Barding Difficulty List

By Nadya Modavia of Catskills, Legendary Bard

 

(Updated for Ultima Online: Age of Shadows)

 

My grandfather Leurocian informed me that more creatures can now be swayed by a bard’s song and dance.  This list has been updated based on the recollection of a conversation I recently had with him.

 

I want to give special thanks to Vex for providing me with a bard skill debugging option on Test Center.  This allowed me to retrieve difficulty ratings quickly and accurately.  I also want to thank Hanse for taking me to Green Acres on Test Center and summoning a bunch of hard to find critters for me.  Lastly, I want to thank the UO community for helping me along the way with acquiring accurate barding information.               

 

Click here to use Bard Skill Calculator

 

 

Update for Peacemaking in Publish 21.  I asked Vex about this, and here are my questions to him and his responses:

 

Q: I wanted to update my UO bard page after Pub 21 with the new peacemaking adjustment.  Do you know what the % chance for critters to break peace when hit will be?  And how is it calculated?

 

A: Basically, with Pub 21, every time a monster is hit its chance to break the peacemake effect is increased by 0.1% for each point of damage taken, and the chance is tested right then.  This means that if you peace a critter and don't attack, it's still likely to remain under peacemake effect for a good while.  However, attacking it will break the effect pretty quickly.

 

Q: Is this 'amount of damage taken' reset after each successful re-peace?

 

A: The effect is cumulative, so the more you hit the target the greater its chance of breaking the effect.

 

As always, thanks Vex for the information!

 

 

% Success Formula

·         50 + 2 * (Bard Skill - Bard Difficulty after Modifiers)

·         Look up creature’s base difficulty on list below (e.g., lich lord base difficulty is 106.4).

·         Apply all Bard Difficulty Modifiers as described below (e.g., exceptional instrument and Peacemaking reduce base difficulty by 15 points, so the Bard Difficulty for the lich lord becomes 106.4 – 15 = 91.4).

·         Subtract Bard Difficulty from Bard Skill (e.g., if Peacemaking is 100 then 100 – 91.4 = 8.6).

·         Multiply result of the subtraction by 2 (e.g., 8.6 * 2 = 17.2).

·         Add 50 to the result of the multiplication (e.g., 17.2 + 50 = 67.2).

·         % Success in the above example = 67.2%.

 

Bard Difficulty Modifiers

·         Instrument

·         Reduce base difficulty by 5 (10%) when using an exceptional instrument.

·         Reduce base difficulty by 10 points (20%) when using an enchanted instrument of aligned type.

·         Increase base difficulty by 10 points (20%) when using an enchanted instrument of opposite aligned type.

·         Musicianship

·         If Musicianship is above 100, subtract 100 from your Musicianship skill and divide the result by 2.  This is your Musicianship bonus.

·         Reduce base difficulty by your Musicianship bonus (e.g., 10 points for Musicianship of 120, 20%).  

·         Skill

·         Reduce base difficulty by 5 points (10%) when performing Provocation.

·         Reduce base difficulty by 10 points (20%) when performing Discordance or Targeted Peacemaking.

 

Notes

To figure out % success for provoking two creatures to fight, calculate % success separately for each creature, add them together, and divide by 2.

 

The base range of all bard abilities is 8 tiles, with each 15 points of skill in the ability being used increasing this range by one tile.

 

As of Age of Shadows, Discordance no longer reduces a creature’s stats: strength, dexterity, intelligence, hit points, stamina, and mana.  However, Discordance reduces physical resistance, all elemental resistances, and skills by up to 20% at Grandmaster and 28% and Legendary.  Swing rate, damage, and chance to evade are directly reduced; this is in addition to the skill reduction of anatomy, tactics, lumberjacking, weapon skill, wrestling, parry, etc.  Discordance still lowers a creature’s base barding difficulty.

 

To calculate a creature's base barding difficulty (before any modifiers are applied), go on Test Center, set Peacemaking to the absolute minimum skill allowed for a Targeted Peacemaking attempt, and add +35 to the minimum skill. 

 

For example: Dragon minimum difficulty that allows a Targeted Peacemaking attempt is 70.0.  70.0 + 35 = 105.0.

 

The difficulty numbers for Provocation, Discordance, and Peacemaking listed in the table below are the skill values required in those skills for 50% success.  Other modifiers (Musicianship bonus over 100, exceptional instrument bonus, and magical instrument bonus) are not included in the table below.  Difficulty ratings vary per creature and will generally fall within +/-2% of the values given below.  At this skill level –25.0, the bard has no chance of success and can’t make the attempt.  At this skill level +25.0, the bard is guaranteed success and cannot gain skill against this creature.

 

Creature (Alphabetical)

Difficulty

 

Creature (Numerical)

Difficulty

Acid Elemental

83.9

 

Vorpal Bunny

158.2

Agapite Elemental

72.9

 

Plague Beast Lord

144.5

Air Elemental

75.7

 

Ancient Lich (Khaldun)

135.9

Alligator

32.2

 

Sphinx

135.3

Ancient Lich (Khaldun)

135.9

 

Ancient Wyrm

131.4

Ancient Wyrm

131.4

 

Tentacles of the Harrower (Khaldun)

131.4

Ant Lion

77.8

 

Rotting Corpse

128.8

Arctic Ogre Lord

88.8

 

Serpentine Dragon

128.8

Balron

117.4

 

Shadow Wyrm

124.9

Betrayer

96.5

 

Skeletal Dragon

119.7

Bird

4.6

 

Balron

117.4

Black Bear

31

 

Devourer of Souls

114.3

Black Solen Infiltrator (Queen)

82.6

 

Gargoyle Destroyer

110.8

Black Solen Infiltrator (Warrior)

74.2

 

Exodus Minion Lord

110.6

Black Solen Queen

79.6

 

Meer Eternal

109.4

Black Solen Warrior

72.9

 

Phoenix

108.6

Black Solen Worker

58.3

 

Zealot of Khaldun (Summoner)

108.5

Black Widow

70.6

 

Ethereal Warrior

107.6

Blackthorn Juggernaut

82.2

 

Succubus

107.2

Blade Spirit

75.1

 

Lich Lord

106.4

Blood Elemental

94.9

 

Poison Elemental

105.1

Boar

7.5

 

Dragon

105

Bog Thing

86.1

 

Chaos Dragoon Elite

102.5

Bogling

61.5

 

White Wyrm

100.3

Bone Knight

69.1

 

Executioner

99.1

Bone Magi

71.4

 

Ophidian Matriarch

97.1

Brigand

72.6

 

Betrayer

96.5

Bronze Elemental

71.8

 

Juka Mage

96.3

Brown Bear

29.6

 

Fire Gargoyle

96

Bull

35.8

 

Zealot of Khaldun (Knight)

96

Bullfrog

29.2

 

Wandering Healer

95.8

Cat

6

 

Blood Elemental

94.9

Centaur

79.7

 

Orc Brute

94.3

Chaos Dragoon

83.8

 

Titan

93.6

Chaos Dragoon Elite

102.5

 

Exodus Minion

93

Chicken

3.4

 

Terathan Avenger

91.5

Controller

81.3

 

Terathan Matriarch

91.2

Copper Elemental

73.3

 

Elder Gazer

90.2

Corpser

37.8

 

Ogre Lord

90

Cougar

33.3