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Bard

Words and music are not just vibrations of air, but vocalizations with power all their own. The bard is a master of song, speech, and the magic they contain. Bards say that the multiverse was spoken into existence, that the words of the gods gave it shape, and that echoes of these primordial Words of Creation still resound throughout the cosmos. The music of bards is an attempt to snatch and harness those echoes, subtly woven into their spells and powers.

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The greatest strength of bards is their sheer versatility. Many bards prefer to stick to the sidelines in combat, using their magic to inspire their allies and hinder their foes from a distance. But bards are capable of defending themselves in melee if necessary, using their magic to bolster their swords and armor. Their spells lean toward charms and illusions rather than blatantly destructive spells. They have a wide-ranging knowledge of many subjects and a natural aptitude that lets them do almost anything well. Bards become masters of the talents they set their minds to perfecting, from musical performance to esoteric knowledge.

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Only rarely do bards settle in one place for long, and their natural desire to travel—to find new tales to tell, new skills to learn, and new discoveries beyond the horizon—makes an adventuring career a natural calling. Every adventure is an opportunity to learn, practice a variety of skills, enter long-forgotten tombs, discover lost works of magic, decipher old tomes, travel to strange places, or encounter exotic creatures.

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lore.png
valor.png
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Subclasses

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Bard Symbol Transparent_edited.png
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Basics

  • Base Hit Points: 56

  • Hit Points per Advancement: 14

  • Actions: 1 Attack, 1 Bonus, 1 Reaction​

  • Bardic Inspiration:

    • Level 10: +4​

    • Level 12: +1 (+5)

  • Casting Attribute: Charisma

  • Starting Kit:

    • Short Sword​

    • Shortbow

    • Musical Instrument

    • Leather Armor

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Proficiencies

  • Armor: Light Armor

  • Weapons: Simple weapons

  • Saving Throws: Dexterity, Charisma

  • Skills: Performance, Persuasion​

  • Attack Bonus:

    • Level 8: +0​

    • Level 10: +1

    • Level 12: +1 (2)

  • Spell Bonus:​

    • Level 8: +2​

    • Level 10: +1 (3)

    • Level 12: +1 (4)

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Bardic Inspiration

As a bonus action, stir your words and music to inspire a target of your choosing within a 6 tile range, granting them +2 to Attack and Spell Bonus for the remainder of the combat. These are returned after a short or long rest.

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Bard College

You delve into the advanced techniques of a bard college of your choice: the College of Glamour, the College of Lore, the College of Valor, or the College of Whispers. These will be unlocked at Level 10 and reach their full potential at Level 12.

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You have learned to untangle and reshape the fabric of reality in harmony with your wishes and music. Your spells are part of your vast repertoire, magic that you can tune to different situations.

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Spell Slots

Level 8

  • 1st: +4

  • 2nd: +2

Level 10​

  • 2nd: +1
  • 3rd: +3
  • 4th: +2

Level 12​

  • 2nd: +1

  • 4th: +1

  • 5th: +2

Combat Spells

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The following list of spells are directly tied to, and reflected within, our dice system. Cantrips can be used an indefinite amount of times, but the rest are tied to spell slots of their corresponding level, and as such, are limited in their usage. All spell slots are restored upon a long rest. Cantrips, along with 1st and 2nd level spells, are available to newly created characters (Level 8s). 3rd and 4th level spells are available to Level 10 characters. 5th level spells are available to Level 12 characters.

Vicious Mockery

Enchantment

1 Action

V

 

You unleash a string of insults laced within subtle enchantments at a creature you can see within range. If the target can hear you (though it need not understand you), it must succeed on a Wisdom Saving Throw (DC 8 + Spell Bonus) or take 2d4 psychic damage in addition to a -2 disadvantage to their next attack roll that turn.

Flavor Spells

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The following spells are included in the bard's repertoire, however; these spells cannot be used in combat and do not consume a spell slot. They are only to be used to enrich the narrative of your roleplay. For spells that involve affecting another person, they should be treated as social rolls. They are fully consent based and cannot be used to force an outcome in a roleplay scenario. Some are available to a newly created character (Level 8) and others are unlocked at Level 10.

Dancing Lights

Evocation
1 Action
V, S

You create up to four torch-sized lights within range, making them appear as torches, lanterns, or glowing orbs that hover in the air for the duration. You can also combine the four lights into one glowing vaguely humanoid form of Medium size. Whichever form you choose, each light sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius.

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You can move the lights up to 60 feet to a new spot within range. A light must be within 20 feet of another light created by this spell, and a light winks out if it exceeds the spell's range.

Ritual Spells

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Spells that require components to cast, or spells that have longer and broader effects than any of the aforementioned combat and flavor spells, are considered rituals. They do not consume spell slots. Most require DM oversight and such will be denoted in a ritual's description if it does. If it does not, it can be cast as any other spell is cast in our dice system, should you have the required components on hand.

This is an RPR Spell, and does not require a DM Ticket!

Detect Magic

Divination
1 Action
V, S
, M

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Class Required:​

  • Artificer

  • Cleric

  • Bard

  • Druid

  • Paladin

  • Ranger

  • Sorcerer

  • Wizard

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Components Required:

  • 1x Unstable Essence

  • 5x Arcane Residue

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For the next 10 minutes, you sense the presence of magic within 3 tiles of you. You may use another action to determine the school of magic, if any.

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The spell can penetrate most barriers, but is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a shin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood/dirt.

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The College of Glamour is the home of bards who mastered their craft in the vibrant realm of the Feywild or under the tutelage of someone who dwelled there. Tutored by satyrs, eladrin, and other fey, these bards learn to use their magic to delight and captivate others.

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The bards of this college are regarded with a mixture of awe and fear. Their performances are the stuff of legend. These bards are so eloquent that a speech or song that one of them performs can cause captors to release the bard unharmed and can lull a furious dragon into complacency. The same magic that allows them to quell beasts can also bend minds. Villainous bards of this college can leech off a community for weeks, misusing their magic to turn their hosts into thralls. Heroic bards of this college instead use this power to gladden the downtrodden and undermine oppressors.

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Bonus Proficiencies​

  • Skills: Deception

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Mantle of Inspiration

As a bonus action, you grant yourself a wondrous appearance. Up to 4 targets within a 6 tile range may be affected by your magnificence, giving them 11 temporary hit points and granting them the ability to move up to 2 tiles.

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Enthralling Performance

You inspire wonder in your audience by performing. At the end of the performance, up to 4 targets in a 6 tile rance fight on your side up until any hostile action is taken against the now-enthralled targets or they succeed in a Wisdom Saving Throw in their turn. (8 + Spell Bonus vs WIS Save)

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Mantle of Majesty

Requires Level 12

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As a bonus action, you cloak yourself in fey magic that invokes a target within a 6 tile range with the desire to serve you. By asking them to move, or halt - they must succeed a Strength Saving Throw (DC 8 + Spell Bonus) or are compelled to consume their entire turn obeying your unfaltering command - and falling prone after it.

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Rituals

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Dream

Illusion

1 Minute

V, S, M

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Class Required:​

  • Cleric: Twilight Domain

  • Druid: Circle of Dreams

  • Bard: College of Glamour

  • Warlock

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Component Required:​

  • Ground  up Valor Bell (Flavor)

  • Ground  up Brisk Leaf (Flavor)

  • Ground  up Mother's Leaf (Flavor)

 

This spell shapes a creature's dreams. Choose a creature known to you as the target of this spell. The target must be on the same plane of existence as you. Creatures that don't sleep, such as elves, can't be contacted by this spell. You, or a willing creature you touch, enters a trance state, acting as a messenger. While in the trance, the messenger is aware of his or her surroundings, but can't take actions or move.

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If the target is asleep, the messenger appears in the target's dreams and can converse with the target as long as it remains asleep, through the duration of the spell. The messenger can also shape the environment of the dream, creating landscapes, objects, and other images. The messenger can emerge from the trance at any time, ending the effect of the spell early. The target recalls the dream perfectly upon waking. If the target is awake when you cast the spell, the messenger knows it, and can either end the trance (and the spell) or wait for the target to fall asleep, at which point the messenger appears in the target's dreams.

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You can make the messenger appear monstrous and terrifying to the target. If you do, the messenger can deliver a message of no more than ten words and then the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, echoes of the phantasmal monstrosity spawn a nightmare that lasts the duration of the target's sleep and prevents the target from gaining any benefit from that rest.

 

If you have a body part, lock of hair, clipping from a nail, or similar portion of the target's body, the target makes its saving throw with disadvantage.

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Bards of the College of Lore know something about most things, collecting bits of knowledge from sources as diverse as scholarly tomes and peasant tales. Whether singing folk ballads in taverns or elaborate compositions in royal courts, these bards use their gifts to hold audiences spellbound. When the applause dies down, the audience members might find themselves questioning everything they held to be true, from their faith in the priesthood of the local temple to their loyalty to the king.

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The loyalty of these bards lies in the pursuit of beauty and truth, not in fealty to a monarch or following the tenets of a deity. A noble who keeps such a bard as a herald or advisor knows that the bard would rather be honest than politic.

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The college’s members gather in libraries and sometimes in actual colleges, complete with classrooms and dormitories, to share their lore with one another. They also meet at festivals or affairs of state, where they can expose corruption, unravel lies, and poke fun at self-important figures of authority.

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Bonus Proficiencies​

  • Skills: History

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Cutting Words

With a Bardic Inspiration point and at the cost of your potential reaction, you can use your wit to distract, confuse, and otherwise sap the confidence and competence of others. Choose a target within a 6 tile range. They must succeed a Wisdom Saving Throw (DC 8 + Spell Bonus) or receive a -2 to Attack Bonus and Spell Bonus until the end of their next turn. Note: This is to be done on your own turn!
 

Expertise

Requires Level 12

  • Skills: Arcana, History, Nature

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Additional Magical Secrets

Fire Bolt

Evocation

1 Action

V, S

 

You hurl a mote of fire at a creature or object within range.

 

2d10 Fire Damage

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(1d20 + Spell Bonus vs AC)

Rituals​​

Legend Lore

Divination
10 Minutes
V, S, M

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Class Required:​

  • Bard: College of Lore

  • Cleric

  • Wizard

  • Warlock: Pact of the Undying

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Components Required:

  • 10x Daisy

  • 10x Briskleaf

  • 10x Mother'sleaf

  • 10x Giant's Root

  • 10x Valorbell

  • 25x Arcane Residue

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Name or describe a person, place, or object. The spell brings to your mind a brief summary of the significant lore about the thing you named. The lore might consist of current tales, forgotten stories, or even secret lore that has never been widely known. If the thing you named isn't of legendary importance, you gain no information. The more information you already have about the thing, the more precise and detailed the information you receive is.

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The information you learn is accurate but might be couched in figurative language. For example, if you have a mysterious magic axe on hand, the spell might yield this information: “Woe to the evildoer whose hand touches the axe, for even the haft slices the hand of the evil ones. Only a true Child of Stone, lover and beloved of Moradin, may awaken the true powers of the axe, and only with the sacred word Rudnogg on the lips."

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Bards of the College of Swords are called blades, and they entertain through daring feats of weapon prowess. Blades perform stunts such as sword swallowing, knife throwing and juggling, and mock combats. Though they use their weapons to entertain, they are also highly trained and skilled warriors in their own right.

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Their talent with weapons inspires many blades to lead double lives. One blade might use a circus troupe as cover for nefarious deeds such as assassination, robbery, and blackmail. Other blades strike at the wicked, bringing justice to bear against the cruel and powerful. Most troupes are happy to accept a blade’s talent for the excitement it adds to a performance, but few entertainers fully trust a blade in their ranks.

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Blades who abandon their lives as entertainers have often run into trouble that makes maintaining their secret activities impossible. A blade caught stealing or engaging in vigilante justice is too great a liability for most troupes. With their weapon skills and magic, these blades either take up work as enforcers for thieves’ guilds or strike out on their own as adventurers.

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Bonus Proficiencies​

  • Skills: Athletics

  • Armor: Medium Armor

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You can use simple weapons as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells. You may not cast your bard spells while wielding a ranged weapon.

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Extra Attack

You gain an additional Attack Action for a total of 2 per turn.

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Blade Flourish

When you make an attack on your turn, your movement speed increases by 1 tile until the end of your turn.

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Slashing Flourish

You expend 1 Bardic Inspiration point and cause your weapon to deal 1d6 extra damage to the target on hit. You also may deal this extra damage to any other target you can see within 1 tile.

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Defensive Flourish

Requires Level 12

You expend 1 Bardic Inspiration point and cause your weapon to deal 1d6 extra damage to the target on hit. You also gain +2 AC until the start of your next turn.

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Mobile Flourish

Requires Level 12

You expend 1 Bardic Inspiration point and cause your weapon to deal 1d6 extra damage to the target on hit. You may then push the target up to 1 tile away from you.

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Bards of the College of Valor are daring skalds whose tales keep alive the memory of the great heroes of the past, and thereby inspire a new generation of heroes. These bards gather in mead halls or around great bonfires to sing the deeds of the mighty, both past and present. They travel the land to witness great events firsthand and to ensure that the memory of those events doesn’t pass from the world. With their songs, they inspire others to reach the same heights of accomplishment as the heroes of old.

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Bonus Proficiencies​

  • Skills: Acrobatics

  • Armor: Medium Armor Shields

  • Weapons: Martial weapons

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Extra Attack

You gain an additional Attack Action for a total of 2 per turn.

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Battle Magic

You have mastered the art of weaving spellcasting and weapon use into a single harmonious act. When you use your action to cast a bard spell, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

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Most folk are happy to welcome a bard into their midst. Bards of the College of Whispers use this to their advantage. They appear to be like other bards, sharing news, singing songs, and telling tales to the audiences they gather. In truth, the College of Whispers teaches its students that they are wolves among sheep. These bards use their knowledge and magic to uncover secrets and turn them against others through extortion and threats.

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Bonus Proficiencies​

  • Skills: Stealth

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Many other bards hate the College of Whispers, viewing it as a parasite that uses a bard’s reputation to acquire wealth and power. For this reason, members of this college rarely reveal their true nature. They typically claim to follow some other college, or they keep their actual calling secret in order to infiltrate and exploit royal courts and other settings of power.

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Psychic Blades

Whenever you take an attack action, you can use a Bardic Inspiration point to manifest your psionic power as shimmering blades of psychic energy that deal 5d6 damage to a target of your choice within a 1 tile range. After it hits or misses its target, the blade vanishes immediately, leaving no mark on its target.

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Words of Terror

Requires Level 12

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You can attempt to seed paranoia in a creature’s mind, as long as they are within range. The target must succeed on a Wisdom Saving Throw (DC 8 + Spell Bonus) or be frightened of you or another creature of your choice. The target is frightened until the end of their next turn.

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