This is my take on the bard's role, since this thread is sort of turning
that way: I get most of this perspective leading a regular group as
cleric (or in my football playing friend's words, I am the quarterback)

Our regular party: Cleric, Wizard, Warrior, Bard. We sometimes pickup a
5th or 6th member, since our regular two no longer are around.
(Generally we try to get a druid/shaman and another tank). Our bard is
married thus often leaves Norrath earliest at the end of the night.

When she is there, we can fight high blues/whites, yellows basically non
stop (both the wiz and I have resigned ourselves to medding over
meleeing). If things are going well we get a bubble of xp per hour (not
counting travel/sell/BS time). I really get the feeling we are a well
oiled machine, running down the feeble creatures of Norrath (don;t burst
my bubble, please).

When the bard leaves I estimate our kill rate is cut is half. (which
means around 2/3 xp each, removing the group bonus factor).

I thought about it a lot the last two weeks (our bard thinks she is
underpowered, and is thinking of making a new character), and I really
decided a bard's role is to make every one else in the party better. As
simple as that sounds, I think that really defines their role in a
party. With the bard around the healing load on me drops drastically.
(I often don't heal the wiz all night if the bard is around). Obviously
the bard's melee damage doesn;t compare to the warrior's (silvery ware
axe and that brass scimitar for the bard vs dual langseaxs or langseax
of the wolves for the warrior), but it still adds up. Also, the bard
gives a melee character who can finish off runners (where you have some
space to allow some running), saving the wizard from wasting mana of
rooting or nuking.

If we're outside, bard is probably the best puller in the game. I don;t
think any other class can SOW, lull, and absorb the initial attacks
(until the warrior taunts them off). (any caster should be medding
while pulling is going on, so don't even try to suggest a druid, if any
caster is FOM, then the group is doing something wrong).

The second role of the bard is fill gaps. Not many people have the
luxury of having the ideal 6 person party. Already (lvl 20) our bard
can make up for our lack of a enchanter, and at 23 she will have to try
to fill in for our lack of snare. (We grouped with a true newbie druid
(lvl 18, full patchwork, derv rings, nothing else) this weekend, who
asked me what he should do, I said "Thorn the warrior first, then snare
the mobs and I don't care if you spend the rest of your mana making
yourself look like a tree". I do understand the power of snare).

At least for the first 20 levels, I have no questions about the
usefulness of bards. This may change as we level more, but I have no
doubts about her power till now. We all think (with little doubt) that
so far the least important char in our group is the wizard. She's a
great player (remember how I said I never had to cast heals on her?
Thats a pretty good sign of a good wizard), but I don;t think the group
really hurts without her. Obviously fights go slower, but I would say
our xp gain is about the same with or without her. Theres a definite
drop off when any of the other members leave. I may change my tune at
29 when she gets teleport. We'll see (I don't really care about her
personal teleports she just got, she's pretty excited though).

Obviously this is all just my low level opinion.

Oh yea on a totally sperate note, with that Langseax of Wolves, our
barbarian warrior (all bronze armor except crafted gauntlets and blood
stained mantle), with only my lvl 19 cleric buffs can solo Broon
(yel/red to him). Thats one impressive sword.
--
We now return to the non-stop rock.

Matt DeBarger