Art demands an audience, and bards are nothing if not gregarious. To perfect their art, bards seek others out to swap songs and stories, boast of their accomplishments, and share their knowledge. Bards often form loose associations—their colleges—to facilitate their gatherings and preserve their traditions.
Whatever your background, this chapter introduces a variety of colleges for you to choose from. Define your bardic traditions and perfect your art.
Choose Your College
Choose your college from one of the following options:
- College of Dance: You dazzle, inspire, amaze, and astound your audience with elegant movements and well-practiced choreography.
- College of Lore: You are a gatherer of knowledge and a seeker of truth, spinning little rumors into world-changing stories.
- College of Tongues: You are a keen linguist and a student of exotic languages, using Words of Power to transform the world.
Creating a College
To create your own Bard College (or to convert an existing college from other sources), follow these steps:
- Create 3 Pledges: A bard college pledges to do three things. These pledges should be relatively open-ended and act as a roleplaying hook for your players.
- Create a Collegiate Inspiration: Bard colleges grant a unique way of using the Bardic Inspiration die at 1st-level. This should be a thematic part of your college's overall identity.
- Create 3rd and 6th-level Features: Bard colleges grant features at 3rd and 6th-level.
- Create a 10th-level Capstone: At 10th-level, bard colleges grant a unique capstone feature that is the pinnacle of your college's theming.
And that's it, your college is complete!
College of Dance
You are a bard of the College of Dance and you know how to turn heads on the dancefloor. Whether in a fine royal court or a dark and sunken dungeon, you inspire and enflame with physical prowess, shaping the elements of movement—space, time, and force—into magic.
1Collegiate Pledges
You—and other bards of your college—are guided by the following collegiate pledges:
- Be Confident: To be the best dancer, you must be confident in yourself and your abilities. Practice often, stay limber, and be bold. When you dance, dance like nobody's watching.
- Inspire Emotion: Dancing can inspire strong emotions—passion, excitement, love, and joy. Use your dances to rouse your allies, turn enemies into friends, and build stronger social connections.
- Encourage Others: Everyone can dance—with the right encouragement and motivation. Help others to dance to the music playing in their heart. Be a passionate advocate and a patient teacher.
1Collegiate Inspiration
You learn how to use your knowledge of dance to inspire and encourage your allies.
Let's Dance
You can spend your bonus action and one point of composition to evoke movement and motion in your allies.
Choose one of the following dances and a number of creatures within 30 ft of you equal to your Charisma modifier—each creature gains the benefit of your dance.
This effect lasts for up to 1 minute, and a creature can benefit from only one dance at a time. You must be unarmored and not wearing a shield to use this feature.
- Dance of War You gain +1 AC. If you are either a) unarmored or b) wearing light armor, you instead gain +2 AC.
- Dance of Water You gain advantage on Dexterity saving throws and Performance ability checks related to dance.
- Dance of Wind You gain +5 ft movement speed. If you are either a) unarmored or b) wearing light armor, you instead gain +10 ft movement.
1White Knuckles
While you are not wearing any armor and not wielding a shield, your armor class equals 10 + your Constitution modifier + your Dexterity modifier.
1Body Language
When you cast a bard spell, you can replace any verbal components with somatic components. You must be unarmored and not wielding a shield to use this feature.
3Dancing Mad
You compel a creature to dance with you. Spend a bonus action and choose one adjacent creature. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw—if it fails, the creature is both Charmed and Grappled by you until the end of its next turn.
While these conditions are in effect, you control the creature's movement. Your movement speed is halved and, when you move, you can pull the creature with you. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.
Creatures that are immune to Charmed are immune to this effect. If you cease to be adjacent to the creature, the effect ends.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, and you regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.
6Tribute
You gain proficiency in either a) Acrobatics or b) Performance. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for ability checks with that skill.
10Lose Yourself to Dance
You unlock the rhythm of a creature's heart, inspiring it to dance. Spend an action and choose one creature that you can see within 30 ft. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw—if it fails, the creature begins to dance in place for up to one minute.
A dancing creature must use all its movement to dance without leaving its space and has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws and attack rolls. While the target is affected by this spell, other creatures have advantage on attack rolls against it. If the creature takes damage from a source other than itself, the effect ends immediately.
You can use this feature once, and you regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.
College of Lore
You are a bard of the College of Lore and you know a little something about almost anything. From scholarly tomes in ancient ruins to peasant tales in dingy taverns, you collect fragments of knowledge from all corners of the world and spin local rumor into world-changing truth.
1Collegiate Pledges
You—and other bards of your college—are guided by the following collegiate pledges:
- Find the Truth: Inside every rumor hides a little truth. Collect stories wherever you go and assemble little truths into big discoveries.
- Fight Corruption: Corrupt authorities are known to obscure truth and suppress knowledge. Expose and subvert these authorities so that the truth can shine.
- Create History: You are not an archivist, trapping lore in books to hide on dusty shelves. You are a bard. Use your knowledge to change the world.
1Collegiate Inspiration
You learn how to use your wit to distract, confuse, and otherwise sap the confidence and competence of others.
Cutting Words
When a creature that you can see within 60 feet of you makes (a) an attack roll, (b) an ability check, or (c) a damage roll, you can use your reaction to spend one point of composition and unleash some Cutting Words.
Roll your Bardic Inspiration die and subtract the number rolled from the creature's roll. You can choose to use this feature after the creature makes its roll, but it must be before (a) the GM determines whether the attack roll or ability check succeeds or fails, or (b) the creature deals its damage.
- I'm Not Listening You can't target a creature that either a) is immune to Charmed or b) can't hear you.
3Diverse Education
You gain proficiency with three skills of your choice.
6Hidden Lore
You learn two spells of your choice from any class. The spells don't have to be from the same class, but they must be a cantrip or of a level that you can cast—as shown in the Class Features (Bard) table.
The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and don't count against the number of bard spells you know.
10Peerless Skill
When you make an ability check, you can spend one point of composition to inspire yourself. Roll a Bardic Inspiration die and add the number rolled to your ability check result.
You can wait until after you roll your check before deciding to use this feature, but you must decide before the GM says whether your check succeeds or fails.
College of Tongues
You are a bard of the College of Tongues and you know the true power of words. You study languages, collecting fragments of dead and dying tongues to study, preserve, and—on rare occasion—discover secret Words of Power.
1Collegiate Pledges
You—and other bards of your college—are guided by the following collegiate pledges:
- Speak Carefully: Words have power—take care in which ones you use. Speak in the correct manner and use the right words for the right occasion.
- Save Dead Languages: Never let a language die. Collect fragments of forgotten tongues and share them with others to study and preserve.
- Correct the Incorrect: Bad grammar is a travesty. Point out linguistic mistakes and offer corrections so that others can learn from them.
1Collegiate Inspiration
You have mastered a Word of Power that shares your linguistic talents with others.
Word of Power: Tongues
You can spend your bonus action and one point of composition to speak aloud Word of Power: Tongues.
Choose a number of creatures that you can see equal to your Charisma modifier (to a minimum of 1). Each creature must a) be within 30 ft of you, b) have 50 hit points or fewer, and c) know at least one language.
For up to 1 hour, each target can understand any spoken language that you are proficient with.
1Exotic Tongue
You have mastered one exotic language from which your Words of Power are drawn. Choose one of the following:
Exotic Tongue
- Abyssal
- Celestial
- Draconic
- Deep Speech
- Infernal
- Primordial
- Sylvan
- Undercommon
3Words of Power
Through careful study, you have mastered Words of Power in your exotic tongue.
Words of Power
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 60 feet
- Components: V
- Duration: 1 minute
Choose one Word of Power and a creature you can see which has 50 hit points or fewer—that creature is now bound by your selected Word. If the creature is immune to the condition inflicted by your Word (or it has too many hit points) the effect fails.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, and you regain expended uses when you finish a long rest. You can't speak the same Word more than once per long rest, and a creature can only be affected by one Word of Power at a time.
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Compel The creature is Charmed by you for up to 1 minute. In addition, you can suggest one simple activity that it should take—limited to four words. The creature will disregard suggestions that are unreasonable or cause self-harm.
At the end of its turns, the creature can make a Wisdom saving throw to overcome the effect. The effect automatically ends if the creature is attacked by you or your allies.
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Fear The creature is Frightened by you—or another source you specify—for up to 1 minute. At the end of its turns, the creature can make a Wisdom saving throw to overcome the effect.
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Hold The creature is Restrained by you for up to 1 minute. At the end of its turns, the creature can make a Wisdom saving throw to overcome the effect.
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Isolate The creature is Deafened, Blinded, and can't speak for up to 1 minute. At the end of its turns, the creature can make a Constitution saving throw to overcome the effect.
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Sicken The creature is Poisoned by you for up to 1 minute. At the end of its turns, the creature can make a Constitution saving throw to overcome the effect.
6Greater Words of Power
You can target creatures that have 75 hit points or fewer with your Words of Power.
10Superior Words of Power
You can target creatures that have 100 hit points or fewer with your Words of Power.