Bard
From Fire Emblem Wiki
The Bard class saw most of it's use in the GameBoy Advance Fire Emblem games. There are two different types of Bards, each branching from different games. At first in the games Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Bards were basically Mages although they could use Light magic before promotion, however like regular Mages they promoted into Sages.
The later Bards, the ones that appeared in the Gameboy Advance games were more or less Dancers. Elphin and Nils, both had the ability to Play a song that allowed another seperate unit to move again after it was played. This is basically the same ability Dancers have in the Fire Emblem games.
It should also be noted that Nils can not be used after chapter 10 of the game he is in, he is replaced in a later level by his sister Ninian, a Dancer who will join at the same level and with the same stats Nils had from before. Although Nils can be used again in the Final Chapter (as opposed to Ninian).
Bards, like dancers are often approached with skepticism by players of the Fire Emblem series. The most common point made against the use of Bards is that 'You could just send into battle another strong unit for the one the Bard could make move again.' Also Bards are, though they have high speed, have relatively weak defense and should be kept away from battle as they would easily die in very few attacks. This reduces their usefulness in battle. However, it must be noted that if you wish to train a single unit, or only train one healer, a bard can help you achieve this more easily.
No Bards have appeared in the newer games: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance or Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, although the first game listed did have Tethys a Dancer unit. Also, Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn had Heron Laguz, who serve the Dancer/Bard purpose.
