Personally, I fight with the dagger Pugius (5/21, magic piercing) in one hand
and a dwarven axe in the other. Neither were selected for roleplaying purposes
particularly, but both fit the "classic bard" type of mold, in that they are
both light and very fast.

Many people have commented on the fact that bards can wear chain and plate as
not fitting the mold very well. To that, all I can say is that we aren't celtic
minstrels in EQ folks, we're a class that was designed for this game
specifically. If people want to roleplay in the classic celtic style,
fantastic! But if you want to roleplay yourself as mighty plate-wearing,
axe-hacking fighter who belts out tunes of war at the same time, I say fantastic
to that as well.

Though playing a lute in plate gloves is odd no matter how you cut it. At least
the wood elf ringmail gloves have finger cut-outs in the 3d model. :)

Jyzan