From the tribal dancers of the Mwangi Expanse to the warrior skalds of the Linnorm Kings, bards perform across the face of Golarion. While the common folk welcome them in almost any tap-room, their reputations as rapscallions and thieves are hardly misbegotten. Handy in a pinch, bards do a little bit of everything, befitting their hodgepodge training and vagabond lifestyles. Still, all are good at one thing: performing. Not just for supper, but frequently for their very lives.
In the major cities of the Inner Sea, bards tend to wear colourful clothing to attract attention. As they say, perception is half of the show. In wilder regions, performers tend to dress as the common folk, both out of practicality and as a way to stop standing out when necessary. Trained performers often wear badges or other signets to mark their tutelage, assuming their schools bear some renown. Some place this mark on their instruments instead.
Despite his wanderlust, a bard always reveals tell-tale signs of origin in his style of performance, a cultural specialty from childhood. Northern skalds chant and lead rousing songs of victory. Varisian dancers spin to the boisterous pace of their peoples’ traditional songs. Chelaxians accompany vocals with simple instruments, while Taldans favour stirring oratory and layered songs from days past. Garundi use horns and wind instruments with their leaping dances, and the lore keepers of the distant south play drums and stomp in complex rhythms, tracking the histories of their people. Razmiran officially outlaws performers — a waste of time better spent worshipping the Living God. Yet even there, those who worship Razmir most artfully receive recognition and preference for their talents.
Among the non-human races, the elves weave rich traditions of dance, music and song into hypnotic, beautiful displays; dwarven forge-ringers craft wondrous works of art with the songs of their hammers; gnome storytellers fascinate with elaborate tales; and halfling whistlers are said to speak in a hidden language amid their airy tunes.
Favoured Regions: Bards hail from every region of every nation on Golarion, but one thing draws them together: an audience. You find bards where you find crowds. Absalom, for example, is so thick with bards that city law requires them to join the Performer’s Guild if they want to make money.
Bard schools in Absalom, Oppara and Westcrown teach the craft of performance, a task every bit as grueling as swinging a sword at practice dummies all day. All bard schools teach music, dance and theatre. In addition, the Absalom Hothouse teaches popular or “low” arts, including tumbling, puppetry and mimicry, and welcomes frequent guest instructors to teach regional specialties. The Oppara Conservatory teaches older, formal styles such as operatic singing and strictly stylized theatre forms developed during Taldoran ascendancy. The Westcrown Academy is a frayed around the edges, but still functions as a beacon of chaotic free-thinking under fiendish rule. The new Chelaxian capital of Egorian houses the impressive Imperial Hall, which trains and performs only High Chelaxian Opera, a form of performance popular across Cheliax and its holdings.
Specialized Training (Ex): Bards trained at one of the great schools of the Inner Sea tend to favour one performance type above all others, focusing their training. Such bards have this ability, which replaces bardic knowledge.
At 1st level, a bard must choose a single category of the Perform skill. Whenever the bard performs bardic music using the chosen category of the Perform skill, he is treated as being 2 levels higher when determining the effect and save DC. In addition, a bard with specialized training can make use of his bardic music one additional time per day, assuming that the additional usage uses his chosen category of the Perform skill.
Source: Pathfinder Chronicles: Campaign Setting (Page 42)