Mistake: skimping on Music to fit more “real” skills. Every bard attempt rolls against Music; under-investing there makes the whole build unreliable.
• Mistake: provoking into a pull you can’t peace out of. Always keep Peacemaking ready as the escape valve.