Some basic ideas around Bards. No complex builds. Just to get people started.
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Bard
It really seems like the guy who wrote the book wanted to play a Bard. When you look at all the little details of their features the Bard has the pick of the crop. It’s got a good selection of weapons by default, enough armour, the best buffing in the game, it has extra skills, the best ability score for skills and innate magic, features to help with action economy, plus it's a full caster on a great spell list, including healing, better perception than other casters, all this before you dive into their specific features. A lot of the other classes need to take extra proficiencies to cover gaps. It's just not required for the Bard.
There are 4 muses, but one, the Maestro, is clearly much better than the others. But it doesn’t matter so much as they can all take Multifarious Muse as a level 2 feat and grab off each other anyway. The difficulty being there are a lot of good low level feats to take.
I’ve put some front line Bards builds because the Warrior muse demands it. Bards aren’t martial characters, but they are tougher than wizards, buff yourself and be careful how you play.
Instrument use is totally optional, just keep a hand free and you are fine.
I haven’t done any ancestries here but just a note that Songbird Strix get a nice bonus to perform.
Balanced Bard
Most bards look like this. It just works, every round you Inspire Courage, then for your two actions you Shield and fire your bow, or Telekinetic Projectile, or cast an actual spell. Then there is Bon Mot which you’d probably use before a Will based spell. It's an embarrassment of riches and that's before taking any class feats. You could take more options but you only have so many actions in a turn.
Str 10 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
Basic equipment: Studded Leather, Shortbow, Rapier
General Feats:
Muse: Maestro
Class Feats: Level 1: Lingering Composition, Level 2: Hymn of Healing, Level 4: Inspire Competence Aid any skill, Level 6: Dirge of Doom, Level 8: Inspire Heroics, from here on its optional … Level 10: House of Imaginary Walls, Level 12: Inspirational Focus, Level 14: Earworm, Level 16: Effortless Concentration
Focus Spell: Hymn of Healing is healing, Lingering Composition gives you your composition spell at no action cost for a few rounds. Inspire Heroics scales some compositions up.
Composition Spells: Everyone gets Inspire Courage. Inspire Competence is a very flexible Aid. Dirge of Doom is really useful as it automatically makes your enemies afraid, and if other characters have their own status bonuses it's needed.
Skill Feats: Bon Mot
Skills: Performance, Diplomacy, Deception, Occultism, Stealth, Acrobatics
Maestro
The Maestro gets so lost in their music that they forget that they had spell slots at all. They are constrained to one composition at a time, until they learn to Harmonize. This approach to the Bard is very strong in larger parties. Note you do still have all your spells if you need, you just will do other things in combat, and probably will use more precombat buffs
Str 10 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
Basic equipment: Studded Leather, Shortbow, Rapier
General Feats:
Muse: Maestro
Class Feats: Level 1: Lingering Composition, Level 2: Inspire Competence, Level 4: Inspire Defense, Level 6: Harmonize, Level 8: Inspire Heroics, Level 10: Dirge of Doom, Level 12: Inspirational Focus, Level 14: Earworm, Level 16: Soothing Ballad, Level 18: Eternal Composition
Focus Spell: Soothing Ballad is impressive healing, Lingering Composition gives you your composition spell at no action cost for a few rounds, Inspire Heroics scales some compositions up.
Composition Spells: Everyone gets Inspire Courage. Inspire Competence is a very flexible Aid. Inspire Defense and Dirge of Doom just give you stackable options.
Skill Feats: Bon Mot
Skills: Performance, Diplomacy, Deception, Occultism, Stealth, Acrobatics
Enigma
The Enigma bard is very interested in stories. Bardic Lore gives them a chance to know just about anything. It’s a bit awkward to find the space for the extra intelligence score but you need to for this feature.
Str 10 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 14 Wis 10 Cha 18
Basic equipment: Studded Leather, Shortbow, Rapier
General Feats:
Muse: Enigma
Class Feats: Level 1: Bardic Lore, Level 2: Loremaster's Etude, Level 4: Multifarious Muse for Lingering Composition, Level 6: Dirge of Doom Level 8: Inspire Heroics, Level 10: Know-It-All, Level 12: Inspirational Focus, Level 14: Earworm, Level 16: Soothing Ballad, Level 18: Deep Lore
Focus Spell: Loremaster's Etude is roll twice on Recall Knowledge; Soothing Ballad is impressive healing, Lingering Composition gives you your composition spell at no action cost for a few rounds, Inspire Heroics scales some compositions up.
Composition Spells: Everyone gets Inspire Courage. Dirge of Doom is hard to pass.
Skill Feats: Bon Mot
Skills: Performance, Diplomacy, Deception, Occultism, Stealth, Acrobatics
Polymath
The Polymath bard is into some flexible skills. Versatile Performance saves you investing much in Intimidation, and Diplomacy
Str 10 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
Basic equipment: Studded Leather, Shortbow, Rapier
General Feats:
Muse: Polymath
Class Feats: Level 1: Versatile Performance interpretative dance at its finest, Level 2: Esoteric Polymath a spellbook which is amazing even though it's only for only one spell, Level 4: Multifarious Muse for Lingering Composition, Level 6: Dirge of Doom, Level 8: Inspire Heroics, Level 10: Annotate Composition if you have an ally who has spare actions, Level 12: Inspirational Focus, Level 14: Earworm, Level 16: Soothing Ballad, Level 18: Impossible Polymath
Focus Spell: Soothing Ballad is impressive healing, Lingering Composition gives you your composition spell at no action cost for a few rounds, Inspire Heroics scales some compositions up.
Composition Spells: Everyone gets Inspire Courage. Dirge of Doom is hard to pass.
Skill Feats: Bon Mot
Skills: Performance, Diplomacy, Deception, Occultism, Stealth, Acrobatics
Courageous Leader
The Warrior bard likes to join his men in battle. Well sometimes at least and perhaps on the flanks. Will use Shield a fair bit or could even consider a physical shield. It's not as strong or as tough as an actual martial character so it really needs to get some buffs up and be careful. Think about BattleForm spells like Fey Form and Ooze Form if you want a change of pace.
Str 10 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 16
Basic equipment: Studded Leather, Shortbow, Rapier (nothing you actually need Martial Performance for, but you might like some other options)
General Feats: Toughness
Muse: Warrior is needed for the feats in this build
Class Feats: Level 1: Martial Performance, Level 2: Multifarious Muse for Lingering Composition, Level 4: Courageous Advance, Level 6: Inspire Defense Level 8: Courageous Opportunity, Level 10: Courageous Assault, Level 12: Inspirational Focus, Level 14: Soothing Ballad, Level 16: Courageous Onslaught,
Focus Spell: Soothing Ballad is impressive healing, Lingering Composition gives you your composition spell at no action cost for a few rounds,
Composition Spells: Everyone gets Inspire Courage. Inspire Defense will be needed if you find you need a bard in your front rank.
Skill Feats: Bon Mot
Skills: Performance, Intimidation, Diplomacy, Deception, Occultism, Stealth, Acrobatics
Mighty Leader
The Mighty Leader likes to join his men in battle. But it's tough going so this is a very defensive martial build.
Str 16 Dex 12 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 10 Cha 16
Basic equipment: Breastplate via Armor Proficiency, Longsword, Sturdy Shield
General Feats: Armor Proficiency, Toughness, Shield Block you may want to be Human so you can do this early on.
Muse: Maestro yep not actually a Warrior build.
Class Feats: Level 1: Lingering Composition, Level 2: Bastion Dedication, Level 4:Inspire Defense, Level 6: Nimble Shield Hand to help with casting with your hands full, Level 8: Inspire Heroics, Level 10: Quick Shield Block, Level 12: Sentinel, Level 14: Inspirational Focus, Level 16: Effortless Concentration
Focus Spell: Lingering Composition gives you your composition spell at no action cost for a few rounds. Inspire Heroics scales some compositions up.
Composition Spells: Everyone gets Inspire Courage. Inspire Defense will be needed if you find you need a bard in your front rank.
Skill Feats: Bon Mot
Skills: Performance, Intimidation, Diplomacy, Deception, Occultism, Stealth, Acrobatics
You can have the diplomacy bard: swash dedication with One for all, guardian deflection for a good reaction (whip as weapon).
The super face: rogue dedication. Get more face skills with skill mastery. Illusory disguise for extra options (greater hat of disguise).
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I gave my Halfling Maestro Bard the Swashbuckler Dedication, and One-For-All, to create a super buffer, and it's worked well.
If I have all 3 actions available, my 1st round routine is 1) Bon Mot, 2) Inspire Courage, 3) One-For-All. Then if Bon Mot stuck, I'll follow up with Fear on the following round.
I took Cultural Adaptability for the +4 on my Aid check, and eventually I'll grab Helpful Halfling (which I'll Retrain when it's no longer useful, but that's a ways off).
Versatile performance is so good that it's well worth the two class feats dip on any muse build.
Warrior muse makes you qualified for the marshal archetype which synergizes very well for a "frontline bard" character.
The distant Bard with the Reach spell feat plays quite differently from the usual Bard. What about a build ?
(Mine is MC Battle Oracle, so hardly a Basic build).
So what are you doing differently apart from spell list?
Are doing Aberrant Sorcerer Dedication, Tentacular Limbs, Monk Dedication, Flurry of Blows?
I gave my Halfling Maestro Bard the Swashbuckler Dedication, and One-For-All, to create a super buffer, and it's worked well.
If I have all 3 actions available, my 1st round routine is 1) Bon Mot, 2) Inspire Courage, 3) One-For-All. Then if Bon Mot stuck, I'll follow up with Fear on the following round.
I took Cultural Adaptability for the +4 on my Aid check, and eventually I'll grab Helpful Halfling (which I'll Retrain when it's no longer useful, but that's a ways off).
You can sort of do that with Inspire Competence, on the Maestro Bard build I did. That allows you to Aid any skill even Trip/Shove etc. The problem being the composition cantrip clashes with your other compositions. As a GM I allow the Deception skill to effectively aid most attack rolls if the player describes it well - though other GMs may different on that.
I'll add a build for One for All.
Versatile performance is so good that it's well worth the two class feats dip on any muse build.
Warrior muse makes you qualified for the marshal archetype which synergizes very well for a "frontline bard" character.
There is a lot of overlap. I mean the best feat is Courageous Assault for the Warrior Bard. Which is better than To Battle because of the action cost.
What synergies are you seeing?
Versatile performance is so good that it's well worth the two class feats dip on any muse build.
Warrior muse makes you qualified for the marshal archetype which synergizes very well for a "frontline bard" character.
There is a lot of overlap. I mean the best feat is Courageous Assault for the Warrior Bard. Which is better than To Battle because of the action cost.
What synergies are you seeing?
The marshall auras (either the diplomacy one that gives +1 status bonus to attack or the intimidate one that gives up to +4 bonus to damage) synergize off high charisma making you very effective at them. Once up, they basically negate the need for inspire courage and free you up to use different composition songs as well as freeing up your action economy.
Also to battle is more versatile than courageous assault because it allows you to make them either stride or strike, and does not lock you into a composition cantrip. You can quite easily cast a spell and make an ennemy stride with a marshal build, all the while providing up to +4 status bonus to damage (I prefer intimidate because status bonus to damage that scales is nice on many agile builds and intimidate has better skill feat support). If you're lamenting the lack of status bonus to attack you can always add a bless on top of your aura for an easy first level spell drop or cast heroism on your allies.
cadence and tactical cadence are much better than their bard alternative.
Attack of opportunity on a bard that wants to stay in melee is amazing, as bards do not get attack of opportunity, just courageous opportunity which, once again, requires you to be affected by inspire courage.
If you prefer to be close but ranged, target of opportunity is very strong too.
Overall the Marshall synergizes very well with the Bard. You don't REALLY need the warrior muse (maestro or polymath might arguably be better) but you do need martial weapon proficiency so if your heritage gives it you can go that way.
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You can have the diplomacy bard: swash dedication with One for all, guardian deflection for a good reaction (whip as weapon).
The super face: rogue dedication. Get more face skills with skill mastery. Illusory disguise for extra options (greater hat of disguise).
Swashbard
Mixing with a swashbuckler can be very effective. There are a lot of different buffing and deflecting options here.Str 10 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
Basic equipment: Studded Leather, Shortbow, Whip
Muse: Maestro
Class Feats: Level 1: Lingering Composition, Level 2: Swashbuckler Dedication (Wit of course), Level 4: Basic Flair for One for All, Level 6: Inspire Defense, Level 8: Advanced Flair for Guardian's Deflection (Swashbuckler), Level 10: Inspire Heroics, Level 12: Inspirational Focus, Level 14: Earworm, Level 16: Soothing Ballad, Level 18: Eternal Composition
Focus Spell: Soothing Ballad is impressive healing, Lingering Composition gives you your composition spell at no action cost for a few rounds, Inspire Heroics scales some compositions up.
Composition Spells: Everyone gets Inspire Courage. One for All is a very flexible Aid. Inspire Defense gives you an option that stacks with Guardian's Defelction
Skill Feats: Bon Mot
Skills: Performance, Diplomacy, Deception, Occultism, Stealth, Acrobatics
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As an addendum, for any Aid-focused build, be sure to pick an Ancestry like Halfling or Human with Feats that give a bonus to your Aid checks.
Jaric Halflings can get +2 at Level 1. Humans can get +4 at Level 1. Any Halfling can get +4 at Level 5.
Other Ancestries can of course grab Adopted, but that takes an extra Feat out of your pool.
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Is there any simple build that supports summoning?
Bard get animate dead, which is basically a summoning spell and doesn't have any alignment tags on it. So unlike the create undead ritual, it is mostly just socially awkward.
Anyway, bard seems like they might make good 'summoners' since they have party wide buffs that could help keep options relevant. The undead list seems like it has a variety of meat shield and weird special abilities.