Bards thoughout the ages (what is a bard)?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I quote like the Bard in the old Bards Tale series of games. They gave him six songs that he could sing that did things like buffing AC or making magic more likely to fail and a limit on the singing to once per level until the bard could get some alcohol down his neck. They also gave him some very cool magic items, such as the Firehorn (which shoots fireballs out). The Bard was as effective as a fighter in combat but never gained multiple attacks. Seemed much better than what D&D itself was doing.

LOL. Powered by alcohol -- I'd forgotten that. Now there's a mundane power source for you!

Off to Skara Brae ...

 

[Hussar]

No. Half-elves could do fighter/thief progression as a multiclass, but you had to have minimum levels in both fighter and thief before switching to bard. There was no fighter/druid/thief or druid/thief multiclass option, either.

Looking at it in 3E terms, the 1E bard class is more of a prestige class than a traditional multi/dual class.

Ok, cool, we were doing it right. Yeah, I realised you couldn't go bard from 1st level, since you had minimum class requirements. But, if you do it as a half-elf multi class for fighter/thief, it actually doesn't take that long to qualify as a bard.

 

[Dragonhelm]

The one iteration of the bard that I've been intrigued by is the 13th Age version, which has very nice unique mechanics for bardic songs and battle cries. I think the bard should be its own thing and not a borrower of other classes' abilities.

I was just looking over the 13th Age bard recently. I really like it! I love the fact that it has spells, bardic songs (spellsongs), and battle cries (inspired by the warlord, I imagine). It is the most distinctive bard I've seen since Monte Cook's alternate bard (which I never got to play).

I like the flavor text too. There's a note on bardic songs that says that their names are placeholders. You, as the bard, will come up with your own names, because "that's how you roll."