College of Spirits

Bards of the College of Spirits seek tales with inherent power—be they legends, histories, or fictions—and bring their subjects to life. Using occult trappings, these bards conjure spiritual embodiments of powerful forces to change the world once more. Such spirits are capricious, though, and what a bard summons isn't always entirely under their control.

#### Spiritual Focus

You employ tools that aid you in channeling spirits, be they historical figures or fictional archetypes. You can use the following objects as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells: a candle, crystal ball, skull, spirit board, or tarokka deck.

Starting at 6th level, when you cast a bard spell that deals damage or restores hit points through the Spiritual Focus, roll a d6, and you gain a bonus to one damage or healing roll of the spell equal to the number rolled.

##### Guiding Whispers

You can reach out to spirits to guide you and others. You learn the guidance cantrip, which doesn't count against the number of bard cantrips you know. For you, it has a range of 60 feet when you cast it.

##### Tales from Beyond

You reach out to spirits who tell their tales through you. While you are holding your Spiritual Focus, you can use a bonus action to expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration and roll on the Spirit Tales table using your Bardic Inspiration die to determine the tale the spirits direct you to tell. You retain the tale in mind until you bestow the tale's effect or you finish a short or long rest.

You can use an action to choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you (this can be you) to be the target of the tale's effect. Once you do so, you can't bestow the tale's effect again until you roll it again.

You can retain only one of these tales in mind at a time, and rolling on the Spirit Tales table immediately ends the effect of the previous tale.

If the tale requires a saving throw, the DC equals your spell save DC.

#### Spirit Session

Spirits provide you with supernatural insights. You can conduct an hour-long ritual channeling spirits (which can be done during a short or long rest) using your Spiritual Focus. You can conduct the ritual with a number of willing creatures equal to your proficiency bonus (including yourself). At the end of the ritual, you temporarily learn one spell of your choice from any class.

The spell you choose must be of a level equal to the number of creatures that conducted the ritual or less, the spell must be of a level you can cast, and it must be in the school of divination or necromancy. The chosen spell counts as a bard spell for you but doesn't count against the number of bard spells you know.

Once you perform the ritual, you can't do so again until you start a long rest, and you know the chosen spell until you start a long rest.

#### Mystical Connection

You now have the ability to nudge the spirits of Tales from Beyond toward certain tales. Whenever you roll on the Spirit Tales table, you can roll the die twice and choose which of the two effects to bestow. If you roll the same number on both dice, you can ignore the number and choose any effect on the table.

**Spirit Tales**

Storytellers, like bards of the College of Spirits, often give voice to tales inspired by some greater theme or body of work. When determining what stories you tell, consider what unites them. Do they all feature characters from a specific group, like archetypes from the tarokka deck, figures from constellations, childhood imaginary friends, or characters in a particular storybook? Or are your inspirations more general, incorporating historic champions, mythological heroes, or urban legends? Use the tales you tell to define your niche as a storytelling adventurer.