Glamour Bard Analysis Paralysis!

[Xenothelm]

Another Magical Secrets “what do I pick?!” post haha...

The current team situation is:

Half-Elf Glamour Bard
Life Cleric
Monk
Ranger
Paladin
Warlock

We’re only lv 3 but I’m trying to plan out the direction I want the character to go in spell-wise so by the time I hit 10 I “should” have

Cantrips:
Minor Illusion
Vicious Mockery
Light

R1:
Faire Fire
Dissonant Whispers
Identify

R2:
Pyrotechnics
Blindness/Deafness
Shatter
Hold Person

R3:
Dispel Magic
Hypnotic Pattern

R4:
Dimension Door
Polymorph

R5:
Synaptic Static

———————————————

Counterspell is the common suggestion and I’m heavily considering its benefits. It just seems a bit, cheap imo... I feel like it’s more fun to deal with what the enemy has thrown at us and Dispel Magic should cover that base other than a PC getting straight up killed, which we DO have a cleric for; I’m also trying not to overlap roles within the party, which can be difficult to avoid as a bard. There’s just soooo much fun stuff to choose from the sorcerer/druid/wizard lists so I’m kind of biased there since we don’t have any of those classes.

I’m also not totally sure about Greater Invis from a thematic standpoint. This is a glamour bard that NEEDS to be noticed/worshipped/loved so going invis feels like such an antithesis...considering polymorph here.

So far I’m liking:

R5 Bigby’s Hand - Mainly for enemy repositioning to move them through a bunch of opportunity attacks lol.

R5 Wall of Force - Just objectively good; moreso with Mantle of Inspiration.

R4: Banishment - One of a rare few CC that require a CHA save and I like CC variety.

R4 Conjure Woodland Beings - Summoning 8 pixies sounds stupidly awesome! Think I’d have to work with my DM on a version of the spell that’s not so obnoxious...

R4 Find Greater Steed - Mostly the thematic flair of riding around on a pegasus.

R1 Shield - +5AC on REACTION?! Is this a trap??

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Blue]

I love to play the character creation mini-game so I get where you're coming from. But my real advice is: whatever you pick at 10th will really be based on the dynamics of your party. Which might not even be the same characters as it is now. So be flexible and evaluate at that point.

But, in the spirit of being helpful, some thoughts for now.

First, he's an (outdated but still good) list of eligible magical secrets: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ad9xzK8ISo6zpUQP_lxJD_ToWXd6_vhqE7STZSHnUzg/edit#gid=0

Second, you have a lot of Concentration spells, you may want to devalue those even if they are good - only get ones that blow away your native bard spells (including that after 10th comes 11th, so your 6th level Concentration choices as well).

Third, a lot of the half-caster lists are full of great spells that may be a bit overpowered getting at this level. For instance, the Paladin's Aura of Vitality or Healing Spirit from XGtE are some of the best out-of-combat healing spells around if you no longer have a life cleric.

Comments on a few of your choices out side that advice:

Conjure Woodland Beings - it's been clarified that the DM picks what appears, not the caster. You can't assume pixies, and definitely not each time. This is on top of it taking up your concentration slot.

Find Greater Steed, assuming the DM's playstyle gives you good chances to use it, is a real boon.

Some other ones to think about:

Counterspell. SO useful at higher levels.

Some direct damage AoE - just so you have one. Fireball, Vitrolic Sphere (XGeT/EE), Conjure Volley to name a few. Stay away from those that would require your Concentration though.

Revivify - for use on the cleric.

 

[5ekyu]

I agree with [MENTION=20564]Blue[/MENTION]

As my sorc has progressed, I have plans and options and candidate lists for mc options, feats, spells etc but it really keeps coming down to an "in-character" choice at the time and those are often not following the grand scheme.

Definitely, something a full tier away, it's extremely likely the decision points will be very different than they seem now.

Real play vs white room - that's called playing.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I played a wizard up to 10th level so here's my recommendations from that particular list

-Arcane Eye, intelligence gathering can be very useful and this is one is very useful to checking out sites that are potential ambushes
-Scrying, another stand out divination spell good for getting information. Seriously sometimes this feels like cheating [edit. oh hey this is already on the bard list. I'd heartily recommend picking it up normally though!]
-Fly, You fly real fast. You can upcast it to make a good portion of your party fly. Very useful in a lot of exploration and combat situations.
-Fireball/Cone of Cold, Your party seems heavy of single target strikers, but sometimes you just need some aoe to clear out the room of 10 small things
-Conjure Minor Elementals, the druid summon spells are probably better but this is the one I have first hand experience with. If you have the time to prepare before an encounter this is the most bang for your buck. Having extra creatures on hand that can debuff is really good (my DM was often pretty generous in taking my intent into account when choosing creatures)