final fantasy tactics nolazy

Final Fantasy Tactics Bard Guide & Review

Bard is one of the classes in Final Fantasy Tactics (FFT). There are a ton of classes in FFT and it can be overwhelming trying to figure out which is the right one. Which skills and abilities are good? Which classes are good? This guide will tell you everything you need to know about the Final Fantasy Tactics Bard Class.

Bard
Final Fantasy Tactics (FFT)

final fantasy tactics bard class guide

Final Fantasy Tactics Bard Quick FAQ

How do you unlock the Bard class in Final Fantasy Tactics?

Bard requires Summoner level 5 and Orator level 5 to unlock.

How much total JP does it take to master the Bard class in Final Fantasy Tactics?

It takes 7,900 total JP to master the Bard class.

What kind of stat growths does the Bard class offer in Final Fantasy Tactics?

The Bard class gains extremely bad stat growths in every category.

What kind of skills does the Bard class learn in Final Fantasy Tactics?

The Bard class learns a variety of songs that grant minor buffs and healing to all allies each time the Bard’s turn comes up.

Stat Growths

(Lower is better)
HP: 20 MP: 20 SPD: 100 PA: 80 MA: 50

In Final Fantasy Tactics Bard is somewhat famous for having the worst stat growth in the game. If you want to be level 99 with terrible stats, level your character up as a Bard.

Moveset: Bardsong

Ability NameJP Cost
Seraph’s Song100
Life’s Anthem100
Rousing Melody100
Battle Chant100
Magickal Refrain100
Nameless Song100
Finale100

In Final Fantasy Tactics Bard’s moveset is… not very good. Each of these skills fires off every round and affects all allies regardless of range, which is nice, but it has a 50% miss chance that can’t be boosted in any way.

Some of the effects are fairly potent (+1 PA, random buffs, Quick, etc), but keep in mind that you’re sacrificing an entire character in order to achieve them; the Bard can’t take any other actions while singing.

Reaction Abilities

Ability NameJP Cost
Magick Boost500
Faith Boost700

Magick Boost increases MA by 1 every time you get hit.

In essence, that’s not so bad if you have a character focused on magic damage, but you have to give up Reflexes/Shirahadori in order to get it and magic-focused characters tend to be more fragile than physically focused characters already.

Faith Boost is the same thing but… you don’t want high faith. This skill makes your character worse, permanently, every time you get hit.

Support Abilities

None

Final Fantasy Tactics Bard has no unique Support Abilities so there’s nothing to discuss here.

Movement Abilities

Ability NameJP Cost
Move +31000
Fly5000

Move +3 is basically the only reason you’d want to unlock and grind within the Bard class. It’s roughly tied with Teleport as the best-in-slot Movement skill. Fly, the single most expensive skill in the game, is not useful at all.

It gives you the same benefit as Ignore Height and lets you ignore terrain hazards but… Teleport also gives those benefits and increases your movement range and only costs ~10% the amount of JP.

Final Fantasy Tactics Bard Overall Assessment

Bard is pretty much only useful because of Move +3. Beyond that, there’s really not much value in unlocking Bard or using it in battle, especially because it’s a male-only class in a game where male units have lower natural MA than female units.

That about covers it for the Final Fantasy Tactics Bard Class. Be sure to check out the Games Section for more content like this and click here for more game guides related to FFT.

Final Fantasy Tactics Class Guides:
Squire â€“ Chemist â€“ Knight â€“ Archer â€“ Thief â€“ Monk â€“ Geomancer â€“ Dragoon â€“ Ninja â€“ Samurai â€“ Dark Knight â€“ White Mage â€“ Black Mage â€“ Time Mage â€“ Mystic â€“ Summoner – OratorBard – Dancer â€“ Arithmetician – Mime – Onion Knight

Author

  • Ryan Night

    Ryan Night is an ex-game industry producer with over a decade of experience writing guides for RPGs. Previously an early contributor at gamefaqs.com, Ryan has been serving the RPG community with video game guides since 2001. As the owner of Bright Rock Media, Ryan has written over 600 guides for RPGs of all kinds, from Final Fantasy Tactics to Tales of Arise.

Similar Posts