We've all heard about it or thought about it - the party of nothing but bards. But has anyone ever tried to make one? Would an all bard party actually be any good?
If you wanted to play in an all bard party, what archetypes would you want there to be?
Bard only, no skalds, no multiclassing. Let's go with a 5 person group.
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...Bard only, no skalds...
Boooo...
Well, to actually list out useful things:
Chronicler of Worlds Bard for Intelligence spellcasting.
Dwarven Scholar Bard for wisdom spellcasting, new performance options, and combat feats.
Filidh Bard for divine casting and altered bardic performances to increase the breadth of available effects.
Arrowsong Minstrel Bard for archery shenanigans.
Savage Skald Bard for a more melee oriented bard and one that can send our Dwarven Scholar into a rage when the time is right.
I would swap out the Savage Skald for a Archaeologist Bard to give the party some rogue abilities.
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I have not done all bards, but such a group would probably have a MUCH easier time than the all-cleric party my home group tried once. (We were also playing PFS Core rules, so no archetypes.) One had the Knowledge domain to cover more of those skills, another had the Trickery domain to cover roguish skills, but 2+Int skill points doesn't go very far, especially at 1st level. Most skill checks were challenging, and nobody did much damage except the Gorumite with her greatsword and the Urgathoan vs. swarms, but OTOH, nobody stayed hurt for long.
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After a bit more effort, and verifying that some of the archetypes either stack within the choices I made or stack with others, I've more fine-tuned my selections.
Bard 1: Arrowsong Minstrel - This one hasn't changed. Purely for archery shenanigans and damage output.
Bard 2: Chronicler of Worlds / Savage Skald - We build this one for critical hit fishing so that we can take advantage of the Temp HP and bonus to hit (morale) for his allies as often as possible. Also, intelligence for casting.
Bard 3: Dwavern Scholar / Stonesinger / Wasteland Chronicler - This is our other melee specialist. Between granting a combat feat(s) to the party with a performance, debuffing the AC of our enemies, and having wisdom as our casting stat, we've got a character than can serve as a fairly competent survivalist for travel needs.
Bard 4: Filidh / Arcane Healer - Introducing our main healer, which so happens to be a divine caster too. Traded away inspire courage to buff allies reflex and AC. Can sacrifice spell slots to get more performance rounds. Will be able to channel energy at level 2, but will need to take extra channel to really make good use of it. Though it does open us up to channel feats for interesting uses.
Bard 5: Fey Prankster / Songhealer / Sound Striker - Our more rogue-like and party face of the bunch, along with being a backup healer. Master of using magic items to heal, has a bit of built in condition removal, and can even confuse and debuff the enemy with their performances. Will even be able to deal direct damage to their enemies with their Weird Words performance at 6th level.
I did consider Archeologist quite a lot but in the end, like other archetypes that were stingy with their own performances, I couldn't justify it in a party full of other bards. I wanted just enough of the bards to keep inspire courage so that if one goes down, another can keep the bonuses up, and enough alternate versions of the performances so that there was less overlap in abilities. Getting some rogue skills, trapfinding, and evasion didn't seem worth it. We'll just make sure everyone has access to dispel magic and cross our fingers when it comes to other magical traps.
Figuring out who gets what performance skills and masterpieces is a whole other project.