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]

Venomous Words: You're alone. For 10 minutes. Which means the rest of the party isn't doing anything (if you're taking the DMs attention) and then you've only removed 1 NPC (probably non-combat anyway if it was willing to talk with you for 10 mintues) for 1 hour.

Mantle of Whispers: The part that kills (pun intended) this ability for me is that the target has to die from your attack/spell within 5 feet of you. You have to be the one to kill it... while you could have the fighter do some non-lethal damage, it feels like you're doing a lot of work to set this ability up. I see it more likely getting used on 1/4CR NPCs.

I think there is a lot of underestimating of these two abilities, especially Venomous Words.

You let yourself be captured and put under guard, if it's two guards you might be in trouble, but if you can get it down to one, for 10 minutes, you can get him to flee and avoid everyone else. You are then free to escape.

Grab a bandit who refuses to tell you where the treasure is. 10 minutes of talking later he is terrified of you and everyone else and will probably tell you anything if it means he can get away.

Infiltrate a secret meeting as some important guy's bodyguard, talk to him for 10 minutes alone, he flees out the back, you go back in claiming he left for some other reason and left you in charge of the meeting.


Very similiar with the Mantle of Whispers, it could be a CR 0 commoner, but the fact that commoner #86 is in the crowd as the king gives his speech won't raise any alarms compared to the assassin whose face is on every poster.

Or grab a henchman for a mob boss, kill him, take his identity, now you know where the hideout is, or where the deal is taking place, or who hired them.

Combine the two for endless fun, after all the Evil Vizier won't be too suspicious of meeting his spy alone for 10 minutes, but when he is seen fleeing the palace in a panic to head into his secret lab won't that be embarrassing. Meanwhile with the boss away for an hour, you can disguise self to look like him and order people around, knowing for a fact he won't be coming along to ruin your disguise.


I think there is a lot of power in these abilities, it just takes a certain type of mindset for both the player and the DM which might be more or less prevalent at different tables.

 

[Duan'duliir]

The language implies they shouldn't make the decision, which I think is precisely the intent.

the need to make it explicit, though. And maybe clarify what the benefits should be.

That is exactly what I'm trying to say - mechanical benefits need to be explicit, or by-the-books groups will be putting players of characters with such features at a disadvantage.

 

[Belltent]

You let yourself be captured and put under guard, if it's two guards you might be in trouble, but if you can get it down to one, for 10 minutes, you can get him to flee and avoid everyone else. You are then free to escape.

Let yourself be captured just so you can get uncaptured?

I think in a practical sense this ability will monopolize a lot of the DMs time. I also think it will really test suspension of disbelief (Hell, I always feel awkward and game-y having the ten minutes of a ritual being hand-waved through, I can't imagine hearing/saying "so you have a 10 minute conversation with the irate guard, whom, the entire time, orders you off sovereign property and repeatedly threatens you with jail time, but you stand there and just keep yammering for 10 full minutes") I think the people this ability makes the most sense to use on mechanically makes the least sense to use on fluff-ily (friendlys.) No indifferent or unfriendly npc is gonna suffer my presence for 600 seconds.

 

[Axios_Verum]

I hope they don't focus too much on Clerics and Wizards. Domains and Schools got more in the PHB than anyone else. The Bard and Barbarian got 2 in the PHB. Barbarian got one in SCAG. Bard got 2 in UA already. 3 new Barbs and 2 new Bards boosts both to 6.

They gave wizards the artificer tradition. But I guess that doesn't count.
If your really feel your hurting for subclasses, check out the middle finger of vecna. They're pretty well balanced, most of the time.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Let yourself be captured just so you can get uncaptured?

Easiest way inside a fort is to be "invited" in

 

[Corpsetaker]

I so want to play a Shadow Fey Bard with the College of Whispers.