Bard

As a Bard, you gain the following class features

* **Hit points at higher levels:** 1d8 (or 5) + your constitution modifier per bard level after first.

### **Proficiencies:**

* **Armor:** Light armor
* **Weapons:** Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords
* **Tools:** Three musical instruments of your choice
* **Saving throws:** Dex, Cha
* **Skills:** Choose any three.

### **Equipment:**

You start with the following equipment in addition to the equipment granted by your bacground:

* (A) a rapier, (B) alongsword, or (C) any simple weapon
* (A) a diplomat's pack or (B) an entertainter's pack
* (A) a lute or (B) any other musical instrument
* Leather armor and a dagger

### **Spellcasting:**

You have learned to untangle and reshape the fabric of reality in harmony with your wishes and music. Your spells are part of your vast repertoire, magic that you can tune to different situations.

* **Cantrips:** You know two cantrips of your choice from the Bard Spells list. You learn additional bard cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Bard table.
* **Spell Slots:** The Bard table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your 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.
* **Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher:** You know four 1st level spells of your choice from the bard spell list. The Spells Known column of the Bard table shows when you learn more bard spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots, as shown on the table. 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.

**Spell Save DC:** 8+ your proficiency bonus+ your charisma modifier

**Spell Attack Modifier:** Your proficiency bonus+ your charisma modifier

* **Ritual Casting:** You can cast any bard spell you know as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag.
* **Spellcasting Focus:** You can use a musical instrument as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.

### **Bardic Inspiration:**

You can inspire others through stirring words or music. To do so, you use a bonus action on your turn to choose one creature other than yourself within 60ft of you who can hear you. That creature gains on Bardic Inspiration die, a d6. Once within the next 10 minutes, the creature can roll the die and add the number rolled to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes. The creature can wait until after it rolls the d20 before deciding to use the Bardic Inspiration die, but must decide before the DM says whether the roll succeeds or fails, once the Bardic Inspiration die is rolled, it is lost. A creature can have only one Bardic Inspiration die at a time. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of once). You regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest. Your Bardic Inspiration die changes when you reach certain levels in this class. The die becomes a d8 at 5th level, a d10 at 10th level, and a d12 at 15th level.

### **Jack of All Trades:**

Starting at 2nd level, you can add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down, to any ability check you make that doesn't already include your proficiency bonus.

### **Song of Rest:**

Beginning at 2nd level, you can use soothing music or oration to help revitalize your wounded allies during a short rest. If you or any friendly creatures who can hear your performance regain hit points at the end of the short rest, each of those creatures regains an extra 1d6 hit points. The extra hit points increase when you reach certain levels in this class: to 1d8 at 9th level, to 1d10 at 13th level, and to 1d12 at 17th level.

### **Bard College:**

At 3rd level, you delve into the advanced techniques of a bard college of your choice: The College of Lore, College of Valor, or College of Swords. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th and 14th level.

### **Expertise:**

at 3rd level, choose two of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies. At 10th level, you can choose another two skill proficiencies to gain this benefit.

### **Ability Score Improvement:**

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

### **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.

### **Countercharm:**

At 6th level, you gain the ability to use musical notes or words of power to disrupt mind-influencing effects. As an action, you can start a performance that lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, you and any friendly creature must be able to hear you to gain this benefit. The performance ends early if you are incapacitated or silenced or if you voluntarily end it (no action required).

### **Magical Secrets:**

By 10th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any class, including this one. 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 class at 14th level and again at 18th level.

### **Superior Inspiration:**

At 20th level, when you roll initiative and have no uses of Bardic Inspiration left, you regain one use.

## Bard Colleges

### **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.

* **Bonus Proficiencies:** When you join the College of lore at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with tree skills of your choice.
* **Cutting Words:** Also at 3rd level, you learn how to use your wit to distract, confuse, and otherwise sap the confidence and competence of others. When a creature that you can see within 60ft of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a damage roll, you can use your reaction to expend one of your uses of Bardic Inspiration, rolling a Bardic Inspiration die and subtracting the number rolled from the creature's roll. You can choose to use this this feature after the creature makes its roll, but before the DM determines whether the attack roll or ability checks succeeds or fails, or before the creature deals its damage. The creature is immune if it can't hear you or if it's immune to being charmed.
* **Additional Magical Secrets:** At 6th level, you learn two spells of your choice from any class. A spell you can 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 but don't count against the number of bard spells you know.
* **Peerless Skill:** Starting at 14th level, when you make an ability check, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration. Roll a Bardic Inspiration die and add the number rolled to your ability check. You can choose to do so after you roll the die for the ability check, but before the DM tells you whether you succeed or fail.

### **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.

* **Bonus Proficiencies:** When you join the College of Valor at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons.
* **Combat Inspiration:** Also at 3rd level, you learn to inspire others in battle. A creature that has a Bardic Inspiration die from you can roll that die and add the number rolled to a weapon damage roll it just made. Alternatively, when an attack roll is made against the creature, it can use its reaction to roll the Bardic Inspiration die and add the number rolled to its AC against that attack, after seeing the roll but before knowing whether it hits or misses.
* **Extra Attack:** Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
* **Battle Magic:** At 14th level, you have mastered the art of weaving spellcasting and weapon use into a single harmonious act. When you use your action to cast a bard spell, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

### **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 them. Blades who abandon 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.

* **Bonus Proficiencies:** When you join the College of Blades at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with meium armor and scimitars. If you're proficient with a simple or martial melee weapon, you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.
* **Fighting Style:** At 3rd level, you adopt a style of fighting as your specialty. Choose on of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if something in the game lets you choose again
	+ **Dueling:** When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon
	+ **Two-Weapon Fighting:** When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.
* **Blade Flourish:** At 3rd level, you learn to conduct impressive displays of martial prowess and speed. As an action, you can make one melee weapon attack, and your walking speed increases by 10ft until the end of the current turn. Whenever you use this action you can also use one of the following Blade Flourish options as part of it.
	+ **Defensive Flourish:** You spin your weapon in circles, creating a hypnotic display. You can expend one of your uses of Bardic Inspiration, rolling a Bardic Inspiration die and adding the number rolled to your AC until the start of your next turn.
	+ **Slashing Flourish:** If the attack hits its target, you can expend one of your uses of Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to damage each creature of your choice, other than the target, that you can see within 5ft of you. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic inspiration die.
	+ **Mobile Flourish:** If the attack hits its target, you can expend one of your uses of Bardic Inspiration to push the target up to 5ft away from you, plus a number of feet equal to the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die. You can then immediately use your reaction to move up to your speed to an unoccupied space within 5ft of the target.
* **Cunning Flourish:** Beginning at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you use the Blade flourish action on your turn. You can, nevertheless, still use only one Blade Flourish option when you take that action.
* **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.