Help me pick a spell for my bard

[Chronos]

My grappler valor bard just hit 6th level, and so I can choose a new spell known of up to 3rd level. He already has
(cantrips) Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion, Vicious Mockery
(1) Healing Word, Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire
(2) Enhance Ability, Heat Metal, Suggestion
(3) Fear, Major Image.
The party also includes a cleric, a druid, a hexblade, a shadow sorcerer, and a totem barbarian. The spells I am considering are:

Shatter
Silence
Warding Wind
Clairvoyance
Stinking Cloud
Enemies Abound

Feel free to suggest spells other than those, but I've probably already ruled them out for one reason or another.

Suggestions?

[Edea]

Anyone else in the party already able to generate tiny huts as a ritual?

[Chronos]

I don't think so, but we've houseruled Tiny Hut to be similar to what it was in 3e: Basically, a very comfortable tent. Maybe OK for a wizard, but not worth a bard spending a spell known on it.

[GentlemanVoodoo]

If going grapple, I recommend Bestow Curse. Several of the effects would help out your grappling rolls with some extra damage to boot. If you have no issues in making the grappling checks then Plant Growth and Glyph of Warding are good choices in addition to those you listed are solid choices. Question is what sort of use are you wanting out of the spell? Utility, damage dealing, etc.?

[Chronos]

If I'm casting a spell that allows the enemy a save, I want to be disabling multiple enemies at once, right now, like with Fear. I don't want something that'll give me an increased chance of disabling one enemy at a time, starting next turn. If I really need some magic curse mojo to help me with grappling, I can ask the hexblade to cast Hex (which has no save, only costs a bonus action, and will also help him with his damage).

[Aeriox]

Is there a reason you don’t want hypnotic pattern? Seems like it would fit in with the whole restricting mobility thing.

If you don’t want that, I think silence would work well.

[Snivlem]

I have to assume you are avoiding hypnotic pattern on purpose for some reason?

I would definetly consider invisibility. Note that it also scales well.
I would also consider a ritual spell such as detect magic or comprehend languages unless your party already have access to it.

I guess shatter is an ok choice because it doesnt require concentration and is your only aoe - especially if dont have anyone else with aoe access in the party.

Did you consider blindness/deafness?

[monks_are_op]

I humbly recommend blindness/deafness or hypnotic pattern.

[Edea]

Need to know houserules on other spells, also what's on the sorcerer's and warlock's spell lists atm.

Don't bother with silence or clairvoyance, cleric can prep those. Warding wind sucks, shatter is meh.

Would probably go for enemies abound or stinking cloud out of the choices presented. I'd lean toward the latter if the sorc or warlock had a movement-control effect (like web), and toward the former if they didn't.

[Chronos]

The reason I'm not picking Hypnotic Pattern is that it overlaps too much with Fear, which I already have: Both are area-effect wis-save disabling spells. In most situations where one will be good, so will the other, and Fear fits the character's personality better.

Invisibility is also out for personality reasons.

As for other houseruled spells, I think the only one that's on the bard list is Enhance Ability (which I already have) not requiring concentration. And houserules on other spells aren't relevant, because as a valor bard, it'll be a while before I get any Magical Secrets.

What is it that makes Blindness/Deafness so great? Is it just the lack of concentration?

[Ashrym]

Blindness / Deafness doesn't require concentration, affects multiple targets by scaling to higher slots, and casually enables the entire party to take hide actions in combat for a situational use.

I was going to suggest bestow curse as well. If your bard is grappling he's working on single targets in melee range anyway, and bestow curse upcasts to remove the concentration restriction as well. Cursing the target to require a WIS save every round or be unable to take actions works. No concentration makes it good in the higher slot and not something hex is accomplishing.

[sophontteks]

Second blindness/deafness. A nice non-concentration CC spell is always welcome. They are an extremely rare lot and often worth upcasting.

[Snivlem]

I have a hard time imagining the personality trait that makes the ability to turn you and your party invisible unwelcome, but maybe that's just me :)

Anyway. I think the bottom line is, take something that doesnt require concentration:

If you prefer, pick shatter now while it's still semi usefull, then swap it out for blindness when you find that it doesnt do much for you anymore and once you have more slots to upscale blindness. If you dont care for either, plant growth is also a strong contender.

[Chronos]

So, for what it's worth, I went with Enemies Abound, though it didn't actually come up in yesterday's session (though I did get an absolutely perfect opportunity to use Fear). The ability to turn enemies against each other is good (especially if you can bluff it as being a betrayal), and Int is an unusual save.

Blindness being non-concentration doesn't seem like as big a deal for me: I've got good non-spell combat options, so most combats, I'll only be using 0-2 spells anyway, and even when I'm using multiple spells, one of them is likely to be non-concentration (our houseruled Enhance Ability, or Dissonant Whispers, or Healing Word).