When the Goin' gets Tough... the Bard goes Drinking!
Not sure if y'all know about this one: I didn't see it in any of the hints pages. It works in every one of the Bard's Tale games, works from Level One on (all you need is a Bard with an instrument and a drink). I looked and I didn't see it anywhere listed, though I tell ya, without this trick, it'd be a hell of a lot more expensive to heal up.
It works off Song #4 in Bard's Tales I and III (Badh'r Kilnfest and Bringaround Ballad respectively) and Song #5 in Bard's Tale II (Zanduvar Carack). Here's the simple (albeit tedious) procedure:
When your party's hurt and your Bard has a tune ready, enter a Party Attack (press "P"). Then, tell EVERYONE but the Bard in the first round to Defend only: the Bard should play the appropriate Bard Song for the version (again, in BT1 and BT3 it should be Song #4; in BT2 it should be Song #5). DESPITE what the manual says, the Bard song lasts for the entire combat, not just a single round. Each round after the tune starts, your party members will heal one hit point each. After the first round, keep everyone Defending, and continue the "combat" and continue Defending until the party is healed. Then go buy your Bard a drink: he's earned it. Having a Bardsword makes this the ideal way to heal up in dungeons whenever necessary: save your spell points for kicking ass and utilities.
What's REALLY neat is that this works when you've got a traveling tune going too: not sure if this is the case in all versions, but it definitely is for the MS DOS version of BT1. So you can get the AC benefits of "The Traveller's Tune" while walking, get into a fight, retain the AC bonus AND start regenerating in the first combat round by playing "Badhr's Kilnfest". Even better, when the combat's over, even though you played a different tune during the combat, the old marching tune starts up again.
This way, you can save your spell points for combat, save your cash for spell points from Roscoe (and occasionally healing your party members from status conditions that you don't have spells for), and your Bard gets more opportunities to get plastered.
Tar
No mystical energy field controlling my Destiny Knight... just a few simple
tricks and nonsense!
Bard's Tale Ultimate Trick
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Molten Man
That works on the Apple 2 version as well. I remember sitting on spell point regeneration squares while playing the Rhyme of Duotime (BT2) and waiting for monsters. The Rhyme gives everyone an extra attack, and every round I would have my bard play it again. With the cumulative effect, by the end of combat my monk could have 12-13 attacks per round.