Rally Comrades

[Glorelendil]

I agree with Roc: the way to import your favorite concept from other RPGs is reskinning. (For example, dual-wielding can be a reskinned shield, and you can take Grievous and Dour-handed if you want to do more damage.)

"Awe", when used for Intimidate Foe, can be reskinned as "Ridicule" for example.
"Courtesy" could be used for improvising flattering verse.

And a "bard" can have other roles besides playing music. Social skills, solving riddles, and lore could all fall under their purview.

[Deadmanwalking]

The rules for composing a song in the Rivendell book also seem worth noting. Those require your companions to also have at least decent Song of their own to receive bonuses, but they do allow for songs that provide bonuses to potentially the whole party in the form of a bonus to a particular roll. So they synchronize well mechanically.

Other than that, mostly what Glorelendil and Rocmistro said. Re-skin a few things as necessary, be good at other appropriate stuff, and you can pretty easily be good to go.

To expound a little on the Intimidate Foes thing, if you max out Awe or Battle, you could either Intimidate (which thematically, as mentioned, could be done in the form of a song) or Rally Comrades every single round, never actually using your weapon while still being very useful and effective. You'll want a high parry to make that work without getting mauled, but it works out pretty well both mechanically and thematically.

[bluejay]

Also the Minstrelsy Trait from the Lake Town sourcebook might be relevant.

[Glorelendil]

Also the Minstrelsy Trait from the Lake Town sourcebook might be relevant.

I was thinking that Laketown seems a likely bet for a bard, but none of the virtues lend themselves to it, even with reskinning.

[killianred]

Thanks guys, it will be interesting to see how this character plays out