I can't properly explain why, I just hate them as a fantasy RPG class. Most other classes make sense - fighters to hit things, clerics to heal and protect, thieves to sneak about and open things, etc. But Bards just really pistachio me off. I have never played one and never want to, and if I meet them in game I generally want to kill them. Irrational? Maybe, but I just don't get them...

Bards are the loremasters and the charismatic faces of the party.  They're the diplomats who say just the right things, the scholars who know just where to go and just what to do in those obscure situations, both in and out of dungeons.  They can also be the everyman when it comes to class abilities, depending on the system and the edition.  Some have them be just "lesser rogues" with some flavor, but others have them be that person who can fill any role in a pinch.  They will never, ever be as good at it as the expert, but they're not as bad as, say, sending a wizard to fight on the front lines or asking a fighter to sneak ahead and scout things out.

They are also the performers and spymasters, the ones who can get you the audience with the noble or member of royalty when all other doors are closed, even if your intentions are very much nefarious.

And no other class lets you manipulate the energies of the megaverse using Perform: Erotic Art.

So what everyone is trying to say Jarodemo is...you are completely right in hating them. :'D

I liked 2nd edition bards; and first edition bards had the feel of Merlin. I'm not so keen on later edition bard.

I love bards.
As stated earlier they do what no one else wants to do. Someone playing a bard is there, usually, for the social aspect and not the killing aspect.
No other class can come up with a giant BS story about how something works and have people instantly believe it! Bards are the prefect "any class".

Bards are about my favourite class to play. But mostly because I really enjoy being in the support role. And I love skillmonkeys and I love jacks-of-all-trades. The only thing about them that irks me is that their buffing mechanic is so inextricably linked to performing. A lot the time, I don't necessarily want to make my companions fight better by singing or poetry or playing the lute. But that's the sort of default position.

But I like playing the guy who knows the local customs, can converse with the serfs and the nobles, who knows all the stories everyone else has forgotten, who spends his combat actions helping the rest of the party by controlling the battlefield and the enemies.

I had a Pathfinder Bard once focused on his Whip and the whole time I played him I never once made a straight attack roll. But I was tripping and disarming and Charming and Greasing like a BAUSS. And, when you needed to Bluff, Bluff, Bluff the Stupid Ogre? I was your man.

I have a lot of fun with them. But, like any class that has a lot of Fluff sort of assumed in their Crunch (I'm looking at you, Paladin!), it's really easy to be annoying and disruptive under the aegis of 'It's what my character would do.'

In reply to truemane (msg # 7):

Admit it. You like that part the best.

In reply to Gaffer (msg # 8):

Sigh. You're right.

*ashamed*