Bard

A bard is a versatile class, capable in both combat, the casting of magic as well as performing skills. Bards use their artistic talents to induce magical effects that either bolster their party or hinder their enemy, and the wide range of skills enable to the bard to get themselves out of sticky situations. Armed with a broad base of general knowledge the bard almost always knows a little something about everything and in a pinch a bard can deal out a fair bit of damage. The drawback is that although the bard can do any of these things, he doesn't do any individual one exceptionally well and bards frequently spread themselves too thin between the three capabilities.

Special Abilities
Spells - The bard casts arcane spells based on their ability to sing and/or play instruments. Though the spells aren't typically as powerful as that of a wizard the bard has a wide variety of options and the ability to cast spontaneously helps to balance out the fact that they aren't as powerful.

Bardic Music - In addition to being used to cast spells the bard's music can aide the party in other ways such as boosting their confidence, or countering other negative effects.

Bardic Knowledge - As travelers with their ear constantly perked for a new story to sing about, the bard picks up a broad base of general knowledge that is represented by this ability. Typically a bard can make a check to see if he knows anything about a certain topic or subject. This gives the bard even more of an advantage as a jack-of-all-trades.

Commentary on Bards
If you have played a bard in Pathfinder write a short commentary on how playing the class worked or didn't work for you.

For more information regarding playing Bards and for specific game mechanics consult the Core Rulebook