Well, to be honest I can't explain why resist mental was almost never helping you. You right I was landing all songs sleep, distort not to say about -str/-dex songs by the first attempt on you almost every time. It wasn't that easy on other few who used it. Also Laernoch wasn't the build to compete the bard at all. You coudn't decently lag, so yes even if I won't be able to land songs I'd use dispel and be fine. But it was the question of survivability not winning the fight when I was fighting axe and/or greeting warrior with resist mental up when I was bashed down for like 15 rounds and then couldn't land distort and have to run near death. Just there were rather few who used that. And again bards are the worst match for giants, so my coment about resist mental is more to those who have more than 20 int.