Peacemaking

Peacemaking — sometimes called Peacing in shorthand — is the calming arm of the Bard's repertoire. Where Provocation pits two creatures against each other and Discordance weakens one, Peacemaking stops an aggressor by playing soothing music. It is a defensive utility skill rather than a damage tool, but indispensable for Animal Taming, Treasure Map combat, escape from ambushes, and any time a Bard's first job is to quiet a room rather than control it.

Like every Bard skill, Peacemaking is gated on Musicianship and requires a musical instrument equipped or in pack.

Two modes

Peacemaking offers two distinct activations from the same skill button. The mode is chosen at target time:

Area Peacemaking — target self

Activate the skill and click the Bard's own character. On a successful skill check all aggression in the area ceases for a few seconds. Every creature within range stops attacking; players within range have their auto-attack flags reset and must re-target manually. The effect is brief — long enough to recall, drop a heal, or buy a single Tamer cast — but the duration does not scale with skill.

Area Peacemaking is the original Peacemaking, present in every era of Ultima Online. Its global aggro-wipe makes it the canonical "panic button" for any Bard caught out of position.

Targeted Peacemaking — target creature

Activate the skill and click a single creature. On a successful check the target either remains non-aggressive (if it had not yet engaged) or stops attacking its current victim and stands still. The pacification holds until one of:

• A sufficiently strong attack on the target breaks the trance.
• The Bard loses line of sight for more than ten seconds.
• The Bard moves out of range.
• The Bard dies.

Each Targeted Peacemaking attempt rolls a difficulty check against the target's Barding Difficulty versus the Bard's combined Musicianship + Peacemaking skill. The same formula and instrument-bonus rules used by Provocation apply.

Targeted Peacemaking was introduced with Publish 16 and is the workhorse mode for any modern Peacemaker — it allows the Bard to disable a single dangerous creature surgically without alerting nearby allies of the target.

Range

Like all Bard abilities, Peacemaking ranges 8 tiles at base, +1 tile per 15 points of skill (16 tiles at 120). The Bard must remain within range to maintain the song; stepping outside, breaking line of sight beyond ten seconds, or being killed all end the effect.

Use cases

• Animal Taming assist. A Tamer attempting a high-difficulty pet — Cu Sidhe, Greater Dragon, Bake Kitsune, Rune Beetle — uses Targeted Peacemaking to freeze the would-be pet during the long-running Animal Taming attempt. A Bard escort doubles a Tamer's success rate on aggressive species.
• Treasure Map combat. Treasure Hunters digging chests in the wild face mass spawns of escorts. Area Peacemaking on the dig is the standard opening — the Bard pacifies, the digger lockpicks, the team picks targets one at a time.
• Escape mechanic. When a Bard or party is overwhelmed, Area Peacemaking buys the recall window. Most groups carry at least one Peacemaker for this reason alone.
• Champion Spawn opener. Targeted Peacemaking on the champion itself disables the boss while the team clears its bodyguard waves.
• Solo PvE control. A single Peacemaker can hold one creature still while another attack runs — common pairing with Magery for ranged kills.

Training

Peacemaking trains via instrument use rather than per-target attempts. The Bard buys or crafts a stack of musical instruments and double-clicks them while targeting self (Area Peacemaking). Each successful play registers a chance at skill gain.

Self-target training works because each play attempt rolls the skill check against a low Barding Difficulty (the Bard's own value), so the gain pace is steady but slow. The post-90 climb generally requires real targeted attempts on hard creatures — Balrons, Ancient Wyrms, and other 120+ Barding Difficulty monsters — for skill checks in the gain band.

The instrument-quality hierarchy is identical to Provocation:

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

Mastery — Despair

Despair is Peacemaking's signature Bard Mastery — a stronger pacify-plus-debuff that reduces enemy melee damage and movement speed for several seconds in addition to the calming effect. Activate via a Mastery scroll learned from the Bard Masters in Skara Brae. Despair shares a cooldown with the other Mastery activations on the Bard's primary instrument.

The full Bard Mastery roster — Despair, Inspire, Invigorate, Perseverance, Resilience, Tribulation — covers debuffs, party buffs, and damage reflection across all four Bard skills. A Bard switches the active Mastery by re-activating a different scroll.

Strategic uses

• Tamer escort template. Peacemaker (120 Music + 120 Peace) escorts a Tamer (120 Anim Lore + 120 Anim Tame + 120 Vet) — the Peacemaker disables the wild pet, the Tamer climbs the Animal Taming attempts. This is the canonical two-account taming run for the toughest pets.
• Treasure Hunter escort. Same structure: Peacemaker for crowd control, Treasure Hunter for the chest. Standard for level-7 and Trove maps.
• Solo Peacekeeper. A Magery + Peacemaking + Musicianship template is a self-contained crowd-controller for low-population servers — calm everything, kill one at a time.
• PvP utility. Area Peacemaking interrupts combat between players and forces re-aggro. Useful in factional fights for momentary disengagement, though many players counter with skill-resistance jewelry.

Strategy notes

• Mode discipline. Hit Area when caught flat-footed; hit Targeted when you have time to plan. A panicked Targeted Peacemaking on the wrong creature wastes the cast.
• Don't move during a Targeted song. The 10-second LOS rule is generous, but creatures with movement-aware AI (dragons, daemons) can re-engage if the Bard moves a single tile.
• Slayer matters less here than for Provocation. Peacemaking succeeds or fails on a single check; the Slayer +20% just raises the chance, not the gain pace.
• High Barding Difficulty caveat. Balrons, Ancient Wyrms, peerless bosses — anything at 130+ Barding Difficulty — generally needs 110+ skill before a Targeted Peacemaking succeeds at all. Verify with a Crystal Ball of Knowledge first.
• Stack with Discordance. Discordance reduces a creature's stats; the lower stats translate to lower Barding Difficulty for the next Bard skill check. A discorded boss is much easier to peace.

See also

Musicianship, Provocation, Discordance, Bard Masteries, Book of Bard Masteries, Despair, Animal Taming, Treasure Map, Crystal Ball of Knowledge, Slayer, Carpentry, Champion Spawn, Power Scrolls, Cu Sidhe, Greater Dragon.