If it is just one locked door you have severely gimped your Wizard. Even if it is zero you have gimped her by having her prepare Knock.
If your familiar can sneak in and get a key then most Rogues can sneak in anfd get a key. There is no familiar option that is going to come close to a Rogue with expertise in Stealth. Even at 1st level.
Really? A grown, 6 ft man can reach and travel in every single place a 6 inch mouse can? Rogues aren't even allowed to roll stealth if they don't have total concealment.
Also, again, acid splash, heck you can ray of frost a lock to freeze it then break it with your staff or a crowbar. Knock is not the only possible way to deal with a locked door.
So what? Any character can do this with a couple feats.
By the way how is your Cleric or Druid getting Booming Blade since you did not consider feats because they are optional?
I like the build, so I mentioned it. They don't NEED it. IT is just a fun one. Also, those other characters usually don't benefit from being full spellcasters at the same time, or using their primary spellcasting stat to attack. And those that do... don't take Shillelagh usually. (except for Tome Locks)
Barbarian is probably the weakest class overall in terms of number of levels where they are weakest, but even they are playable all the way to level 20 with a 16 Strength.
When you get above level 10 they are going to start falling behind Monks, Fighters, Paladins and Rangers pretty quickly though, quick enough I would say you are usually not good at combat without other help.
I know they fall behind Fighters and Paladins. Not sure how you figure Rangers, since Rangers also don't get a level 11 boost. But I also don't think they fall behind monks. IT is subclass dependent though, perhaps. I'd have to re-run the numbers from a few years ago.
Of course, all of this is moot. Because the only thing you count in combat seems to be damage with an ability score mod attached, everything else is either terrible or useless, unless it is a defensive spell.
It is not needed. I played fighters to level 20 with a 16 attack stat. I rarely get a strength ASI at all, when I do get it it comes on a half feat typically (Heavy Armor Master most commonly).
Fighters get more attacks and most of them have fighting styles or subclass options to make their attacks even better.
Only one of those things increases your accuracy without spending a resource, and that one is meant to counter cover rules, which increase the target number. I mean, I guess if you are fine having a +9 to hit an AC of 23 to 25, go for it, but it doesn't matter how many attacks you get if most of them miss anyways.
Compared to other classes they are not "good" at these levels. Wizards, Sorcerers, Clerics and Warlocks all have better combat spell options and the first 3 have much better AC and are much better at supporting concentration (especially the Sorc). Druids have roughly equivalent spell options with a better AC and Wild Shape. All the other classes are dealing more damage
There are 3 main problems with the Bard at these levels - bad Cantrips, weak AC and mediocre spell options. There is a 4th smaller problem in that they get less spells than Wizards, Sorcerers and Clerics because they can not recharge slots like those classes can.
A 15AC is not high enough to support spells like Hold Person or Heat Metal for very long and neither of these are the equivalent of Web or Spike Growth, being far more situational. Your Cleric is going to have Hold Person which works against humanoids and he is going to have Spiritual Weapon that Works against everything else. Your Wizard is going to have Hold Person and Web, your Druid Heat Metal for BBEG in armor and Spike Growth for everything else.
I guess you forget that Heat Metal causes the enemy disadvantage on every attack? Also it is a ranged spell, and melee enemies are going to have a hard time even reaching you.
Seriously, do you not even consider range and party members at all? You keep acting like back-line characters are going to be in the thick of the fighting, taking focus fire from every single enemy on the board, every turn. That isn't how combat typically works.
And even mediocre spells can be killer.
Hypnotic Pattern should not end a fight against intelligent enemies unless the DM plays on easy mode. It should be one lost action per failed save and if you cast heat metal or hold person every enemy is going to target you and your 15AC is going to come down. Round 1 you cast HP on 10 orcs and 9 fail their save, by round 3 ALL 10m of them should be fighting you again and if they are not the DM is being nice. You have to get every single enemy in the AOE and have all of them fail the save to end an encounter with this .... even then you better be able to either leave them or kill them in one round.
Okay, no, seriously, what the actual heck are you assuming here? I cast a spell that takes 9 out of 10 enemies out of the fight, and somehow they get 3 rounds of freely waking everyone else up? Did the rest of the party go out for chicken wings? There is one active enemy who can wake up one other enemy. We should have at least three different party members focusing that guy down. Even if you CAN'T kill him in that one round [and he's an ORC, he has 15 hp and we are level 5! Two attacks should end him] then there are two orcs awake, one of whom should be on the verge of death. So we kill him this round and the other orc wakes up... a single orc. We now have 7 unconscious orcs, and two awake orcs... and for two rounds of combat the party has not been hit a single time.
The DM being nice? The DM is looking at a losing proposition, either the party keep getting free rounds of combat with no reprisal, or they leave the other orcs sitting helplessly. I would love the DM to keep wasting time waking the orcs, by the time all of them are awake, half of them will be dead and I just single-handedly was responsible for stopping somewhere around 50 attacks from the enemy and causing five orc deaths.
Does your party just wander away and leave you to play solo, is that what happens? Because I can't see how else you are imagining 3 rounds of combat going by with not a single enemy combatant being defeated when none of them are even fighting back.
He is not going to be dealing good damage, he is going to be doing worse than other casters at control and at healing.
d8+mod is decent damage at level 5. It isn't amazing, but again, I was talking about using Enemies Abound to have one of the enemy turn around and attack their allies. Also... the bard is just as good at healing as most druids and clerics, and they have better control than most clerics.
I know I haven't seen highly effective bard players, and I've STILL seen them accomplish far more than you seem to think is even possible.
YES. You claimed fighters could not do impossible things. They can.
Also why they can't smash rocks? I think they can. A rock is an object, so it has hit points and draining hit points by smashing things is supposedly the only thing people here seem to think a fighter can do well.
They can't jump over tall buildings because you can only jump as far as your move.
You may think they can, I was told they could only do it if they have the proper tools to break rocks. And likely they would only allow it for small rocks, not entire walls, without multiple minutes of effort.
And yes, HP is impossible. Can fighter's take ACTIONS instead of you just keep insisting "but they can survive taking a ton of damage! That's impossible!" So can the wizard, the wizard can also fly, have your dead grandmother claw your eyes out, make you THINK your dead grandmother is clawing your eyes out, and turn people into newts. One of these things is more impossible than falling face first into concrete repeatedly.
It is fundamentally right. It is right when I play a caster and it is right when I play a non-caster. IMO it is one big reason this edition is so fun.
No. It isn't right. This is a team game, which you seem to have no conception of from your various posts. Like, I seriously wonder if you only play solo, except you mentioned a team in one of your other posts.
I think it is the biggest flaw with this edition, that being a martial so often means that you are overshadowed by the casters who need to make no effort to do so. This isn't a game where the casters should always be better than everyone else. That isn't how you design a team game.