The Bard in 1^st edition AD&D closely resembles the ‘wandering minstrel’ concept. Travelling from town to town, or throughout the villages.

The Bard brings news and stories about the areas to the people, and often can be that rational voice to the rulers when no one else wants to speak up. As an example, in the book Ivanhoe, the bard/minstrel/jester interrupts the local lord who was in a rant condemning Prince John for being Norman and shut him down with the poem: “Richard is King, John his brother; One is a Norman… what was the other?”

In the Belgariad series the character of Mister Wolf was a storyteller supreme able to ensorcel a gathering at the local Lord’s dinner table.

Bards are able to lift the spirits of the people around with wit and humour, poems and songs of glory and valour can embolden or enrage, and they can also calm rampaging beasts with some melody and soft words. Bards have their uses and have an eclectic background capable of defending themselves when necessary and actions of skulduggery and stealth.

In the game, this is the class that seems to break or bend the rules, as it is an amalgam of three other classes. The path of the Bard is not an easy one and requires patience and commitment from the player.

And of course, the class is optional and only available if the Dungeon Master approves. 

The first point to make is the DM has to allow it. All the Player needs to do is ask and for the DM to say yes. Without this buy-in from the DM the class is not open for players; for the DM the work of managing levelling up, moving classes, and the colleges will need to be managed.

For many DMs, the idea of a Bard in 1^st  Edition is a difficult pill to swallow. The concept of Multi-classing is understood, Dual-classing is understood (and punitive enough for the occurrence to be quite rare); but the Bard bends these rules to create a blend of three classes. 

All of this causes some problems.

Like all problems that need to be solved let’s start with what we know.

Becoming the Bard

It’s important to remember if the Player chooses to be a Bard, it’s time to start treating the Bard like a standard class; remembering of course that as the character changes classes the rules of these classes also need to be adhered to.

Stats

The physical requirement of being a Bard is high. Character Abilities of Strength, Wisdom, Dexterity, and Charisma all have to be at least 15; this represents a combination of the three classes (Fighter, Thief, and Druid) combined with the charm and wit of a high Charisma.

For those who think four ability scores of 15 was enough, the requirements of Intelligence 12 and Constitution 10, mean that there is a minimum for every Ability score.

Race

The Bard character can be either Half-elf or Human. The Bard is intrinsically a wandering class travelling the countryside and these are the Races best suited to the eclectic nature of the class.

Depending on the Strength ability score, the Half-elf will have its own racial limitations regarding to which level the Fighter can attain.

Alignment

When choosing a Bard, the alignment limitation is any Neutral, but can be Lawful, Chaotic, Good, or Evil.

Weapons and Armour

The Bard has a limited weapons closet: Club, dagger, dart, javelin, sling, scimitar, spear, staff, and sword (NOT two-handed).

The armour requirements are leather armour or magical chain mail. An important distinction here, not normal chain mail, only magical chain mail.

Musical Instrument

Bards are renowned for their ability to perform. The Bard plays instruments and can sing, dance, and recite poetry. The character can play an instrument to a professional level.

Being the Bard

If the Player rolls up a character that qualifies for the class, then chooses the appropriate Alignment. 

Now in classic 1^st  Edition AD&D style, the weirdness starts.

The first part of the character’s career begins as a Fighter. The character starts with d10 HP, 50 to 200 g.p. start, four weapon proficiencies. Aside from the Bard elements mentioned above, the character is exactly as a 1^st Level Fighter.

The character then remains as a Fighter until 5^th level, then at any time before 8^th level the character moves to the next stage in the career. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The Bard uses the number of attacks and the combat matrix at the Fighter level attained. 

The second part of the career means the character becomes a thief. At this stage, the character has HP from the Fighter class, and will receive no further HP from the Thief class until reaching a higher level.

Example: The character reaches 6^th level as a Fighter, while progressing as a Thief, the character will receive no additional HP until the character reaches 7^th level. The character then receives an extra d6 for HP.

The character remains a Thief until the class reaches 5^th level, and any time after, but no higher than 9^th level, the character finally makes it to a College.

SPECIAL NOTE: The character stops progressing as a Thief and has Thieving Abilities of the Thief level attained.

The third and final stage of the character progression is the Bardic Colleges. Under the tutelage of some Druids, the character now has some spell abilities and gains some new abilities.

The Character now becomes a 1^st level Bard, at 1^st level the character receives no additional HP. Once at 2^ndlevel, the character gains 1d6HP per level until 11^th level.

Hit Points

Depending upon the levels attained as Fighter and Thief, the character could have a wide range of HP.

With an average of 5.5 HP per Fighter Level, the character could have a starting value of 28HP to 44HP and a potential extra of 3.5HP per Thief level above the level of Fighter. The average HP for a character that is Fighter 5/Thief 6 will have 31HP; levels 6/7 averages 37HP. 

The Bard class gains an additional d6HP per level for 10 levels providing an extra 35HP on average.

The Experience Bottle

Players do wonder about whether the XP requirements for the Character make the class too cumbersome. Let’s try to break it down:

Fighter XP:       Level          ‘to hit’ AC 0

18,001             5^th Level          16

35,001             6^th Level          15

70,001             7^th Level          14

125,001           8^th Level          13

Total XP     Fighter Level attained

Thief Level   5^th Level   6^th Level  7^th Level    8^th Level

5^th Level       28,002           45,002        80,002          135,002

6^th Level      38,002            55,002         90,002         145,002

7^th Level      60,502            77,502        112,502        167,502

8^th Level      88,002          105,002        140,002         195,002

9^th Level     128,002        145,002         195,002        225,002

It’s easy to see there is a sweet spot for level progression. Wait too long and the XP bottle begins to widen. Once again, it’s all about perspective.

For most Classes the 28,000XP zone is 5^th Level and 55,000XP is 6^th Level; the 100,000XP challenge places most classes at 7^th level and a few at 8^th. As the XP bottle narrows and widens for each class, the player will want to remain on par with the remaining party.

This is where the DM has to figure out changing classes and levelling up; the novice Thief requires 1,251XP to move to 2^nd Level. If, as we might imagine, the Character is a 6^th Level Fighter – and the remaining party are also in that 6^th to 7^th Level, the character has wandered off to either join or engage the services of a Thieves Guild for training. The character will need to spend time and money for those services. It is also not unrealistic that the character will rapidly travel those Levels in the Thief class perhaps bounding two (or even three) levels in a single session. Where a DM may not normally allow multi-levelling up, in the case of the Bard this is almost a necessity. Again, the Bard bends many of the standard rules. The rationale could exist the other PC Thieves (who would also be in that 6^th to 8^th level zone) are assisting with the training along the way.

Then finally going off to Bardic College for the training in the other arts including spell casting.

The Bard is a part-time Fighter and part-time Thief that turns into a part-time spell caster.

SPECIAL NOTE: Half-elves with Strengths of 15 or 16 (remembering 15 was the minimum for a Bard) will have limit of Level 6 as a Fighter; Strength 17 provides maximum Level 7, and Strength 18 allows the Half-elf Fighter to reach 8^th  Level as a maximum.

Aside from the Fighter and Thief abilities, the Bard possesses several abilities.

Additional Languages

Up to 15 additional languages can be learned over the course of the character’s career as a Bard.

Charm

As a Bard, the character can engage with many creatures and people, and this is reflected as a percentage chance to Charm the person/monster as the relevant spells Charm Person and Charm Monster. The Bard needs to play and sing for this ability to work; this affects all enemy people/creatures within 4” range.

The targets make a save vs Spell and if failed, the targets sit and listen to the Bard play and sing; if the save is successful, the targets will stop and listen to the Bard play for a full round. 

While playing to a charmed audience, the Bard can plant a Suggestion as if those targets are being affected by a Suggestion spell, the targets make a saving throw vs Spells at -2.

Legend/Lore/Item Knowledge

The character has a chance to know about local legends, and important figures; the percentage is also the chance a magical item can be identified. This ability is like the spell Legend Lore.

Poetry

While reciting poetry, the Bard can also have some positive effects for the party and associated creatures. 

After two rounds of poetics:

• All Morale of the party and associates is increased by 10%
• The party all gain +1 ‘to hit’

Both of these effects last for 10 rounds.

While reciting poetry and singing, the character can engage in combat but not engage in spell casting. The Bard cannot engage in combat while playing some instruments.

Saving Throws

The character begins with the Fighter Saving Throws, then as the character progresses into Thief, may choose the best Saving Throw based on Class and level.

As a fully-fledged Bard, the character uses the Cleric/Druid Saving Throw chart and may also cherry pick the best result from the Fighter, Thief, and Cleric tables.