When we look back at the first edition of AD&D, however, we find that becoming a bard was a serious enterprise. For starters, the character striving to become a bard had to have minimum ability scores of S15, D15, C10, I12, W15, and CH 15. The good news for the player is that the future bard would have a minimum of 10 levels of adventuring to improve, permanently, any scores that did not make the grade. In addition, the bard character race was limited to human and half-elf.
The future bard must complete at least 5 levels, and no more than 7 levels, of being a fighter. The character must then take on a second class, this time a thief, for at least 5 levels and no more than 8 levels. Completing this, the character must then take a third class, that of a druid, which is when the character officially becomes a bard.
Taking on a second class in 1st edition AD&D was a vastly more complicated enterprise than taking one in 3rd edition and beyond. That will be a separate blog post. The main points are that 1) it was an irreversible decision, and that 2) the character was to rely upon the powers and abilities of the new class as if his levels of the original class did not exist. In the case of a bard, using the old powers and abilities of the fighter during the first level of the new class would retard the character’s progress in the thief class. This restriction was lifted after the achieved thief levels exceed the levels attained as a fighter. At this time, the character would begin to accumulate 6-sided hit dice, as per the attained thief levels.
When the bard "threshold" was successfully reached, the character gained new powers, those of charm when playing an instrument, a certain percentage of legend-lore and item knowledge, as well as access to druid spells and all other druid abilties, progressing as a druid. The bard was allowed (indeed had to) use his achieved fighter level for attacks and could use his achieved thieving abilities. Combat and saving throws matrices were based on the most advantageous score based on the three classes. Bards were limited to level 23. Weapons and armor were also limited to fit the bard class
In terms of hit points (HP), the Bard had an advantage over all but the fighter classes. Assuming the bard progressed to the maximum allowed limit as a fighter and a thief, and assuming no constitution bonus and average HP rolls, a character would start as a bard class with 7X6 + 1X4 HP (46 HP) for 15 levels of work. A fighter during that time would average 9X6 + 6X3 HP (72 HP). However, by the time the bard is finished accumulating hit dice (at 11th level for the bard, effective level 26 for the character) the character would have accumulated 86 HP. The fighter, at level 26, would have 105 HP. Clerics would have 79, thieves 70, and magic-users 46.
In that time, a fighter would have accumulated a minimum of 4,750,000 experience points (XP). The cleric would have 4,275,000 XP. The thief would have 3,740,000 XP. The magic-user would have a whopping 5,625,000. By comparison, the Bard would have 485,000 XP. These numbers assume all of these characters have reached 26 levels of experience. The differences are also reflected if we look at the levels attained by the accumulation of 485,000 XP by other classes. A fighter would be 9th level, a cleric 9th level, a thief 12th level and a magic-user 11th level. The bard character, after collecting 485,000 experience points, would be 11th level (175,000 XP for the fighter part of his career, 100,000 XP as a thief, and then 200,000 as a bard). That bard, however, has 7 levels of fighter and 8 levels of thief in addition to his 11 levels of bard for those 485,000 XP.
Consider, then, the 1st edition ability to multi-class. Multi-classing was the ability for a character to advance in two or three different classes at the same time. For example, a character could start as a fighter/magic-user/thief at levels 1/1/1. In this instance, the experience points are distributed between the three classes evenly as the character earns them. This character, after gaining 1000 XP, then, would have split them three ways, so each class XP totals would be 333/333/334. This same character, with 485,000 total XP, would have three-way XP totals at 161666/161667/161667. The character would have levels of 8/9/10. A Fighter/Druid/Thief (such a combination was not a legal option in 1st edition) would have had 8/10/10. A bard would be fighter/thief/bard as 7/8/11.
The bard we have been describing is considered to be the "official" bard of the first edition of AD&D. There was a previous incarnation of the bard, some 3 years before AD&D came into existence. A magazine known as The Strategic Review (the precursor to Dragon, and in this case Volume 2 Number 1 from February of 1976) also had a recommended, though not official, bard class entry. This version of the bard, as with the ones after 1st edition, started its career as a bard. The version was open to more races, progressed with thieving abiltiies as a thief of half the level of the bard, and had access to magic-user spells rather than druid spells.
A second recommendation for a bard class was proffered in Dragon #56 (December, 1981). This version, also not official but available to the AD&D rule set, was also designed for the character to start as a bard. The class was, again, recommended to be open to more races. The bard would have access to a subset of druid and illusionist spells (disallowed spells are listed in the article). The thief aspect of a bard's character was removed completely.
This incarnation can be more closely compared to the official bard in the Players Handbook (PHB). For instance, 485,000 XP will get this bard to 9th level. Average HP would be 36 at this level. Combat ability will continue to improve as the bard proceeds in levels (the official bard is limited to the highest level achieved as a fighter for the rest of his career).
When looking forward to the bard class in 2nd edition AD&D, we see that the bard presented there seems to be a nice blend of the original bard in the PHB and the bard from Dragon #56. Races are limited again to human and half-elf. In terms of experience, the bard progresses as a thief (in this case as a rogue class, to which the thief and bard are sub-classes). Spells options are limited to wizard (magic-user) spells. Combat is as a rogue, as are saving throws and level advancement
What we have at the end of the day with a 1st edition bard is an accomplished fighter and thief that can also toss druid spells (up to 5th level in power, depending on bard level). They were never encountered at low levels, unless they were NPCs of some leader who was recruiting the PCs. Even at high levels, they were not commonplace. When we think of bards now (or minstrels or jesters or skalds), we think of characters of low level hoping to eventually become historians and entertainers with some magical prowess, and we see them very early in the campaign, as with all other classes. Based on how bards are treated in most gaming circles and certainly in popular culture, it can be argued that their presence as PCs is not a huge deal and certainly not often taken seriously. A 1st edition bard, while likely a recipient of the same taunting as the current iteration of bards are, certainly was not to be taken for granted, owing thanks to the road needed to achieve the class.
