Is the Bard overrated?

[Merudo]

I regularly see the Bard described as being one of the best classes of the game. Usually, the Bard is ranked best or second best class behind the Wizard.

Although I absolutely agree that the Bard is a powerful class, I believe folks oversell the Bard's abilities. In my opinion the Wizard, Paladin, Cleric, and Druid are all better overall choices than the Bard - at least for the levels that see play (levels 1 to 9 in my experience).

My biggest issue with Bards is that they are over reliant on a handful of powerful spells to be effective in combat: Dissonant Whispers, Heat Metal, and Hypnotic Pattern (at lower levels, add Sleep to the list). If a Bard happens to fight enemies that can't be defeated by one of these few spells, they will very often feel useless and underpowered.

It's easy to find examples where those spells are underwhelming:

- Dissonant Whispers mostly shines in melee-centric parties for the OAs it triggers. It will be awesome in a party with a Barbarian, a Paladin, and a GWM fighter, but suck if your party is made of a Wizard, a Sorcerer and a spellcasting Cleric.

- Heat Metal doesn't work on creatures not wearing/wielding metal. Many DMs rule it also doesn't work on monsters immune to fire (think Fire Giants).

- Hypnotic Pattern doesn't work against creatures immune to charm. It is hard to use once the party is engaged in melee. Foes can wake each other up. And if there are a few blasters in your party, it will be hard for them to use their Fireballs without waking the hypnotized creatures up.

In addition, the Bard has the following flaws:

- Abysmal defense. The Bard has the weakest defense of all classes. They can't wear a shield, can't wear medium or heavy armor, and have almost no defensive spells (no Mage Armor, Shield, Armor of Agathys, Absorb Element, Mirror Image, Blink, etc). Anything attacking the Bard is almost guarantee to hit, and the Bard has almost nothing to soften the blow.

- Horrible combat cantrips. Vicious Mockery is basically the only viable choice here, and is only okay against single powerful enemies that have a single attack. By casting Vicious Mockery the Bard hopes that (1) the target fails its saving throw (2) the target performs an attack and (3) the disadvantage makes the target's attack miss. The odds of all three happening is usually quite low. If the target happens to have more than one attack, Vicious Mockery ends up almost always being hurtful to the action economy of the Bard.

- No spell preparation. The Wizard, Druid, Cleric and Paladin can swap out their spells depending on the situation. Going near water? Prepare Water Breathing. Climbing up a mountain? Prepare Thunderwave to knock foes off the mountaintop. Going into town? Prepare Enhance Ability / Zone of Truth. Entering a Wizard's Tower? Prepare Dispel Magic. Need to send a message? Prepare Sending or Animal Messenger. Prepared casters can plan ahead, and pick the best spells for any situation. Meanwhile the Bard is stuck with their picks, and just has to "hope" they happen to have learnt the right spells for the job.

All of this - reliance on a few spells, awful defense, lack of combat cantrips, and lack of spell preparation - means that the Bard is among the weakest and least flexible of the full spellcasters in my opinion.

It's still a good class, mind you (all full spellcasters are excellent) - it's just that unless the party is full of melee martials, the Bard will be outshined by other full casters - at least for level 1-9.

[DeTess]

If you only judge the bard by its spellcasting ability, then yes, it'll be behind the wizard and maybe behind the druid and cleric as well. However, Bard's get a lot of good class features, such as skill expertise, bardic inspiration, a variety of useful songs, etc. Bard is good because it has a jack of all trades chassis with full spellcasting, not just because of the spellcasting.

[Merudo]

If you only judge the bard by its spellcasting ability, then yes, it'll be behind the wizard and maybe behind the druid and cleric as well. However, Bard's get a lot of good class features, such as skill expertise, bardic inspiration, a variety of useful songs, etc. Bard is good because it has a jack of all trades chassis with full spellcasting, not just because of the spellcasting.

Jack of All Trades is I would say the most overrated ability of the Bard. For level 1-8, Jack of All Trades adds a mere +1 to the ability checks for which the Bard is not proficient. That will makes a difference at most 5% of the time - and very often much less than that since other characters in the party may succeed the check anyway. Plus, most optimized Bards have proficiency in the most valuable skills anyway (Perception, Persuasion, and potentially Athletics/Stealth).

[CTurbo]

Seems like you're mostly judging the Bard based on it's DPR, and well, yeah it's probably the weakest class.

But Bards aren't about DPR. but thanks to Magical Secrets, you could solve that problem.

A few Colleges do get Medium Armor and/or shield and Lore Bards have Cutting Words which is extremely defensive.

So yeah I do think the 5e Bard is one of the strongest classes available alongside the Paladin, and funnily enough, the Wizard is the over-rated class to me.

[DeTess]

Jack of All Trades is I would say the most overrated ability of the Bard. For level 1-8, Jack of All Trades adds a mere +1 to the ability checks for which the Bard is not proficient. That will makes a difference at most 5% of the time - and very often much less than that since other characters in the party may succeed the check anyway. Plus, most optimized Bards have proficiency in the most valuable skills anyway (Perception, Persuasion, and potentially Athletics/Stealth).

You'll notice that I didn't actually mention the 'jack of all trades' ability if you read what I wrote again :P Though it has some use, not as a skill booster, but providing a boost to some checks that are hard to improve otherwise, such as initiative, dispelling and counterspelling.

[Merudo]

Seems like you're mostly judging the Bard based on it's DPR, and well, yeah it's probably the weakest class.

Disagree. In my opinion, control is better than DPR for spellcasters. It's just that other spellcasters are as good at control as the Bard is, if not better (Conjure Animals, Plant Growth, Command, Sanctuary, Spiritual Guardians, Web, Slow, Sleet Storm, etc), plus they have good/excellent DPR options as well.

But Bards aren't about DPR. but thanks to Magical Secrets, you could solve that problem.

For levels 1-9, Bards get no magical secrets except for the Lore Bard.

You'll notice that I didn't actually mention the 'jack of all trades' ability if you read what I wrote again :P

My bad, I thought you meant the ability when you spoke of the Bard's "jack of all trades chassis".

[Skylivedk]

Jack of All Trades is I would say the most overrated ability of the Bard. For level 1-8, Jack of All Trades adds a mere +1 to the ability checks for which the Bard is not proficient. That will makes a difference at most 5% of the time - and very often much less than that since other characters in the party may succeed the check anyway. Plus, most optimized Bards have proficiency in the most valuable skills anyway (Perception, Persuasion, and potentially Athletics/Stealth).

It's one of the few things that apply to stuff like initiative and counterspell/dispel magic checks. Later on Telekinesis as well.

The Bard is a super strong class. It does accelerate as you rise in levels (like all full casters), but the skill mastery is arguably higher than that of the rogue early on, the customisation extremely high and a lot of the base spells are top tier. In the beginning, undead are a bit more of a struggle.

Sleep is an encounter ending spell early on, Faerie Fire is useful even against dragons. Thunderwave is amongst the best lvl 1 AoE damage spells, Healing Word is borderline op of your party hasn't restricted yo-yo healing (my tables all run with exhaustion levels from hitting 0 hp), detect magic is useful all game long and you already mention dissonant whispers.

Invisibility, Silence, Phantasmal Force, Heat Metal, Hold Person, Enhance Ability, Pyrotechnics and Shatter are all amongst the best at what they do.

Dispel Magic, Enemies Abound, Fear, Hypnotic Pattern, Major Image and Plant Growth - all top tier. If you are a lore bard, you have your pick of your favourite spells at 6. I'd take counterspell and fireball/conjure animals/spirit guardians normally. Usually probably fireball because you have enough uses of your concentration slot. Without magical secrets, you are short of good dpr spells for spell levels 3 and 4. You do get animate objects though, which is insanely strong in a wide variety of situations.

I really don't see how the class is over-rated. You can even make a fantastic Gish (amongst the best in the game IMO) with Hexblade 1/ Paladin 2 / Sword X.

[Contrast]

I'm currently playing a bard and there certainly are times I've been sitting them looking at my spell list thinking 'hmm...well I can't really do much this combat'. It is a thing and you do have to think very carefully about your spell selections so you have a variety of tools for different situations. That said I've also had that experience as a druid and a sorcerer so I feel thats partially just a spellcaster thing.

While I am inclined to agree that lore bard is the best, I do think people underestimate how powerful glamour bards are. I have high hopes for Eloquence as well though I haven't seen one in play yet so thats just theory at this stage. I do find the other subclasses situational/a little underwhelming.

Bardic Inspiration has a huge impact on how skill checks play out in game. After 5th level in particularly you can throw it around pretty much on a whim, almost all important skill checks should be adding a d8 which is a massive difference.

[diplomancer]

It also depends on magic item availability. Bards are already very strong on their own, but there is simply NO uncommon magic item as strong as an instrument of the Bards. It covers a lot of the "spells known only" weakness of the Bard, and disadvantage on Hypnotic Pattern is absolutely insane. It's been an autowin button so many times that I feel slightly guilty using it.

You are also simply not valuing Bardic Inspiration and Expertise at all, 2 very powerful features.

As to your objections:
1- vicious mockery is the best combat cantrip, with the exception of eldritch blast with invocations. Far better than firebolt or ray of frost, even more at tier 2. It's basically a healing spell disguised as an attack cantrip.
2- at these levels, there are monsters with charm immunity, but not that many. If they don't have it, and you happen to have a Bardic Instrument, the DM might as well just give your party the fight's XP.
3- the Bard defense issues are real, but can be easily solved with dips. Hexblade dips if it REALLY bothers you, Cleric dip if just slightly better defense is enough (I believe that the Cleric dip is the better choice, unless you want to be in melee often. Take it after level 5 or 6). Another option is the V-Human with moderately armored feat. Or being a Valor Bard, which brings me to my next point
4- Specially at these levels, Lore Bard is definitely the best option. Cutting Words is great. Use it on a big monster's initiative and you are basically increasing the initiative of the entire party. Extra Magical secrets at 6th level is THE most versatile feature in the game, whatever your party is missing, you've got it covered. As powerful as theory crafting feels it is, it's even more powerful in actual play. The 3 extra skills are also a tremendous help to cover things your party may be missing.
5- once you get animate objects, or conjure animals, either from Druid or level 6 magical secrets if the party is missing a Druid, dissonant whispers gets A LOT better. 8 velociraptors, (or even better, 4 wolves and 4 velociraptors in an L pattern around your target, so that all opportunity attacks strike at once) getting opportunity attacks with advantage, who needs melee martials?

[MrStabby]

It seems like you are not critiquing the bard, but rather what the bard would be if they got no benefits from their college.

Lore can indirectly fix the issues you mention with magical secrets. Valor more directly boosts at will damage with multiple attacks, weapon proficiency and armour/shields.

You are absolutely right that some bard spells are situational but this means you have to be careful how you build your spell list rather than it being weak. It's pretty hard to go wrong with polymorph after all.

Bardic Inspiration is what tips the balance for me. Bonus action, no concentration, lets you cast spell the same turn, loads of uses per day... passing that critical check or turning misses into hits or just dumping it for extra damage on a critical hit. It is exceptionally versatile and at the right moment is very powerful and the frequency with which you use it is great.

[JellyPooga]

In combat, yes, I'd be inclined to agree, to an extent, with the OP; in combat, Bards can hold their own and at higher levels are decent as full-casters, but at lower levels, their efficiency is sufficient but no more.

That does, of course, ignore the primary focus of the Bard class, which is everything but combat.

So you have a Class that is basically better than any other Class at anything non-combat and they can hold their own in combat too? Yeah, that's what makes them top-tier, grade-A material. Compare that to being good in combat and pretty much obsolete at anything but that, which is what most other Classes are packing.

[LudicSavant]

- Abysmal defense. The Bard has the weakest defense of all classes. They can't wear a shield, can't wear medium or heavy armor, and have almost no defensive spells (no Mage Armor, Shield, Armor of Agathys, Absorb Element, Mirror Image, Blink, etc). Anything attacking the Bard is almost guarantee to hit, and the Bard has almost nothing to soften the blow.

Mage Armor is largely irrelevant if you have Light Armor. And they get better armor than that from two of their subclasses, and are only one half-feat away from Moderately Armored. Many of their class and subclass abilities also provide potent defensive bennies. And potentially any of those spells can be picked up by Magical Secrets (and the most important of them can be picked up by a particularly synergistic 1-level dip).

A Valor Bard is a full caster with medium armor and a shield.
A Swords Bard gets medium armor too, and potent AC-boosting flourishes.
Lore Bard gets Cutting Words and early Magical Secrets (which can be spent on excellent defensive spells). They also can just take Moderately Armored for +1 Dex, Medium Armor, and Shields.
Glamour Bards just get to spam temp HP and kiting movement.

If anything attacking your Bard is almost guaranteed to hit, it's because you chose to build your Bard that way. You can actually make some pretty damn tough party tanks off the Bard chassis.

[stoutstien]

I would say the relative power level and versatility of any of the full casters are about on par with each other if played by reasonably experienced players. I think the big factor that puts bards in a slightly higher position in individual rating system is that they have interesting and interactive features beyond just spell casting.

[diplomancer]

Also, consider a regular 4 man party, 2 martials, 2 casters. You probably want one of those casters to be a Bard, as it's the most versatile and can cover whatever is missing between wizard/druid/cleric. If you had 1 martial and 3 casters, then, MAYBE, you'd be better off with 1 each of Wizard/Druid/Cleric, though, unless the martial was a Rogue, you'll still be missing a skill monkey.

[Dork_Forge]

I don't think it's overrated, it's a very versatile and potentially potent class. Between Jack of All Trades and Expertise it's one of the best skill monkeys (and the bonus to initiative from JoaT is a nice boost), it has a pretty great support spell list with the potentially to cherry pick the best spells from any other class, it has enough proficiencies built in to default to traditional combat if necessary and the subclasses are pretty great.

I'm currently DMing a level 10 Glamour Bard with a +5 Cha, Dissonant Whispers has wrecked a couple bosses (Barbarian and Paladin party members), mobs are easily crowd controled and the sheer amount of temp hp he can hand out makes them all very difficult to drop in a realistic encounter (11 temp hp per Bardic Inpsiration, as a bonus action for each of them AND still casting an Action spell, it's insane).

[Satori01]

I
My biggest issue with Bards is that they are over reliant on a handful of powerful spells to be effective in combat:



It's still a good class, mind you (all full spellcasters are excellent) - it's just that unless the party is full of melee martials, the Bard will be outshined by other full casters - at least for level 1-9.

All spellcasting classes are reliant on a handful of spells to be effective in combat, if one chooses to just rely upon spells.

The Wizard, Sorcerer, and Druid might have access to two handfuls of dynamite, but the bard has a great list of control, buff, and exploration spells.

Ignoring the diversity that Divine Domains bring, most melee cleric or ranged clerics are going to use the same template for spell load outs. In otherwords "the same handful of spells".

Bards also have better weapon proficiencies, and do not have to waste spells slots and spells known/ preparation on Mage Armor.
A bard will often have lower AC then a cleric, but higher weapon damage, and as has been pointed out before, have a good Gish option subclass, and one melee subclass.

The only thing I have ever seen the bard lag behind at compared to *some* other casters is Short Rest spell recovery. A well played Diviner Wizard can cast all day long, a bard or cleric or non-land Druid not so much.

In my experience a cleric tends to burn through their spells faster than a bard, and Channel Divinity is significantly more specialized, and more limited, (in both function and uses), then Bardic Inspiration. A bard without spells slots is generally more effective than a cleric without spell slots.

In terms of Preparation H casters vs Spells known casters...I think a golf analogy is useful. Now I don't play golf, frankly from a social class perspective, I despise it.

That said, a Preparation caster, like a golfer, tend to primarily use the same clubs/spells. When the Preparation caster has some forewarning regarding what they will face (which will not be all the time), said caster can bring one of their more specialized clubs/spells out of their golf bag.

A player that prefers Spells Known Casters, does not want to have a golf bag, does not want to mess with swapping spells daily, nor do they care about the niceties of the game of golf.

For those players, the fun lies in taking a scenario that calls for say a 2 iron club...aka a particular spell, saying "F@ck that, I have a Hockey Stick, a comic book, and some cheese" and then finds a way to succeed with what they have on hand and cleverness.

[Dr. Cliché]

In terms of why the Bard is good, it isn't just because it's a powerful class in its own right, it's because it's perhaps the best 'toolbox' class in the game.

It's a 9th level spellcaster, which is already fantastic in terms of both power and flexibility. But on top of that, you get 3 floating skill proficiencies, and Expertise, and Jack of all Trades (not sure how you can be a Jack of all Trades and also an expert, but that's a discussion for another thread ).

Put simply, the Bard is reasonably effective in combat, but combat it's by any means its only strength.

Moreover, one of the key aspects of the Bard is that many of his abilities revolve around making other party members shine. You've got Bardic Inspiration, obviously, as well as Song of Rest (plus college-specific stuff like Mantle of Inspiration). Then there are spells - Vicious Mockery, for example, isn't designed to make the Bard a one-man-army but rather to help other party members survive. Similarly, Dissonant Whispers is an okay spell in and of itself, but it really shines when the fleeing creature provokes attacks of opportunity from other, more melee-focused members of your party.

Put simply, the Bard is a class who can bring an answer to almost any situation, and a great force-multiplier for the rest of the party. It's not the most powerful or flashy class in most roles, but it's definitely one of the most flexible and adaptable.

[Toadkiller]

Bards aren’t really about the math. So for the OP it does sound like you should play something else.

Bards can be great fun for people inclined to play them though. As mentioned above it generally seems like a major component of that is the wide range of options available to the bard character to solve the problems of the adventuring day.

[Satori01]

[QUOTE=Toadkiller;24595766]Bards aren’t really about the math. /QUOTE]

All classes are about the Math! 🔢😀
Since bards often deal counterfactual effects, those contributions can go unnoticed.

A Vicious Mockery that negates a critical hit, but no one knows about, just seems like paltry damage.

It is incumbent on the DM to describe the action so that this contribution is not invisible. If the DM does not have practice doing this, it is then up to the player to inquire.

Cantrips that have attack rolls feel more reliable then Saving Throws. In some ways attack rolls are...more effects enhance attack rolls then Spell DCs.

A bard selecting Eldritch Blast is a good implement for the tool box.

[Keravath]

Personally, I like lore bard mixed with two level of hexblade warlock. It "fixes" most of the "concerns" the OP mentioned with the base bard class while delaying their spell progression by two levels. I have played it to level 16 so far and have enjoyed playing the character a lot. The only challenging level was 6th when the character didn't have 3rd level spells yet and most of the other characters did.

However, I have run into several encounters where either there were a lot of magic resistant creatures, which made a lot of my spell selection much less useful or in which the best action I could take was to maximize my damage output or both. In these cases, agonizng blast and hex were exceptionally useful tools.

[follacchioso]

I am playing a 16th level lore bard who focuses on telekinesis and counterspell, and a 5th level grappler bard with tavern brawler.

Both of these characters are based on ability checks. Telekinesis is very strong combined with glibness and the lore bard features, and grappling is another skill check improved by expertise and the enhance ability spell.

So, bards are strong but they require a good knowledge of the game to be played successfully. There are many situations where you will feel like you can't contribute to the battle at all. You don't have strong offences or defences, and many of your spells will not work against certain types of creatures. It's a difficult way to play, but in a way more spectacular and interesting.

[Potato_Priest]

I'm not sure that the bard is overrated (right behind the wizard isn't a bad place to rank it), but I do feel like a lot of people rate it too highly in areas other classes are best at.

Buffs: I feel like the classic gaming trope of the bard being the buff guy has made people not actually evaluate the 5e bard on its own merit in this department. Wizards have a better spell list for buffs, and clerics are comparable. If a bard wants to specialize in this they're going to need to spend magical secrets (and thereby sacrifice a lot of their much-touted versatility) on it to keep up with the competition.

Debuffs: I believe Merudo touched on this. Again, wizards have a better list here (albeit by a lower margin).

Versatility: While I might agree that the bard class is extremely versatile, the spells-known restrictions on the bard tend to place any individual bard behind an average druid for versatility in my estimation, as any druid can use wildshape for an enormous variety of purposes both in and out of combat, in addition to being able to swap their spells on the fly. I see the best bards as specialists who have used the versatile class mechanics to excel at one or two particular narrower roles.

The main areas where I see the bard actually coming out firmly ahead of other classes are social manipulation (if built properly, but doing so does to an extent preclude other specializations) and counterspelling and other ability check-based spells. (This on the other hand requires minimal build investment).

[diplomancer]

I'm not sure that the bard is overrated (right behind the wizard isn't a bad place to rank it), but I do feel like a lot of people rate it too highly in areas other classes are best at.

Buffs: I feel like the classic gaming trope of the bard being the buff guy has made people not actually evaluate the 5e bard on its own merit in this department. Wizards have a better spell list for buffs, and clerics are comparable. If a bard wants to specialize in this they're going to need to spend magical secrets (and thereby sacrifice a lot of their much-touted versatility) on it to keep up with the competition.

Debuffs: I believe Merudo touched on this. Again, wizards have a better list here (albeit by a lower margin).

Versatility: While I might agree that the bard class is extremely versatile, the spells-known restrictions on the bard tend to place any individual bard behind an average druid for versatility in my estimation, as any druid can use wildshape for an enormous variety of purposes both in and out of combat, in addition to being able to swap their spells on the fly. I see the best bards as specialists who have used the versatile class mechanics to excel at one or two particular narrower roles.

The main areas where I see the bard actually coming out firmly ahead of other classes are social manipulation (if built properly, but doing so does to an extent preclude other specializations) and counterspelling and other ability check-based spells. (This on the other hand requires minimal build investment).

The one really good buff spell that wizards get and bards don't is haste. But I don't think having access to haste is worth more for a buffer than Bardic Inspiration. Or, more situationally, Healing Word (nothing buffs more than "you get to take your action this turn, instead of making a death save").

But the best buffer, IF built for it (and that's a big IF, it has some cost)is actually the Sorcerer. They get very good buff spells, and they get to twin them. That's hard to beat.

[Dork_Forge]

But the best buffer, IF built for it (and that's a big IF, it has some cost)is actually the Sorcerer. They get very good buff spells, and they get to twin them. That's hard to beat.

Divine Soul Sorc is probably the best buffer in the game as long as they're willing to drop the points on it: Aid, Twinned Death Ward, Twinned Haste etc.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I mainly play the bard as a debuffer and utilitie caster.
You can get the needed spells from magical secrets.
As a lore bard you are also more skill monkey and get cutting words which is a game changer.

It is a custom caster with a better spell list to choose from. It may not be the best at everything but it do work.

And about combat cantrip, just use a bow(I prefer a longbow so you could stay away with your greater steed and look at the paladin which your wrote a greater steed scroll for him to use but he failed the spell casting check).

[ezekielraiden]

Disagree. In my opinion, control is better than DPR for spellcasters. It's just that other spellcasters are as good at control as the Bard is, if not better (Conjure Animals, Plant Growth, Command, Sanctuary, Spiritual Guardians, Web, Slow, Sleet Storm, etc), plus they have good/excellent DPR options as well.

First: comparing "is it present on any other list except Bard's" isn't exactly a fair comparison. It is to be expected that a few spells be not inherently on the Bard list that are still good for control.
Second: Conjure animals and sanctuary aren't really control. I suppose you could argue that they're soft control, since one provides incidental area denial via summoning bodies that take up space, and the other forces a Wis save, but those are both rather stretching the point. (It's also worth noting that sanctuary doesn't even necessarily DO anything, even if the target fails the save--a single-target spell or melee attack can be redirected if another target is available, and an AoE spell is simply unaffected to begin with. If anything, sanctuary is more punitive for the recipient, who can perform basically no hostile actions against an enemy and maintain the spell's effect.)

For levels 1-9, Bards get no magical secrets except for the Lore Bard.

And Lore Bard is what you take if you intend to do magical things.

So, in a lot of your comments here, I'm seeing a trend. You seem, on the "anti"-Bard side, to treat any versatility the Bard has as though it is perfectly siloed off into its own thing--e.g., we cannot consider Magical Secrets to apply "early" unless we presume Lore Bard, and we shouldn't presume any subclass. Yet, on the pro-other-classes side, you lump together all possible contrasts, no matter how impossible they might be (e.g. you can't get a character that can cast both spiritual guardians and conjure animals without heavy, high-level multiclassing...unless it's a Bard with Magical Secrets spent on doing so!)

Unless and until you're willing to re-consider this thing--comparing the most minimal set of beneficial Bard traits to the most maximal set of non-Bard traits--it's going to be rather hard to have a conversation about this. But it's not like that sort of thing has ever stopped me before!

My bad, I thought you meant the ability when you spoke of the Bard's "jack of all trades chassis".

Not so much replying to this as using the reference as a jumping-off point: This chassis is exactly why the Bard is so well-loved in 5e, and (ironically) why it was so poorly-received in 3.5e. Because 5e managed to actually make a class that could blend multiple roles together, rather than one that dabbles a bit and never makes up its mind and thus ends up not very good at anything.

The Bard has, hands down, the most flexible spell list in the game, because of Magical Secrets. Yes, as you've said, if we restrict ourselves to single-digit levels, that's not going to apply much. Thing is, the community's perception of the class doesn't have to be limited that way. You may think it's silly, but unless you can actually demonstrate that it is necessary to weight single-digit levels more highly than current, all you're really doing is saying, "Eh, I wish people would play like I do," and that's neither particularly interesting nor does it make much of a statement. Even if we don't count MS though, while the Bard list may not be absolutely comprehensive, it has plenty of good control spells in it--and the UA article proposing changes included a bunch more, including some you mentioned like slow and command. Obviously, UA shouldn't be taken as inherent to the class, but I don't think it should be completely ignored either.

Beyond the spell list, the Bard has almost exclusively good, applicable, useful class features. It has full spellcasting, making it more versatile than the Warlock and pretty well comparable to the Sorcerer; only Wizards, Land Druids, and Sorcs who waste "spend" SP on getting extra slots can exceed their regular number of slots per day, so they're in pretty good shape. Further, the Bard's supportive abilities, with one exception, are always useful. Rests are going to happen, and HP is going to be lost, so making rests more useful is never bad. Bardic Inspiration can't be wasted unless the recipient forgets to use it. Jack of All Trades, while small, is universal--and it applies to Initiative, and all other raw ability checks, which is an almost irreplaceable benefit. Expertise is hard to come by, and never a bad thing to have. The only "useless" Bard class feature is Countercharm, and it's more accurately very niche, rather than totally useless--it just is rather weaker than any of the other features Bards get. And then, as noted, at level 10+ you're getting Magical Secrets on the regular that massively diversify your options.

And then the subclasses just make it that much better. Valor and Swords give you medium armor and Extra Attack only one level later than proper melee characters, and either make BI an offense- or defense-boosting tool or increase your personal fighting capabilities nicely. (Valor is more defense-oriented, Swords more offense-oriented.) Lore gives extra skills (nice but not really amazing) and Cutting Words, which is just delightful, as your BI now becomes either some of the best buffing in the game, or some of the best enemy debuffing in the game. The remaining three are more niche, but having more options is never a bad thing, even if those options aren't as strong as the ones you already could pick from.

All in all, the 5e Bard is never not useful, and often quite useful. At low levels, it's actually at reasonable parity with many other classes purely by having BI dice to throw around, which become plentiful once they refresh on a short rest. Weapon-based Bards are only a single level behind weapon-focused classes (they get EA at 6th instead of 5th), and caster bards are only one daily slot behind the best in the biz (Arcane Recovery gives Wiz level/2 slot-levels back, which will almost always go to your highest slot until you hit the cap of 5th level slots...which doesn't happen until level 9!)

Supreme versatility, especially at high levels. Able to fill--with strong effectiveness, mind--any role in the party except maybe meatshield. (Valor Bards come close, but can't buff their own AC with BI; if they could, they'd be amazing tanks.) Full casting, albeit with the more-limited Sorcerer style of spells known. Literally only two poorly-received class features, one of which is the capstone...that many see as justification for making a quick dip in some other class (Paladin, Warlock, and Sorcerer are all common). And it's not like the other, Countercharm, is actually bad...it's just very niche.

So yeah. Versatility, competence, and customization. The Bard is, more or less, the only place you can get 3.5e-like customization on a class. (Warlock comes close, and would be closer still if it had more Invocations that weren't crappy/mediocre-at-best.) That's why the Bard is, and always will be, among the top-rated classes, alongside Wizard (obvious), Paladin (just a really solid core), Hexblade (Cha-SAD charop), and Moon Druid (at CR spike levels).

[Hael]

Bards are pretty weak in combat in tier one, but they turn on in tier 2 and keep progressing all the way till the end (where they more than hold their own against any class in the game). Even without the hexblade dip.

Clerics and druids tend to fall off a bit as their spell lists don’t quite match the power and versatility of a bard and wizard, which is why tier 3 and 4 is really when they’re at their best.

So I mean, they’re the best skill monkey chassis in the game (sorry rogues), they are great at exploring, buffing, they can heal, they are excellent face characters and they have elite CC. Basically strong in every aspect except tier one play.

Bardic inspiration alone has saved us full party wipes and is probably the single greatest source of effective healing that i know of in the game during combat

[ezekielraiden]

Bards are pretty weak in combat in tier one, but they turn on in tier 2 and keep progressing all the way till the end (where they more than hold their own against any class in the game). Even without the hexblade dip.

Clerics and druids tend to fall off a bit as their spell lists don’t quite match the power and versatility of a bard and wizard, which is why tier 3 and 4 is really when they’re at their best.

So I mean, they’re the best skill monkey chassis in the game (sorry rogues), they are great at exploring, buffing, they can heal, they are excellent face characters and they have elite CC. Basically strong in every aspect except tier one play.

Bardic inspiration alone has saved us full party wipes and is probably the single greatest source of effective healing that i know of in the game during combat

Yeah, Bard is absolutely in a comparatively weak position for the first three to six levels. It's not unrecoverable, but it's definitely a class that doesn't quite gel until at least subclass level. But then again, the designers specifically and explicitly intended for levels 1-2 to be something optional (insert boilerplate grumbles*), so having a good-but-not-crazy start is sort of "working as intended." You're only level 1 relatively briefly (either because you friggin die, or because you survive to level 2), and even level 2 isn't a long stretch. Tier 1 is meant to be pretty quickly passed. (Though, as always, some drag it out far, far longer than its mechanics were designed to support...)

*DMs have a ridiculous hardon for ONLY and ALWAYS starting at level 1. It's not universal, but it's extremely common. Even though the devs literally told us to start at 3rd level once we're comfortable, unless we specifically WANT a hard-fought experience. (Or training wheels, I guess, if the DM fudges away the crazy lethality of the first couple levels/softballs the party.)

[Xenken]

Oh I would definitly call Conjure Animals a control spell. (Blocks movement and sight lines like a wall spell, can inflict conditions like Prone or Poisioned, animals can potentially grapple and directly move people around.)

But no Bards are great. I know a friend's party with a Glamour Bard in it and they litterally cannot die because the Bard's Control effects and Temp HP stacks are too thick.

As for their defenses, I'm sure Moderately Armored has already been mentioned but I'll just mention it again because they're one of the best users of it.

Overall though, Bards are the best hole-fillers in the game. They can't do everything, but no class can. (Except maybe Moon Druid.) And they'll always be able to do the 2 or 3 things the rest of your party just can't. Melee, Ranged, Blasting, Expertise on the Skills no one else has, Counterspelling, Control, Face, Healing, whatever.

A party having it's main weaknesses filled is always going to be exponentially stronger, and Bard can do that while not even necessarily sacrificing all that much in other areas, and that's always going to make it a great class regardless of whatever else we talk about.

[NaughtyTiger]

Jack of All Trades is I would say the most overrated ability of the Bard. For level 1-8, Jack of All Trades adds a mere +1 to the ability checks for which the Bard is not proficient. That will makes a difference at most 5% of the time - and very often much less than that since other characters in the party may succeed the check anyway. Plus, most optimized Bards have proficiency in the most valuable skills anyway (Perception, Persuasion, and potentially Athletics/Stealth).

ASI is I would say the most overrated ablity of a toon. It adds a mere +1 to a roll. That will makes a difference at most 5% of the time.