I am playing a bard in my third parallel campaign, also tactician. As you can expect, she is good at many things, but an expert only in conversation. In fights, she stays in the back. If possible, out of sight and out of attack range. That way she can contribute by buffing friends and incapacitating enemies. Most of her attack spells have wisdom saves, so it is worth examining enemies for low wisdom. Combat is mostly limited to finishing off enemies that are near death, so the damage that the main damage dealers deal is not wasted.
The gith patrol is a difficult encounter irrespective of class, I think. I have learned not to take Lae'zel there, in order to have more control of the situation. I have dealt with the encounter twice in my bard playthough. At first, the bard was able to convince the patrol not to attack. That left only the flaming fists to loot. I reloaded and then send only the character with the highest armour class down to do the talking. The rest, including the bard, stayed hidden on the bridge. That worked too. The bard turned out to be a favoured target for the gith, so it seemed best to cast/shoot first en then move away to safety.
So, to answer the question: yes, letting the guy hang back is a good way to play a bard, I think. And it is fitting roleplay.
Last edited by Ikke; 04/10/23 11:45 AM. Reason: typos
