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Unearthed Arcana: Bard Colleges!
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<blockquote data-quote="Leatherhead" data-source="post: 7703681" data-attributes="member: 53176"><p>It looks like we are going in alphabetical order for the classes now.</p><p>Which is cool, cause Clerics need love sooner rather than later.</p><p>Speaking of which, there is no "Divine Word" College for Bards this time, just a pair of ambiguously evil and selfish ones this time.</p><p></p><p><strong>College of Glamour.</strong></p><p>So you want to be a diva? And have it be all about you? Have some otherworldly beauty, and make everyone do your work too? </p><p></p><p><em>Mantle of Inspiration</em></p><p>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 <em>horribly</em> (2d12 is minuscule at 15, 2d6 at level 3 is pretty good) and the target <em>must move directly to you in the shortest and safest route possible</em>. 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.</p><p></p><p><em>Enthralling Performance</em></p><p>A downtime activity, that imposes a super-charmed status with no risk of failure. ( I guess they are taking feedback about <em>Friends</em> to note) I rather like this one. It opens up some interesting RP potential.</p><p></p><p><em>Mantle of Majesty</em></p><p>So, this effectively gives you up to 10 castings of <em>Command</em> per day, so long as you use them rapid fire. The kicker being Charmed targets don't get a saving throw, and the Command can last up to 60 seconds. I do like it when abilities synergize with each other. This could be used in combat, but doing so will only get you like 3-5 castings, make you use Cantrips instead of normal spells (I think the bonus action spell rule still applies to this case because it uses the verbiage "cast"). Alternatively, you could use it with Enthralling Performance, get some people to be your groupies for an hour, then override their wills at the perfect opportunity for some nefarious plot. Naturally the value of such an ability is highly dependent on many factors, but damn. I think this one needs a second pass, if for no other reason than to confirm the duration.</p><p></p><p><em>Unbreakable Majesty </em></p><p>So your character goes to Hollywood and undergoes Plastic Surgery to look like a Feywild-creature thing.</p><p>The draw of this ability is being able to cast <em>Sanctuary</em> once per rest. Which is nice and thematic. But you also get to impose disadvantage on saving throws to anyone who is effected by it. which makes this downright evil. Also you get advantage on CHA checks VS them because why not? Nothing quite like purposely drawing an OA in order to make sure your big gun spell gets through.</p><p></p><p><u>Thoughts:</u></p><p>This starts of slightly weak (but not too weak), then heads down some dark paths really quick.</p><p></p><p><strong>College of Whispers</strong></p><p>Because deep down, you really wanted to play that sleazeball of a character who manipulates the kingdom while walking around with a staff and a goatee. But then you realized that Wizards don't have very good social skills, Warlocks are really just about blasting things, and Sorcerers have to grow scales or something.</p><p></p><p><em>Venomous Blades</em></p><p>Do you like Superiority Dice, Smites, and the like? Then go play one of those classes cause this feature is a poor replacement for anything like that. The good side: It applies to any weapon attack, not just melee. The bad: It eats up inspiration dice, the damage scales horribly, it deals poison damage, and it only works on one attack per <u>TURN</u> (Granted you only have one attack per round because you aren't a Valor Bard, but I think they forgot about that snag too). No Sir, I don't like it.</p><p></p><p><em>Venomous Words</em></p><p>Once per rest, you can drag someone off into a room for just the two of you, talk to them for the length of a ritual, and make them go poop their pants in the corner of some hidden room for an hour. The upside is failure doesn't let the target know you did anything. The downside is they snap out of it the moment combat starts up around them. This is way more limited in scope than Enthralling Performance. The best you can hope for is to get one person to abandon their post for a bit, or maybe to spook someone into revealing their panic room. This needs more bite, if only to make up for the lack of Venom in the other ability.</p><p></p><p><em>Mantle of Whispers</em></p><p>So, what if instead of scaring that one guy you would have used Venomous Words on, you just murdered him, took his shadow, gained access to his memories, shapeshifted into him, and impersonated him better than he could have impersonated himself? Yeah, this is the real draw of the College right here, too bad it's 6 levels deep.</p><p>On an interesting note: This reminds me of an ability I was considering for a Barbarian Path I posted before the Boards blew up. Only this ability is way better than what I was thinking of. I do believe I shall take this.</p><p></p><p><em>Shadow Lore</em></p><p>If Enthralling Performance is super-charm, this is Ultra-Mega-Charm. The downside is no fighting or dying for you. But the upside is you have someone at your beck-and-call for virtually everything else for the next 8 hours, and after the fact they will have absolutely no idea why they did it.</p><p></p><p><u>Thoughts.</u></p><p>Back-loaded. Mostly because the Venomous stuff has little sting. Other than that, I like this one way more than the other College, it's more grounded and has some really interesting ideas presented.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Leatherhead, post: 7703681, member: 53176"] It looks like we are going in alphabetical order for the classes now. Which is cool, cause Clerics need love sooner rather than later. Speaking of which, there is no "Divine Word" College for Bards this time, just a pair of ambiguously evil and selfish ones this time. [B]College of Glamour.[/B] So you want to be a diva? And have it be all about you? Have some otherworldly beauty, and make everyone do your work too? [I]Mantle of Inspiration[/I] 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 [I]horribly[/I] (2d12 is minuscule at 15, 2d6 at level 3 is pretty good) and the target [I]must move directly to you in the shortest and safest route possible[/I]. 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. [I]Enthralling Performance[/i] A downtime activity, that imposes a super-charmed status with no risk of failure. ( I guess they are taking feedback about [I]Friends[/I] to note) I rather like this one. It opens up some interesting RP potential. [I]Mantle of Majesty[/I] So, this effectively gives you up to 10 castings of [I]Command[/I] per day, so long as you use them rapid fire. The kicker being Charmed targets don't get a saving throw, and the Command can last up to 60 seconds. I do like it when abilities synergize with each other. This could be used in combat, but doing so will only get you like 3-5 castings, make you use Cantrips instead of normal spells (I think the bonus action spell rule still applies to this case because it uses the verbiage "cast"). Alternatively, you could use it with Enthralling Performance, get some people to be your groupies for an hour, then override their wills at the perfect opportunity for some nefarious plot. Naturally the value of such an ability is highly dependent on many factors, but damn. I think this one needs a second pass, if for no other reason than to confirm the duration. [I]Unbreakable Majesty [/I] So your character goes to Hollywood and undergoes Plastic Surgery to look like a Feywild-creature thing. The draw of this ability is being able to cast [I]Sanctuary[/I] once per rest. Which is nice and thematic. But you also get to impose disadvantage on saving throws to anyone who is effected by it. which makes this downright evil. Also you get advantage on CHA checks VS them because why not? Nothing quite like purposely drawing an OA in order to make sure your big gun spell gets through. [U]Thoughts:[/U] This starts of slightly weak (but not too weak), then heads down some dark paths really quick. [B]College of Whispers[/B] Because deep down, you really wanted to play that sleazeball of a character who manipulates the kingdom while walking around with a staff and a goatee. But then you realized that Wizards don't have very good social skills, Warlocks are really just about blasting things, and Sorcerers have to grow scales or something. [I]Venomous Blades[/I] Do you like Superiority Dice, Smites, and the like? Then go play one of those classes cause this feature is a poor replacement for anything like that. The good side: It applies to any weapon attack, not just melee. The bad: It eats up inspiration dice, the damage scales horribly, it deals poison damage, and it only works on one attack per [u]TURN[/U] (Granted you only have one attack per round because you aren't a Valor Bard, but I think they forgot about that snag too). No Sir, I don't like it. [I]Venomous Words[/I] Once per rest, you can drag someone off into a room for just the two of you, talk to them for the length of a ritual, and make them go poop their pants in the corner of some hidden room for an hour. The upside is failure doesn't let the target know you did anything. The downside is they snap out of it the moment combat starts up around them. This is way more limited in scope than Enthralling Performance. The best you can hope for is to get one person to abandon their post for a bit, or maybe to spook someone into revealing their panic room. This needs more bite, if only to make up for the lack of Venom in the other ability. [I]Mantle of Whispers[/I] So, what if instead of scaring that one guy you would have used Venomous Words on, you just murdered him, took his shadow, gained access to his memories, shapeshifted into him, and impersonated him better than he could have impersonated himself? Yeah, this is the real draw of the College right here, too bad it's 6 levels deep. On an interesting note: This reminds me of an ability I was considering for a Barbarian Path I posted before the Boards blew up. Only this ability is way better than what I was thinking of. I do believe I shall take this. [I]Shadow Lore[/I] If Enthralling Performance is super-charm, this is Ultra-Mega-Charm. The downside is no fighting or dying for you. But the upside is you have someone at your beck-and-call for virtually everything else for the next 8 hours, and after the fact they will have absolutely no idea why they did it. [U]Thoughts.[/U] Back-loaded. Mostly because the Venomous stuff has little sting. Other than that, I like this one way more than the other College, it's more grounded and has some really interesting ideas presented. [/QUOTE]
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