The Bard, Unchained

Humming as she traces her fingers over an ancient monument in a long-forgotten ruin, a half-elf in rugged leathers finds knowledge springing into her mind, conjured forth by the magic of her song — knowledge of the people who constructed the monument and the mythic saga it depicts.

A stern human warrior bangs his sword rhythmically against his scale mail, setting the tempo for his war chant and exhorting his companions to bravery and heroism. The magic of his song fortifies and emboldens them.

Laughing as she tunes her cittern, a gnome weaves her subtle magic over the assembled nobles, ensuring that her companions' words will be well received.

Whether scholar, skald, or scoundrel, a bard weaves magic through words and music to inspire allies, demoralize foes, manipulate minds, create illusions, and even heal wounds.

Quick Build

You can make a bard quickly by following these suggestions. First, Charisma should be your highest ability score, followed by Dexterity. Second, choose the entertainer background. Third, choose the dancing lights and vicious mockery cantrips, along with the 1st-level spells charm person, detect magic, healing word, and thunderwave.

Class Features

As a bard, you gain the following class features.

Spell Slots

The Bard table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your bard spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell cure wounds and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast cure wounds using either slot.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know four 1st-level spells of your choice from the bard spell list.

You learn an additional bard spell of your choice at each level except 12th, 16th, 19th, and 20th. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 3rd level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the bard spells you know and replace it with another spell from the bard spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability

Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your bard spells. Your magic comes from the heart and soul you pour into the performance of your music or oration. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a bard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Font of Inspiration

Beginning when you reach 5th level, you regain all of your expended uses of Bardic Inspiration when you finish a short or long rest.

Magical Secrets

By 10th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any class's spell list, including this one. The spells need not be from the same spell list. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip.

The chosen spells count as bard spells for you, and are included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Bard table.

You learn two additional spells from any classes at 14th level and again at 18th level.

Superior Inspiration

At 20th level, you gain two extra Bardic Inspiration dice.

Bard Colleges

Bards seek each other out to swap songs and stories, to boast of their accomplishments, and to share their knowledge of the world. Bards who share similar philosophies often come together to form loose cliques, called colleges, in order to facilitate gatherings and preserve the traditions they cherish. Your choice of college closely mirrors your artistic outlook and talents. The options available for you to choose from are listed below.

• The College of Creation, which uses mystical powers derived from the harmony of the Song of Creation.
• The College of Eloquence, for masters of oratory who blend magic with wordplay.
• The College of Glamour, devoted to performers who possess otherworldly grace and beauty.
• The College of Lore, for whom knowledge drives the magic of their tales and songs.
• The College of Spirits, whose students reach beyond worldly boundaries to speak with the departed.
• The College of Swords, trained warriors who perform daring stunts to entertain their audiences.
• The College of Valor, keepers of heroic prose who sing to the glory of battle and victory.
• The College of Whispers, for cunning magicians who adhere to subterfuge and secrets to ply their trade.

Mote of Potential

Starting when you join this college at 3rd level, you can add a potent flourish when you inspire your allies. Whenever you give a creature a Bardic Inspiration die, you can utter a note from the Song of Creation to create a Tiny mote of potential, which orbits within 5 feet of that creature. The mote is intangible and invulnerable, and it lasts until the Bardic Inspiration die is lost. The mote looks like a musical note, a star, a flower, or another symbol of art or life that you choose.

When the creature uses the Bardic Inspiration die, the mote provides an additional effect based on whether the die benefits an ability check, an attack roll, a saving throw, or a spell's damage or healing (per your Magical Inspiration feature), as detailed below:

Ability Check. When the creature rolls the Bardic Inspiration die to add it to an ability check, the creature can roll the Bardic Inspiration die again and choose which roll to use, as the mote pops and emits colorful, harmless sparks for a moment.

Attack Roll. Immediately after the creature rolls the Bardic Inspiration die to add it to an attack roll against a target, the mote thunderously shatters. The target and each creature of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC or take thunder damage equal to the number rolled on the Bardic Inspiration die.

Saving Throw. Immediately after the creature rolls the Bardic Inspiration die and adds it to a saving throw, the mote vanishes with the sound of soft music, causing the creature to gain temporary hit points equal to the number rolled on the Bardic Inspiration die plus your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 temporary hit point).

Spell's Damage or Healing. Immediately after the creature rolls the Bardic Inspiration die and adds it to the damage or healing roll of a spell it casts, the mote unravels into a whimsical breeze that pushes the creature horizontally in any direction of the creature's choice, up to a number of feet equal to the number rolled on the Bardic Inspiration die plus your Charisma modifier.

Performance of Creation

Starting at 3rd level, as an action, you can channel the magic of the Song of Creation to create one nonmagical item of your choice in an unoccupied space within 10 feet of you. The item must appear on a surface or in a liquid that can support it. The gp value of the item can't be more than 20 times your bard level, and the item must be Medium or smaller. The item glimmers softly, and a creature can faintly hear music when touching it. The created item disappears after a number of hours equal to your proficiency bonus. (See chapter 5, "Equipment," of the PHB for examples of items you can create.)

Once you create an item with this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a spell slot of 2nd level or higher to use this feature again. You can have only one item created by this feature at a time; if you use this action and already have an item from this feature, the first one immediately vanishes.

The maximum size of the item you can create with this feature increases by one size category when you reach 6th level (Large) and 14th level (Huge).

Animating Performance

At 6th level, you can imbue the Song of Creation into inanimate objects. As an action, you can target a Large or smaller nonmagical item you can see within 30 feet of you and animate it. The animate item uses the Dancing Item stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB). The item is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. It lives for 1 hour, until it is reduced to 0 hit points, or until you die.

In combat, the item shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the item can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.

When you use your Bardic Inspiration feature, you can command the item as part of the same bonus action you use for Bardic Inspiration.

Once you animate an item with this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a spell slot of 3rd level or higher to use this feature again. You can have only one item animated by this feature at a time; if you use this action and already have a dancing item from this feature, the first one immediately becomes inanimate.

Creative Crescendo

At 14th level, when you use your Performance of Creation feature, you can create more than one item at once. The number of items equals your Charisma modifier (minimum of two items). If you create an item that would exceed that number, you choose which of the previously created items disappears. Only one of these items can be of the maximum size you can create; the rest must be Small or Tiny.

You are no longer limited by gp value when creating items with Performance of Creation.

College of Eloquence

Adherents of the College of Eloquence master the art of oratory. Persuasion is regarded as a high art, and a well-reasoned, well-spoken argument often proves more persuasive than facts. These bards wield a blend of logic and theatrical wordplay, winning over skeptics and detractors with logical arguments and plucking at heartstrings to appeal to the emotions of audiences.

College of Glamour

The College of Glamour is the home of bards who mastered their craft in the vibrant realm of the Feywild or under the tutelage of someone who dwelled there. Tutored by satyrs, eladrin, and other fey, these bards learn to use their magic to delight and captivate others.

The bards of this college are regarded with a mixture of awe and fear. Their performances are the stuff of legend. These bards are so eloquent that a speech or song that one of them performs can cause captors to release the bard unharmed and can lull a furious dragon into complacency. The same magic that allows them to quell beasts can also bend minds. Villainous bards of this college can leech off a community for weeks, misusing their magic to turn their hosts into thralls. Heroic bards of this college instead use this power to gladden the downtrodden and undermine oppressors.

Shroud of Glamour

Starting at 6th level, your own majesty guards you against the beguiling influence of others. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed.

Mantle of Majesty

At 6th level, you gain the ability to cloak yourself in a fey magic that makes others want to serve you. As a bonus action, you cast the command spell, without expending a spell slot, and you take on an appearance of unearthly beauty for 1 minute or until your concentration ends (as if you were concentrating on a spell). During this time, you can cast command as a bonus action on each of your turns, without expending a spell slot.

Any creature charmed by you automatically fails its saving throw against the command you cast with this feature.

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

Unbreakable Majesty

At 14th level, your appearance permanently gains an otherworldly aspect that makes you look more lovely and fierce.

In addition, as a bonus action, you can assume a magically majestic presence for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated. For the duration, whenever any creature tries to attack you for the first time on a turn, the attacker must make a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, it can't attack you on this turn, and it must choose a new target for its attack or the attack is wasted. On a successful save, it can attack you on this turn, but it has disadvantage on any saving throw it makes against your spells on your next turn.

Once you assume this majestic presence, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

College of Lore

Bards of the College of Lore know something about most things, collecting bits of knowledge from sources as diverse as scholarly tomes and peasant tales. Whether singing folk ballads in taverns or elaborate compositions in royal courts, these bards use their gifts to hold audiences spellbound. When the applause dies down, the audience members might find themselves questioning everything they held to be true, from their faith in the priesthood of the local temple to their loyalty to the king.

The loyalty of these bards lies in the pursuit of beauty and truth, not in fealty to a monarch or following the tenets of a deity. A noble who keeps such a bard as a herald or advisor knows that the bard would rather be honest than politic.

The college's members gather in libraries and sometimes in actual colleges, complete with classrooms and dormitories, to share their lore with one another. They also meet at festivals or affairs of state, where they can expose corruption, unravel lies, and poke fun at self-important figures of authority.

College of Spirits

Stories of the past hold within them the lessons of history, philosophy, and magic, and while many have been recorded and passed through the generations, many more still remain lost or elude the attentions of mortal minds. Bards of the College of Spirits testify to the power of these hidden tales, and seek out the stories and wisdom of spirits that reside beyond the material realm.

Rare amongst the bardic practices, this esoteric philosophy is misunderstood and even feared. The Spiritual Awakening table offers some possible ways in which you first formed a connection with spirits.

Mystical Inspiration

At 14th level, you can call upon the wisdom of the spirits to stir and inspire you. When you make an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw while holding your spiritual focus, you can roll a d6 and add the number rolled to the result. You use this feature after making the roll, but before learning whether the roll succeeds or fails.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until the start of your next turn.

College of Swords

Bards of the College of Swords are called blades, and they entertain through daring feats of weapon prowess. Blades perform stunts such as sword swallowing, knife throwing and juggling, and mock combats. Though they use their weapons to entertain, they are also highly trained and skilled warriors in their own right.

Their talent with weapons inspires many blades to lead double lives. One blade might use a circus troupe as cover for nefarious deeds such as assassination, robbery, and blackmail. Other blades strike at the wicked, bringing justice to bear against the cruel and powerful. Most troupes are happy to accept a blade's talent for the excitement it adds to a performance, but few entertainers fully trust a blade in their ranks.

Blades who abandon their lives as entertainers have often run into trouble that makes maintaining their secret activities impossible. A blade caught stealing or engaging in vigilante justice is too great a liability for most troupes. With their weapon skills and magic, these blades either take up work as enforcers for thieves' guilds or strike out on their own as adventurers.

Master's Flourish

Starting at 14th level, whenever you use a Blade Flourish option, you can roll a d6 and use it instead of expending a Bardic Inspiration die.

College of Valor

Bards of the College of Valor are daring skalds whose tales keep alive the memory of the great heroes of the past, and thereby inspire a new generation of heroes. These bards gather in mead halls or around great bonfires to sing the deeds of the mighty, both past and present. They travel the land to witness great events firsthand and to ensure that the memory of those events doesn't pass from the world. With their songs, they inspire others to reach the same heights of accomplishment as the heroes of old.

College of Whispers

Most folk are happy to welcome a bard into their midst. Bards of the College of Whispers use this to their advantage. They appear to be like other bards, sharing news, singing songs, and telling tales to the audiences they gather. In truth, the College of Whispers teaches its students that they are wolves among sheep. These bards use their knowledge and magic to uncover secrets and turn them against others through extortion and threats.

Many other bards hate the College of Whispers, viewing it as a parasite that uses a bard's reputation to acquire wealth and power. For this reason, members of this college rarely reveal their true nature. They typically claim to follow some other college, or they keep their actual calling secret in order to infiltrate and exploit royal courts and other settings of power.

Shadow Whisperer

At 6th level, you gain the ability to adopt a humanoid's persona. When a humanoid dies within 30 feet of you, you can magically capture its shadow using your reaction. You retain this shadow until you use it or until you use this reaction again.

You can use the shadow as an action. When you do so, it vanishes, magically transforming into a disguise that appears on you. You now appear as the dead person, but healthy and alive. This disguise lasts for 1 hour or until you end it as a bonus action.

While you're in the disguise, you gain access to all information that the humanoid would freely share with a casual acquaintance. Such information includes general details on its background and personal life, but doesn't include secrets. The information is enough that you can pass yourself off as the person by drawing on its memories.

Another creature can see through this disguise by succeeding on a Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check; you gain a +5 bonus to your check.

Once you adopt a disguise using this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.

Shadow Lore

At 14th level, you gain the ability to weave dark magic into your words and tap into a creature's deepest fears. As an action, you magically whisper a phrase that only one creature of your choice within 30 feet of you can hear. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. It automatically succeeds if it doesn't share a language with you or if it can't hear you. On a successful saving throw, your whisper sounds like unintelligible mumbling and has no effect.

On a failed save, you choose which of the following effects to impose upon the creature:.

Secret-Keeper. The target is charmed by you for the next 8 hours, as it interprets the whispers as a description of its most mortifying secret. You gain no knowledge of this secret, but the target is convinced you know it.

The charmed creature obeys your commands for fear that you will reveal its secret. It won't risk its life for you or fight for you, unless it was already inclined to do so. It grants you favors and gifts it would offer to a close friend.

Cutthroat. The target is turned for 1 minute, as it interprets the whispers as a credible and immediate threat upon its life.

A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.

Regardless of the effect you choose, it ends early upon the creature if you or your allies attack it, damage it, or force it to make a saving throw. When the effect ends, the creature has no understanding of why it held you in such fear.

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

Countercharm

Prerequisite: 6th level

As an action, you can start a performance which weaves musical notes and words of power to disrupt mind-influencing effects and lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, you and any friendly creatures within 30 feet of you have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.

On subsequent turns while performing, you can use a bonus action to maintain this effect, extending its duration until the end of your next turn.

Dance of the Grinning Fool

Prerequisite: 12th level

As an action, you can start a performance which employs satire and misdirection to distract your enemies and lasts until the end of your next turn. During this time, if a hostile creature you can see within 30 feet of you attacks a creature other than you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll.

On subsequent turns while performing, you can use a bonus action to maintain this effect, extending its duration until the end of your next turn.

Entrancing Tune

As an action, you start a performance which fascinates and bewilders your enemies and lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, every creature of your choice within 30 feet of you has disadvantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Wisdom (Perception) checks. Creatures that cannot be charmed are immune to this performance's effect, and if an affected creature is attacked, targeted by a harmful spell, or damaged by you or one of your allies, it becomes immune to your performance for 24 hours.

On subsequent turns while performing, you can use a bonus action to maintain this effect, extending its duration until the end of your next turn.

Hymn of the Stone Soldier

As an action, you start a performance of words and music which inures your allies to unwanted physical influences and lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, whenever you or any friendly creature is pushed or pulled against their will, they can use their reaction to reduce the distance they are moved by up to 10 feet (to a minimum of 0 feet).

On subsequent turns while performing, you can use a bonus action to maintain this effect, extending its duration until the end of your next turn.

Loremaster's Etude

You play a musing melody to bolster the minds and memories of your allies, which you perform uninterrupted during a short rest for yourself and any friendly creatures. If you complete the performance, an affected creature gains advantage on the first Intelligence check it makes before the end of its next short or long rest. Once a creature receives this benefit from you, that creature can't receive it again until it finishes a long rest.

Marching Ballad

You play a steady rhythm to spur your allies through harsh treks, which you perform uninterrupted for at least 2 hours during a day of travel for yourself and any friendly creatures. If you complete the performance, an affected creature can travel for up to 10 hours that day (rather than 8) before risking exhaustion as the result of a forced march (see "Travel Pace" in chapter 8 of the PHB).

Mummer's Farce

Prerequisite: 6th level

As an action, you start a performance that uses pantomime to conjure an illusory surface and lasts until the end of your next turn. When you start the performance, you magically create an invisible 10-foot-by-10-foot panel within your reach; the panel is a flat surface 1/4 inch thick, rising from the ground and perpendicular to it.

Creatures and objects cannot pass through the panel, and it provides total cover to anything behind it. The panel is otherwise insubstantial. A creature can use its action to inspect the panel, making an Intelligence (Investigation) check contested by your Charisma (Performance) check. On a success, the panel becomes insubstantial to it.

On subsequent turns while performing, you can use a bonus action to maintain this effect, extending its duration until the end of your next turn.

This performance lacks verbal and material components, and it doesn't end early if you are silenced. A creature can be affected by this performance even if it can't hear you, but it is unaffected if it can't see you.

Ode to the Fallen King

Prerequisite: 6th level

You use stirring poetry to stave off grim influence in your allies, which you perform uninterrupted throughout a short rest for yourself and any friendly creatures. If you complete the performance, the first time each that an affected creature makes a death saving throw before its next short or long rest, it can reroll the d20 once and must use the new roll.

Song of Rest

You use soothing music or oration to help revitalize your wounded allies, which you perform uninterrupted throughout a short rest for yourself and any friendly creatures. If you complete the performance, an affected creature that regains hit points by spending Hit Dice at the end of that rest also regains extra hit points equal to one roll of your Bardic Inspiration die (you don't spend any Bardic Inspiration dice you have).

Bard Spells

The list of bard spells below is presented in alphabetical order, sorted by spell level. The spell list notes which bard spells are rituals, and spells which were not originally included in the bard spell list are written in bolded italics.

Each spell is in the Player's Handbook, unless it has one asterisk (a spell in Xanathar's Guide to Everything) or two asterisks (a spell in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything).

Class Changes

The most notable changes to the bard class as presented in this handbook involve the introduction of the Bardic Performance feature, and the incorporation of existing musical bard features. Other changes largely involve rebalancing of subclass features in order to lessen the discrepancy between those subclasses which are perceived as mechanically powerful and those that are not.

Bardic Performance. This is a new feature, which provides new options for bards to choose for their performances. The previously-existing features Song of Rest (2nd-level) and Countercharm (6th-level) are included amongst the list of options for this feature.

Magical Inspiration. The bard gains this feature at 3rd level, instead of 2nd level.

Ability Score Improvement. The bard can now replace one of its choices for the Expertise feature, or one of its Bardic Performances, each time they gain this feature from this class.

Superior Inspiration. The bard now gains two additional Bardic Inspiration dice, instead of regaining an expended use Bardic Inspiration when it rolls initiative with no uses left.

Art Credits

The artists below are credited in alphabetical order. Where possible, an art credit includes the website where the artist's work can be found, and the pages on which their illustrations appear.

• Anna Podedworna (© CD PROJEKT; pg 2)
• JennyEight (DeviantArt; cover)
• Paizo, Inc. (© Paizo; pg 10)
• Studio Agate (© Studio Agate; pg 12)
• Wizards of the Coast (© Wizards; pg 5, 8, 14)

Thank You ...

... for taking the time to read this reimagining of the Bard class! If you have any feedback or suggestions, please contact the author ─ /u/Ozzifer on Reddit ─ or consider joining their Patreon.

Open Game License

Version 1.0a

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