You've got everything covered. 5e is very forgiving about party balance, you don't really need to have a perfectly balanced party in 5e the way you did in earlier versions. But you're balance for earlier versions too.
How come only the most perfectly balanced parties ever get posted asking if it is balanced?
The classic balanced party is 1 cleric (to heal), 1 fighter (to tank), 1 rogue (stealth, locks, and traps), and 1 Wizard (dps and utility spells). You swapped the rogue for a ranger, the fighter for a barbarian and added a bard and paladin to fill what few cracks there could have possibly been.
When people say they want a balanced party, I think they actually mean, "Are we covering all potential roles?" I've seen some rather unbalanced parties that still managed to cover all the necessary areas and work well. Anyways, here's a list that I go by that includes all the usual "necessary" skills and abilities that most parties will generally encounter in a D&D game. Not just combat roles, but exploration and interaction ones as well.
STR and Athletics character, both to tank and to deal with exploration issues like lifting statues or jammed levers
Some combination of characters with Stealth, Perception, Investigation, Survival and Thief Tools*
Social skills*. This usually includes someone with Insight and someone with one of Deception, Persuasion or Intimidate.
Arcane and Religion knowledge*, Detect Magic, Counterspell and Dispel Magic.
You have two front line tanks, one and a half scout (ranger and bard), one and a half healer (cleric and bard) and one mage. I'm assuming that bard is going for rogue-like skills, given the criminal background, so should be more than covered with the Ranger. The only thing I'd make a note of is that someone likely doesn't have Inisght in this group (rangers aren't known for it, and WIS isn't likely to be big on the bard's to-get list).
* Depending on game, Religion, Investigation, Survival or social ability might not be necessary. Flavor as necessary.
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So I have a party consisting of the following characters
Variant Human Deovtion Paladin (Great weapon fighting fighting style, courtier background)
Half Orc Bear Totem Barbarian (Soldier Background)
Hill Dwarf Life Cleric (Acolyte Background)
Variant Human Hunter Ranger (Archery fighting style, outlander background)
Half Elf Lore Bard (Criminal Background)
Variant Human Abjuration Wizard (Cloistered Scholar Background)
Is this party balanced, or is it lacking something necessary to function?
You've got everything covered. 5e is very forgiving about party balance, you don't really need to have a perfectly balanced party in 5e the way you did in earlier versions. But you're balance for earlier versions too.
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How come only the most perfectly balanced parties ever get posted asking if it is balanced?
The classic balanced party is 1 cleric (to heal), 1 fighter (to tank), 1 rogue (stealth, locks, and traps), and 1 Wizard (dps and utility spells). You swapped the rogue for a ranger, the fighter for a barbarian and added a bard and paladin to fill what few cracks there could have possibly been.
When people say they want a balanced party, I think they actually mean, "Are we covering all potential roles?" I've seen some rather unbalanced parties that still managed to cover all the necessary areas and work well. Anyways, here's a list that I go by that includes all the usual "necessary" skills and abilities that most parties will generally encounter in a D&D game. Not just combat roles, but exploration and interaction ones as well.
You have two front line tanks, one and a half scout (ranger and bard), one and a half healer (cleric and bard) and one mage. I'm assuming that bard is going for rogue-like skills, given the criminal background, so should be more than covered with the Ranger. The only thing I'd make a note of is that someone likely doesn't have Inisght in this group (rangers aren't known for it, and WIS isn't likely to be big on the bard's to-get list).
* Depending on game, Religion, Investigation, Survival or social ability might not be necessary. Flavor as necessary.