Zardnaar
Legend
Real life is important!
I have just rolled a 5e Half-Elf bard myself in a friend's campaign. I've been using your advice quite a bit, though I was fortunate that we used "4d6 drop lowest" for stat rolls and I ended up with no drop stats. The campaign doesn't begin until January, but for first level I've selected the cantrips "Friends" and "Viscious Mockery", and the 1st level spells "Sleep," "Dissonant Whispers," "Bane," and "Faerie Fire".
Although it overlaps with the party rogue quite a bit, I selected Stealth, Deception, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion, and Investigation as my proficient skills.
Not a lot wrong with that selection. I'm finding bane a bit meh at time as it requires concentration which conflicts with faerie fire. Depends of you life buffing vs debuff.