BG3 – Barding it 2: Electric Boogaloo

In my previous post on creating the Bard instrumental ensembles in Baldur’s Gate 3, I had a misleading statement:

It’s almost impossible to get all six instruments to play at once within the main game. […] In the main adventure, even if you have all four of your party members with the Musical Instrument skill, you’d need a spot with two NPC Bards within earshot of each other; I don’t think there is such a location.

It turns out that there is such a location, within the Circus of the Last Days in Act 3:

Look for Viola Silvertongue. It’s hard to miss her. Just walk straight ahead when you enter the Circus and you’ll come to her and her performance partner, Calliope Blingsdorf.

Once I noticed that, it wasn’t hard to form a new band without any mods. All I needed is four characters with the Musical Instrument Proficiency. I wasn’t using the characters of Jaheira and Halsin in my regular party, so I gave them a level in Bard, equipped them with the appropriate instruments to fill out the band, and I was set.

I hereby present to you the Reformed Undecimo Ludo Ensemble:

On the lute, Karlach the Slammin’ Barbarian
On the violin, Jaheira the Slummin’ Harper
On the lyre, Halsin the Strummin’ Druid
On the drums, Calliope the Travelin’ Halfling
On the flute, Viola the Flauntin’ Flautist
Conductor and whistler, Astarion with the Pluckin’ Pucker
And, as always, Scratch the Canine Cavalier

A typical Bard moment

When he’s not part of a band, Astarion (in playthrough 11, at least) performs for the adoration of the masses and few coins. Here’s a typical moment in the life of a Bard:

The Bard stands in a crowd and starts playing their instrument; in this case, it’s Astarion and he’s whistling. When he starts, nearby people encircle him. As soon as we see the message “Performance Successful”, he can stop. Some members of the crowd may applaud and toss gold coins. He picks them up, because you can never have too much cash.

There’s an achievement called “Busker” which you receive when you’ve earned a hundred gold in this way. I’m pretty sure I’ve earned more than that, but I haven’t received the achievement yet; in the console version of Baldur’s Gate 3 there doesn’t seem to be a way to track achievement progress. Perhaps whistling is not sufficient to be counted as playing “sweet, sweet music”.

Edit: The reason why I can’t get the “Busker” achievement is that I’m using mods (e.g., the Witch mod). Using mods disables achievements. Since I’m using mods in my current playthough 11, and plan to use them in playthrough 12 (as I’ll discuss in my playthrough 11 write-up), it may be a while before I’m in a position to get this. Oh, well.