The Bard is not hard

OK, dispense with the giggles. My point is, the Bard class, much reviled for its complexity and convoluted presentation in the original AD&D, isn't really that difficult.  In fact, it's a precursor to the product sustaining concept of the Prestige Classes that dominated 3rd and later editions of the game.  No, you're not going to start out as a Bard.  By definition, you won't start out as a prestige class either.  You begin as a fighter, then a thief.  And then you get tutelage under a Druid, but really at that point become a Bard.  You have certain prerequisites, and then you gain certain benefits.

In my hodgepodge Greyhawk world, Bards are limited to the Duchy of Tenh, and are a unique class to that region.  I have Tenh as my resident Celtic world.  Though I've also dropped the Moonshaes into the world as well, I reserve them more for a later Medieval England/Ireland feel.  The Druidic world encompasses a rough arch starting with the Moonshaes (just off the map, northeast of the Sea Barons), and going through the Pale and Tenh (which I've labeled the Suthlans), and then across the middle regions down into Velnua, up to Perrenland, and those regions.  Druids can be other places, but they are most numerous there.

Tenh, however, occupies that particularly Celtic flavor, and so Bards, with their spiritual and mystical place in culture, find a natural hub there.  Most such advanced classes are, by default, the NPCs in my world.  Though Players can obtain them.  But since Bards are a prestige style class, don't expect them to be what anyone can start out with.  And given their high score requirements, the likelihood of rolling one is close to nil.

Still, as with all things in the early days of D&D, I appreciate at least some attempt to have the game mechanics reflect the literary, if not the somewhat watered down historical, basis for something.  In this case, remembering that Bards were never just musicians, but were men of power linked to that nature religion common in the ancient Celtic world.  And if you think about a Bard slipping into a similarly leveled party, they would  be nothing short of superstars.  Even with those from other Greyhawk cultures.  As well they should be.