Beta 2.5.1 "Barding & Magic Instruments"
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2026 2:55 am
-Barding & Magic Instrument Update-
After some testing we have balanced and made some changes to the barding skills. We have also added Magic Instruments, and bonuses to crafted instruments.
Magic Instruments
- Instruments now drop as magic items in loot, exactly like magic weapons and armor. A dropped instrument can roll multiple bonuses.
- Increased Uses (Durability) adds extra plays to the instrument.
• Durable +100
• Substantial +200
• Massive +300
• Fortified +400
• Indestructible +500 - Increased Barding (Resonant) raises your effective barding skill.
• Resonant +5
• Surpassingly Resonant +10
• Eminently Resonant +15
• Exceedingly Resonant +20
• Supremely Resonant +25 - Slayer instruments come in lesser and greater. A greater (super) slayer gives a bigger bonus than a lesser slayer when played against the creatures it slays.
- All of these bonuses show on the same as on Magical Weapons and Armor.
Effective Barding Skill
- Your chance to Provoke, Peace make, or Discord a creature now runs off an effective skill, not just your printed skill.
• Effective Skill is Base Barding Skill plus Instrument Barding Bonus plus Instrument Slayer Bonus plus your Barding Effectiveness buff. - The Barding Effectiveness buff (foods and similar sources) now also improves your success chance, on top of extending effect durations like before.
Provocation
- Fixed a bug where Provoke could say it succeeded while a creature simply turned and attacked you. It now only reports success when the provoke truly takes hold.
- If either target cannot actually be provoked, you now get the normal failure message and failure sound instead of a false success.
- No music plays and no skill is rolled until you choose the second creature. The first click only asks who you want them to attack.
Discordance
- Discord now lasts a set duration based on your skill instead of only lasting while you stay next to the target.
- The duration scales with your Discordance skill, exceptional instruments, matching slayers, and Barding Effectiveness, up to a cap of 120 seconds.
Bard Break
- When a creature breaks free from your barding, it now hunts you, the bard responsible, for the entire bard break.
- If it cannot see you it behaves normally until you come back into view, then it locks back onto you.
- This forced behavior ends when the bard break ends.
On Screen Timers
- Single clicking a creature now shows Provoked and Discorded timers above its name, alongside the existing Pacified and Bard Broken timers.
- Short timers were fixed so they count down properly and no longer appear to jump from 2 straight to 0.
Reworked
- Crafted instruments no longer gain the magic property tiers based on wood. The wood you use now sets a flat Bard Skill Bonus and a flat bonus to uses instead.
- Bard Skill Bonus by wood, from Dullwood up to Zentowood:
• Dullwood: +3 Bard Skill, +15 uses
• Umbrawood: +4 Bard Skill, +20 uses
• Copperwood: +5 Bard Skill, +25 uses
• Bronzewood: +6 Bard Skill, +30 uses
• Goldenwood: +7 Bard Skill, +35 uses
• Lunawood: +8 Bard Skill, +40 uses
• Durawood: +9 Bard Skill, +45 uses
• Verawood: +10 Bard Skill, +50 uses
• Zentowood: +11 Bard Skill, +55 uses - Plain regular wood grants no bonus.
- Exceptional quality adds a further +5 Bard Skill and +25 uses on top of the wood's amounts.
- The Bard Skill Bonus is added to your effective skill on Musicianship and on every barding skill check (Provocation, Peacemaking, and Discordance), so a better instrument helps you both start the tune and land the effect.
- The bonus is shown right on the instrument tooltip as "+N Bard Skill".
Instrument Slayer Gems
- The Slayer Gem System now works on instruments, for player crafted instruments only.
- Use a Wooden Slayer Socketing Tool from the slayer gem system to drill a socket into a crafted instrument.
• The tool must be made of the same wood as the instrument.
• Drilling the socket sacrifices 20% of the instrument's remaining uses. - Once socketed, apply a Slayer Gem to set the instrument's slayer. A greater (super) slayer gives a bigger barding bonus than a lesser slayer against the
creatures it slays. - Slayer charges go down as you play the instrument. Every Provoke, Peacemake, and Discord spends one charge.
- When the charges run out the slayer gem shatters into Slayer Dust and the socket stays open, so you can apply a new gem.
- Slayer charges and the open socket are shown right on the instrument.
Foundation Requisition Orders
- Carpentry foundation orders (Oakheart Circle) now request instruments in specific wood types, the same as bows and wooden shields.