Combat

Musicianship

Musicianship is the gate in front of the other two bard skills. Every attempt to peace or discord something rolls against it first, and a fumbled note wastes the attempt and a charge off your instrument either way. At Grandmaster you stop fumbling entirely. It is also a hard ceiling on the other two — neither Peacemaking nor Discordance will train past your Musicianship, so this is the one to raise first.

How you train it Play an instrument at something. It trains whether the song lands or not, so the early failures are still progress.

What you need An instrument in your weapon hand, with charges left. Carpentry makes them.

Instruments

Every instrument is mechanically identical — pick whichever you like the look of. What changes the numbers is the WOOD, which sets how many charges you get. All five cost 6 boards of the chosen tier and are made through Carpentry.

Instrument	Boards
Lute	6
Drum	6
Lap Harp	6
Tambourine	6
Bamboo Flute	6

Charges, by the wood it is made from

One charge is one attempted song. It is spent whether the song lands, misses, or falls apart in your hands — so a poor musician gets through a lot of instruments. Instruments cannot be repaired: when the charges are gone, the instrument is gone.

Wood	Charges
Wood	40
Dullwood	52
Shadowwood	64
Copperwood	80
Bronzewood	100
Goldwood	128
Agawood	160
Veriwood	200
Valiwood	260

Getting the note out

At 0 Musicianship: 20% of your songs come out at all
At 50: 60%
At 100: 100% — a Grandmaster never fumbles
A fumbled song: Still costs the charge, and still trains Musicianship

🎵

An instrument goes in your weapon hand, so you cannot fight and play at the same time — swing at something with a lute out and you are punching it. That is the whole cost of the bard: your turn buys everyone else a better one.

🎼

Raise this first. Peacemaking and Discordance can never train past your Musicianship, so a bard who neglects it stalls both other skills at once.

Other Combat skills

Swordsmanship Fencing Macing Archery Wrestling Tactics Parrying Healing Anatomy Peacemaking Discordance