Picking Spells: Fairy Bard, Levels 1 - 3

 So, I am playing in a game and one of the players is new to playing a caster.  The group is small projected to have a Barbarian, Monk, and Bard.  The Bard will be a Fairy (playing Wild Beyond the Witchlight) and her player asked if I could provide any guidance.  That's exactly what this post will attempt to do.

The way a Bard selects spells: New Selections at creation and level ups and an option to replace one and only one spell at each level up, puts a larger than usual pressure on making wise choices.  This mechanism also makes extra spells more valuable to a Bard than they are to classes that have more flexible spell lists (Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin). 

To avoid picking spells for my soon to be favorite bard, I'll put my favorites (I play Bard frequently) into some groups, from which she might want to pick one or maybe a few.

Cantrips

With only two and then three cantrips, this is challenging choice.  The Fairy race does grant an always prepared bonus cantrip Druidcraft, which while not a top pick does provide some utility. Otherwise, here are my candidates.

Damage

Vicious Mockery - d6 (Boo) Psychic (Yea!) on a Wisdom Save (boo!) with 60 feet of range. This spell has a disadvantage debuff for a creature's next attack.  Overall: flavorful but lackluster.

Starry Wisp - d8 (Ok) Radiant (Yea!) on a spell attack (to hit) with 60 feet of range. Target emits dim light for a turn. 

Thunderclap - d6 (Boo) Thunder (Ok) on a Constitution Save (boo!) to all adjacent creatures. Also can be easily heard up to 100 feet away.   

True Strike - Allows an attack with a weapon (can be a bow) using Charisma modifier and makes the attack have radiant damage.  This is a solid cantrip for 1 attack per turn classes (all bards except valor).

A light cross bow and vicious mockery might be a good choice to have a to-hit damage source and to-hit (ranged weapon) attack method.  Thunderclap is more useful in a small party as having no adjacent friends is reasonably likely, but that loud noise is nasty. Starry Wisp might be the best of an underwhelming set of damage cantrips. The indirect damage from True Strike might be the way to go as it makes any melee or ranged attack more effective for a Bard.

General

Minor Illusion - This is game/DM dependent.  It can be great or useless

Prestidigitation - Many minor uses, likely never want more than one of this, Druidcraft, Thaumaturgy

Utility

Mage Hand - Being able to reach out and manipulate things is often very handy

Message - Depending on the campaign/GM this is a very nice spell.

Light - When a group lacks darkvision this gets used a lot, even with darkvision this is used

I think those are the candidates for the baby bard in question.

1st Level Spells

First Level Bard can pick up 4 spells at level one, they will all be from this set (or other 1st level spells I am ignoring)

Damage

Dissonant Whispers - 3d6 Psychic damage on a Wisdom Save and a runaway chrowd control effect.  This is a nice damaging spell. 

Tasha’s Hideous Laughter - Reaction to inflict disadvantage (after the first roll) and Advantage for friend.  This is amazing! 

General

Faerie Fire - AOE detect invisible and a debuff for those failing a DEX save.  Useful, but a faily easy save to make for most targerts.

Feather Fall - Reaction spell to save falling friends, not something a Fairy wants to cast on herself

Combat/Heal/Control

Healing Word - A ranged reaction heal spell.  Hard to say no to this one.

Sleep - Puts a relatively small number of HP to sleep, can be awesome or useless

Tasha’s Hideous Laughter - Wisdom save to essentially apply single target hold monster

Utility

Detect Magic - Every party wants this and it can be cast as a Ritual

That is a lot of awesome.  I might choose: Detect Magic, Healing Word, Dissonant Whispers, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, for a selection of spell effects. 

Second Level Bard learns one more spell, it has to be of first level.  I'd likely favor Tasha’s Hideous Laughter as it is just awesome, but can very easily drain spell slots.

The bard can also swap out one of the other known spells.  Use this if one of the spells taken just seems underwhelming and not likely to be used.

2nd Level Spells

Third Level Bard gains access to 2nd level spells. There are, not surprisingly many more spells that are useful than can be taken.  The new 3rd level bard gains one spell and can swap out an already known spell for a maximum of two 2nd level spells at this point in their career.  

A Fairy character automatically gains Faire Fire at this level, so if you took it at 1 or 2, swap it out now.

I'm going to skip categories on this level, jsut listing my favorites:

Aid - Add 5 hit points to current and maximum for 2 creatures.  Duration 8 hours.  Basically a preemptive healing word for all 3.  This is good, though not exciting.

Enhance Ability - Concentration for 1 hour to grant advantage on skill checks with a particular stat.

Invisibility - Great for scouting and escape, little use in combat.

Knock -  Opens almost any lock/door with a loud (300 foot bang).  I'd rather have thieve's tools and proficiency in most cases.  Really hard to justify a precious spells known for this.

See Invisibility - See invisible for 1 hour, no concentration.  This is great if needed otherwise pass.

Silence - Want to pull off a heist and not be heard?  This is the answer.

Suggestion  - 8 hour snipe hunt, requiring concentration, if target fails save. Another nifty one if its needed.  It can also make an enemy out of a neutral.

There are others, of course, but you get no more than 2 and that means sacrificing a level 1 spell.  Personally, I'm fond of Enhance Ability and Silence. But, the others are all solid choices.  

Forth Level Bard The new 4th level bard gains one more spell and can swap out an already known spell for a maximum of four 2nd level spells at this point in their career.  At this point, its time to lean into the campaign/party roll taking spell(s) that seem likely to be most useful or flexible.