Bard

Rules wise, bards function indentically to their SRD counterparts.

Their common place in the world, however, could not be more different. While there is no shortage of minstrels and other traveling bards mucking about the continent, more often than not, bards are found among the company of military men. Their unique access to arcane healing magic, coupled with the church's prohibition on divine participation in wars between Goodly Races, makes bards invaluable on the battlefield, even without considering their effect on troop morale and combat effectiveness, as their songs and stories wile away the boring hours and dark winters that make up most of military life, while invigorating the spirit during frenetic clashes. Additionally, as schooled and literate folk, their advice is generally sound and grounded in historical context, and rare is the noble or general who does not have a bardic biographer on staff.

In the Peteran Empire, bards are actually quite rare. The highly magocratic Petran elite actively discourage bards, and culturally the niche bards occupy - actor and entertainer - is seen as on par with prostitutes and other lower sorts.