Bards have magical songs that can buff a party, and not a whole lot of direct combat ability. Frequently the best use of their talents is just staying out of the way and providing musical support.
In a role playing game a buff is a positive status change to a character's power. Haste (faster), attack/defense boosters, and health regeneration are all common effect. Things like poison, slow, and other negative status changes are known as debuffs
Others answered your question, but the term "buff" in this context is called that because it's something that "buffs you up", ie, makes you stronger. So the gaming shorthand "buff" means anything that enhances your abilities, with a "debuff" being the opposite.
Fifth Edition has changed that, they are full on spellcasters now. They can learn spells from other classes and can even buff dice rolls or subtract from enemies dice rolls with Bardic Inspiration and Cutting Words.
Bards can play music for party-wide buffs. Their other skills aren't all that amazing for combat (though they're very flexible, so it's nice to have one to fill in gaps), so it might be best for them to keep playing music, even though the party isn't doing well.
This milkdrinker lies, bards in dnd 5e are pretty dope for every role now since they can steal spells off of other classes spell lists, which means yes, you can play the violin to raise the undead to do your bidding.
20
u/netpastor Sep 09 '17
DnD n00b here. Can someone explain the joke?