Some thoughts on Silvery Barbs

Why is Silvery Barbs a level one spell?

Most conversations I've seen regarding Silvery Barbs' power level deals with full-casters and few (none?) of them take into account half, or more importantly one-third, casters. Consider the Eldritch Knight:

• Level 1 Spells @ Level 3
• Level 2 Spells @ Level 7
• Level 3 Spells @ Level 13

Now compare that to a full caster:

• Level 1 Spells @ Level 1
• Level 2 Spells @ Level 3
• Level 3 Spells @ Level 5

Prior to Silvery Barbs, Counterspell (a level three spell) was the premiere way to interact with enemies with a caster's bonus action. Other than that spell and if the caster doesn't get targeted, they aren't using their reaction most rounds while martial characters are spending their reactions making attacks of opportunity. An 8 level difference between a level one spell and a level three spell is huge (like it's incredibly likely an Eldritch Knight never makes it to level 13 during the campaign).

This is why I think Absorb Elements and Shield is fine.

Spell Slots don't scale linearally.

Pure casters max out their level one spell slots by 3rd level at 4 spell slots; it's not like a level 20 wizard has 22 level one spell slots -- they don't have practically unlimited level one spells.

Yes, a wizard can choose to make Silvery Barbs their spell for Spell Mastery but if we're worrying about Silvery Barbs every round at level 18... we have other things to talk about.