Yes, multiclassing. Sorry for the typo. I was literally creating a subdomain when the thought popped into my mind to write it here 😅. A sword bard could be real interesting. Thanks for the recommendation! Are they good at all front line or is it more a secondary melee with spell buffs/debuffs?

You do want to build into your weapon damage because you'll be hitting things while concentrating on your control/cc spells. I like starting with 16 dex / 14 con / 16 cha and then raising dex (for damage + AC) to max with my feats. Arcane acuity makes up for lower cha

They're good at both, which is the crazy thing. Once you get the helmet the play style is to hit with weapon attacks to build up stacks of arcane acuity, then cast your control/cc spell (since it buffs your spell save DC up to +10)