Alright so with the introduction of 5e I have discovered the Bard now has 9th level casting which is awesome because woot 9ths right? But I recall many bards having this ability if they took Sublime Chord but I always heard there was a weird bit of wording that made you lose 3rd level spells if you took Chord at least as early as you could.

I would like to see a build that has the Bard at 20th have access to 9th level spells but not really gimp its other standard class features too much. But perhaps if we could boost the 9ths from just 2 spells known and slots per day that would be just gravy.

What feats and classes do I need to take, and when do make an optimized bard as far as spells are concerned without gimping skills and their performances to much.

Also not sure how to optimize the Inspire Courage ability to the insane depths I have seen some threads suggest.

Noob to optimizing more then just the basics of optimizing can anyone help?
I know there are handbooks but for some reason when I try to read those my eyes go all cross eyed they don't seem to make sense. But stuff posted here seems to I don't know just lay out better?