I've definitely heard of the whole lot (BG1, 2 & TOB) being done with a Blade, and there are a few people on the forum who've done BG1 solo with vanilla Bards.
Never underestimate an arcane caster who gets Use Any Item.
I'm pretty sure that the series has been solo'd by a bounty hunter (there's a Let's Play around somewhere...) who would have a much tougher time than a Bard.
Pure Bards get wands and spells as well as HLAs. Their kits are better but they've still got the tools to do well. With patience and very rapid levelling I'm sure they become a force to be reckoned with as soon as they hit HLAs.
I believe I long ago (as in way older than this site) saw someone boasting about having soloed BG2 with a 9/9/9/9/9/9 bard.
What difficulty? Because I kinda can see this on the lowest difficulty dual wielding especially with a blade on a difficulty where melee doesn't hit too hard...
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Never underestimate an arcane caster who gets Use Any Item.
I think a blade is entirely viable for soloing and will do it at some point when the ipad version (my solo platform) is out.
Pure Bards get wands and spells as well as HLAs. Their kits are better but they've still got the tools to do well. With patience and very rapid levelling I'm sure they become a force to be reckoned with as soon as they hit HLAs.