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Musicians whose dulcet tones soothe savage beasts...or kill them.

Description

The Bard is a job in Final Fantasy V and part of the Fire Crystal job set, although the actual shard is found in a chocobo gullet later on. Bards focus on their Sing skillset, which comes to use against enemies vulnerable to Stop or Confuse, against undead enemies, or in drawn-out boss fights. Songs are acquired at various places in the game.

The Sing skillset can be useful in a variety of circumstances, and is the job's main strength. Bard is the only job outside of Freelancer to equip harps, whose damage is often based on a percent of the enemy's current HP. They therefore will do minimal damage in most cases (with the exception of the Apollo's Harp, as it does not deal fractional damage). Bards can use Hide to avoid damage for most of the battle, and are extremely quick to master.

Mastering Bard for all four characters in the now defunct mobile and Steam versions earns the achievement "The Music Man".

Characteristics[]

The Bard's costume is designed to reflect a medieval minstrel. All five wear a green shirt and headband. Lenna and Krile wear dresses, Bartz wears leggings, Faris wears baggy trousers, and Galuf wears a long tunic that reaches his ankles.

Gameplay[]

Stats[]

Stat Modifier
Strength -8
Agility +8
Stamina -9
Magic +11

The Bard has the second-worst Magic out of all mage classes, just above the Red Mage. It also has the second-lowest Stamina in the game, making them prone to dying when not handled correctly (something that the Hide ability helps mitigate). Its best stat is its Agility, giving it a good turn rate.

Upon mastery, Freelancers and Mimes gain the Bard's base Agility and Magic unless they already have a higher base from another mastered job. Bards are very quick to master, meaning that it is easy to get their Agility and Magic boosts for Freelancer, if needed.

Equipping the Equip Harps ability will grant the Bard's Magic and Agility modifier to that job if they do not already have a higher modifier.

Equipment[]

Silver Harp sprite.

Harps are the most unique aspect of the Bard job, allowing them to deal percentage-based damage to most enemies. In most circumstances, this will be minimal damage, but against certain larger enemies, they can be effective. Aside from this, Bards have mage gear: knives, magic hats, robes, and armlets.

Harps deal full damage from the back row. The Apollo Harp deals damage based on the attacker's Magic stat and the defender's Magic Defense. Other harps deal percentile damage based on the target's current HP, and automatically fail against Heavy-type monsters (such as most bosses). The harps that inflict statuses when attacked with, uniquely also do this when used for countering. The ultimate harp is the Apollo's Harp sealed weapon.

The ultimate magical headgear the Bard can wear in most versions is Circlet, bought from the Phantom Village. The superior Royal Crown is available from the Sealed Temple in the Game Boy Advance and 2013 versions. The best robes in most versions are the White and Black Robes, bought from the Phantom Village, though the Game Boy Advance version added the superior Robe of Lords.

Abilities[]

Ability Job level AP required Type Innate Description
Hide 1 25 Command No Duck out of sight to avoid attacks.
Equip Harps 2 50 Support Yes Gain the ability to equip Harps.
Sing 3 100 Command Yes Sing songs with various abilities.
Romeos Ballad from FFV Pixel Remaster
Hide from FFV Pixel Remaster

Lenna using the Sing (top) and Hide (bottom) commands in battle.

Sing is Bard's innate command ability, giving them access to songs that have a variety of effects that benefit the party or harm the enemy. The Bard has a host of songs. Some can only obtained in the first or second worlds. While the effects of some songs are instantaneous, other songs are ongoing, meaning the Bard will continue to sing until he/she is hit by an attack, killed, or silenced, though in most cases the song's effect will remain even after the Bard stops singing. If a party member is turned into a zombie while singing, they will continue to sing as a zombie.

Bards learn the Hide ability early on, allowing them to stay out of a battle to avoid damage. It is useful for Bards and for other relatively weak characters.

Etymology[]

In medieval Gaelic and British culture, a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities. Originally a specific class of poet, with the decline of living bardic tradition in the modern period the term "bard" acquired generic meaning of an epic author/singer/narrator, or any poets, especially famous ones. For example, William Shakespeare is known as the Bard or the Bard of Avon.

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