Spirit of Creativity

Starting at 3rd level, you gain a set of Painter's or Calligrapher’s Supplies, your choice. (A DM might allow you to choose alternative tools such as Woodcarver’s or Potter’s Tools.) You also gain proficiency with the chosen tools. You can consider your chosen tool the spellcasting focus for your Bard spells.

Your magic inhabits specially designed symbols that invoke the arcane. To cast a Bard spell that requires somatic components, you illustrate or produce a pre-drawn icon that represents the spell. This image channels your spell through it, and burns itself away after the spell ends.

Arcane Artistry

When selecting this subclass at 3rd level, you may choose to specially ingrain one spell you know into a small portable surface such as a piece of parchment or wood over the course of a long rest. The ingrained spell must be of a level equal to or less than a third of your Bard level. When you cast this ingrained spell, the mark burns away and the spell is cast without consuming a spell slot. You may have one of ingrained spell at a time, and creating a new one causes the oldest mark to fade.

You may have up to 2 ingrained spells when you reach 6th level, and 3 ingrained spells at 9th. Any time you ingrain more than one spell, each spell must be a different spell of a level lower than the one before it.

Vibrant Inspiration

Also at 3rd level, you may use your Bardic Inspiration feature as an action to draw or affix a symbol onto a creature that is adjacent to you. Whenever this creature rolls your Bardic Inspiration die, they add an amount to the roll equal to your Charisma Bonus.

Walking Ink

At 6th level, you craft a little helper from an image you create. As an action, you can animate the likeness of a tiny creature or object you have drawn or sculpted, as if you had cast the spell Tiny Servant on it. You bring the creature, called a scribbled servant, into three dimensions if it was 2-dimensional, and give it limited sentience. The spell lasts up to 1 hour, and for each scribbled servant created past one, the remaining time for all previous servants is halved. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all spent uses after a long rest.

Living Canvas

Upon attaining 14th level, when you ingrain a spell, you can instead put that spell on a piece of armor or equipment. Whenever a creature is holding or wearing the ingrained object, they may cast that spell as if they knew it, using your spellcasting ability as the modifier for any saving throws or spell attacks the spell creates. You may only have one ingrained spell placed on equipment at a time.