I just realized that the Diablo 4 expansion starts tomorrow rather than on Tuesday (for NA/PST), which means my Bard’s Tale 3 play through is coming to an end. Truthfully, I was getting a little burnt out and while the thought experiment of having a three Geomancer party sounded novel, I figured it would just be too much of a hassle this late. Also, in saving the party, I can always pick it back up in the future. But I’ll talk briefly of where I ended up with this party and what I hope I can do if I ever decide to return.
For the most part, the two Geomancer + Monk setup was working out well enough. The Monk ended up being clean up but needed a critical hit or AoE ability to really be useful. Sure, there’s better support items that potentially could help out but I didn’t think it was worth the effort. My Geomancers ended up around levels 44 and 45. At this stage, they would usually hit and can one shot Rock Man monsters with their Petrify ability. One finally maxed out her attributes to 30 while the other needs about three more levels. I think with four more levels, they should be hitting more consistently. Also, both are capable of casting two NUKEs and one Divine Intervention, which I still need to acquire.
The Rogue also reached her max attribute level but has been quite consistent in reliably killing off the most dangerous opponents. My Bard probably is the weakest of the bunch because her attributes had been low for sometime and her level is in the mid 60s. I have her wielding the Strifespear as an emergency critical hit character but I think her lower attributes make it more difficult for her to hit consistently. So mostly, I use her for healing and Minstrel’s Shield. She does have one God Horn but I keep forgetting about it and really don’t see a need in employing it. I figure an item like that is better suited for emergencies as my Archmage and Chronomancer are more apt at tossing out unresistable NUKE spells.
I think both the Archmage and Chronomancer are in a good spot. The last thing that was disconcerting at times was my Archmage’s occasional failure to use Melee Men on Storm Demons. But I found that two NUKEs from both spell casters can take down a Storm Demon most of the time. But I tend to resort to double NUKEs when there’s more than one large group or some dangerous foes that are susceptible to magic.
Towards the end, I managed to find a Tung Plate and Wargloves but not another Stoneblade nor Titan/Diamond Suit. Because I’m missing those items, I still want to hold off on progressing my Monk to a Geomancer. Also, that gives me a little more time in developing the other two Geomancers. I thought about just temporarily swapping out one of the Geomancer’s Stoneblades for a Staff of Gods and making her more of a pure spell caster. However, at roughly 300 spell points, I would still need to refuel with Harmonic Gems every 4-5 casts.
In truth though, I don’t think things will drastically change. It just will be more grinding in Malefia before the new Geomancer became reasonable enough as a spell caster and fighter. I think if I had another week, I might consider it but I’m feeling exhausted from the same maps, the slowness of the game and dealing with the stupid copy protection in the form of the Code Wheel. It feels like I need a break from this game again. But I will do one more write up after this blog post on my views on character classes.
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