Little Known Mod Review - The Dragon Bard
I recently began a Bard playthrough and discovered this mod, available at the following link:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/151231
The Dragon Bard adds several new craftable and playable instruments, including but not limited to a lyre, violin, and pan pipes, each with their own new animations. There is also a vocalize ability that allows one to sing beautiful, wordless notes. A player home in the Bards College in Solitude has a special workbench at which the instruments can be crafted.
While this is fun flavour for a Bard character there are also quests.
One of them involves playing an instrument at a series of places around Skyrim. Completing this quest earns you a song power as well that provides unique magical effects based on the instrument you have equipped.
The second involves following clues to find ancient musical scrolls containing music. For each one you find a new song is unlocked on a corresponding instrument. I quite enjoyed this quest as following the clues contained in a book to find the scrolls takes you all over Skyrim, and if you're an RP player like I am it's great to have an in-game reason to adventure like this. A book gives you hints as to where to find them, but doesn't hold your hand and lead you right to them. There's a real sense of accomplishment in finding them.
The mod author is herself a musician, and it shows. The attention paid to the selection of musical tracks is stellar, and the overall tone of the mod is immersive and fun.
It plays well alongside Become a Bard.
While I haven't fully completed the quests yet, I haven't found any real bugs.
I've been playing with Become a Bard and Ordinator along side this mod, and suddenly have fallen in love with the Speech perk tree. Not only does all of this add to the immersion of a Bard character, it also provides a real sense of musical accomplishment.
I'd love to see a patch at some point that allows the Vocalize power to count in Thunderchild's "Shout at the sky once a day" task, or an option added to sing the words of a shout. I'd also love to see some song-based spells added via an update or a companion mod; illusion and conjuration could be excellent schools to be expressed through song. Restoration also, especially spells like Aura of Might / Vigor from Triumvirate.
This mod, if expanded and more quests added, has the potential to be the Bard equivalent of what Undeath or Practical Necromancy are to necromancers.
I think this mod author hit it out of the park here, with a well-crafted mod that hits a fine niche in the modding community.
Give it a try if you decide to play a bard. You'll be glad you did.