Bard equipment

A bard's equipment is largely dependent on the role they want to play in a party and the nature of their build.

Healing Equipment
Every bard who uses healing spells will want a good Devotion or Potency item. Potency is universal, but not really needed, because bards don't have spells that cause a lot of damage.

Generally, bards should carry whatever wands are available for healing status effects.

Bards with strong UMD scores should carry any and all healing scrolls that they think might be useful. Scrolls for Cleric spells like Raise Dead and Heal are especially common and useful.

Weapons
Bards have limited weapon proficiencies. Many bards use the spell Master's Touch or multiclass to gain proficiency with martial weapons. Bards with second Warchanter core can benefit from Warchanter Weapon Training. This also allows the bard to become proficient with any martial weapon.

Swashbucklers use light one-handed weapons. Often one of these: List of Swashbuckler weapons with improved crit profile.

Ranged weapons are generally not worth it. It is often a good idea to carry a throwing weapon. Repeating crossbow is an option for bards with a high dex who don't want to get into melee combat because it provides a decent ranged attack with only a one feat commitment.

The quarterstaff is the only two-handed weapon a bard is natively proficient in and thus can be popular among bards looking to take advantage of a high strength. However, strong bards usually find a way to become proficient with more powerful two-handed weapons.

Armor
Most bards prefer light armor because they do not suffer arcane spell failure while wearing it. Swashbucklers can only use light armor or cloth armor.

Bards with the Warchanter 4th core ability Armorer gain Medium Armor proficiency and do not suffer arcane spell failure while wearing it.

Some bards prefer to wear robes. This is a good choice for a bard with an extremely high dex, but is also good for a bard looking to use Arcane scrolls, because scrolls will trigger arcane spell failure from armor unlike a bard's native spells.

Shields are uncommon for bards but not unheard of.
 * Swashbucklers have an option to use bucklers while Single Weapon Fighting.
 * Mithral light shields are ideal as they have no spell failure chance.
 * Mithral heavy shields have 5% ASF. Bards have no way of reducing the failure chance via enhancements, but 5% reduction can be crafted via Cannith Crafting. Blue augments that reduce ASF are available starting with level 12.
 * Regular heavy shields usually have 15% ASF. Augments that offset this are available at ML20.
 * Tower shields are usually not a good choice, unless it's one of the few named shields with 0% ASF.

Spellcasting Equipment

 * Bards that want crowd control need an item that grants a DC bonus to enchantment spells.
 * Bards that favor sonic evocations such as Soundburst or Shout need Evocation Focus items.
 * As for Spell Power, bards need Devotion for heals and Resonance for sonic DPS. Spellsingers who take Horn of Thunder SLA should also consider Magnetism.
 * Most bards will also want an item of Power or Wizardry to boost the number of available spell points. If these are on a weapon, it is a good habit to wield this weapon before entering quest or using a shrine; cast your buffs after rest and then switch to your regular weapon again.
 * Many bards, but especially Spellsinger bards (which tend to focus more on spell casting support) will want to be sure to have an Anthem item, such as the Elyd Edge or the Stormsinger Cloak, so they are continually regenerating song uses.
 * Many bards with a strong UMD score will carry a wide selection of arcane wands and scrolls to use when appropriate for buffs or offensive spells.