Levelled a bard to 35 back in classic, never made it out of Lower Guk!
Where stats are concerned, the much used phrase that gets attributed to bards "jack of all trades, master of none" really sums it up. You'll be doing some mezzing (CHA), some melee (STR/DEX), likely taking some hits on multiple pulls/adds (STA/AGI) while twisting songs all over the place.
Your dps generally doesn't tally up as high as a rogue or monk's, and you might find some tanks beating you on dps...so I'd argue (and feel free to shoot me down) that STR/DEX take a back seat to the likes of STA/CHA/AGI. Where you go from there is a matter of preference, being quite the aggro magnet you'll want some survivability but for bard mez/lull/etc don't forget your charisma.
Does CHA have an impact on mez/enthrall? I always thought so (particularly with lulll) but I never managed to prove it with any concrete evidence.
With equipping weapons it depends on the zone, outdoor zones you'll probably find yourself pulling, so not too much weapon action but indoors you'll use them more often - just don't expect to be generating massive numbers, your haste song along with whatever else is being twisted make up your damage through the rest of the melee
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
...hope that's of some help, I'm sure bards of P99 have had a slightly different experience and can recollect with more detail
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]