Bard Bards are lorekeepers, tale-tellers, entertainers, historians, news-spreaders, messengers, and, of course, musicians.  They feel it their personal calling to spread the stories of heroes, carry news of current events, and generally pass on knowledge of all kinds.  Most Bards also feel a need to entertain while doing all these things, embellishing their news or inventing new stories and songs to fit the occasion.  Some are just natural performers, while others feel they are performing a duty for the communities they visit, helping the common folk of Norrath forget their troubles and lighten their spirits.  They have a reputation for inebriation (not entirely undeserved) and occasionally dishonesty (not normally deliberate, the Bard really does believe those drinks were on the house), but often an isolated village's sole source of news and entertainment is the local Bard.  Some claim the magic wielded in their songs is the earliest magic harnessed by mortals in Norrath, but it's usually the Bards themselves making that claim.

Type:

Hybrid

Class Skills:

While a Bard's stories, songs, and jokes are reason enough to bring him along, their jack-of-all-trades abilities are unmatchable.  They are skilled in fighting, woodland lore, and underhanded talents, and though not masters of any of those skills, they are generally capable at anything they try their hands at.  Generally their primary draw is their unique ability to sing and play magical songs.  They can never match an arcane master, but their variety of effects and stamina at sustaining them makes gives them advantages over the book-casters.

Bards can master any weapon except large staves, maces, warhammers, and other blunt weapons that require both hands.  They are the only class that can achieve any degree of musical proficiency in Singing, Percussion Instruments, Stringed Instruments, Brass Instruments, and Wind Instruments.  In addition, they acquire with experience a mixed bag of useful talents: Dodge, Forage, Dual Wield, Sneak, Safe Fall, Hide, Track, Pick Lock, Parry, and Riposte.  They also receive rudimentary instructions in Meditate and Disarm Traps.

Other Names:

Minstrel, Troubadour, Virtuoso, Maestro, Jharin (Vah Shir)

Armor:

Bards may wear all armor up to and including plate.

Religion:

There is no one particular god a majority of Bards could be said to worship.  There are Bards following any god on Norrath, except the purely evil ones.  Bertoxxulous, Cazic-Thule, and Innoruuk just don't seem to inspire much music.  Bards are the only ones who choose to serve The Wurmqueen, perhaps believing Veeshan may hold secrets to Bardic origins.  Vah Shir Jharin, having been cut off from Norrath for so long, follow the same animist spiritualism the rest of their race does, and recognize no deities of the other races.  Many bards feel no particular allegiance, either through upbringing or personal decision, and honor all gods (or none) equally.

Questing:

Most Bards are travelers, always hearing the call of the road, and rarely settling for long in one place.  Occasionally they find more serious employment than entertainment by becoming messengers, delivery-persons, or scouts, but a Bard is usually more at home wandering purely for his own pleasure, singing for his bed and supper, or sleeping out in the fields.  Bards will occasionally quest for a fabled song, weapon, or piece of armor, or for answers to the many questions raised by they lore the acquire.  Almost all Bards are intensely social, preferring strongly to travel or adventure with a group whenever possible, if only to ensure an audience.  One the whole, Bards' quests are related to their deity or guild.  A Kelethin Bard may be looking for better protection for his homeland; a Bard of the The Warlord may search for the ultimate weapon.

Culture and Training:

Bards, as mentioned, are a social lot, and they like to frequently meet at a tavern and swap material.  Bards are not stay-at-home types, no one becomes a bard without the dream to be there at a momentous occasion to be able to sing about it later from personal experience (though what a momentous occasion is varies from Bard to Bard).

Bards generally study with a mentor, though not always.  A songweaver may come off happy-go-lucky, but the callouses on his fingers were not gotten by sitting around drinking and laughing.  Bards spend hours practicing their fingers bloody and their throats raw honing their talents.

Interaction:

Common people love Bards.  Even Trolls have been known to invite a Bard in to sing a "purdy song" before trying to eat him.  Bards work well with others and have marvelous charisma and social skills, although they will often have personality clashes with more severe classes such as Paladins or Shadow Knights.  In a tense situation, Bards maintain a flippant flamboyance to mask worry or strain, but that might grate on someone with a sense of pride or purpose who does not understand the casual exterior is a front.  Necromancers, Shadow Knights, and Clerics of dark gods are almost universally irritated by a Bard's songs, stories, trivia, and inquisitiveness; bardic existence is based on easing hardship through laughter and entertainment, which is in direct opposition to the evil missions of spreading pain, hate, terror, and disease.  Any party who gains a Bard gains not only a useful party member, but a much-needed pick-me-up and a possible ticket to immortality, should their exploits prove laudable and the Bard prove skillful enough to make them memorable.

Alignment:

Bards have alignments as diverse as their gods, personalities, and philosophies.  Many tend to be discordant due to their traveling natures, and very few are evil.

Roleplay Tips:

Tell jokes, as witty as you can, as off color as you feel comfortable.  Tell stories, as interesting as you can make them, preferably from your own personal experience, but make them up whole cloth if you want.  Remember, embellishment is a Bard's friend, so go ahead and make it sound like you singlehandedly defeated the entire Crushbone Horde, even if you did just lead three of them from Orc Hill back to the orc lift for the guards to finish them off.  Sing songs, both funny (and bawdy, if you want) and interesting.  Take very little seriously, and always have a snappy comeback.  It's not that you don't understand the gravity of the situation—you just know that a little music will take care of everything.  Trust me.

Quote:

"So there I was, facing the entire Legion of Cabilis with only my sword and my wits" <swigs ale> "What happened then?  Well, I'll tell you what happened then..." <picks up lute>