Bardic College of Wordplay

## Bard

At 3rd level, a bard gains the Bardic College<br />feature. Here is a homebrew option for that<br />feature: the College of Wordplay.

### College of Wordplay

The College of Wordplay, often scorned by other colleges (and indeed many other people), is the home of bards who specialize in linguistic comedy. These bards thrive on the laughter of crowds rather than the heroism of stories or the beauty and artistry of music. They craft and wield witty and comedic puns, spoonerisms, oxymorons, tongue-twisters, and other types of wordplay to inspire (or punish) their audience.

##### College of Wordplay Features

| Level | Feature |
|:----:|:---------|
| 3rd  | Linguistic Knowledge |
| 3rd  | Punishing Puns |
| 6th | Work the Crowd |
| 14th | Knock ’em Dead |

#### Linguistic Knowledge

When you join the College of Wordplay at 3rd level, you learn two additional languages and gain proficiency with one Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma skill of your choice.

#### Punishing Puns

Also at 3rd level, you learn how to use your groan-inducing comedic linguistic wit to cause pain in others.

As a bonus action, you can expend one of your uses of Bardic Inspiration, targeting a creature that you can see within 60 feet of you. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your bard spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature takes psychic damage equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die and has disadvantage on attack rolls against any creature other than you until the end of its next turn. The creature is immune to this effect if it can’t hear you.

#### Work the Crowd

At 6th level, you learn how to perfectly time your jokes and wordplay for maximum impact. You learn the 1st-level spell Hideous Laughter. If you already know Hideous Laughter, you learn another 1st-level spell of your choice from the bard spell list. Hideous Laughter does not count against the number of bard spells you know.

When you cast Hideous Laughter, you can target a number of creatures of your choice equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one) within range. You deal psychic damage equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die to each targeted creature, and the creatures make their initial saving throw against the spell at disadvantage. Until the spell ends, whenever an affected creature fails its saving throw at the end of its turn, it takes an additional 1d4 psychic damage without triggering a new saving throw.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

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#### Knock ’em Dead

At 14th level, you learn how to craft puns that are irresistibly damaging to the psyche.

When you use your Punishing Puns feature, you can target up to three creatures instead of one. You can also add your Charisma modifier to the damage you deal. Further, a creature that succeeds on its saving throw takes half damage instead of no damage.

Additionally, when you reduce a creature’s hit points to zero with your Punishing Puns feature, you regain 1 use of your Bardic Inspiration.

> ##### Credits
> - Created by /u/ianacook
> - Art: <cite>[Herald of the Fair](http://www.artofmtg.com/art/herald-of-the-fair/)</cite> by [Steven Belledin](http://www.artofmtg.com/artist/steven-belledin/)
>
> *Version 1.0.0, updated on March 25, 2020.*