Discordance
Discordance fills a target with jarring, discordant music, leaving it weakened for your whole group. On UO Sagas the skill is used through the Song of Discordance from your Songbook; the skill button in the skills list only points you there. Buy the music sheet (450 gold) from a Bard NPC — the song system is explained in Barding and Songs.
The effect
A discorded creature deals less damage and takes more damage — on this shard Discordance works on damage rather than lowering stats and skills:
| Base effect | 15% less damage dealt, 15% more damage taken |
| Per Potency level | +1.5% (song Potency and Virtuoso levels combined) |
| Maximum effect | 39% with Potency 8 and Virtuoso 8 |
| Duration | 20 seconds, +2 per Duration level, up to 52 seconds |
The extra damage everyone deals to your discorded target makes this the bard's team-support skill of choice for tough monsters and bosses. A target can only be under one discord at a time — you cannot stack or refresh it until the effect runs out.
Valid targets
Discordance works on monsters only: you cannot discord yourself, other players, or pets and other player-controlled creatures. Creatures that are immune to all bard songs (ogres, ogre lords, golems, bog things and several boss-tier monsters, among others) cannot be discorded — unlike Provocation and Peacemaking there is no extra discord-specific immunity list, so any creature that is not fully bard-immune is fair game.
Difficulty
The check runs against the target's barding difficulty — 25 for the weakest creatures up to 180 for the strongest, with your skill checked in a ±25 window. Musicianship over 100, instrument quality, song Potency and the Virtuoso perk all reduce the difficulty; the full math with worked examples is in Barding and Songs. Note that the strength of the effect comes from Potency levels, not from your skill — skill (and Musicianship above 100) determines whether the song lands on hard targets at all.
A magic instrument of Discordance adds +5 to +25 directly to your Discordance skill while it is your active instrument.
Raising the skill
Discordance can be trained to 100 and, with Barding skill scrolls, capped up to 120 — worth it, since boss-tier creatures sit at the top of the difficulty range.
| Skill | Method |
|---|---|
| 0–30 | Pay a Bard NPC for training |
| 30–100 | Discord progressively tougher monsters — gains come while the outcome is uncertain, so move up once a target type becomes trivial |
| 100–120 | Discord high-end dungeon and boss monsters |
Every song attempt also trains Musicianship. Gains follow the normal rules in Skills Overview.
The bonus damage your discord causes earns Barding Points (half the extra damage, even when others hit the target), which level up your songs — see Barding and Songs.
Related
- Barding and Songs — Songbook, song levels, difficulty and Bard Points
- Musicianship — instruments and the first check of every song
- Musicianship Mastery — the Musicianship mastery boosts your songs
- Skill Masteries — how the mastery system works
- Provocation · Peacemaking