Cythra/Spells
A work in progress.
Bard Spells
My mostly combat related opinions (not necessarily popular opinions).
Abandoned Heart (cyclic): This is probably my favorite Bard enchante. It doesn't quite fill the gaping hole left by Chorus of the Madmen but close. It can be lethal and highly effective. A sufficiently skilled bard can take out an entire room of critters with this. Some critters might be immune to its effects.
Aether Wolves: Mostly useless as far as I'm concerned. This only effects a single target now so no more rooms full of critters quivering in fear (see Demrris' Resolve below). It might be okay as a starter spell and is a prerequisite for other spells you might want. There are far better options as you advance. I'm glad that it's no longer cyclic.
Albreda's Balm (cyclic): Great for critter crowd control. Calms the entire room quite nicely. Critters calmed by this may wander out of the room so don't embed anything into them you might want back unless it's bonded to you. Acting against a calmed critter will break the effect on it. Will not calm a critter in combat with you but if you push the critter back by shoving (brawling is a great skill to know), Scream Havoc, or other methods it may then be affected. Even without the spell, pushing critters away can still be very handy if you have more critters at melee than you feel comfortable with.
Aura of Tongues: Probably more of a novelty than anything though it does work. Perhaps the better solution is to figure out why you think people are talking about you.
Beckon the Naga: I love my nagas. Trust me, I can tell you from experience they can hit pretty hard. There is a cool down between casts – I think it's two or three minutes. Perceive will let you know if it's unsafe. I suggest being mindful of this so you don't offend your own naga and find yourself in a world of "oh no". They apparently fear the undead though.
Blessing of the Fae (cyclic): This one seems very nice. Helps with attunement (mana) regeneration and does a great job of it. I like to use this while buffing to go hunting.
Breath of Storms: A Targeted Magic spell. I sometimes swap this with Strange Arrow.
Caress of the Sun: Can be useful but I tend towards instruments that aren't affected by the weather. No longer cyclic which means if it runs out your wooden instruments could be at risk of being weather damaged.
Damaris' Lullaby (cyclic): Critter crowd control without the crowd control. Lets the critters stay swarmy but slows them down and saps their strength a little. Definitely a thumbs up.
Demrris' Resolve: It can be handy I guess but I almost never use it favoring other options instead. This is like the area of effect version of Aether Wolves.
Desert's Maelstrom: Seems good. It looks pretty cool too.
Drums of the Snake: Useful for opening boxes or helping other people open boxes when cast on them or as an area cast. Since it boosts Agility I also like it as a combat buff. Only works while any subjects remain near the caster for the duration of the spell. If someone leaves and then returns they do not regain the benefit of this spell.
Echoes of Aether: I haven't felt the need to learn this yet.
Eillie's Cry: I don't really use it though it has some effects which sound very helpful.
Eye of Kertigen (cyclic): What can I say? It doesn't really seem to help. I guess it could be useful if you simply want to annoy people with low stealth who are trying to hide.
Faenella's Grace (cyclic): It's part of the reason I teach so well. It's a very useful spell whenever there are classes present – more so if it's an area cast.
Failure of the Forge: Warding spell that debils an opponent's weapon. This sounds fun but it does allow the opponent one free hit on you. Seems to work decently but I prefer Manifest Force.
Glythtide's Joy: A magic barrier. I don't really use it because I generally don't fight anything whose magic affects me significantly and I prefer the use of other cyclics (for crowd control). I might actually try it were it not cyclic. I've heard it might be good for sparring. People often annoyingly use this in the Crossing Empath Guild courtyard – Presumably to train magic. I think I only got it as a prerequisite to getting a useful spell.
Harmony: Good combat buff. Most Bards I speak with seem to like it.
Hodierna's Lilt (cyclic): Helps recover vitality (health) and spirit. Great for triage as well as being useful in the field.
Misdirection: It doesn't seem to help much and has a very short duration making it low "bang for the buck".
Naming of Tears: Nice defensive buff. Highly recommended.
Nexus: This doesn't seem to give much boost to room mana for me especially when compared to Warrior Mage's Ethereal Fissure. It is also dependent upon having a crowd of people in the room making it fairly useless for me considering how infrequently I fight in crowds. I have had others tell me this is their "go to" and that it works great for them (when casting at 100 mana).
Phoenix's Pyre (cyclic): When Abandoned Heart doesn't work give this a try. It's usually very effective. As an added bonus, it seems to make Warrior Mages jealous when compared with their Fire Rain spell.
Rage of the Clans: A nice combat buff.
Redeemer's Pride: I haven't felt the need to learn this yet.
Resonance: Seems to be a decent buff to a held weapon.
Sanctuary (cyclic): Works great! I find it very useful for critter crowd control so I can take them one-on-one if I choose. Also helps with defenses in invasions. Great for triage in absence of a Paladin's Banner of Truce. Be mindful of the minimum mana amounts required for the different effects of this enchante. Note that sometimes critters ignore this spell -- I'm not sure if that's a bug or not.
Soul Ablaze (ritual): I often use this as a combat buff in place of Words of the Wind to enhance my skills.
Whispers of the Muse: Crafting buff. I don't craft. In fact I abhor crafting. If you like it, go for it, I won't judge. I personally feel it went wrong in so many ways and greatly contributed to messing up the Elanthian economy which most with whom I speak agree has become a disaster. I have tried to use this spell to assist others but I have yet to find anyone impressed by it. Remember, it only effects someone's top crafting skill.
Will of Winter (ritual): Seems cool, looks great but hasn't really proven to be all that useful.
Words of the Wind (ritual): It's a really nice combat buff. I use it when I anticipate needing to use mojo which is frequently.
I'm hoping to see the planned Piper's Vengeance spell soon.
Analogous Patterns Spells
(scroll spells available from the Artificer's Shop):
Strange Arrow: A Targeted Magic spell. I sometimes swap this with Breath of Storms.
Manifest Force: Once Eerie convinced me to try this I was hooked. I now consider it a must have. In combat, I snap cast at minimum prep so there's little to no hit on my attunement. Each cast will last up to ten minutes or until the barrier takes six hits so just snap cast it every few minutes.
Dispel: Works for me, snap cast at minimum prep, to dispel Malediction cast by Xala'shar Magi.
Gauge Flow: Required for Magical Research which is very important if you wish to reliably learn magic. Magical Research seems like a sad patch to a broken system. I want to know where the sad patch is to the Tactics skill.
Cantrips
Cantrips are a Warrior Mage ability that Bards don't get. They are essentially mini-spells. Cantrips mostly seem more entertaining than useful which sounds like they should be a Bard thing to me. I don't believe cantrips have any pool from which they drain their energy making them limitless or nearly so. They don't seem to have any practical combat use unless maybe a Warrior Mage can use Water Globe in combat to cause a stun, though I have it on excellent authority this would not be worth the effort.
Magical Feats
Raw Channeling: A must have if you use cyclic spells. Bards automatically get this free. Cyclic spells are the successor to held mana spells. To keep these spells active without Raw Channeling requires harnessing mana or using cambrinth.
Area Casting: Absolutely necessary for some spells if you want to share their effects with others. This is not needed for Hodierna's Lilt but if you want to buff an entire room with Faenella's Grace or Drums of the Snake it's a must have. The criticism for area casting is that it doesn't always work the way it really should. When Drums of the Snake is area cast, for example, it only effects those in the room when you cast it and if they leave they lose the effects of the spell and do not regain it if they reenter the room. Additionally, if the caster leaves the room so does the spell. It's a known bug (according to the spell listing) which they might have been able to fix if they weren't busy working on weird spells like Embrace of the Vela'Tohr which allows an Empath to heal people remotely (which is like GM sanctioned AFK healing). Maybe I'll just go to Dokt.
Bardic Special Abilities
Screams, Piercing Whistle and Segue are all great Bard abilities but since they are mojo dependent their use can be significantly limited. Each of these abilities has a cool down time as well.
Bardic Screams:
Screams can be dodged or blocked.
Scream Concussion: The most basic of all the screams. Its intent is to cause a little physical damage. Concussion can be a good way to train bardic lore in combat but it does drain your mojo pool.
Scream Havoc Pushes away a critter (or person) without causing damage. With sufficient skill Havoc will shove the opponent clear across the room and knock them down. I have often seen where I have done this to a critter and they never actually fell (though the messaging said they did). Havoc is also useful when you need to tend someone who is standing and unable to sit on their own (due to being stunned, etc.).
Scream Dissonance: Causes stun and damage in target. Rather problematic since one use can easily drain your mojo by a 25%. Additionally the stun inflicted by Dissonance doesn't seem to last much longer if at all than the round time incurred by using it. This seems particularly lame since the "advertised" point of this was the stun. I guess this could be helpful if someone else is attacking the critter while the Bard recovers from the round time incurred. Bards seeking the stun effect might opt for utilizing Piercing Whistle instead. While more of a distraction and not a stun per se, Piercing Whistle causes the Bard's opponents to pause for a bit.
I'm hoping to see the planned Scream Cacophony and Scream Resonance soon.
Piercing Whistle:
Piercing Whistle distracts all opponents in the room causing them to pause their attacks for several (30?) seconds. Piercing Whistle draws from the mojo pool.
Segue:
Segue allows instantly changing between cyclic spells if you have enough mojo to power the ability. Segue can even be used while preparing another spell which makes it very powerful.
Mojo:
The mojo pool seems mostly based on the Bardic Lore skill. The Bardic Abilities (Scream, Piercing Whistle, and Segue) all draw from the mojo pool similar to how spells draw from the attunement (mana) pool. The bard's mojo pool level can be checked with Practice Assess Dance. The ritual enchante Words of the Wind should help with mojo regeneration. Using the Bardic Abilities can help train Bardic Lore as does Practice Breathing. Breathing practice (which causes you to sit for the duration of the practice) must continue uninterrupted until you sense that, "you are better able to take on any breathing tasks that may lay ahead", or you will have to start over (after a short cool down). I refer to breathing practice as Bard Yoga.
Notes
As one might notice, Bards aren't overly laden with Targeted Magic spells and most of their best enchantes are cyclic (some of which are truly awesome). This can leave serious gaps in Bardic spell abilities. Add to this the unfortunate fact that bards are lore primary, meaning we get a boost to things like knitting, and one might get the impression that Bards might have been a little slighted. But I would say to this, yes we were. I personally think this could be balanced out by giving Bards the ability to have two cyclic spells running concurrently. I can dream. Based on various factors (like the crowd requirement for the Nexus enchante and the fact that instead of getting an offensive or defensive bonus we get a sewing bonus) it feels to me as though bards are expected to play a support role. To this I say, "Nonono" (see also: Swear Command).
Before I met Eerie I never really buffed for combat but she convinced me. She's a Warrior Mage and they seem all about buffing so naturally she was an advocate. In fact, sometimes I think she spends more time buffing than fighting (don't tell her I said that). For my standard combat buffs, hopefully with Blessing of the Fae running, I will cast Drums of the Snake, Rage of the Clans, Harmony, Resonance, Soul Ablaze (or Words of the Wind), Naming of Tears (or Failure of the Forge) and Manifest Force. When that is all done and I enter the "combat zone" I segue to whichever cyclic I intend to use in the situation (either for crowd control or killing). Care is recommended in the use of the cyclics because the use of some of these is frowned upon in many populated areas and could result in an arrest warrant. As the situation necessitates I might segue to a different cyclic spell while in combat. Will of Winter could also be substituted for Soul Ablaze if you feel the need to inflict cold damage.
Ritual Spells require great amounts of mana which means that to cast these requires the use of a magical focus item. These are available at the Artificer's Shop as well as at some fests. Bardic ritual spells all have affinities with opposing elements so a Bard can only use one of these at a time. This means if a Bard should wish to change to a different ritual spell, the one currently active would either need to be released (which can be problematic) or the Bard will suffer a stun (though releasing one doesn't seem much better). Preparing Ritual spells incurs full round time and, aside from the focus item, the Bard's hands must be empty; This can make ritual spells annoying to cast while in active combat. Ritual spells seem like a silly concept that was likely dreamed up by merchants selling ritual foci. The whole concept was annoying and distasteful enough to me that I avoided Ritual Spells until recently. I still feel as though Ritual Spells are nice-ish but not necessities.
I welcome civil discussions regarding differing positions from my stance on the various spells. You might convince me to change my mind.