Discordance

Discordance is the debuff arm of the Bard's repertoire. Where Provocation makes two creatures fight and Peacemaking calms an aggressor, Discordance plays clashing notes that weaken the target — sapping its skills, stats, and damage output for the duration the Bard maintains the song. A discorded dragon hits like a drake; a discorded peerless boss bleeds away its threat profile. Like every Bard discipline it is gated on Musicianship and a musical instrument.

Using

The Bard activates Discordance from the skill list and targets a single creature. On a successful skill check the target loses a percentage of every skill and stat it possesses. The percentage scales linearly with Discordance:

A creature with a Barding Difficulty of 160 (the cap, used for the toughest peerless and renowned bosses) takes half the listed debuff — a 120-skill Bard reduces such a creature by 14% rather than 28%.

The debuff applies to creatures only. Player characters are unaffected; Discordance is purely a PvE tool.

When the song ends — Bard out of range, line-of-sight broken, Bard killed, or creature killed — the target's stats restore to full at once.

Range and continuation

Like all Bard abilities, Discordance ranges 8 tiles at base, +1 tile per 15 skill points (16 tiles at 120). The Bard must remain within range, alive, and visible.

Dragon AI caveat. Daemons, drakes, hellhounds, nightmares, and dragons share a movement-aware AI: any motion by the Bard while playing a Bard song can compel them to retarget the moving character. The countermeasure is to stand still while a song is up, or to play from a boat where the AI cannot path to the deck.

Mechanics shared with Provocation

Discordance uses the same success / failure formula as Provocation — (Musicianship + Discordance + instrument bonus) versus twice the Barding Difficulty. Training methods are therefore identical: the same creature ladder, the same instrument-quality hierarchy, the same Slayer-non-match anti-bonus trick for the post-90 plateau. See Provocation for the full creature-by-skill table.

The Crystal Ball of Knowledge reads Barding Difficulty and is the only public way to plan a Discordance training session against an unfamiliar target.

Training above 90

Discordance has a unique post-90 path that Provocation lacks. After reaching 90 skill the Bard can pursue the Wielding the Sonic Blade quest from the Bard Masters in Skara Brae. Completion unlocks the Tribulation Mastery, which can be cast on and off the Bard's own character; the on-self / off-self toggling counts as Discordance use for skill-gain purposes and trains cleanly to 120 without further creature dependence.

Skill above 100 requires Power Scrolls from Champion Spawns. The cap raises in 5-point increments to 120.

Mastery — Tribulation

Tribulation is Discordance's signature Bard Mastery and the most damaging music-driven debuff in the game. The Mastery applies a stacking damage-reflection effect: each time the cursed target lands a blow on its own attacker (the Bard or a pet), the target itself takes an escalating return damage — building a self-inflicted death spiral on any monster that keeps swinging.

Tribulation chains naturally with a Tamer's pet (the pet engages, the boss reflects damage onto itself with each swing) and with a provoked third party (one creature melees, the other absorbs reflection). Players running a Bard-Tamer dual-template typically lead with Discordance to soften the target, then activate Tribulation to bleed it, then release the pet.

The other Bard Masteries — Despair, Inspire, Invigorate, Perseverance, Resilience — each have their own bard-skill home, and a single Bard can switch the active Mastery by re-activating a different mastery scroll.

Strategic uses

• Peerless and renowned soloing. A 120-Discordance Bard reduces every stat and skill of a peerless boss by 14% (Barding Difficulty 160, half debuff). With Tribulation overlaid, a single Bard-Tamer can solo content most templates require a group for.
• Champion Spawn safety. Discord the champion before engaging — the spawn's special-move thresholds drop with its skill loss, so its dangerous abilities trigger less often.
• Tamer assist. Discorded creatures hit pets less often and miss more, dramatically extending pet survival on tame attempts.
• Treasure Map combat. A Bard escorting a Treasure Hunter discords the spawn-up creatures so the digger's pets can mop up.

Strategy notes

• Discord first, always. Open every encounter with Discordance before any spell or weapon swing. The 28% reduction is uniformly more valuable than the opening damage of any other action.
• Don't move during the song. Dragon-AI creatures will switch onto the Bard the moment they detect motion. Plant feet, then play.
• Slayer instrument matching matters less than for Provocation. Discordance only checks once per song activation; a slow-attack Slayer-mismatch trick is less effective. Use Exceptional Carpenter instruments at the matching difficulty band.
• Tribulation + Provocation = the Bard's solo combo. Discord one target, provoke another onto it, watch the reflection chain. The stack is the highest sustained DPS a single Bard can produce.
• Range disengagement. When a fight goes wrong, walking 16 tiles back ends the Discordance immediately — use the range as an escape option. The creature's restored stats may make it lose interest if no other player is near.

See also

Musicianship, Provocation, Peacemaking, Bard Masteries, Book of Bard Masteries, Tribulation, Wielding the Sonic Blade, Crystal Ball of Knowledge, Slayer, Carpentry, Champion Spawn, Power Scrolls, Animal Taming.