History Main / QuirkyBard

*** Slaking has the Truant ability, meaning it is extremely lazy and only attacks every other turn, but to make up for that its stats are through the roof for the times when it does act. Savvy players can figure out ways to nullify the ability and get a real powerhouse.

*** Sinistea and Polteageist are teacup and teapot Pokémon, but only a few are authentic antique teaware. The only difference is that the actual ones have a hard-to-see mark of authenticity, and in gameplay they need a different item to evolve than the common versions.

* ''TabletopGame/StarWarsd20'': Various stabs at the Noble class, with ''Saga Edition'' (something of a testbed for rules and concepts that would be incorporated into 4th Edition D&D) is the most blatant. There's not much a Noble can do on their own, but with the rith Talent selections, they can make the party far better overall. Prestige Classes like Officer require talents only found in Noble talent trees, and increase one's ability to support other party members while generally being less effective on their own.

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* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Vijeeter Ecor, whose primary magic is dancing, though not [[DanceBattler Dance Battling]], it's more of a Buff/Debuff magic.
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** Very much an underdog, a plain Bard can actually solo the entire game from the beginning of ''[=BG1=]'' all the way to the final fight in [=BG2:ToB=] (including Watcher's Keep) and do it more easily than most other single class characters (a min/maxed fighter with all the best equipment set up for maximum DR is a little easier, but only slightly and nowhere near as fun to play, as melee is all they do). The Blade greatly improves the melee presence but isn't at all required. The Thief xp table, ridiculous equipment versatility (and this BEFORE getting Use any item), and majority of the available mage spells (not the most game breaking ones, but the ones that matter the most), EPIC thief traps (Time stop traps, Spike traps) make for a ridiculously powerful character. Even their pickpocket (which on a non-blade Half-elf easily reaches 110 at the beginning of ''[=BG2=]'') allows for tons of easy equipment that non-thieves would probably never see. They're almost a F/M/T in a single class, who levels up stupidly fast.

*** Thanks to its ability Comatose, Komala is effectively always under the effects of the Sleep status condition. The only real differences between Comatose's effect and the actual status condition are that Komala can still use moves normally and it can't be cured like a normal status effect.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}'' ''8'' has a Bard class. As non-magic user class it has fastest leveling curve but it can replicate spells by using musical instruments they find while costing only stamina to do so. Very useful at the beginning, though they kind of [[CrutchCharacter start lacking]] later on, especially when compared to Gadgeteers who are functionally similar.

* ''VideoGame/Wizardry'' ''8'' has a Bard class. As non-magic user class it has fastest leveling curve but it can replicate spells by using musical instruments they find while costing only stamina to do so. Very useful at the beginning, though they kind of [[CrutchCharacter start lacking]] later on, especially when compared to Gadgeteers who are functionally similar.

* ''VideoGame/WizardryVIII'' has a Bard class. As non-magic user class it has fastest leveling curve but it can replicate spells by using musical instruments they find while costing only stamina to do so.

Ah, the much-maligned bard class...for some reason, when game makers want more {{splat}}s, bards are the way that ''everyone'' tries to make their game "different". Bards provide an entirely new role that falls outside of those standard four roles of [[Main/FighterMageThief Fighter, Wizard, Rogue]] and [[Main/WhiteMage Priest,]] which lets players who want to try something different have a way to support the party in a way that is (questionably) new and (possibly) unique.

The class doesn't need to be called "bard" to count: any character class that specializes in messing with status effects in a game where [[UselessUsefulSpell status effects are useless]] or giving ability point bonuses or penalties that are too minor to make up for not simply making another fighter can count. Keep in mind that simply having a "Bard" type class is not sufficient - they have to be characters with useless abilities that typically nobody will want to use a party slot on.

** Delibird also has only one move called Present, and the amount of damage it does is random - it can even go negative and heal the target.

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* In ''WebVideo/OneForAll'', Antrius the Bard is the worst fighter in the party, and the others make fun of him for being useless. However, the others: a Fighter built exclusively for combat and a Sorcerer who only knows fire spells; are massively [[CripplingOverspecialization overspecialised]] and the Bard is the only one who can do anything requiring stealth, deception, etc. As such, he is very useful whenever they run into a problem the others can't just kill.