Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Bard Colleges!

Mantle of Inspiration is downright unnerving, and not in a good way. More of a stalker-ish vibe, or should I say stalk-ee?

 

[Chaosmancer]

College of Divinity is something I would have expected, but as someone who went to bat for the Zealot: Lore Bard taking Cleric spells, with the Acolyte background, hard to see what could be added to that mechanically, given the smaller size of Bard subclasses.

Pretty much what I was going to say. Lore Bard is just so versatile.

And with the Venomous Blades ability, do most people think changing it to psychic or force damage (not sure what stabbing a shadow to deal damage would count as) because of poison being a "bad" damage type would be a good fix?

Or is the problem that it isn't enough damage?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

It's tied to the size of the inspiration die which makes sense since you have to expend one to use them. I think it would be, slightly, confusing to make them different that the die being used.

Even if it went:
2d6
2d8
3d10
4d12

to match the die sizes, I think it would scale better to numbers with the levels involved.

 

[Flamestrike]

Mantle of Inspiration
This is basically a warlord ability. It uses one of your Inspiration dice to buff and move your friends around. There are two catches though: It scales horribly (2d12 is minuscule at 15, 2d6 at level 3 is pretty good) and the target must move directly to you in the shortest and safest route possible. Granted, they can opt to just stay put, but it would be much easier to work with if they could move in any manner of their choosing, they are giving up a reaction for it after all. On the plus side, it is an AoE. But I don't expect to get much mileage out of it as it.

It's 2d12 temp HP for 5 PCs, 5 times per short rest (assuming a Cha of 20), plus a move to the Bard as a reaction for those that want it.

That's huge.

Thematically, fluff wise, and mechanically its screaming out to MC with an Ancients Paladin (pull people into your Aura for +Cha to saves and other goodies).

 

[Waterbizkit]

And with the Venomous Blades ability, do most people think changing it to psychic or force damage (not sure what stabbing a shadow to deal damage would count as) because of poison being a "bad" damage type would be a good fix?

Or is the problem that it isn't enough damage?

I actually like the idea of of making it psychic damage over poison. So much of the subclass seems to revolve around instilling fear and manipulating the minds of those around you, having your weapons also strike at their minds seems fitting. As to the damage scaling I can't speak to that or at least I'll choose not to.

 

[phantomK9]

Do temp hit point from different sources stack, or do you only take the highest source? I can't remember and don't have access to books at the moment....

At any rate combined with Inspiring Leader feat as well, would be really cool. Or multi-class with the SCAG paladin that also give temp hp.

 

[Flamestrike]

Do temp hit point from different sources stack, or do you only take the highest source? I can't remember and don't have access to books at the moment....

At any rate combined with Inspiring Leader feat as well, would be really cool. Or multi-class with the SCAG paladin that also give temp hp.

Dont stack. You can choose to replace any temp HP you currently have whenever you get more.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Anyone else picking up a Dark Sun bard vibe from the College of Whispers?

Sure, I think they're conceptually similar.

These bards have magic, though. For a DS "bard," I'd probably just whip up an Assassin.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

College of Galmour's abilities seem very awkwardly worded, like text is missing.

"As a bonus action, you can expend a use of Bardic Inspiration to grant yourself a wondrous, otherworldly appearance."

So, like... does this do anything other than grant allies HP and let them run around? Will it help me get laid? How long is my appearance altered?


"At 14th level, you gain an otherworldly aspect to your appearance that makes you look more fierce and lovely.In addition, through this feature, you can cast sanctuary on yourself. If a creature fails its saving throw against the spell, you also gain advantage on all Charisma checks against the creature for 1 minute, and it has disadvantage on any saving throw it makes against your spells on your next turn."

The phrase "in addition" makes it sound like the first part "you look fierce and lovely" is a benefit, but it has no game effects! Indeed, the entire ability only works if someone is attacking you, which is just weird.

I like the concept, and get they dont want the clinical tone of 4th edition, but the wording desperately needs to be cleaned up.

 

[Leatherhead]

That's huge.

Naw, still relatively better for you at lower levels. Consider level 5, where it gains the per rest qualifier and possibly effects your entire group. 2d8 is a much higher percentage of a level 5 characters health than 2d12 is for a level 15. And if you really need to be hitting 5 targets, you can get that at level 8. That movement bit should just be unrestricted. It's unnecessarily fiddly to start with, crimps the "go forth, my adoring fans" motif, eats up reactions (which are very useful for other methods of defense and battlefield control), and extra movement just isn't as important as it was an edition ago.

Mind you, it's a Bardic Inspiration die. Which means the real line of comparison is going to be "should I give some padding with this, or use my die on a saving throw or attack roll." Attacks get more powerful the higher up in levels you go, meaning both landing them and resisting them becomes more important as time goes by. Realistically, you are only really going to be using this ability around once per combat. Typically near the start, as a set up tool to give everyone some padding and hopefully pull some squishies off the front line (which is tricky considering it just clumps people near you, and you may very well be the squishy on the front line that needs to be moved off of it). About the only time you are going to get the full bang for your buck from this ability is if you are trying to escape an erupting volcano, and even then you may consider everyone passing their climb and jump checks to be more important.

 

[phantomK9]

Naw, still relatively better for you at lower levels. Consider level 5, where it gains the per rest qualifier and possibly effects your entire group. 2d8 is a much higher percentage of a level 5 characters health than 2d12 is for a level 15. And if you really need to be hitting 5 targets, you can get that at level 8. That movement bit should just be unrestricted. It's unnecessarily fiddly to start with, crimps the "go forth, my adoring fans" motif, eats up reactions (which are very useful for other methods of defense and battlefield control), and extra movement just isn't as important as it was an edition ago.

Mind you, it's a Bardic Inspiration die. Which means the real line of comparison is going to be "should I give some padding with this, or use my die on a saving throw or attack roll." Attacks get more powerful the higher up in levels you go, meaning both landing them and resisting them becomes more important as time goes by. Realistically, you are only really going to be using this ability around once per combat. Typically near the start, as a set up tool to give everyone some padding and hopefully pull some squishies off the front line (which is tricky considering it just clumps people near you, and you may very well be the squishy on the front line that needs to be moved off of it). About the only time you are going to get the full bang for your buck from this ability is if you are trying to escape an erupting volcano, and even then you may consider everyone passing their climb and jump checks to be more important.

Those are all some really good points, and your post got me to thinking that I really don't like the 2dX mechanic of the temp HP all that much, because with my luck, the group would be consitantly getting 2 to 4 temp HP.

I really think this should work more like: Spend you Inspiration die and roll it, add your Cha Mod (and possibly 1/2 your Bard Level, rounded down) and everyone affected gets that many temp HP.

Works somewhat similar to the Fighter's Second Wind feature, but may be too good.