UO Provocation Skill Guide

Provocation is the aggressive bard skill: a rousing tune that goads two nearby creatures into attacking each other, letting them thin their own ranks while you stay clear of the fight. On the Stratics Barding Difficulty page it is one of the four abilities in the Barding Success Calculator, which pits your Musicianship, Provocation and instrument against each target's difficulty rating. Because provocation requires beating the difficulty of both creatures involved, it rewards high skill and the right instrument more than any other bard ability.

Provocation depends on a Musicianship check and is tuned by your instrument and the wider bard toolkit:

• Musicianship — gates every attempt; values over 100 lower the difficulty you must beat on both targets.
• Instrument quality — exceptional instruments cut difficulty by 5 and the correct slayer instrument by 10, though the wrong slayer adds 10.
• Provocation itself — provoking subtracts 5 from base difficulty.
• Peacemaking and Discordance — the partner skills that let a bard both start and stop fights on demand.

A target's Difficulty is the skill giving a 50% success chance, accurate to about ±2% of the calculator value; success follows 50 + 2 × (Bard Skill − Difficulty). Below difficulty by 25 you cannot attempt it, and above by 25 you always succeed but gain nothing. Provocation applies a −5 action modifier — smaller than discord or targeted peace — and you must clear the difficulty of both creatures. The page's own example: at 120 skill with a dragon-slayer instrument you have roughly a 60% chance to provoke two Ancient Wyrms, dropping to about 20% at 100 skill.

The creatures below are Non-Bardable — Provocation has no effect on them regardless of skill: