What you said about being powerfull alone, but with friends, lethal. I absolutely agree. As a leader I wasn't all that much. But if I had a meatshield, someone to rescue me at the D, the Vanquisher to keep people in battle when I fled, or just a random young black sectee to keep the target busy, man was it easy. As a bard, you need to be able to land that fiend at just the right time. Walk in, fiend, start to work your magic, and everything goes wrong. But go in, work your magic a bit, get your enemy wounded, and suddenly wham bam boom the #### hits the fan. As a support char, a bard kick heavy ass. But with a few meatshields, a bard is very easy to dominate the battle with.