Watching this year’s Dungeons and Dragons movie got me all riled up about Bards in D&D. One of the most inspirational character classes I’ve ever come across, I think I only got one character up to actual Bard levels. But I never stopped trying. Allow me to elaborate.
The foundation of the Bard class comes primarily from what we think we know about the historical Celtic bard. Master of law and lore, oral historian, judge, emissary of the druids, courtier, poet, musician, wanderer. Even if you are a chief or noble, insult or snub a bard at your peril. For a biting satirical ballad is sure to follow and you will be ridiculed, perhaps even hated, ever after.
Gary Gygax’ implementation of the Bard character class is nothing short of brilliant. In my not so humble opinion. He based it on a 1976 Original Edition D&D submission to the old Strategic Review (SR), the TSR newsletter that predated The Dragon magazine. That article included thieving abilities as a nod to later-era depictions of wandering minstrels who often exhibited the traits of a scoundrel. A later writer, in The Dragon magazine, points out that an outsider’s views of Welsh bards could easily be construed to embody a bit of the scoundrel (based in part on the term “welshing on a bet”).
On the other hand the SR article also specified that historical bards were under druid tutelage for twenty years before they gained the rank of actual bard. They progress through druidic colleges, and in addition to Thief abilities they fight like Fighters, cast Magic User spells, can Charm, and have a Lore ability.
In 1978’s 1e AD&D Players Handbook Gygax has them work similarly to a dual-class character, simulating the twenty years of training through actual play. They start out as Fighters, working up to between 5th and 7th level. Then they switch to the Thief class, working up to between 5th and 9th level. After that they are full-fledged bards and have their own advancement table. Gygax gives them Druid spells instead of Magic User, which only makes sense. While the 1976 Strategic Review allows Humans, Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits to be Bards, Gygax restricts the class to Humans and Half-Elves. He also gives them additional languages as they progress through their studies. But above all, he makes them rare as hen’s teeth because to even qualify for the class you must roll the following minimum stats:
Str 15, Int 12, Wis 15, Dex 15, Con 10, Cha 15
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
Even so, Gygax relegates them to Appendix II of the Players Handbook as an optional class only available with DM approval, due to their impressive power level. C’mon, the abilities of three classes!
And so you don’t see a lot of Bards in a 1e AD&D campaign. They’re elite. When you’re rolling up a character and you see those four fifteens come up, your heart stops. It’s damned exciting. I always tried for the highest Fighter and Thief levels before I would switch over, so I’d have a truly imposing character. But as I said, I think in all these years I only got one Bard onto their actual specialty table.
Say you want to include the 1e AD&D Bard class in a campaign. It really cries out for its specific historical background. You need a hierarchy of druids who are the leaders of a society. At least, the spiritual leaders, you can still have secular war leaders and even noble family lines so long as they follow the druidic traditions. You should be using Celtic gods. But there’s no reason you can’t set these lands on the same continent with your Norse and fantasy kingdoms.
Now, on to inspiration. You absolutely cannot do better than to read Keith Taylor’s Bard series, first published in the 1980s, re-released a few years ago. This series has to go into my top five favorites, and believe me that’s high praise. Let me tell you about it.
Set in the sixth century, Felimid Mac Fal is a true Irish bard of the third degree, trained in the druidic colleges of his homeland. He sings, composes, he’s a musician with a magic harp. He has magic powers, lore, and a charm ability. He also has a magic sword. He’s in temporary exile so he’s hopped into England, where he wanders from one lord’s hold to another. He is welcomed by followers of the old way, honored and even obeyed.
He is treated rather shabbily by others, much to their ultimate regret. He knows the historic Arthur, who’s recently come off of repelling the last of the Roman invaders.
Now author Taylor has done his research, and in the afterwards of the books he shares some of that information with you. You’ll get a crash course in the various cultures and mythology of the era as Felimid wanders about, including spending a surprising amount of time at sea.
My review of the series is on Goodreads. Taylor also wrote a trilogy about the Danans, the children of Danu, set in Bronze Age Ireland. They’re sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.
For more Celtic images you can look up Jim Fitzpatrick. I’ll eventually get to him in my Artist Retrospectives series. But for now, know that he’s the Jack Kirby of Irish myth and legend, with a swinging sixties / psychedelic seventies vibe. They could just as well be black velvet, black light posters. And I say that as a compliment!
By the way, this stuff dovetails very nicely with something like 2013’s Vikings series from the History channel. If you were looking for even more inspiration.
But if, after you’ve read the five-volume Bard series (with a sixth one in the pipeline), you can still stomach the pathetic Chris Pine character from the D&D movie, you have a better constitution than I. As I wrote in my review of Honor Among Thieves, Pine’s character has nothing more than a tired smile. If that’s where D&D is today, I’ll stick with my awesome first edition books.
(OK, I was gonna stick with my awesome first edition books anyway.)
The Michlin Guide 
Hey haven’t heard from ya in like a year. Nice to see your still writing stuff i disagree with! Hope ya doing alright!
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I, also, am a fan of Gygax’s 1E bard (and have played several over the years). Despite their multi-class progression, they are fairly easy to advance once a play group hits the mid-levels (5th – 7th of play)…that’s because they advance through thief EXTREMELY quickly given the usual x.p. take of 8th level adventurers…and the bard levels themselves advance nearly as fast. Sticking it out through the fighter path is slow…but, then, fighter advancement IS slow (fortunately, they are exceptionally durable characters).
Good times.
: )
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