Musicianship is essential for any Bard skill. It is required to use any of the other bard-related skills (Provocation, Peacemaking, Discordance). It is activated through the use of various instruments.
While it does very little on its own aside from producing soothing music (or a fat-finger cacophony), Musicianship’s skill level is a key factor in determining the success and effectiveness of Discordance, Peacemaking, and Provocation.
Formula for all Bard skillsSuccess = Relevant Bard Skill - Barding Difficulty + 30 Base Chance + 10 for each of the other two instrument skills if they are at GM +/- 10 if you have the correct slayer flute or not.
This gives a maximum chance at equal skill vs barding difficulty of 30% + 2 X 10% + 10% = 60%
Associated formulas specific to Peacemaking, Provocation and Discordance can be found on their pages.
See our Bard Difficulty Calculator (experimental calculator)
It is possible to actively and passively train Musicianship.
For each bard skill that is 100, the distance range requirement is increased to a slightly higher range as a perk to grandmasters of the class.