I found that pullers & tanks are the hardest to find when making groups on TLPs. If I could cover those bases, groups should be easier to make yeah? Can always find druids to heal & DPSer LFG. Bard will break open the camp & CC if needed. After it’s split, bard can AFK melody bot in camp for max mana regen while I focus on the Paladin. (Won't do shm/mnk again. Too tiring to do) Paladin can pull the split-up spawns. Pal can rez the bard after bad pulls or if anyone dies. It'll stop groups from ending prematurely. Pal also lets me have a rez in hard-to-reach spots like in Howling Stones or past locked doors in Sebilis. Paladin aggro spells also stack with Bard slow/snare {I’m looking at you SKs with clinging darkness}. Pal/Bard would get easy spots in raids. Paladin would be easy to gear from raid rots & give me something to do on raids with offtanking trash. Playing bard on raids is boring if you’re not pulling.
For early TLP, bards are very lackluster until they can double pump mana song for caster heavy groups. Their songs also pull a lot of agro and they will take random hits on multi-mob pulls that will stop their melody quite frequently, makes it frustrating to box in that regard. You would be better suited boxing a Druid with the Paladin, sow/ports/ds/snare/etc. Pulling + tanking is a very 'busy' combo, way busier than monk/shaman which you said was tiring already.
If you're goal is to have a group, I'd just box a Cleric and Enchanter. Any class can pull in Classic through Velious as long they know the game. The trick is getting someone (i.e. anyone) willing to pull. Enchanters are actually fantastic pullers in this era. They have their 'agro reducing' spells to help single pull. However, most of the time they can simply mez one target, and pull the other. By the time the mez wears off, the first target is dead, and the 2nd shows up in camp. And with a cleric and enchanter, you really don't need any other classes in a group in this era either. More specifically, your group is two toons...the cleric and enchanter. Without the enchanter or heals, your group will be doing exactly Jack and Sh*t, with Jack AFK the whole time. Clerics are the best heals, so just roll with a cleric.
Mage/Mage............Im sorry, I couldn't help myself. Joking aside Paladins are a little weak in early era tlps but I have seen a lot of good players play them in classic and they tanked very well. In a raid you will be a off tank. Bards are always needed on raids and a lot of people will have a bard box on auto follow. So this combo is doable especially if you are grouping all the way up. If your just 2 boxing up solo wise though this would probably be a very viable way to go. A shaman or a druid would be a better fit I think. A shaman would have the best buffs and dots to help you dps, druid would have ds, dots, and ports, and they both have heals and sow.
Paladins are a grind until they get stun at 30, and additional stuns pre-50. They're still good at what they do (tank) and will be fine as group tanks for starting groups. I like bards in every era and they are always welcome in a group. However, two boxing as both the tank and the puller as different characters might feel like you're doing a lot. I would go tank/utlity, tank/heals, or puller/heals, puller utility. That said, if you want both of these classes, go for it!
