Switching to a defender on a battle bard is crazy. A defender bard would have to be the most stupid combination in the game. You can already cure crit for 15 mana

Its also a mistake for going arial.
I bet my human bard got tripped/bashed less than your arial bard.
Human bards 'when you dont see me' works like a charm, then there is no bashing.

Perma fly just aint worth having crap songs. Also that 2 con makes quite a difference on the bard class.

Spell evasion rocks, battle bards have 50 save spell naked with healer bless, throw in 50 saves from eq, you spellbane well.
Scout bards can therefore become immune to invokers.
Sharvin was one of the few combinations that Dakizar would never force duel.

Its a shame you never got to use the fiend song, really nice.
The trick to playing a battle bard is to play it like a mage.
HP eq number 1, then save spell eq.
Forget about damroll and critical hit. I still used critical hit when i needed it, a massacre was good enough.
Not worth getting damroll for better crits.
1100-1200hp with 23 charisma, a level 52 hell instrument and shifters will be seeing mean ass frigid and fiery dooms.

It also sucks about magical flags, since alot of 'mage' type eq has those flags.

The day of the super powerful battle bard is dead.
I found it fustrating that the some of the eq i wanted to wear was invisible, like fortitudes and one day I was tempted to wear the helm from tohr, it wasnt invisible, but its called the helm of black magic damn roleplay