Here's a question for you D&D buffs: were Bards created as a class when D&D first came out, or did they come later, after thieves and mages and such?

Bard were not a class in the first D&D, but then again only humans had classes. Other races were classes. For example you were a elf or halfing. If you were a human you could be a fighter, mage, thief, or cleric. Bard were first introduced in first edition. The first rules were not in the 1E PHB but in a later book "Unearthed Arcana". They were a qusi-multi class mix of fighter mage, and thief classes. 2E had most mixed rules in the PHB adding Bard to the standard class list.

I hope that helps.

You might want to distinguish between D&D and AD&D. D&D was the "original" version that Voltric referred to: elf, halfling, dwarf and human, with only humans being able to choose a class (fighter, cleric, magic-user and thief). Pretty basic.

AD&D (what some refer to as 1E) introduced the half-elf, gnome and half-orc races. The so-called demi-human races (anything not human) were also allowed classes. AD&D also introduced the illusionist, druid, ranger, paladin, monk and bard as separate classes in their own right (illusionists and druids had their own, completely different spells). My copy of Unearthed Arcana lists the Acrobat, Cavalier and Barbarian -- if there's an earlier version, let me know. There was also an Oriental Adventures book that had, in addition to the Kensai, Wu-Jens and Yakuzza (not sure what happened with all of that in 2E). The 2E books came out in the late 80's, around the same time Ed and TSR released the very first Forgotten Realms boxed set (a fraction of what he's put out since, and still just the tip of the iceberg from his world). Illusionists, druids and bards became sub-sets of other classes, largely without their own uniqe abilities (Illusionists were always my favourite in 1E -- they had some pretty cool spells). Still not sure whether 2E was an improvement on the 1E or not -- 3E (what I've seen so far) actually seems to be an improvement on the game.


EDIT: Ahem....just checked my old 1E PHB (on the advice of my wife). Bards were in the 1E, but not quite as we know them. To become a bard, the character started out as a fighter, until 5th level (but not later then 8th). Then they become a thief until the same level range (5 - 8), and then a druid. They are effectively bards when they start as a druid. She was right -- there's a lesson here, somewhere.....



[This message has been edited by Gnolyn Lochbreaker (edited July 11, 2001).]

Interesting. Well thanks for the info. Especially that bit about bards as fighters, then thieves, and then druids.