Peacemaking
Peacemaking is a Bard skill that allows you to calm hostile creatures, forcing them out of combat. It can be used in two distinct modes: Area Peace (target yourself) for a brief mass calm, or Targeted Peace (target a creature) for a longer-lasting pacification on a single enemy.
Requirements
- A musical instrument in your backpack
- Musicianship skill (checked before every attempt)
How to Use
Use the Peacemaking skill from your skill menu. You will be prompted to select an instrument if one is not already set. Once an instrument is active, you will be asked to choose a target.
- Target yourself to attempt an Area Peace
- Target a creature to attempt a Targeted Peace
Musicianship Check
Before any barding attempt is made, your Musicianship skill is checked. If this check fails, you play poorly and the attempt ends immediately — your Peacemaking skill is never even rolled. The chance to pass the Musicianship check is:
Success Chance = Musicianship / 100
At 100 Musicianship you pass 100% of the time. Below that, you will occasionally waste attempts. There is no benefit to raising Musicianship above 100 for this check alone, but values above 100 do provide a separate bonus to Targeted Peace difficulty (see below).
Note|A failed Musicianship check still consumes a use of your instrument.
Area Peace (Self-Target)
When you target yourself, Peacemaking affects all hostile creatures within your bard range. This mode is useful for emergency situations when you are surrounded.
How it works:
- Your Peacemaking is checked against a flat range of 0 to 120
- On success, every non-immune hostile creature in range has its combat reset
- Affected creatures are pacified for only 1 second — just long enough to break aggro and attempt to flee or reposition
- Creatures with Area Peace Immunity are unaffected even if they can normally be peaced through targeted mode
Cooldown: 5 seconds on success, 10 seconds on failure.
Targeted Peace
When you target a specific creature, Peacemaking pacifies it for a much longer duration. This is the primary way bards use the skill.
How it works:
- Musicianship is checked first — failure ends the attempt
- The creature's Bard Difficulty is calculated based on its stats (see Bard Instruments Guide)
- Your instrument's properties (Exceptional, Slayer) reduce that difficulty
- An additional −10.0 flat bonus is applied to the adjusted difficulty
- If your Musicianship exceeds 100, you gain a further reduction equal to half the excess (e.g., 120 Musicianship gives −10.0 additional)
- Your Peacemaking skill is checked against the final adjusted difficulty
Cooldown: 5 seconds on success, 10 seconds on failure.
Duration of Targeted Peace
When targeted Peacemaking succeeds, the creature is pacified and will not attack or fight for a period of time. The duration depends on how far your effective difficulty was reduced:
Duration = 100 − (adjusted difficulty / 1.5) seconds
This is clamped between 10 seconds (minimum) and 120 seconds (maximum). The lower the effective difficulty, the longer the creature stays calm. Against very hard creatures, the pacify may only last 10 seconds, giving you a small window to act before the creature re-engages.
Bard Range
Your effective bard range for Peacemaking is determined by your skill level:
Range = 8 + (Peacemaking Skill / 15) tiles
| Peacemaking Skill | Bard Range |
|---|---|
| 60 | 12 tiles |
| 80 | 13 tiles |
| 100 | 14 tiles |
| 120 | 16 tiles |
Success Rates vs. Maximum Difficulty Creatures
The following table shows your approximate success rate and pacify duration at 120 Peacemaking and 120 Musicianship against a creature at the maximum Bard Difficulty of 160, with different instruments. These numbers account for the full Peacemaking formula including the flat −10 bonus and the Musicianship bonus.
| Instrument | Effective Difficulty | Success Rate | Pacify Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| No bonuses | 140.0 | 10% | 10 seconds (minimum) |
| Exceptional only | 135.0 | 20% | 10 seconds |
| One matching slayer only | 130.0 | 30% | 13 seconds |
| Exceptional + one matching slayer | 125.0 | 40% | 17 seconds |
| Two matching slayers (no exceptional) | 120.0 | 50% | 20 seconds |
| Exceptional + two matching slayers | 115.0 | 60% | 23 seconds |
Success Rates by Creature Difficulty
This table shows approximate success rates at 120 Peacemaking and 120 Musicianship with an Exceptional instrument (no slayer) across a range of creature difficulties:
| Creature Bard Difficulty | Effective Difficulty | Success Rate | Pacify Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 55.0 | 100% | 63 seconds |
| 100 | 75.0 | 100% | 50 seconds |
| 110 | 85.0 | 100% | 43 seconds |
| 120 | 95.0 | 100% | 37 seconds |
| 130 | 105.0 | 80% | 30 seconds |
| 140 | 115.0 | 60% | 23 seconds |
| 150 | 125.0 | 40% | 17 seconds |
| 160 | 135.0 | 20% | 10 seconds |
What Cannot Be Peaced
Some creatures are immune to Peacemaking entirely:
- Uncalmable creatures — these cannot be targeted at all with Peacemaking. You will receive the message: "You have no chance of calming that creature."
- Already pacified creatures — a creature that is currently under a peace effect cannot be re-peaced until the effect wears off. You will receive the message: "That creature is already being calmed."
- Area Peace Immune creatures — these resist the Area Peace (self-target) mode but may still be vulnerable to Targeted Peace
Tips
- Area Peace is an emergency tool, not your primary skill use. The 1-second pacify is only enough to break aggro and buy a moment to run or heal. Use Targeted Peace for real crowd control.
- Musicianship above 100 is valuable. Every point above 100 reduces targeted peace difficulty by 0.5. At 120 Musicianship, you get a −10 difficulty bonus on top of your instrument properties. This can be the difference between 0% and a workable success rate on high-difficulty creatures.
- Carry multiple instruments with different slayer types if you plan to bard in areas with varied creature types. The −10 per matching slayer is substantial.
- Watch your instrument charges. Every attempt — success or failure — consumes a use. Exceptional instruments have double the charges (700–900 vs. 350–450), making them last much longer on extended trips.
- Re-peace before the timer runs out. You can target a creature again once the current pacify expires. Against tough creatures with short durations, be ready to re-apply immediately.
- The success cooldown is shorter than the failure cooldown. Successful peaces let you act again in 5 seconds, while failures lock you out for 10 seconds. This rewards careful target selection.