Bardic Focus Expertises

Every bard has a focus expertise - a certain performance they are specialised in. All bards know a little about both music and the use of words, but the ones that specialise in it are masters of their chosen focus.

Masters of Instruments and Music

Most bards specialise in some form of musical performance, oftenmost an instrument. Popular focus expertises here are the astori and flutes, though there have been at least one bard in history who have specialised in most instruments in existence.

Another focus expertise connected to music is dancing. This is one of the rarer focus expertises as a dancing bard tend to need some kind of music to dance to, which means they'll need to group up with someone who play music to really be able to perform.

While many bards sing, a bard that specialises in singing is rare. They do exist, though, and hearing them sing is an experience for life.

Masters of the Spoken Word

Although most bards know how to play at least one musical instrument, not all of them specialise in music. Among these you find the actors and storytellers. These bards are experts in engaging their audience into the stories they weave by carefully choosing the right words and tone to create the appropriate emotion.

On Mixing Focus Expertises

It's traditionally seen as a faux pas to mix other kinds of performance into your focus expertise. Your main performance should stay "clean" and follow traditional rules to be counted as a focus expertise.

This is so ingrained into the bard mindset that only a few even try to break this. However, the few who do are often considered better by the general public, blissfully oblivious of the bard rules. You would think that seeing how popular you can get by breaking the "rules" makes you would tempt more bards to do it. Sadly, most bards think more about their reputation among other bards than their popularity. Sure, being popular gives you more renown among the other bards, but breaking the rules takes it all away again.

Some bards, however, don't really care about their reputation among other bards.