Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Bard Colleges!

Mantle of Inspiration is downright unnerving, and not in a good way. More of a stalker-ish vibe, or should I say stalk-ee?

 

[mellored]

Glamor 5 / paladin 6. Bring people into your aura.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Funny for all the people that complain that interaction isn't supported enough, they make 2 bard colleges full of out of combat intrigue and they get a lot of complaints that they aren't combat focused enough. Cruel are the ways.....

I think a lot of that comes from different people, so there's that.

But also, as someone who wants more interaction and exploration than combat in my bard, I really like the out of combat utility of these options, but I'm not sure how well the combat abilities work, which is an entirely different complaint than the subclass not being combat focused enough.

Because its a death sentence if you are caught with one of those items?

Of course that is a setting reason, and may not apply to other campaigns.

Definitely a solution of variable utility. I can't imagine very many places where possessing a tool would carry a death sentence. And if I came up with a place where it did, I probably wouldn't present that place as a "good guys" sort of place.

Still, no reason the poison shouldn't be illegal. Not sure that death penalty is sensible, but a ban with some form of punishment, certainly.

But also, why would everyone have one? Most "heroes" eskew the use of poison even if it isn't illegal to possess. And without practice, using such a device would be dangerous. TO the user and their allies. What if you fling poison off the blade of your sword and it splashes onto the face of an ally? And who is making and selling these things, anyway?

Man, I've got a player who is going fall in love with the glamour bard. I dig the vibe of the whispers bard, too. Yeah, +1 like on both of these.

Also, with a religious wizard subclass and the zealot barbarian, I'm left asking what, no choirboy college?

The Glamour bard is pretty legit. The Whisper bard seems like a "here, play a villainous character" option, which I don't dig that much, but some people are all about that, and it seems well made, for the most part.

I also would like a religious bard. A Herald, perhaps?

The 4e Executioner Assassin had poison manufacture as it "daily" powers, and had other class abilities that enabled it to deliver the poisons even on a missed attack roll.

Whether that counts as "working" I'll leave for others to judge - the general view is that this 4e class is a bit underpowered, but I don't think I've heard that the poisoning abilities are part of this.

The Executioner was a little underpowered compared to the PHB classes, but who wasn't? Mostly, it was just a matter of the damage math being a little short. A simple rewrite of the damage values would of the poisons, and Assassin's Strike would have done the trick. Or a boost to at-will damage. But if you picked the constant damage poisons instead of the single attack poisons, the class worked fine in any normal table, and was extremely fun to play.

I especially like the Lethal feature, which killed any creature you reduce below a certain HP threshold. That's just fun.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

College of Divinity is something I would have expected, but as someone who went to bat for the Zealot: Lore Bard taking Cleric spells, with the Acolyte background, hard to see what could be added to that mechanically, given the smaller size of Bard subclasses.

An Inspiration song that heals and/or gives advantage on saves, some kind of ability to rebuke supernatural evil, etc. I think there is plenty of design space there.

Bard could make a great framework for a character that fights evil spellcasters, especially necromancers.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

College of Whispers is just begging for an Assassin multiclass...

 

[TripleAught]

I'm not sold on the Whisper Bard. My perception of the bard class we have so far in 5e is an enabler of the rest of the party. This sub-class really seems to be geared toward the Bard doing his own thing.

Venomous Blades: Using inspiration die on yourself in combat. First, why are you attacking instead of casting Vicious Mockery? VM costs no resources and makes your front line stand up a little longer.

Venomous Words: You're alone. For 10 minutes. Which means the rest of the party isn't doing anything (if you're taking the DMs attention) and then you've only removed 1 NPC (probably non-combat anyway if it was willing to talk with you for 10 mintues) for 1 hour.

Mantle of Whispers: The part that kills (pun intended) this ability for me is that the target has to die from your attack/spell within 5 feet of you. You have to be the one to kill it... while you could have the fighter do some non-lethal damage, it feels like you're doing a lot of work to set this ability up. I see it more likely getting used on 1/4CR NPCs.

Shadow Lore: Has some interesting social pillar potential but it comes really late. And you're DM will need to be an active participant in what the person is willing to do for you. Makes this one really swingy in terms of what you could get out of it.

Someone mentioned it earlier in the thread. It's great to have niche sub-classes but mechanically, I'm going to compare this with the PHB. Do I get something as good as 2 spells or 2 attacks at level 6? If they can make the abilities on-par with that kind non-situational power for the bards, then I think the new sub-classes could get some real traction.

 

[hejtmane]

College of Whispers is just begging for an Assassin multiclass...

I like the whisper one it could go with several themes

 

[Duan'duliir]

College of Galmour's abilities seem very awkwardly worded, like text is missing.

"At 14th level, you gain an otherworldly aspect to your appearance that makes you look more fierce and lovely.In addition, through this feature, you can cast sanctuary on yourself. If a creature fails its saving throw against the spell, you also gain advantage on all Charisma checks against the creature for 1 minute, and it has disadvantage on any saving throw it makes against your spells on your next turn."

The phrase "in addition" makes it sound like the first part "you look fierce and lovely" is a benefit, but it has no game effects! Indeed, the entire ability only works if someone is attacking you, which is just weird.

I asked JC and Mearls about this on twitter, JC said that this wording was intentional.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm not surprised. You gain an impressive appearance/presence, and that is expected to impact how creatures react to you, etc. I'm not sure what is confusing or awkward here.

 

[Duan'duliir]

I'm not surprised. You gain an impressive appearance/presence, and that is expected to impact how creatures react to you, etc. I'm not sure what is confusing or awkward here.

The "In addition" phrase usually follows text that provides solid, mechanical benefits. A group might decide that there is no mechanical benefit to impressive looks.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The "In addition" phrase usually follows text that provides solid, mechanical benefits. A group might decide that there is no mechanical benefit to impressive looks.

The language implies they shouldn't make the decision, which I think is precisely the intent.

the need to make it explicit, though. And maybe clarify what the benefits should be.