The Unarmed Strike part of the subclass I think would be more for crowd control than damage. You can knock a bad guy prone thanks to having expertise in Athletics (hopefully they re-word this subclass and Martial Arts so the Shove/Grapple features of unarmed strikes can use DEX instead of STR for DCs in these two instances).
The inspiring movement allows to you move and kite (or at least reposition) yourself with no reason to get into melee yourself, and can remove a squishy from unwanted melee.
You also get Evasion to share with your party. While the range is basically non-existent, it is still evasion that you get a level earlier than the Rogue and Monk and can share with your party that is near you.
For AC, you do also get access to either or all of Shield, Mage Armor, and Shield of Faith making you hard to hit even with a slightly lower DEX to focus on CHA first. The Monk through magic initiate or multiclass could get the same but not as easily as the Bard.
In fact, there is a possible fun tag team option of the Dance Bard and Monk working together in combat. The Monk rushes in and does 2 punches, then BA Patient Defense or BA 2 more Punches. Then the Dance bard pirouettes into combat and Booming blades the enemy, uses BI in melee and knocks the enemy prone. If the enemy tries to attack, they have to either attack with disadvantage against the Monk or against the Bard with decent AC that can be boosted by the aforementioned spells, or if the Bard tries to escape the enemies reach, they have to contend with the Monk’s attack who can definitely chase them down, and when they move take the Booming Blade damage.
Plus since the Bard can share its evasion, if the Monk fails the roll, they could still pass with the Bard’s evasion, and do so at level 6 waiting on theirs for the next level.
None of that is optimized but I think if you use the Bard to do Bard stuff instead of Monk-y stuff then I think it still works out
The Unarmed Strike part of the subclass I think would be more for crowd control than damage. You can knock a bad guy prone thanks to having expertise in Athletics (hopefully they re-word this subclass and Martial Arts so the Shove/Grapple features of unarmed strikes can use DEX instead of STR for DCs in these two instances).
The inspiring movement allows to you move and kite (or at least reposition) yourself with no reason to get into melee yourself, and can remove a squishy from unwanted melee.
You also get Evasion to share with your party. While the range is basically non-existent, it is still evasion that you get a level earlier than the Rogue and Monk and can share with your party that is near you.
For AC, you do also get access to either or all of Shield, Mage Armor, and Shield of Faith making you hard to hit even with a slightly lower DEX to focus on CHA first. The Monk through magic initiate or multiclass could get the same but not as easily as the Bard.
In fact, there is a possible fun tag team option of the Dance Bard and Monk working together in combat. The Monk rushes in and does 2 punches, then BA Patient Defense or BA 2 more Punches. Then the Dance bard pirouettes into combat and Booming blades the enemy, uses BI in melee and knocks the enemy prone. If the enemy tries to attack, they have to either attack with disadvantage against the Monk or against the Bard with decent AC that can be boosted by the aforementioned spells, or if the Bard tries to escape the enemies reach, they have to contend with the Monk’s attack who can definitely chase them down, and when they move take the Booming Blade damage.
Plus since the Bard can share its evasion, if the Monk fails the roll, they could still pass with the Bard’s evasion, and do so at level 6 waiting on theirs for the next level.
None of that is optimized but I think if you use the Bard to do Bard stuff instead of Monk-y stuff then I think it still works out