Generalized MoTB Bard spell problem

[Alisandra]

Hello,

Sorry for the similar post as I earlier posted about a problem I had with Grobnar's spells in the OC. I wanted to start a new thread because I believe I have found a general bug with MoTB's way of handling Bard spell acquisition.

I first noticed the problem with Grobnar (at 13th level, in the OC) being unable to cast 5th level spells even after resting - they remained greyed out in the Quick Cast menu. Grobnar's Charisma was 19.

I then started a new MoTB campaign and created a Bard character and manually levelled him up to observe the effects. My initial Bard Character was a Rock Gnome similar to Grobnar and used all default selections. I found the same problem with my own character - at level 13 and Charisma 19, the 5th level spells were greyed out on the Quickcast menu even after resting, and were therefore uncastable.

So, I generalized the Bard to a Human and made my own choices during the levelling up procedure and played around with the numbers a bit. Here is what I've found:

It appears that under MoTB, the Bard spell acquisition is bugged in that during the first character level that a particular level of spells is acquired, such that the spell level exceeds the Charisma Modifier value, the spells are uncastable. For example, a Bard with Charisma 19 (Modifier +4) gets 5th level spells at character level 13, but they cannot be cast until the character reaches level 14. As another example, a Bard with Charisma 16 (Modifier +3) gets 4th level spells at character level 10, but they are uncastable until the character reaches level 11. Finally, a Bard with Charisma 20 (Modifier +5) gets 6th level spells at level 16, but cannot cast them until Character Level 17.

I believe this is a reproducible and verifiable bug in the game in what is generally an overlooked character type, but before I report it as such to Obsidian, I'm hoping that someone on this forum can verify my findings to establish it is not just something strange on my PC. I have NwN2 patched to version 1.12 and MoTB fully patched to whatever it's current patch level is. I am running on WXP Pro, SP2.

Also, if such a bug is verified, I would appreciate anyone's help on how it should be reported. Hopefully, the proper people might already be reading this excellent forum!

Thanks.

[Raedwulf]

This is not a bug but according to DnD rules.

With 13 bard levels, the bard knows two 5th level spells, but has no 5th level spells per day unless he has high enough charisma to get a 5th level bonus spell for what you will need a charisma of 20 or more.

This holds true for bard level 2 (0 1st level spells), level 4 (0 2nd level spells), level 7 (0 3rd level spells), 10 (0 4th level spells) and level 16 (0 6th level spells).

[Scottg]

Page 138 of the NWN's 2 manual.

[Alisandra]

Originally Posted by Scottg

Page 138 of the NWN's 2 manual.

Hello,

Thank you both for your responses. I guess I missed that in my quick pass through the rules manual, and it is confusing in that it is not explained or detailed in any aspect of the character description in the game. I'm afraid I haven't read the DnD rules since version 2, so I only know what's in the game. I assumed that if a Bard wasn't eligible to cast a spell, he wouldn't get to choose one. It all makes sense now!

Thanks!