Howdy y’all, today we’re going to be taking a look at one of the hardest classes to recreate in a plain ol’ vanilla Skyrim, the traditional Bard. Sure, you can throw around Illusion spells and swing a staff, but playing musical instruments? Wearing a funny feathered hat? That’s beyond Skyrim’s scope.
But not anymore!
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Core Mods
Requires: SKSE, SkyUI
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: Yes
Pick up a lute from Belethor and become Skyrim’s next great skald! Perform in taverns with a simple power to earn meager coin from patrons and get a room from the barkeep, free of charge. Advance your skill as a Bard by playing in shady taverns around Skyrim and earn Speech experience, and you could even end up playing for jarls and kings and they might give you a gift. If you’re worried about playing Ragnar the Red and sounding like Sven, don’t worry; the mod adds tons of new ditties and hummable tunes to help you draw in tips.
* Playable Instruments - Play and Bash
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Take your song to the streets or taverns to earn coin, or even dungeons. Buff your teammates like a real bard, with your awesome magical song! You can even distract your enemies with the beat of your drum, inflicting debuffs. However, undead are tone deaf and cannot appreciate the Illusion-based song magic of bards.
Requires: SKSE, SkyUI
Performance Strain: Medium
MCM Menu: Yes
Enhances the tavern experience throughout Skyrim. Rent a room for a few days or week and expect to pay a little more than ten measly coins for a night in Solitude’s finest, but a good barkeep will appreciate a loyal customer and offer discounts. It also completely reworks the interiors of inns and taverns to make them reflect their locales, rather than generic game assets.
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Medium (Low option)
MCM Menu: No
Bring some more patrons into your inns! Fill Skyrim’s dull and lifeless taverns with the townsfolk who should actually be there, relaxing in the evenings with a bottle of mead and listening to your latest, greatest hit. It also brings in some ambient sounds to make the crowded taverns more lively, so it sounds like people are actually having some fun.
* The Rookery: Player house by Elianora
Requires: All DLC
Performance Strain: Medium
MCM Menu: No
A small loft with a lived-in feel, plenty of static armors, and the crumpled up sheet music of a tormented artist, the Rookery overlooks Solitude’s courtyard and is ideal for a bard who calls the capital city home.
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
For the more studious-minded among you, this empty starter room in the Bard’s College has all the hallmarks of a slightly depressing college dorm room, except draped in green silks with antique noble chests for storage.
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Gear & Equipment
Armor: Light
Acquired: Crafting (Leather)
Compatible: Vanilla body; beast races ok; males+females
Although having a few other cool-looking armors, the Bard Armor contains a poofy-sleeved shirt, rivet-studded vest, feathered hat, and clanking tankard for… water. Yeah. Water.
* Dreamburrows Regal Huntsman / Dreamburrows Regal Assassin
Armor: Light (optional Clothing for the Regal Assassin)
Acquired: Crafting (Leather)
Compatible: Vanilla body; beast races ok; males+females
Layered armors with more of an Oriental flair and a threatening, “I can definitely beat you in a swordfight” feel to them, Dreamburrow’s detailed armors are definitely not to be missed.
* Grace Darklings Attire Packs
Armor: Clothing
Acquired: Crafting (Tanning Rack)
Compatible: Vanilla body; beast races ok; female only
Finally! The Nexus has made a female dress mod that doesn’t make it look like she has cantaloupes in her bra. The long-sleeved, reasonable dress with over a dozen colour variations looks fit for both traveling on the road and performing in the humble inns along it.
Armor: 3 Light, 1 Heavy
Acquired: Crafting (Leather)
Compatible: Vanilla body; beast races ok; females only
Each armor has a niche aesthetic that it works well for: Plate Armor looks regal and martially powerful, like a skald in the army; Huntress Armor fits the simple bardess, the humble Falkreath lutist; Pirate Armors are clean-pressed for even the staunchest Solitude soiree.
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Quests & Adventures
* Graduate at the Bards College v2
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Take a major at the Bard’s College and follow through with assignments and exams if you want to get your degree. Attend lectures and delve into quests to fetch artifacts and enhance the College.
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Skills
Requires: SKSE, SkyUI
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: Yes
A full-blown perk overhaul, it focuses on adding more gameplay mechanics for different player classes, so expect to see it here a lot. For bards, the Speechcraft tree now includes things like battlesongs, a Perform mechanic to play for coin, with serious perks to improve them all -- a drumbeat that heals allies, performing for the opposite sex for double tips, force enemies to dance to your compelling song.
Requires: SKSE
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
With all these silent NPCS (... Have you been to the Cloud District?), it can sometimes feel a little lonely to be a bard. Have a conversation with them, trade or gift them, fight, or beg for help in a fight.
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
When bards demand your money or your life, as a well-off silver tongued bard, you should be able to say, "Alrighty, then." The new yielding mechanic is balanced and kept simple in gameplay terms with a slight buff to vanilla perks and addition of Shouting ones.
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Misc.
* Vilja in Skyrim: New bard companion and quest line
Requires: SKSE
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Made by an absolute legend of follower mods, Vilja is a young alchemist from Solstheim and feels more alive than any of Bethesda’s NPCs. Not only is she better scripted to be a companion, she grows with you from a crap archer and meager healer into a powerful warrior. She can craft, spar, create potions from single ingredients, cook, make torches, and lead other followers. For the bards, she can play music or you can invite her to perform with you for coin.
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Now, the bards of Skyrim understand exactly how shit they are and unless anyone asks them to sing, they will provide some ambient string or flute music only.
* Craftable Vanilla Instruments
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Do you really want to loot your lute from a filthy draugr nest? Who knows what those ancient Nords have done to it. Craft them yourself at a tanning rack and use them like you would those filthy bandit flutes.
* A lute from Witcher 3
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain
Replies
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