My bard is now lvl 18, but I don't think I'll switch her - not because of skills (they're quite maxed out; and btw bards do NOT have a music bonus but a useless communication bonus), BUT because of all those cool bard-only equipment!My bard currently has +50 STR, and both +10 SPD and +10 SEN (2x ring of the road from Bela, oberon's greaves, ariel's slippers, and a nice special body armor; not to mention a couple of skill boni due to those items)
Together with Swordskill & CC at about 70-80, and Bloodlust + Stiletto she deals out reliably 100 to 250 damage each round, depending on haste/bless/armormelt ect., while being able to cast useful spells in case my engineer, bishop or priest(valk next lvl!) are busy otherwise.
I'm pretty sure the benefits of any other profession won't make up for those +70 stats; not to mention that Bloodlust is berserking anyway
My combat strategy (which btw allowed me to take out the whole Rapax Away Camp aroun lvl 15/16) with highly magic-resistant enemies normally goes as the following:
-Bishop: Elemental shield
-Priest: SoulShield or Bless
-Bard: Haste
-Engineer: Heal All (no shields up 1st round!)
-Walk Pending
Then we rush in, crush everything, and let PRI/ENG/BIS heal, purify air and refresh stamina and shields whenever necessary.
(nonetheless we had to flee and come back to the Away Camp two times as things were getting much too hot for an Ironman game...
)
BTW, even though my Ranger wields both Giant's Sword and Eagle Ey Bow, he and my Engineer are by far the poorest characters in my whole party.