Bard (Tactics)

A warrior who uses his voice as a weapon. May use Bardsong to support his allies in battle.
Description

Bard is a job from Final Fantasy Tactics. It is a male-exclusive job, obtained by training a male unit in magickal jobs. The Bard boosts all allied units' stats (including the caster) via Bardsong from anywhere on the field. It costs 3,850 JP to master in the original version and 7,900 JP in The War of the Lions.

Stats[]

Prerequisite	Weapons	Helmet	Armor	Equip Shields?
WotL(War of the Lions): Lv. 5 Summoner, Lv. 5 Orator PlayStation: Lv. 4 Summoner, Lv. 4 Mediator	Musical Instruments	Hats	Clothes	No

Move Rate	Jump Rate	Speed	Physical Evasion Rate	Base Attack	Base Magic	Base HP	Base MP
3	3	8	5%	Low	High	Low	Average

Abilities[]

Bardsong[]

Bard job command. Sing melodies in an exquisite voice to cause various mysterious effects.
Description

Name	Range	Effect	Speed	JP Needed
Seraph Song (Angel Song)	1	All allies	17	100
Seraph Song (Angel Song)	A song pleading for angelic protection. Restores MP. Restore MP: 20 + Magic Attack
Life's Anthem (Life Song)	1	All allies	17	100
Life's Anthem (Life Song)	A song praising the vibrance of life. Restores HP. Restore HP: 10 + Magic Attack
Rousing Melody (Cheer Song)	1	All allies	13	100
Rousing Melody (Cheer Song)	A song of encouragement and inspiration. Increases Speed. Amount: +1 Speed Success Rate: 50% Accuracy Per Target
Battle Chant (Battle Song)	1	All allies	13	100
Battle Chant (Battle Song)	A gallant song of battles fought and won. Increases physical attack power. Amount: +1 Physical Attack Success Rate: 50% Accuracy Per Target
Magickal Refrain (Magic Song)	1	All allies	10	100
Magickal Refrain (Magic Song)	A song of the laws of sorcery and of the source of magick. Increases magickal attack power. Amount: +1 Magic Attack Success Rate: 50% Accuracy Per Target
Nameless Song	1	All allies	10	100
Nameless Song	A thoroughly mysterious song passed down through many an age. Bestows various types of protection. Effect: Reraise, Regen, Protect, Shell, Haste. Success Rate: 50% Accuracy Per Target
Finale (Last Song)	1	All allies	5	100
Finale (Last Song)	The ultimate song. Increases allies' CT to 100. Success Rate: 50% Accuracy Per Target

Reaction abilities[]

Name	Description	Trigger	JP Needed
Magick Boost (MA Save)	Increase magickal attack power.	HP Loss	450/500
Faith Boost (Face Up)	Increase Faith.	Magick	500/700

Movement abilities[]

Name	Description	JP Needed
Move +3	Increase Move by 3.	1000
Fly	Fly over enemies as well as any other obstacles.	1200/5000

Overview[]

The Bard is a support-oriented job that can buff its allies with global abilities, meaning it will affect all allies regardless of range. The job's attribute-enhancing songs are particularly useful in long fights, with all allies alive to have stat buffs stack, or the Bard move with Treasure Hunter while singing in the late game to obtain rare treasures.

The Bard has high magickal stats, but unfortunately, neither Arcane Strength nor Swiftness will improve the amount healed, physical attack of instruments, nor the frequency of Bardsong (these do not scale despite magick attack being used in some formulas).

Bards have poor defensive capabilities as Magick/Faith Boost do not improve Bardsong, but Bards are useful for JP-grinding, because once selected, the ability will repeat, earning the same amount of EXP and JP. For example, if the player has selected Seraph Song (which will replenish Mana Shield) and the CT is 10 turns, it will repeat after 10 turns provided the player has not selected another ability to be performed.

It is recommended to avoid Life's Anthem (hardly any HP is healed), Nameless Song (random, unnecessary Shell buff or Reraise missing someone in Critical) and Finale (too slow compared to Quick and randomness does not help any allies about to have a turn).

Bards benefit the most when the entire party benefits from their songs due to the 50% success rate and anyone else being able to immediately apply that buff. For example, Rousing Melody will allow Mustadio Bunansa to have more accuracy with his Machinist abilities due to the speed increases, similar to Thieves Stealing more accurately. An Archer can do more bow damage (crossbows do not use speed in damage formulas) in addition to the speed increase from Adrenaline Rush.

Magickal Refrain can effectively buff difficult magick attack based builds, from the success rate of Orator to only needing the Skyseer or Netherseer to randomly hit once or twice to defeat an enemy, and possibly Ultima.

Alternatively, Battle Chant can vastly improve a physical damage party with a Mime and Dancer because Mincing Minuet depends upon physical attack and Bravery and both abilities will be doublecast. This will also improve a Monk, given their limited range and now higher damage input. The Mime will also mimic if the Monk casts Praise on themselves, to encourage even higher Brawler damage by both.

Overall, while providing powerful effects to the entire party regardless of range, the Bard lacks a proper fight presence (outside of debuffing/draining life with Instruments exactly 3 panels away) in small maps, and being forced to focus on singing means he cannot do anything else. The player essentially fights with one fewer party member, especially if the buffs mainly target the Bard, or target characters in a balanced party, who do not uniformly benefit from the songs (like Magickal Refrain with a Monk). His effectiveness mainly manifests in extended fights on large maps where he is less likely to be targeted (late game enemies are faster than Bardsong, which is useless if the Bard is the last one standing), and parties that do not depend upon a specific person to receive a buff.

Other appearances[]

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius[]

This section about an ability in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game[]

Bard appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game as an Ice-elemental Backup card.

Non-Final Fantasy guest appearances[]

Knights of the Crystals[]

Bard appears as a card in the Ivalice Special Arena has a limited-time special arena with eighteen floors.

Gallery[]

Etymology[]

[view · edit · purge]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.