College of Whispers is the next Xanathar's Guide Preview!

College of Whispers might be the weakest of the colleges, but I love the idea of it. You are basically a magic spy/secret agent. I am really really excited for this

 

[GarrettKP]

Mike Mearls describes the sinister "Dark Sun" Bard. "This is easy. It's the Dark Sun bard, right? It literally was like, "You have Dark Sun. You have this bard," who's very interesting because it's so distinct. I love it when settings take classes and finagle with them because then it lets us expand with the classes in D&D as a whole. Then it's fun, so yeah. The College of Whispers, it's the Dark Sun bard. It's the sinister bard. When he shows up, he seems like a very, "Oh, he's here to detain us and he's here to spread news." But no. He's actually here to completely screw you up."

[video=youtube;yEJ7N4bTASc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEJ7N4bTASc[/video]​

"And the fun thing to me about the College of Whispers' bard, it's a great example of what makes Dungeons & Dragons fun. This is a character type that it isn't about combat. It's about breaking the game narratively. It's about messing with the NPCs and messing with the environment, in terms of the social fabric of your campaign. That's what really appealed to me was this idea, just going in much harder on a character who can manipulate and mess with others, but doing it in a way that was satisfying. It's tricky.It's very easy to just make it very how I think ... just too empty, where it's like, "Oh, you just get a big bonus to your charisma checks."

A good dungeon master can roll with that, but when I see the College of Whispers design, it's to suggest things you can do to mess with NPCs that feels reliable. The College of Whispers is all about turning people against each others and isolating people. So my hope is that someone plays this type of bard and thinks, "Oh, what I want to do is infiltrate the bad guys' organization. I don't want to just go in the dungeon and fight everyone. I want to go there as a traveling bard and then perform and then start turning them against each other." Right?

Because, see, that's when D&D's fun. To me, combat in D&D, I like having the miniatures. I like the big tactical thing, but to me, that's the least interesting expression of Dungeons & Dragons.To me, the most interesting expression of Dungeons & Dragons is when it's just pure creativity and you're coming up with some wacky plan and it's all about the tension within in the party and the keeping the DM on their toes, in terms of like, "What is the party gonna try next? What does this mean for the campaign?" Part of the inspiration of this bard at college came from a campaign I was playing in a few years ago where it's pretty typical fantasy campaign. Then at one point, the cleric in the party had an audience with our patron, this noble, who was supporting us. So none of the other characters are there, except for my character, who was very suspicious of this patron. So I think I was invisible and in the room and the party's cleric murdered our patron and did it in a way that no one knew that he had done it. It just shocked everyone at the table. But it turned out the character had this secret agenda to kill this guy. It was awesome. It completely turned the campaign on its ear and I love those moments.

That's what I want the College of Whispers to do, is to mess with campaigns, to teach DMs, don't plan out too much and then roll with it. The players are gonna mess with your world. That's what makes the game fun is when things take a bizarre sideways turn.

Now, if you're playing a College of Whispers bard, don't be a dick about it, right? Don't ruin the campaign so that no one else is having fun. But mess with it in a way that makes the game more exciting and interesting for everybody. That's what D&D's all about, right? As a dungeon master, my favorite sessions are ones where at the start of the session, I think the campaign is about this or that and at the end of the session, it has gone some direction I never could have predicted and I'm furiously thinking what's next week gonna be like? That's how I stay engaged with the campaign. I love it when the players mess with stuff.

So a College of Whispers is essentially the kind of bard I hope to have in my next campaign because that's the exact kind of character I like having messing with my campaign.

New list of confirmed Xanathar's Subclasses:

Glamour, Whispers Bard
Forge Cleric
Dreams Druid
Cavalier, Samurai, Arcane Archer Fighters
Horizon Walker, Monster Slayer Rangers
Inquisitive, Scout Rogue
Shadow, Divine Soul Sorcerer
Celestial Warlock

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[phantomK9]

This has potential, although I was not a fan of the College in the UA, eventhough Bard is my favorite class. Will have to reserve judgement until the final version comes out....

 

[Chaosmancer]

I was really hoping this made it, because the shaodw stealing ability they had in the UA was just too interesting not to include somewhere.

But... if part of the design is for it to be a disruptive element, that can lead to a lot of problems. Even Mearls part way through felt the need to point out "don't take it too far and ruin everyone's fun" that's going to make this a class we need to keep a close eye on when it is included in a game I think.

Not a bad thing, but something to note.

 

[Mistwell]

I was really hoping this made it, because the shaodw stealing ability they had in the UA was just too interesting not to include somewhere.

But... if part of the design is for it to be a disruptive element, that can lead to a lot of problems. Even Mearls part way through felt the need to point out "don't take it too far and ruin everyone's fun" that's going to make this a class we need to keep a close eye on when it is included in a game I think.

Not a bad thing, but something to note.

Can I play a chaotic neutral kender college of whispers bard in your next game?

 

[JangPotatoes]

Can I play a chaotic neutral kender college of whispers bard in your next game?

Some monsters are too evil for the Monster Manual.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[Chaosmancer]

Can I play a chaotic neutral kender college of whispers bard in your next game?

Probably not, I'm not sure I'll have the money to buy the book by then

 

[gyor]

In FR I see this college being a Drow college.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

In FR I see this college being a Drow college.

I was thinking the same thing. Lolth University: Way wilder frats than other colleges.....

Semi more seriously, I tend to think of Lolth's main portfolio as strife, and keeping the rest of the underdark (and eventually everywhere else) in a state of perpetual conflict gives the drow advantage against their neighbors (who are too busy fighting each other). In my games, that is the almost warlock-like bargain at the heart of the Church of Lolth: she gives them power, and they use it to spread strife (and if they use any leftover power to keep the Houses in a perpetual state of petty conflict that lets the Church dominate drow society, that is just icing on the cake). This type of bard is a perfect agent to fulfill that bargain.

 

[gyor]

In the Lady Penient Trilogy of novels one character used Drow Bardic magic.