I always do the Gnolls before the Tollhouse, at the end of lvl 3. Tollhouse for me is lvl 4. The Gnolls are relatively easy if you position your ranged on the rock left on the way to the Gnolls and start from stealth. BTW you can get a powder bomb already in the Blighted Village, under some circumstances.
Has the Bard Healing Word or similar and possibilities to give advantage? It's a buffing class, isn't it? Healing Word for me is the best spell around. In several fights chars can get downed if you are unlucky with initiative ot hit chances, I would not like to be without Healing Word then. I'm so little interested in the Bard class that I did not even read about it, so I know nothing.
