Songbook

A Songbook is the bardic equivalent of a Spellbook — a usable item that holds a bard's repertoire of mastery abilities and acts as the Slayer-property carrier for bards. Introduced as part of the Skill Masteries bard system in Publish 81, the Songbook lets a bard equip a Bardic Slayer that doubles damage from Provocation, Discordance, and Peacemaking effects against the slayer's target group. It is the only way for a bard to gain slayer-equivalent damage scaling without holding a melee or ranged weapon — a critical build piece for the pure bardic mage template that doesn't carry a Slayer Weapon.

Mechanics

Bardic Slayer property

The Bardic Slayer property on a Songbook multiplies damage from any Provocation, Discordance, or Peacemaking ability used against the targeted creature group. The bonus is identical to the weapon-side Slayer multiplier — 2× damage for Super Slayers, 3× damage for Lesser Slayers — but the bonus applies to bardic skill effects, not melee swings.

Slayer groups

All Super Slayer and Lesser Slayer groups available on weapons are also available on Songbooks. The most common Songbook slayers found in late-game UO:

Lesser Slayers (Dragon Slayer, Spider Slayer, etc.) also drop on Songbooks but are rarer than the Super-Slayer variants.

Acquisition

The drop rate is substantially lower than Slayer Weapons — bards are a smaller player base, so bardic-loot generation is correspondingly thinner.

Build implications

Comparison with other Slayer items

The Songbook is the bard-specific entry in this family.

See also

• Slayer_Weapons — sister-system for melee/ranged
• Slayer — the underlying slayer-property mechanic
• Provocation · Discordance · Peacemaking · Musicianship — bard skills the Songbook scales
• Skill_Masteries · Mastery_Primer — system the Songbook supports
• Spellbook — sister item for mages
• Champion_Spawn — primary slayer-Songbook drop source