Bard's Tale 4 - Practitioner Class Guide

Sep. 17, 2018

Bard’s Tale 4 – Practitioner Class Guide

In thisBard’s Tale 4Guide we will check out thePractitionerClassand share some tips on how to play it effectively. Practitioners are essentially mages and can deal with any situation due to a wide array of offensive abilities, be it elemental attacks, summoning, or just moving everyone around…They are typically damage dealers but also have some powerful buffing and debuffing abilities as well.

Practitioners occupy the DPS Role for the most part and have lowConstitutionso they are best played from back row. They have a wide variety of skills that can target lots of hexes. Pairing Practitioner with aTrow Rogueleads to great DPS potential because Rogues can finish off enemies previously wounded by Practitioners fast and easy, and also restore 1 Opportunity due to the Trow racial passive.

The Practitioner playstyle benefits most from theElf,TrowandBaed HumanRaces:

Elf Race Passiveincreases Focus by30%and that is important for Practitioners because they have a lot of channeled abilities. More focus means you can take more mental damage before a channeled ability will be canceled. On top of that you also receive +1 Spell Point if you are an Elf.

Trow Race Passiverestores Opportunity once per round if you kill an opponent. Trow works great with Bladecasting focused Practitioners since they do a lot of instant single target damage, but should be avoided for channel focused builds.

Baed Human Race Passiveoffers 3 additional skill points (levels 3, 10 and 18) which works excellently with any Class. More Skill Points = a more deadly Practitioner.

Practitioners have many abilities and can be built in many ways. The most important thing to know about Practitioners is that Spells mostly use onlySpell Pointsand not Opportunity. That means you can do many attacks in one round because offensive abilities that use Spell Points do not cost Opportunity, while offensive abilities that use Opportunity do not use Spell Points.

Practitioners start off withCharged Bolt,Arcane BarrageandSlinking Assault, and all 3 of these abilities are very useful. Charged Bolt can hit all enemies in a column, Arcane Barrage does Mental Damage (which means it can break enemy’s focus), and Slinking Assault can be used to move to the back row while dealing significant damage.

Practitioners receive1 Spell Pointeach round but that can be boosted significantly by many skills such asSoul Leech,Meditationand fromCritical Hitswith most attacks.

Another way to regain Spell Points quickly is throughElixir of Focus. It instantly restores Spell Points and increasesIntelligence, making it a must for any Practitioner that uses channeled abilities frequently.

Practitioners can be built in many ways and here are just couple of viable build ideas:

Archmages focus on using powerful spells likeWarstrike,Mangar’s MalletandSpectre Touchto kill opponents quickly.Soul Leech,MeditationandElixir of Focuswill take care of all your Spell Points needs. Important Attributes for an Archmage areStrength,IntelligenceandSpell Pointsso use any equipment that boosts those stats.

Important Skills for Archmage:

Bladecasters focus on using Daggers to do massive damage with Slinking Assault andBlood for Blood, which is only increased by the amount of Spell Points available. Meditation and Elixir of Focus can fill up Spell Points in the first round so that more damage is done with each attack afterwards.Blood Pactalso offers a 30% chance to restore 1 Spell Point for each Dagger hit. Important Attributes for Bladecasters areStrengthandSpell Points.

Important Skills for Bladecaster:

Summoner Support

Summoner Support focus on summoning Monsters to aid your party and using abilities Dancing Lights, Feathered Charm and Oscon’s Halt Foe to disrupt enemy forces. Vorpal Plating is another great support ability that enhances an ally’s weapon so that it deals more damage.  How many points you want to invest into each Skill Path depends on the abilities you want to use. So, if you want to be more support based summoner then go for Vorpal Plating. If you want to be more summon oriented then go for Grand Summoner. Important Attributes for Summoner Support are Spell Points and Constitution.

Important Skills for Summoner:

Practitioners are a versatile bunch that can be built in many ways.Summoners,Bladecasters,Archmagesor any other builds offer solutions for every problem you might be facing. And, as Builds can be quite different, don’t forget that gear must match the build to maximize the potential of Practitioners. Gear is the primary means of increasing Attributes inBard’s Tale 4.

Practitioners are a very fun class to play but it can be tough at times to keep them alive, and that is why keeping them in back row behind a tanky character is recommended.

If you are playing the game, check out theBard’s Tale IV: Barrow’s Deep Wiki. You should also have a look at ourGetting Started Guide, or check out otherBards Tale 4: Barrows Deep Class Guides!

Mastazajeb

Pretty much born with gamepad in my hands and been gaming ever since. Love for RPGs started with Fallout 1 and 2. Free time is used for more gaming, training, watching MMA, soccer, movies and moaning about today’s world and the stuff that kids do these days. What do they do besides phones and CoD anyway?