Bardic College: College of Satire (Revised)
Bards of the College of Satire are called jesters. They use lowbrow stories, daring acrobatics, and cutting jokes to entertain audiences, ranging from the crowds in a rundown dockside pub to the nobles of a king’s royal court. Where other bards seek forgotten lore or tales of epic bravery, jesters ferret out embarrassing and hilarious stories of all kinds. Whether telling the ribald tale of a brawny stable hand’s affair with an aged duchess or a mocking satire of a paladin of Helm’s cloying innocence, a jester never lets taste, social decorum, or shame get in the way of a good laugh.
While jesters are masters of puns, jokes, and verbal barbs, they are much more than just comic relief. They are expected to mock and provoke, taking advantage of how even the most powerful folk are expected by tradition to endure a jester’s barbs with good humor. This expectation allows a jester to serve as a critic or a voice of reason when others are too intimidated to speak the truth.
Tricks of the Trade
When you join the College of Satire at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with diguise kits and the sleight of hand skill, and you gain the vicous mockery cantrip. This counts as a bard cantrip for you, but doesn't count against the amount of cantrips you know. The damage dice of this cantrip become d10s instead of d4s.
Tumbling Fool
At 3rd level, you master a variety of acrobatic techniques that allow you to evade danger. As a bonus action, you can tumble. When you tumble, you gain the following benefits for the rest of your turn:
- You gain the benefits of taking the Dash action or the Disengage action.
- You gain a climbing speed equal to your current speed.
- You reduce any falling damage taken by an amount equal to your bard level + your charisma modifier.
Fool's Insight
At 6th level, your ability to gather stories and lore gains a supernatural edge. You learn the Detect Thoughts spell, an can cast it without expending a spell slot once per long rest.
If a creature resists your attempt to probe deeper and succeeds at its saving throw against your Detect Thoughts, it immediately suffers an embarrassing social gaffe. It might loudly pass gas, unleash a thunderous burp, trip and fall, or be compelled to tell a tasteless joke.
Last Laugh
Beginning at 14th level, your comedy has reached such heights that those who hear your witticisms may die from laughter. As an action, you can cause each hostile creature who can see or hear you within 30 feet to make a Wisdom Saving Throw against your bard Spell Save DC. On a failure, each target bursts into potent laughter for 1 minute. The creature takes psychic damage equal to your bard level at the end of its turn, and is prone, incapacitated and unable to stand up as it cackles madly. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of it's turns, ending the effect on a success. This lasts for 1 minute or until the creature succeeds on the saving throw.
Once you use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.
Credits
- Art - Paizo Publishing
