I think I picked the wrong class in the tutorial. Bard seemed like the class with the best potential payoff for my stats, and the tutorial admins were saying as much (the ones in the instance I was in were mostly pretty good, still in touch with a few of them)... But I don't think they're actually looking at the game balance when they're giving the recommendations.
Seriously. Bard requires insane luck to get anywhere, and this is coming from a guy who got full completion on the Bard intro quest line (even the optional ones. Those medals were ******* sweet, even if they're just cosmetic effects to add to your armors), and scored enough points to unlock the "Music Letter" and "Academic Letter" effects on the Letter Jacket (also, to the devs: great job having items that apply effects to a cash shop item as rewards for optional tutorial objectives).
First off, you have to find a group of competent bards. This is next to impossible in whatever instances I end up in. There were three I teamed up with during the last few sections of the tutorial, but one decided to switch classes (no idea what he switched to), one isn't anywhere near my base, and one sort of fell off the radar (can't find him on my friends list, but haven't heard that he's dead, so that's some comfort). What's worse is that there are well-known bards from this area (Corey Taylor and the rest of Slipknot, just to name a few), and there are competent bards, just nobody who's recruiting. I've checked the job listings countless times, and the closest groups looking for a bard are literally hours away. I can't waste time for that kind of transit, especially when there's no fast-travel system and it costs to travel long distances even if you own your own transport (bicycles don't ******* count, they're too slow to get anywhere effectively and the "icy road" effect that randomly happens on "cold" days renders them practically unusable for almost half the year).

So, tl;dr: Stuck doing quests that are better suited for other classes. Fortunately, I picked up a few skills that make me able to deal with that. Just ******* wish I could find a party so I could try the actual Bard quest line.
Also, this is unrelated, but my character's appearance files seem bugged. No matter how much I increase Strength, his appearance isn't changing. Could this be due to the "Low Muscle Tone" debuff he got stuck with at character creation? It says it's permanent, but I'm not seeing any stats affected by it.