Bards are able to be a jack of all trades but mater of none. I used a bard in a support role and as the party face during my first playthrough and it was a lot of fun. However if you are looking for a character that is the BEST at anyone thing, the Bard is not for you.
main problem is that you can use only 4 chars in team, i tried archer bard and melee bard both sucks and caster bard compered to sorc or wizzard is no comment or support to cleric or paladin
Again, you clearly have no idea, how to play a bard right - as Zentu said, bards are not for you.
The bard can a bit of all, you described with different characters above -and it's only one character slot - a sorc with dex gloves and friend cantrip will btw never be as good in skill checks as a bard with dex gloves and friends.
