History Main / QuirkyBard

->''Wizards: "[[SquishyWizard Work smarter, not harder.]]"''\\
''Fighters: "[[DumbMuscle Not smarter, hit harder.]]"''\\
''Rogues: "Lie smarter, steal hardware."''\\
''Bards: "Sing harder, get- ow! oh geeze! Fine, I’ll stop singing! Quit hitting me already!"''
-->-- '''Creator/ShamusYoung''''s commentary on [[http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1057 this]] ''Webcomic/DMOfTheRings'' page

* The Dancer and Bard classes in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. Dancers can use their weakest dance to enormously powerful effect in a properly tweaked party (three Dancers and two Mimes with strength boosted as high as possible). This is generally the second most powerful party possible in the game. Given them all the Ninja class's Vanish skill as well, and they'll turn invisible after getting hit, which normally lasts until the character takes another action...except that continuing the dance you're already performing doesn't count as a new action. Thus, your Dancers and Mimes will keep whittling away at the enemy, who will be incapable of retaliating. Without this strategy, however, the Dancer class was mostly useless (which theoretically makes it a [[MagikarpPower Magikarp]]).
** The Dancer being mostly useless is wrong. The rate of status effects from the various dances varies. The damage both to HP and MP effects were guaranteed, but it also had the ability damage enemy speed, attack and magic attack, as well as inflict statuses, or even reduce it's position in the turn roster to last.

->''Wizards: "Work smarter, not harder."''\\
''Fighters: "Not smarter, hit harder."''\\

"Spoony Bard" redirects here. For the creator of that name, see Creator/NoahAntwiler If you're looking for actual bards, see WanderingMinstrel and TheBard. If you're looking for '''the''' Bard, see Creator/WilliamShakespeare.

If you're looking for actual bards, see WanderingMinstrel and TheBard. If you're looking for '''the''' Bard, see Creator/WilliamShakespeare.

->'''uranianUmbra:''' ''"maybe! it's a qUirky class."''

* Averted in the ''{{Ultima}}'' games, in which the bard is a fairly solid class with good combat ''and'' magic skills, and is also good at picking locks. However, this may be in part due to the fact that, gameplay wise, [[InNameOnly they don't do a lot of singing]] - Richard Garriot wanted a FighterMageThief dynamic, but didn't want to use a thief class in a game about being TheMessiah, so he just called them bards.

* The ReturnersFinalFantasyRoleplayingGame practically inverts this trope, especially in relation to the TropeNamer. They can endlessly throw around group affecting buffs and debuffs for free while still doing decent magical damage and they can use Hide to avoid predictable attacks, making them very valuable against both tough mobs and bosses. Their main weakness, just to further separate them from [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Edward]], is a tendency to go last.
* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} has the iconic Tactical Squad, which can be given a Missile Launcher (with two types of ammo, one for anti-tank and one for anti-horde), a flame thrower for close ranged combat, the sergeant being tooled up for actual close combat, and can be split into two squads so that the close combat half can move and cap objectives while the heavy weapon guy can sit back and shoot. They can also take a Razorback Transport, which can bring the Close combat half up to the enemy while providing another heavy weapon, which is mobile. To top it off, they're pretty cheap for what you pay for. This all ''looks'' good on paper, as they can theoretically take on any threat they see, it's actually horrifyingly bad, as they cannot put enough shots/attacks to ''kill'' whatever threat they see. Especially glaring is the Missile launcher, whose anti-horde firing mode in theory can hit multiple targets, but because of coherency rules, it'll likely hit no more than 2, and that's if it's ''lucky'' (and on top of that, there's roughly a 75% chance of the target in question surviving anyways). The only reason they are still widely used is because the only alternative to fill the standard marine's troop choice is the badly-priced Scouts, which are roughly the same cost as marines, but lack their stats and survivability in lieu of other rules. In armies that gives the player another choice for troops, Tactical Marines are almost universally passed up in favor of those.

* TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons has the Bard base class, of which mainly is a versatile jack of all trades, often played as a support class. In most editions, the bard was not often seen as good as other options because of their tendency to be decent at multiple roles at once instead of good at one, being called a master of none. However, 3.5 edition's Bard splatbook support really helped it grow in power into a jack of all trades, master of a few, being able to take up a few roles to extremely high power (adding huge bonuses like 10d6 damage per hit to become a very strong support, or dual wielding rapiers and then going Snowflake Wardance to be a melee monster, or a good caster with powerful battlefield control and debuff spells).

* Elan from ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is as CloudCuckooLander as they come. His bard songs are pretty much useless, his motivational speeches have a tendency to horribly backfire, and the only weapons he can use can be [[BreakableWeapons Sundered by someone cursing too loud.]] However, his real talent is a result of his bardic training: he's as GenreSavvy as they come, and sees damn near everything coming. Whenever he works close enough with the smart leader Roy, he becomes DangerouslyGenreSavvy. And that training perfectly synergizes with the Dashing Swordsman PrestigeClass he literally [[TookALevelInBadass took a level in]] -- which turns entertaining quips and drama into {{Bad Ass}}ery. His [[TookALevelInBadass leveling up]] hasn't drowned out the endearing aspects of his character: optimism, ''extraordinary'' loyalty to his friends, and a certain bumbling charm that makes him what he is. [[CharacterDevelopment Elan's progression]] from a simple Bard to Dashing Swordsman isn't just about getting more/useful class powers, but him developing the chops to be a genuine BigDamnHero. As part of this growth he also is slowly shown to be [[HowDoIShootWeb learning how to properly use his regular bardic spells]]. It's also worth nothing that Elan is the only member of the party who has a [[MinMaxing smart class build]]. Everyone else in the party made some of the worst possible character class choices.

* Elan from ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is as CloudCuckooLander as they come. His bard songs are pretty much useless, his motivational speeches have a tendency to horribly backfire, and the only weapons he can use can be [[BreakableWeapons Sundered by someone cursing too loud.]] However, his real talent is a result of his bardic training: he's as GenreSavvy as they come, and sees damn near everything coming. Whenever he works close enough with GeniusBruiser Roy, he becomes DangerouslyGenreSavvy. And that training perfectly synergizes with the Dashing Swordsman PrestigeClass he literally [[TookALevelInBadass took a level in]] - which turns entertaining quips and drama into {{Bad Ass}}ery - turning him into a OneManArmy.
** Notable in that his [[TookALevelInBadass leveling up]] hasn't drowned out the endearing aspects of his character: optimism, ''extraordinary'' loyalty to his friends, and a certain bumbling charm that makes him what he is. [[CharacterDevelopment Elan's progression]] from a simple Bard to Dashing Swordsman isn't just about getting more/useful class powers, but him developing the chops to be a genuine BigDamnHero. As part of this growth he also is slowly shown to be [[HowDoIShootWeb learning how to properly use his regular bardic spells]].
** It's also worth nothing that Elan is the only member of the party who has a [[MinMaxing smart class build]]. Everyone else in the party made some of the worst possible character class choices.

[[caption-width-right:267:[[{{Good Bad Translation}} Damn his spooniness!]]]]

->''spoony \SPOO-nee\, ''adjective'':\\
1. Foolish; silly; excessively sentimental.\\
2. Foolishly or sentimentally in love.''
-->-- '''Dictionary.com'''

The problem is that this is often handled poorly, so bards are very frequently unable to ever become anything useful. They are the [[ButtMonkey butt of jokes]], they are often [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV beaten by old men with canes]], and sometimes their friends [[TheGamers use a mountain of bard corpses as convenient cover]]. Bards usually become spoony when they run into one of three major problems:

* Often bards can often be an attempt at being a [[JackOfAllStats jack of all trades]]. This may seem nice on paper, but in practice the bard is often [[CantCatchUp left with abilities so weak by comparison as to make them completely useless]]. The Spoony Bard fails to become even a "jack" at all trades, only managing to become a MasterOfNone.

* Frequently bard-type characters are Spoony Bards because the game makers simply didn't think things through when they made the class and didn't do proper balancing. Typically, when a class is "weak and worthless," especially in [=MMORPGs=], other classes will be {{nerf}}ed, or the bards will get additional beneficial gimmicks which will change the game balance and [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks draw the ire of players even more]].

The term "Spoony Bard" itself, incidentally, comes from VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV - it was originally used as a {{Woolseyism}} insult at Edward (a bard), but so many fans of the game saw him as a useless waste of a party slot, thanks to being a status-effect character in a UselessUsefulSpell game, and even worse, having the command "Hide" (making him not just weak, but a DirtyCoward to boot), that the players themselves took up the amusing insult to Edward, and the bard class in general.

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 ''spoony'' bards: characters with useless abilities that typically nobody will want to use a party slot on.

Not to be confused with [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment a different Spoony]] (though he got his name from the TropeNamer), or the midwest-based music group, [[http://www.spoonybards.com The Spoony Bards]].

Not to be confused with FunnySpoon.

* The TropeNamer is Prince Edward Chris von Muir from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''. After the death of an otherwise plot-unimportant daughter, the party's sage Tellah rails against the unfortunate lute player with a stream of insults and threats including "You spoony bard!", a somewhat {{Bowdlerise}}d translation that [[GoodBadTranslation became popular and was retained when the game was re-translated for the GBA version]] (though in the DS game the retranslator NPC found in the dwarven kingdom's Developer's Room states, "The bard ''is'' spoony. [[LampshadeHanging We checked!]]", see page quote). Edward himself is [[JokeCharacter singularly useless]], employing a ''[[MusicalAssassin harp]]'' as a weapon and possessing the special ability of [[MusicalAssassin "singing" at enemies]] -- a skill that's supposed to inflict [[StandardStatusEffects status ailments]] but [[UselessUsefulSpell which frequently does nothing at all]]. Edward's other special ability, unsurprisingly, is to run away and hide for a turn. In "hard-type", though, he's ''slightly'' more useful because he can also spread potions amongst the whole party. Slightly.

** The Dancer being mostly useless is wrong. The rate of status effects from the various dances varies. The damage both to HP and MP effects were guaranteed, but it also had the ability damage enemy speed, attack and magic attack, as well as inflict statuses, or even reduce it's position in the turn roster to last. Spooniness varied as more powerful effects were attempted.
** Bards at the same time, also had varying spooniness. The HP and MP regenerating abilities were guaranteed, but it could also raise the speed of your units (One Bard Raising and one Dancer Lowering could tip the scales very quickly), increase theyir attack and magic attack, as well as dish out random beneficial status effects. The real magikarp effect is because each class relied on the stat that gender was weaker in. Dancer used Physical Attack to determine damage effects, and Bards used Magic Attack. Since the abilities could be passed off to other classes though, a singing Black Mage could restore many HP, and a Dancing Knight could whittle down enemies in no time flat.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has an actual bard as a unique character ... and he's quite spoony, since unlike [[GameBreaker Final Fantasy Tactics unique characters]], [=FFTA2=] has absolutely terrible stat growth in unique classes. His bard songs aren't of much help, since only his MP boosting power offers something another class can't already do with a better range of alternate actions, and dedicating a unit to boosting MP would only be of use if you had multiple mages trading out Halve MP or Blood Price for Geomancy or Magic UP while staying in formation. Fortunately, he can learn from other classes, like Juggler or Time Mage, but depending on what level you were when you recruited him, his low stats will ensure he never can quite compete with a generic specifically leveled for certain stats.

** The game also uses the Spoony Bard thing as an insult; in one of the Bonga Bugle missions, one of the enemy units calls [[LeeroyJenkins the Head Editor]] a "spoony seeq".

** A number of the more useless jobs in ''III'' had their Spoony Bard status almost completely reversed in the DS remake, turning into [[LethalJokeCharacter Lethal Joke Characters]] if you get enough job levels in them. Particular notes are the aforementioned Scholar (on top of the weapon effectiveness boost gets a lot of charges for low-levelled spells, and when dual-wielding the higher-leveled [[ThrowTheBookAtThem books]] can output insane damage given they're a support class) and the Geomancer (stick with the class for long enough and you'll start cursing when you get the rare high-damage single-target Shadowflare, because you hit the damage cap anyway).

* Averted in the remake of ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny''. Players will probably tell you ''not'' to simply disregard Johnny as a Spoony Bard, due to being able to buff and heal the party very effectively with his songs, and being able to combo enemies into oblivion with ease using his various musical attacks. His Maware Rondo, in particular, can be spammed for an easy infinite combo, and is so good that the developers actually gave the true final boss a deadly counterattack designed ''solely''to keep himself from getting murdered by it.

* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' has the Captain, a heavily armoured class with access to powerful buffing and healing abilities as well as the ability to tank effectively. Needless to say, the spoony part of this trope is averted.

* Averted in [[{{MARDEK}} Mardek: Chapter 3]] whose 'Siren' Elwyen has to be one of the least spoony bards of all time. She has powerful party buffs that stack with all other buff abilities (and are better than most of them), a decent group heal, the strongest anti-undead spell in the game, and a couple weird abilities that no other character can duplicate. Her songs also cost no MP, and the offensive ones never miss...which is very useful against fairy-type enemies, who with high magic resistance and insane physical evasion are usually considered the DemonicSpiders of this game.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/TheSimsMedieval'', where the Hero Sims' professions are mostly equal in how awesome they can be (though different players might ''like'' different professions better.) The Bard is useful to the kingdom and has several good quests, including one territory conquest. No Bard who helps his king conquer territory (territory owned by ''pirates'' at that) is spoony.

** The Bard's College is also rather spoony compared to the other factions you can join, like the Companions, the College of Winterhold, or the Thieves Guild. They only have one trainer (for Speech) and three quests other than the initial quest to join up. In exchange, however, each quest gives you a substantial increase in skill points, so it's not entirely pointless to join up.
* Ricardo in ''ShadowHeartsFromTheNewWorld'' is a bard but is ''far'' from spoony. Not only does he have ballistics inside his guitar, but he is one of the best mages in the game and plays a great support since he plays songs that buff allies. (Sadly, he is near-useless against the FinalBoss due to its ability to instantly dispel any buffs ''and'' get a free turn when it does so.)

* The Bard-like class in ''GuildWars'' is actually ''far'' from Spoony. They may not play music so much, but they shout and support allies (or debuff enemies) while putting pressure on enemies with their ranged weaponry. They have about as much armour as a ''warrior'' (And by default use shields) so they can certainly take several hits.

* Gildward, the bard from the webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'', is a parody of the original SpoonyBard from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''. His name is even a combination of "Edward" and "Gilbert", Edward's Japanese name. In [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0034.html this strip]], he [[DefiedTrope almost]] gets called a SpoonyBard after demonstrating the utterly ineffectual powers of his magic harp.
* Elan from ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is as [[CloudCuckooLander spoony]] as they come. His bard songs are pretty much useless, his motivational speeches have a tendency to horribly backfire, and the only weapons he can use can be [[BreakableWeapons Sundered by someone cursing too loud.]] However, his real talent is a result of his bardic training: he's as GenreSavvy as they come, and sees damn near everything coming. Whenever he works close enough with GeniusBruiser Roy, he becomes DangerouslyGenreSavvy. And that training perfectly synergizes with the Dashing Swordsman PrestigeClass he literally [[TookALevelInBadass took a level in]] - which turns entertaining quips and drama into {{Bad Ass}}ery - turning him into a OneManArmy.
** Notable in that his [[TookALevelInBadass leveling up]] hasn't drowned out the endearing aspects of his character: optimism, ''extraordinary'' loyalty to his friends, and a certain bumbling charm that makes him what he is. [[CharacterDevelopment Elan's progression]] from a simple Spoony Bard to Dashing Swordsman isn't just about getting more/useful class powers, but him developing the chops to be a genuine BigDamnHero. As part of this growth he also is slowly shown to be [[HowDoIShootWeb learning how to properly use his regular bardic spells]].

* CaptainSNES features Edward himself, being a bitter and angry soul after being tormented by the player, who hated Edward so much that he would go out of his way to make Edward die in battle immediately every time (because this would allow other characters to get more EXP), and to top it all off, he changed his name to ''Spoony''. [[spoiler:[[LaserGuidedKarma Alex is the player.]] Cut to the Veldt and "Quief want to know, what Quief's name mean?"]]

* Many bards can be built to specialize in status effect abilities. This ''can'' often be a wonderful way to add a new role to the game, however, this often falls flat because the status effects in many games are actually {{Useless Useful Spell}}s that take too long to cast for short mook fights, have the wrong elements for boss battles, and/or simply are not be useful enough to justify using a bard instead of another character. This is especially if the enemies can remove your newly added status effect abilities.

Ah, the much-maligned bard class... For some reason, bards are very frequently unable to ever become anything useful. They are the [[ButtMonkey butt of jokes]], they are often [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV beaten by old men with canes]], and sometimes their friends [[TheGamers use a mountain of bard corpses as convenient cover]].

If you have any experience with your typical fantasy RPG whatsoever, you know [[AnAdventurerIsYou the basic roles by heart]]. RPG games are made so that characters are specialized, but rather than [[CripplingOverspecialization crippling characters for their specialization]], they are actually [[MinMaxing more powerful the more they specialize]] thanks to the fact that party members can rely on their [[TrueCompanions comrades-in-arms]]; whenever [[PlotTailoredToTheParty the challenge the heroes face plays to one party member's weakness, it will be playing to another party member's strength]].

Many [[StopHavingFunGuys dedicated RPG gamers]] will always [[JustHereForGodzilla make a beeline for the classes with the best damage-dealing potential or who otherwise excel in their party role]], if only because optimization is so [[TheCoconutEffect ingrained into the minds of RPG players that they would reject anything else]], many game makers also want to cater to players who want to try something a little different... something which makes the game something more than just a matter of the same [[FantasyCharacterClasses four basic characters]]. Even when there are other classes, they really only fill the same roles that those major four pillars of RPG-dom dictate, but with an added gimmick.

Enter the bard! (or sometimes "dancer" or "cheerleader") 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, 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.

It rarely works as intended. Bards usually become spoony when they run into one of two major problems:

* First, bards can often be an attempt at being a [[JackOfAllStats jack of all trades]]. This may seem nice on paper - they can back up the powers of their specialized compatriots whenever a [[PlotTailoredToTheParty certain role is critically needed]]. If the party is undermanned, they may need someone who can fill two roles at once. Unfortunately, because CripplingOverspecialization is often '''[[SubvertedTrope not]]''' crippling in these games, MinMaxing is implicitly encouraged. Even worse, because LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards means different classes progress at different rates and the monsters are built to be a challenge to those characters of the basic four specialized types, the bard is often [[CantCatchUp left with abilities so weak by comparison as to make them completely useless]]. The Spoony Bard fails to become even a "jack" at all trades, only managing to become a MasterOfNone.

* Alternately, bards can be built to specialize in status effect abilities. This ''can'' often be a wonderful way to add a new role to the game; it's in AnAdventurerIsYou as "Buffers" and "Mezzers" for a reason. In games where enemies can have powers that disable your own characters, having a character that can disable them first, or provide your teammates immunity to their tricks, is a great boon. This often falls flat, however, because the status effects in many games are actually {{Useless Useful Spell}}s. This problem is often exacerbated by having fairly short fights in many games where the standard {{mook}} enemies you mow through are only meant to turn the game into an endurance match, anyway. A spell or song that gives a +30% attack bonus is only a useful bonus if you are actually going to attack at least four times with that status effect on - if not, congratulations, you just wasted a turn. Even if boss fights are fairly long, if the bard specializes in nothing but debuff spells, the enemy is quite often [[ContractualBossImmunity immune to every status ability the bard can inflict]], and the buff spells may simply not be useful enough to justify using a bard instead of another character. Especially if the boss can remove your buffs.

It is worth noting that oftentimes, bard-type characters are Spoony Bards because the game makers simply didn't think things through when they made the class and didn't do proper balancing. Typically, when a class is "weak and worthless," especially in [=MMORPGs=], other classes will be {{nerf}}ed, or the bards will get additional beneficial gimmicks to make them useful and avoid an inevitable revolt by the players.

On the other hand, not everyone plays just for the thrill of the kill and some gamers want to avoid ComplacentGamingSyndrome, so the ability to play with a "fun" mechanic or to try something new is sometimes worth the loss of effectiveness.

Keep in mind that simply having a "Bard" class is not sufficient - they have to be ''spoony'' bards - that is, if bards are powerful and useful, and virtually all parties will want one, then they aren't really a spoony bard. If a bard is a generalist with magic, but is actually powerful at spellcasting, they may instead be TheRedMage. Also, the class doesn't have to have anything to do with music or bards to be a spoony bard, they simply have to try to perform the same function that most spoony bards do, which is 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.

See also WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway and MasterOfNone. Contrast GameBreaker, LethalJokeCharacter, and the occasional HeartIsAnAwesomePower.

* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} has the iconic Tactical Squad, which can be given a Missile Launcher (with two types of ammo, one for anti-tank and one for anti-horde), a flame thrower for close ranged combat, the sergeant being tooled up for actual close combat, and can be split into two squads so that the close combat half can move and cap objectives while the heavy weapon guy can sit back and shoot. They can also take a Razorback Transport, which can bring the Close combat half up to the enemy while providing another heavy weapon, which is mobile. To top it off, they're pretty cheap for what you pay for. This all ''looks'' good on paper, as they can theoretically take on any threat they see, it's actually horrifying bad, as they cannot put enough shots/attacks to ''kill'' whatever threat they see. Especially glaring is the Missile launcher, whose anti-horde firing mode in theory can hit multiple targets, but because of coherency rules, it'll likely hit no more than 2, and that's if it's ''lucky'' (and on top of that, there's roughly a 75% chance of the target in question surviving anyways). The only reason they are still widely used is because the only alternative to fill the standard marine's troop choice is the badly-priced Scouts, which are roughly the same cost as marines, but lack their stats and survivability in lieu of other rules. In armies that gives the player another choice for troops, Tactical Marines are almost universally passed up in favor of those.

* In the [[DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]] based game BaldursGate, bards tend to be bad fighters and bad magic users, but get more bonuses toward identifying items through the "Lore" statistic than any other class. If your party loadout includes a specialist wizard who can't cast the Identify spell on an item, having a bard can help avert spending large amounts of money identifying the magic items you frequently encounter but their utility usually stopped there.

** 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 much easier then 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 no where 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.
* The TropeNamer is Prince Edward Chris von Muir from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''. After the death of an otherwise plot-unimportant daughter, the party's sage Tellah rails against the unfortunate lute player with a stream of insults and threats including "You spoony bard!", a somewhat {{Bowdlerise}}d translation that [[GoodBadTranslation became popular and was retained when the game was re-translated for the GBA version]] (though in the DS game the retranslator NPC found in the dwarven kingdom's Developer's Room states, "The bard ''is'' spoony. [[LampshadeHanging We checked!]]", see page quote.). Edward himself is [[JokeCharacter singularly useless]], employing a ''[[MusicalAssassin harp]]'' as a weapon and possessing the special ability of [[MusicalAssassin "singing" at enemies]] -- a skill that's supposed to inflict [[StandardStatusEffects status ailments]] but [[UselessUsefulSpell which frequently does nothing at all]]. Edward's other special ability, unsurprisingly, is to run away and hide for a turn. In "hard-type", though, he's ''slightly'' more useful because he can also spread potions amongst the whole party. Slightly.

*** The DS version doesn't fix his other problem though, his crappy availability. He joins right after the second dungeon, which happens to be one of the longer dungeons of the first segment of the game. After that, you get to do the Antlion Den, where he is somewhat useful due to the fact that he can heal better than Rydia with his Salve ability, allowhing her to concentrate on DPS like she should be. One problem, all the enemies in the cave barring perhaps goblins can 2-shot him, and the boss can and probabally will one shot him. So right when could have had a legitimate use, he will likely get one shotted in a turn or two. Of course, the bosses attacks hurt quite a bit, so that may be a use in of itself. Then Rosa comes in, who is superior to him in every way possible, but don't worry, she'll only overshadow him for one reletivly brief dungeon, and then he leaves your party forever. So that means, at best, he is useful for one rather short dungeon, even Fusoya had better availability than that!
** [[MagikarpPower Late in the GBA version of the game, Edward becomes one of the fastest characters in the game]]. Equip him with the Apollo Harp, and he can easily dish out 2000+ damage ''every few seconds''. And woe unto any dragon-type enemies you run into, as Edward will regularly dole out anywhere from 8000+ to max damage ''per hit''. Then he gets his ultimate weapon Loki's Lute which does that much damage to ANY creature that has a racial flag. (like dragon, demon or giant) His only glaring weaknesses are his defense and lack of hit points, making him more of a GlassCannon -- but even then, he deals full damage from the back row, so defence is less important for him. There was also an accessory that changes his useless sing command to a Mighty Guard Spell. There was also his other much-upgraded ability, Salve: in previous versions, all it did was to take a potion and split it between the party members for a whopping 25 HP of healing. In the DS remake, it instead allows you to take any item and use it on the entire party at once with full effect, although it does use up as many of the said item as there are party members. Like the previous skill, it can also be later given to another character as well.

If you have any experience with your typical fantasy RPG whatsoever, you know [[AnAdventurerIsYou the basic roles by heart]]. RPG games are made so that characters are specialized, but rather than [[CripplingOverspecialization crippling characters for their specialization]], they are actually [[MinMaxing more powerful the more they specialize]] thanks to the fact that party members can rely on their [[TrueCompanions comrades-in-arms]] whenever [[PlotTailoredToTheParty the challenge the heroes face plays to one party member's weakness, it will be playing to another party member's strength]].

* Alternately, bards can be built to specialize in status effect abilities. This ''can'' often be a wonderful way to add a new role to the game; it's in AnAdventurerIsYou as "Buffers" and "Mezzers" for a reason. In games where enemies can have powers that disable your own characters, having a character that can disable them first, or provide your teammates immunity to their tricks is a great boon. This often falls flat, however, because the status effects in many games are actually {{Useless Useful Spell}}s. This problem is often exacerbated by having fairly short fights in many games where the standard {{mook}} enemies you mow through are only meant to turn the game into an endurance match, anyway. A spell or song that gives a +30% attack bonus is only a useful bonus if you are actually going to attack at least four times with that status effect on - if not, congratulations, you just wasted a turn. Even if boss fights are fairly long, if the bard specializes in nothing but debuff spells, the enemy is quite often [[ContractualBossImmunity immune to every status ability the bard can inflict]], and the buff spells may simply not be useful enough to justify using a bard instead of another character.

On the other hand not everyone plays just for the thrill of the kill and some gamers want to avoid ComplacentGamingSyndrome, so the ability to play with a "fun" mechanic or to try something new is sometimes worth the loss of effectiveness.

* The ReturnersFinalFantasyRoleplayingGame practically inverts this trope, especially in relation to the TropeNamer. They can endlessly throw around group affecting buffs and debuffs for free while still doing decent magical damage and they can use Hide to avoid predictable attacks making them very valuable against both tough mobs and bosses. Their main weakness, just to further separate them from [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Edward]], is a tendency to go last.

* The Dancer and Bard classes in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. Dancers can use their weakest dance to enormously powerful effect in a properly tweaked party (three Dancers and two Mimes with strength boosted as high as possible). This is generally the second most powerful party possible in the game. Without this strategy, however, the Dancer class was mostly useless (which theoretically makes it a [[MagikarpPower Magikarp]]).

** ''Tactics'' also has two characters, a brother and sister named Rafa and Malak. Their unique ability hits 2-5 random squares in a 5 square, cross shaped area, making their attacks frequently do nothing at all. And while Rafa's spells does a fixed damage depending on her stats (as opposed to the usual Faith-based magic system of the game), Malak's functions better if he has a very low Faith; Rafa is almost useful if you train her as a white mage due to her high Faith, or as a move-find-item holder due to her low Brave, Malak can do excellent magic damage while being almost immune to magic himself, making him an excellent faith-based magic counter if used right.

The term "Spoony Bard" itself, incidentally, comes from VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV - it was originally used as a {{Woolseyism}} insult at Edward (a bard), but so many fans of the game saw him as a useless waste of a party slot, thanks to being a status-effect character in a UselessUsefulSpell game, and even worse, having the command "Hide" that does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, (making him not just weak, but a DirtyCoward to boot,) that the players themselves took up the amusing insult to Edward, and the bard class in general.

** ''X and Y'' don't have as many as the others, probably due to not having as many POkemon to begin with, but it does have:

** In ''Gold and Silver'', Unown is particularly noted for its gimmickry. They mimic letters, and there's one for each from A to Z (plus ? and ! in later games) for you to collect - but in battle they only have one move, Hidden Power, and its stats are different for each individual user but none of them are good. In the same games, 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.

** In a more bardly example, Chatot basically exists for its one unique move[[note]] Which is a recorded message that has a chance to confuse which is higher the louder the message.[[/note]], is only catchable near the end of the games it debuted in, never evolves, and is generally useless.(unless the player is into using RNG for catching/breeding, where it's practically a requirement to use Chatot pitches to find the right stuff)

** When the Double Battle mode was just introduced, several gimmicks for showing off its capabilities have been added. Most glaring example: Plusle and Minun. They have an ability that increases their special attack when they battle together... but their movepool sucks, their stats suck, no sane man would ever use them both in one team. In short, they are a bit less useless in double battles. A bit.
** Generation 3 was when these really became common. One of the most glaring would be Castform, a Normal-type that would change it's typing and the typing of its Weather Ball attack depending on the newly introduced weather conditions. The problem is that, no matter what type Castform currently is, it's type and move arsenal are pretty much useless.

* Many, many, many Franchise/{{Pokemon}} fall into this category. Because any player can choose from all of them, many tend to get ignored completely. This tends to lead to MagikarpPower when you realize that damn near any Pokémon can be used effectively if you raise them right and throw on some TMs...Okay, ASIDE from Magikarp.

** Ditto in the original game, before breeding was introduced, had horrible stats, five shots of any skill your opponent used, and let your opponent go first by definition.

** The earliest, more glaring examples, would probably be Farfetch'd in Generation 1 (which was really only included as a nod to an old proverb and is generally useless for everything else), and Delibird and Unown from Generation 2. The former has a terrible typing and no useful moves, and the latter is a Pokemon that also has horrible stats, '''can only learn one (useless) move''', and the only really interesting thing about it is that it's shaped like English letters.

** Not so, as their buffs are still in effect 20 seconds after canceling the skill / dying, provided that their party / guildmates are within the field.
** And some of those buffs/debuff are REALLY good. Slow grace is the best slow in the game, and Poem of Bragi is just... lest say it turns your SquishyWizard into a PersonOfMassDestruction.Also Dazzler/Scream makes squishies cry. So pretty much averted as the performers are really usefull

* TabletopGame/{{Dungeons & Dragons}} has the Bard base class, of which mainly is a versatile jack of all trades, often played as a support class. In most editions, the bard was not often seen as good as other options because of their tendency to be decent at multiple roles at once instead of good at one, being called a master of none. However, 3.5 edition's Bard splatbook support really helped it grow in power into a jack of all trades, master of a few, being able to take up a few roles to extremely high power (adding huge bonuses like 10d6 damage per hit to become a very strong support, or dual wielding rapiers and then going Snowflake Wardance to be a melee monster, or a good caster with powerful battlefield control and debuff spells).