Traveler's song always stands a chance of failure like that. Other songs being sung is irrelevant, but you can reduce the chance somewhat by other methods. Two posts of Estild on this:

>Factors for success: Bard spellsong ranks (largest factor), having an anchor set in the same realm, instrument skill while playing that particular instrument (with one-handed instruments counting as half the bonus as two-handed instruments), Mental and Elemental Mana Control ranks, and Discipline stat bonus.

>There's a penalty for injuries and a minimum 5% chance of failure.


>Being an Adept at a two-handed instruments provides twice the bonus of the anchor being set.

>Exact formula: Bard spellsong ranks * 2 + 10 if anchored in the same realm + 1-20 for instrument playing skill (if one-handed, half the bonus) + seed 1 summation of (EMC + MMC) + DIS bonus (min 0) + d100. Penalties for not being able to think clearly (typically head wound, which range from -90 to -10). If >= 100, success.




(Source: From the traveler's song saved posts on gswiki https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Traveler's_Song_(1020)_(saved_post) )

---

Fyonn's player

It one of the more severe failure choices from what I've seen, you can land and then get thirsty, sing and have nothing happen, sing and end up in a terrible place (usually this results in my mana shattering, but not always wounds), having your mana shatter with head an neck wounds seems to be the worst of the worst as far as failures go, unless you somehow let yourself die from thirst.

I still love the spell, even with the ridiculous amount of potential side-effects.

Archales

Thanks for the info/heads-up, both of you!

.

I agree about "mana woes", Tal. Last night I got BoilEarthed while I was Unraveling, so I did a Shout Rally... only to have my renewal hit right then, so I blew my nerves. Le sigh.

I think the overall mechanic of SpellSongs is neat, and different, and so on, but the actual implementation leaves me thinking there could be other ways. ("Unravel--and its 15s duration anyway--getting stopped at medley Renewal," I'm looking at YOU, here!)
I liked Gargadon's suggestion to just reduce the max mana available to the Bard, and then the spell runs continually; period. Sure, special cases (being under Silence, for example) may need to be examined. (Maybe the Bard just gets his max-mana back at that point, and the spells fall. Maybe they last for <some duration>. Maybe...)

I'm just not certain if the "you can keep your spells running in the Bank and Lockers, aren't you special!" effect is worth the difference from everyone else, being able to stack up 4:10:00 of an effect. <shrug> It is, for DAMN sure, a hell of a lot more mana-expensive.
Which reminds me: GMs! Bards' Harness Power and Mana Control training costs need to come down, around 0p/1m training point apiece.
Simply because they use a TON more mana in the course of an hour, than any other profession, due to the medley Renewal structure.
(My example from Dredbeck's "Elemental Focus costs too much" diatribe back in 2004 took Eklinaar's calculation of 930 mana for a four-hour spellup with 11 spells, compared to my Bard singing, at the time, four (4) Songs at 26 per renewal, every 389 seconds, at 14400 seconds in four hours, is 37 renews... == 962 mana. And that's even with NO additional MSP.)

Oh, very definitely caster-based.

Looks like 33rd level was the last time I was double-trained in a weapon; above that I did a couple of single-trains and then stopped altogether (because I was spending time in Guarded or Defensive).

Then in 2008 at 46th level, I switched over to runestaff ranks when I realized that Bards could get 8 with only single-training costs (Item, Scroll, Spell Research, Mana Control A, Mana Control B, Harness Power, Lore A, Lore B). They CANNOT multi-train Lores or Mana Controls, but more advanced research in Items/Scrolls/Spells/Harness could be theoretically possible.

Then when Estild gave runestaves flaring goodness in October of 2011, well, that was the cat's meow.

.

And this is totally the area to be in, even with hearing my complaints. I cannot fail to ward the Trolls, even (now) 7 levels below them; I think I can fail on the giants (currently +10 levels over me) but not with Unravel (because it has a built-in pushdown), and not--with anything else--if I get Depression on them first.

Many's the kill I get for only 2 mana, from a Vib Chant. Honesty compels me to say that between their Boil Earth/annoying Unbalance crits, versus the number of times I get a straight up killshot from VibChant... Yeah, I am totally coming out ahead on that ratio. Even giants give me an autodeath now and again, but trolls, hell, it's almost automatic.

Unfortunately, their Boil works against me every cast; VibChant has a practical limitation of two (2) casts, at that only against trolls (giants gen with mattocks, so 2Hand, so only ONE [1] VibChant target), and then only if an unlucky first cast doesn't destroy the other arm (forcing the second item to be dropped).
Plenty of built-in limitations.

I do agree that Bardic TDs may be set a little low for some creatures, but overall most Bards aren't likely to be trained the same way.

1002 already gets worse as you get older in an important way.

Targets with weapons vulnerable to explosion in my most hunted areas between 70-90:

Plane 1: 0
Plane 2: 0
Plane 3: 0
Plane 5: 1 (N'ecare, which no one hunts on 5)
Confluence: 0
West/East Woods in OTF: 0
Bowels Tunnels: 0
Bowels Proper: 2 (I think).

And I never really did the aqueducts, hense its omission

I like the spell's theme and I realize it is great for the younger crowd. But at the higher end they've already nerfed it into the ground with the most effective means that exists, making it simply not work.

Note: The disarm does always work (sans Vvrael), just not the explosion.

Taluric.

I haven't gotten that far yet!

Well I could be starting OTF, I've just got too many ties west of the Dragonspine. Good to know that it doesn't stay shut out forever.

Tal.