Troubadour
| Roles in dNetHack |
|---|
| Roles in notdNetHack |
The Troubadour is a role available to the hero in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is adapted from the original Bard patch by André Bertelli Araújo, and is thus referred to as the Bard internally.
"Troubadour" is the name used for the role since version 3.10, as the letters b and B in the role selection menu for those variants were already taken by the Barbarian and Binder—it is still abbreviated Brd like the Bard in the initial patch and other variants.
Troubadours can be played as humans, elves, drow, gnomes, orcs, clockwork automata, half-dragons, yuki-onna, or vampires. Clockwork Troubadours are initially lawful in alignment, and otherwise a Troubadour hero can start as neutral or chaotic if permitted by their race. In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, they can also be played as neutral ents or chaotic leprechauns.
Starting equipment
Each Troubadour starts with the following equipment before racial adjustments:
- +1 cloak
- +0 pair of high boots
- 3–6 uncursed apples
- 3–6 uncursed oranges
- 5–6 potions of booze
- two musical instruments:
- a wooden harp or a wooden flute with equal probability as their default main instrument
- a bell (3⁄20 chance) or a pea whistle (17⁄20 chance) as their secondary instrument
The following substitutions and racial conditions also apply:
- Orcish Troubadours start with an orcish short sword, 4-8 orcish daggers, an orcish shield, and an orcish helm. They have a roughly equal probability of starting with either a bugle or a tooled horn as their main instrument rather than the default, and are given two additional stacks of 1-2 random comestibles.
- Half-dragon Troubadours always start with a leather drum as their main instrument, and are given tripe rations in place of apples.
- Drow Troubadours are given droven chain mail and droven cloak in place of the standard cloak, and are given tripe rations in place of apples. They also start with a black signet ring and 6 shadowlander's torches.
- Clockwork Troubadours are given potions of oil in place of their oranges and booze.
- Leprechaun Troubadours will be given at least 2000 gold.
Troubadours start with knowledge of all musical instruments and all basic wards, and will have knowledge of the spellbooks for the sleep, confuse monster, slow monster, cause fear, and charm monster spells. They are also given knowledge of 5–15 random non-tool magical items.
The Troubadour's default starting pet is a little dog or kitten with equal probability.
Intrinsics
Troubadours gain the following abilities upon reaching the following experience levels:
- XL 5: Sleep resistance
- XL 10: Stealth
Attributes
Troubadours have 75 points to distribute among their starting attributes like most other roles unless they are descendants, who have 65 points to distribute.
The Troubadour's starting attributes are distributed as follows:
| Attributes | Strength | Dexterity | Constitution | Intelligence | Wisdom | Charisma | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum attributes | 7 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 28 (18 for inheritance) |
| Distribution percentages | 10% | 25% | 10% | 10% | 15% | 30% |
Skills
Troubadours have the following skills available to them, with specific races of Troubadour given additional skills that are noted within the table:
| Troubadour skills | |
|---|---|
| Max | Skills |
| Basic |
|
| Skilled | |
| Expert |
|
Troubadours start with Basic skill level in bare handed combat, beast mastery, darts, daggers, and the musicalize spell skill. They use the use the charisma attribute when calculating the success rate of casting enchantment spells outside of using the musicalize spell skill, and use intelligence when casting other spells. Their special spell is create monster.
Troubadour songs
Troubadours also start the game with knowledge of all songs that can be played on tonal instruments via the musicalize spell skill:
| Song | Description | Spell | Preferred Instrument | Alternative Instrument | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lullaby | Puts enemies to sleep | sleep | wooden harp | wooden flute | 4 turns |
| Meditative Healing | Heals pets, at the cost of immobilizing them | extra healing | wooden harp | wooden flute | 4 turns |
| Lethargy | Slows enemies (including sleep-resistant foes) | slow monster | wooden harp | wooden flute | 5 turns |
| Friendship | Permanently tames single adjacent monster | charm monster | wooden harp | wooden flute | 6 turns |
| Rally | Teleports pets to you, heals pet status ailments | teleport away | bugle | tooled horn | 1 turn |
| Charge | Pets move and attack faster while the song is playing | haste self | bugle | leather drum | 5 turn |
| Disruption | Interferes with monster spellcasting while the song is playing | cancellation | tooled horn | bugle | 5 turn |
| Inspire Courage | Increases the damage done by pets | cause fear | bugle | leather drum | 6 turns |
| Fear | Causes enemies to flee | cause fear | tooled horn, leather drum | <none> | 6 turns |
| Cacophony | Confuses enemies | confuse monster | tooled horn | leather drum | 5 turns |
The chance of a song successfully taking effect is dependent on the hero's experience level, their relevant attributes (strength for drums, dexterity for other instruments, charisma for song strength level), and their skill level:
ATTRIBUTE x 2 x MUSICALITY_SKILL + experience level
The musicalize spell skill gives a value of 1 if the hero is at Unskilled, 2 if they are at Basic, and so on. Bonuses are applied in the following order:
- If the instrument is an artifact or the instrument is the song's preferred type, increase the chance by 50%.
- If your health is lower than 30% of your maximum, increase the chance by 100%.
- If the instrument is a drum or a harp, and you are wearing a shield, decrease the chance by 50%.
- If you are blind, increase the chance by your experience level.
- If you are using the Lyre of Orpheus (Bard's quest artifact) and you are not playing one of: Rally, Meditative Healing, Lullaby, or Friendship, decrease the chance by 50%.
The chance is only capped to 100% after all bonuses have been applied, so you can still get to 100% success chance with using the Lyre of Orpheus.
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"Update success chances, ensure this matches code and detail some more precise effects of the songs (e.g. pets helping with singing, enemies counter-singing)."
Special rules
If a figurine of an intelligent monster is brought to life on the Troubadour's current dungeon level but does not generate tame, they have a second CHA - 120 chance of taming the resulting monster.
The Singing Sword is an artifact weapon that can be named by Bards using any long sword, rapier or saber—the artifact uses and trains the musicalize skill instead of the normal weapon skill, and it can learn and sing its own songs. See the linked article for details.
Half-dragon abilities
Half-dragon bards start each game with 30 additional power, and gain the ability to sing a tame elemental into being at level 14 using the #ability extended command). Singing an elemental into being costs 45 energy and requires the ability to breathe, making it unusable if the hero is suffering from strangulation. If successful, the tame elemental is created adjacent to the hero, its monster level will be the average of the monster's base level and the hero's experience level, and its maximum HP is equal to (8*ML)-4. The type of elemental produced depends on the half-dragon hero's breath weapon:
The "random breath" and "magic missile" cases are not possible in normal play, as those breath weapons are only available to non-Troubadour half-dragons.
Rank titles
The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:
- XL 1–2: Rhymer
- XL 3–5: Lyrist
- XL 6–9: Sonneteer
- XL 10–13: Jongleur
- XL 14–17: Troubadour
- XL 18–21: Minstrel
- XL 22–25: Lorist
- XL 26–29: Bard
- XL 30: Master Bard
Gods
As in the original Bard patch, the Troubadour pantheon is loosely based on Thracian religion, specifically the deities identified with those of ancient Greece to the south. Their first gift is The Singing Sword.
Hades serves as the chaotic unholy deity for vampire heroes that worship within the pantheon.
Quest
The Troubadour's quest sees them fight Aglaope for The Lyre of Orpheus, an artifact golden magic harp. Rather than using the hero's experience level to determine quest access, the monster levels of their pets are halved and rounded down (except for the highest-level pet present), then added together and raised by half of the hero's experience level rounded down—this total is then compared against the minimum level to proceed into the quest, and the hero gains quest access if this value is at least 14.
While carried, The Lyre of Orpheus grants magic resistance, and all pets on the same level as the hero will automatically follow them to other levels regardless of their proximity to the hero. Applying The Lyre of Orpheus while it has charges works as with a normal magic harp, taming monsters in a certain range around the hero, and it can be used to play any song for the musicalize spell skill. Invoking The Lyre of Orpheus behave the same as reading an uncursed scroll of taming, taming monsters in a selected direction. Applying or invoking The Lyre also gives a random rumor dependent on its beatitude: the rumor will be true if The Lyre is blessed, false if cursed, and can be either if uncursed.
Strategy
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"The following section is dated in general and needs serious updating, with particular attention to a new strategy for fighting the elder priest since the Wizard of Yendor will not attack them for the Amulet of Yendor."
Early game
The early game is all about training up your musicalize skill by spamming it as much as possible, with the ultimate goal of getting Musicalize up to expert as quickly as possible. Use Lullaby on every enemy your pet fights to limit damage to your pet, and heal your pet with Meditative Healing as much as possible. As you begin to progress deeper in to the dungeon and find slightly stronger monsters, consider using Lethargy and Friendship to slow them down and capture them. Keep your eyes peeled for a magic whistle as this is essential to keeping your pets in position as you travel through the dungeon. When possible, upgrade your Beast Mastery skill to maximize your pets' effectiveness.
Exercise your dexterity as much as possible in the early game to build up this trait. As increased dexterity decreases the chance of failure from your Musicalize skills, most importantly the Friendship spell, you will need this trait at maximum as quickly as possible.
Keep a lookout for a long sword, rapier, or saber that you can name to become the Singing Sword, which is essential for the mid game.
Mid game
Rushing the Castle so you can get a few wishes, if you haven't received any already, is a good idea - that will allow you to take your time on the other quests once you're better equipped.
As you get stronger in the mid game, you should be constantly recruiting the most dangerous monsters you can find as pets, and you may have to lure strong monsters into isolation from other nearby monsters to capture them as nearby monsters may interrupt your musical spellcasting. During the Gnomish Mines, the Minetown watch can serve you well, and Cerebus in Vlad's Tower will carry you for a quite a while. Mind flayers, dragons, orc kings, and even a few elementals are all good pets in this part of the game. The master mind flayer on throne at the start of the Neutral Quest is particularly good if you can get him - just make sure to surround yourself with enough disposable pets that you won't get hit with every attack. Metroids will also work well mid game, but as they level, they will eventually turn into an untamable metroid queen, so this is not a viable long-term option.
The mid game is a good time to consider using scrolls of genocides to exterminate monsters that will instakill your pets. Purple worms, trappers, and cockatrices should all be eliminated if you're not going to use them yourself.
Keep an eye peeled for smart situational branches that could help you in creative ways. For example, if the Sunless Sea is the sunken city variant, you can recruit a few deep ones and then kill the constantly spawning horde of deep ones to create massively overpowered deepest ones that will help you tremendously in the mid and late game.
Late game
In general, as you progress deeper towards the late game, more and more monsters will shout down your Musicalize spells, making it difficult to heal monsters or recruit new monsters. All but the strongest of monsters should be considered disposable, and you should be constantly using your pets to protect you with their lives. When you actually complete your own quest, make sure to ring the Bell of Opening once to teach it to your Singing Sword - the five percent change of instantly killing monsters will be essential for killing demon princes and other strong monsters.
Demon princes in Gehennom will be a problem, and should be avoided as much as possible. Archons and other strong pets (like Lady Oona or Tulani Eladrim) that have lasted you well will not survive demon princes in a toe-to-toe fight. If you have to fight, ward a square, as a scared demon prince often won't attack either you or your pets. Good monsters to keep an eye out for include master mind flayers, orcs of the ages of the stars, Angband orcs, and ancient nagas. Ancient nagas particularly can be useful in Nessus, as these can kill Nessian pit fields quickly without triggering their summon nasties spell, though they may turn on you. Be careful in capturing pets that might turn traitor, but don't be afraid to include a few in your entourage - traitors will distribute their attacks against other pets as well as yourself, at which point you can just heal your pets with Meditative Healing.
Most likely, your staple troops will be a supply of dragons. Higher level dragons can take quite a lot of punishment.
Origin
A troubadour (or "trobairitz" for women) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). The troubadour school or tradition began in the late 11th century in Occitania, and subsequently spread to the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas. Under the influence of the troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe: the Minnesang in Germany, trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal, and that of the trouvères in northern France. After the "classical" period around the turn of the 13th century and a mid-century resurgence, the art of the troubadours declined in the 14th century around the time of the Black Death (1348) and since died out.
Dante Alighieri defined the troubadour lyric as rhetorical, musical, and poetical fiction. Troubadours can thus be considered a type of 'bard', a term that originated from the specific position of a person as an oral repository and a professional story teller and musician in Celtic cultures, and has since come to refer to similar concepts across cultures as well as any generic minstrel, musician, storyteller or poet (especially a famous one, e.g. William Shakespeare and Rabindranath Tagore). This is one of the major reasons for the role's renaming in dNetHack, with the other being the aforementioned occupation of 'b' and 'B' on the role selection screen.
The notion of the bard as a minstrel with qualities of a priest, magician or seer entered the fantasy genre from its Romanticist usage in the 1960s to 1980s, with examples including the 1981 Bard by Keith John Taylor, the 1984 Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish by Morgan Llywelyn, and television adaptations of The Witcher series of books by Andrzej Sapkowski. This naturally includes the bard character class of fantasy roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, which draws a combination of traits from historical Celtic bards, the Norse skald, and the southern European minstrel as well as other kinds of musical singers—bards in such role-playing games are centered on the idea of accessing magic through some form of artistic expression which is primarily (but by no means exclusively) musical.
The bard of Dungeons & Dragons first appeared in Volume 2, Number 1. of TSR's The Strategic Review newsletter. In the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, they were a special class that was unavailable for initial character creation: a character could become a bard only after meeting specific and difficult requirements, achieving levels in multiple character classes, becoming a bard only later. The bard became a more standard character class from the 2nd Edition on, though the prototypical "prestige class" elements of the original implementation were preserved in the 3rd Edition's Fochlucan Lyrist prestige class.
Dungeons & Dragons bards are versatile arcane spellcasters capable in combat, art, and magic alike, using their artistic talents to induce magical effects that either bolster their allies or hinder their enemies, typically through charms and illusions. Most bards acquire their skills as a result of training under previous bards, drawing upon ancient traditions of lore and arcane magic, and are artistically talented and extraordinarily well-learned, possessing knowledge in a wide range of fields and capable of learning from practically any trade. They are prone to wanderlust, traveling from one place to another in search of either new lore to learn or to spread what stories they already know, and it is commonplace for a bard to prefer the freedom of mobility and living by one's whims. Bards hold a strong distaste for blatant violence, at least when it could be avoided, and have reputations for being joyful and inspiring. Bards are most commonly humans and elves, as well as half-elves to a lesser extent, though gnomes and tieflings are also quite capable as bards.
