Editing Bard (section)

===1st Edition===
[[File:Lem 2nd edition.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Lem, the iconic Bard]]
[[Pathfinder]] greatly improved the core Bard and it's definitely tier 3. All abilities scale faster: Bards can now cast 1st level spells at level 1 and their spells known have all been upgraded by a level, while Inspire Courage improves at 5 and every 6 after instead of 8 and every 6 after. They no longer need to have the Perform skill trained to access the most useful Bardic Music options. While the next ability means there's no reason to be totally untrained in perform (unless you're dipping only one level, getting it from another class, or taking an archetype that trades it away), it does allow instrument focused bards to sing/dance untrained in combat instead of tying up their hands. They also gain a new ability called Versatile Performance that lets him use their perform skill in place of two other skills (Such as oratory replacing both diplomacy and sense motive or dance replacing acrobatics and fly), effectively getting 2 skills for the price of one, one which is more easily buffed to boot. This has the side effect of giving them effectively ''more'' skill points than the [[Rogue]] at level 10. 

In splat they got even more awesome, though nothing strong enough to be tier 2. They have a wider variety of unique spells than they did in 3.5 splat, where they mostly got stuff wizards got levels ago. They also have a unique concept called a Masterpiece which were essentially a type of ritual magic: In exchange for a spell known they got additional performance options, which require specific types of perform (e.g., Wind Instruments) and have  blatantly supernatural effects. Most of these mimic higher level spells than the bard can normally get at the cost of eating performance rounds, but many have entirely unique effects. Notable Masterpieces include:
*Music Beyond the Spheres is the most powerful Masterpiece without question. It allows duplication of Limited Wish for con/wisdom drain instead of an expensive component. While ability drain doesn't heal naturally, and is normally expensive to heal, Limited Wish can duplicate Restoration without paying the 1000GP it requires. This means you can easily follow up a few uses with a Restoration. Avoids making the bard Tier 2 by going straight to Tier 1 if not Tier 0 since just building up wealth with this loop (while Limited Wish can't produce expensive stuff, a ''large'' number of lower spells can when free of material components worth less than 1000GP) would be sufficient to make a tier 1 bard, but it can pull most spells out of the ass too. 
*Pageant of the Peacock lets you use bluff for '''any''' intelligence based skill. It also comes pretty early. You now know ''everything''!

{{Pathfinder-1st-Edition-Classes}}