No surprises in the above comments. Confirms the conclusion I had come to myself. I guess the list of spells just didn't conform to my inner vision of what the essence of a bard is
Time to revise my vision (tm).....
Btw, I understand whacking enemies with the lute but why hand crossbows? I see those mentioned a lot. Is it just that it is what is currently considered "cool" or is there a reason to use those instead of a longbow (now that half elf is not the given choice).
The comment about the lute was a joke (it helps if you've seen the movie). At this time you cannot hit people with a lute in BG3. A fairly major oversight in a game where you can hit people with a salami.
Hand crossbows are just very overpowered at the moment.
But the 5e bard is a full caster, like a wizard or cleric. Generally, the best thing they can do in a fight is cast a spell, especially at higher levels. You can build a bard who uses weapons - they are flexible, and the Valour and Swords subclasses support that, but in PnP the spellcasting skill monkey Lore bard is usually considered the strongest of the available subclasses.
