College of Visual Arts
Some bards choose to broaden their skill sets by embracing art forms of non-musical varieties. Bards that join the College of Visual Arts learn to weave magic into their artistic creations, bringing their works of art to life in the realest sense. For this reason, the bards of this college are regarded as some of the most accomplished visual artists in the world, with even their nonmagical artworks recognized as nearly lifelike in their details and beauty. Truly skilled bards of this college even learn how to use their works of art to evoke intense emotional responses from their audiences, be it awe, euphoria, anxiety, or dread.
College of Visual Arts Features
| Bard Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 3 | Bonus Proficiencies, Magical Realism |
| 6 | Art Imitates Life |
| 14 | Expressionism |
Bonus Proficiences
When you join the College of Visual Arts at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with calligrapher's supplies, cartographer's tools, and painter's supplies. You can use any of these tools as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.
The Magic of Visual Arts
When describing your spellcasting, think about how your might use one of your artisan's tools to perform a spell effect. For example, if you cast shatter using painter's supplies, you could quickly draw an artistic representation of a thunderous boom. If you cast charm person using calligrapher's supplies, you might write out enchanting words that you fix upon your target's mind. If you cast silent image using cartographer's tools, you could sketch a terrain feature for your illusion. The effect of the spell is the same as for a spellcaster of any other class or subclass, but your method of spellcasting is meant to be special.
Such details don’t limit you in any way or provide you with any benefit, nor are you required to justify how you’re using your artisan's tools to cast a spell. But describing your spellcasting creatively is a fun way to distinguish yourself from other spellcasters.
Magical Realism
Also at 3rd level, you learn to imbue magic into your artistic drawings to make them temporarily real.
You can use your action to expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to turn a visual depiction of an object or a terrain piece into a three-dimensional manifestation of your depiction. When you do so, the object or terrain piece appears in your hand or in an unoccupied space that you can see within 10 feet of you. An object or terrain piece created by this feature can be no larger than a 5-foot cube, and its form must be that of a nonmagical object or terrain piece that you have seen. A terrain piece created by this feature must be solid. Whatever you choose to create has AC 12 and hit points equal to five times your bard level.
Ranged weapons created by this feature are created with 15 pieces of ammunition. Otherwise, weapons and armor created by this feature function as normal.
Nothing created by this feature can have a value greater than 50 gp. A close inspection of anything created by this feature reveals that it is comprised of paint, ink, or some other visual arts medium.
Anything created by this feature disappears when you regain all of your expended uses of Bardic Inspiration, if it drops to 0 hit points, or if you choose to revert it back to a two-dimensional depiction (no action required).
The maximum size of an object or terrain piece created by this feature increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to a 10-foot cube at 5th level, a 15-foot cube at 10th level, and a 20-foot cube at 15th level.
Art Imitates Life
At 6th level, your mastery of the visual arts has grown to the point of being able to bring your artistic drawings to life.
You can use your action to bring a visual depiction of a beast to life. When you do so, the beast appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within 10 feet of you. This beast must have a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower, and its form must be that of a beast that you have seen.
Add your proficiency bonus to the beast’s AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls. Its hit point maximum equals the hit point number in its stat block or four times your bard level, whichever is higher.
The beast obeys your commands as best as it can. It shares your initiative, but takes its turn immediately after yours. It can only use its action to take the Dodge action, unless you use your bonus action to command it to use one of the actions in its stat block or to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action. It cannot take the Multiattack action if it has one.
Although the beast can't directly communicate with you, it can relay information it has observed or heard by changing its form into a visual image or written message (limited to twenty-five words or less) that sufficiently communicates whatever you command it to tell you.
The beast can also be commanded to deliver a short message of twenty-five words or less. You specify a location, which you must have visited, and a recipient who matches a general description. The beast travels for the duration of this feature toward the specified location, covering about 50 miles per 24 hours for a flying beast, or 25 miles for other beasts. When the beast arrives, it permanently changes its form into a written depiction of your message that matches your handwriting.
The beast disappears after a number of hours equal to half your bard level (rounded down), when you finish a long rest, if it drops to 0 hit points, or if you choose to revert it back to a two-dimensional depiction (no action required).
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
The maximum challenge rating of a beast created by this feature increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to 1/2 at 10th level and 1 at 15th level.
Expressionism
At 14th level, you have learned how to manipulate the colors and patterns in your works of art to magically produce a strong emotional response in others.
As an action, you produce a magical spectacle originating from a visual artwork in your possession. Choose one of the following conditions: blinded, charmed, or frightened. Each creature of your choice that can see you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw against your bard spell save DC. On a failed save, a creature is affected by the chosen condition for 1 minute. At the end of each of its turns, a creature can make another Wisdom saving throw. On a success, this effect ends on the creature.
While affected by this feature, a creature feels intense awe, joy, terror, or shock, as appropriate to the condition it's affected by.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Optional Rule: Artistic Limitations
You and your DM can choose to add certain limitations to your art-based magic in order to add to the flavor of your subclass features. For example, you might decide that visual depictions used for the Magical Realism feature and Art Imitates Life feature require too much detail to be made on the fly. In that case, you might need to spend at least 1 minute creating such a drawing before it can be brought to life. However, you might also decide that you can save a number of such drawings so they can be used at a later time.
Likewise, you might decide that certain visual arts media—such as paint, ink, graphite, chalk, charcoal, or tempera—are vulnerable to water. As such, you might decide that anything created by the Magical Realism feature or Art Imitates Life feature using these materials takes 20 acid damage if it begins its turn in water or similar liquids. On the other hand, you might also rule that particular media—such as oil pastel, grease pencils, or pigmented wax—are water-resistant and thus don't take damage when exposed to water.
These rulings are completely optional and shouldn't be used if they would subtract from your enjoyment of roleplaying your character. However, limitations such as these can also generate fun and unique roleplaying moments by creating challenges for your character to consider and overcome.
Credits
- College of Visual Arts by /u/jldixon1
- "The art studio" by zhowee14, ©Hermit Books Publishing
- "Zeri" character art from Dawngate, ©Electronic Arts, Inc.
- Calligraphy bird by Margaret Shepherd
- Special thanks to the members of the Discord of Many Things, r/UnearthedArcana, and r/dndnext who helped with revisions of this subclass!