College of Red Iron

You reject the tender strings of the harp and the lyre and the soothing tones of the flute and the pipes.

You reject the calming lullabies and proud speeches, the witty rhetoric and cutting jibes. You reject it all, and embrace only one thing: the masterful cacophony of fire, metal, and death, the chorus that heralds the world’s ending – the Song of Red Iron.

“The College of Red Iron” is merely a term used to encompass all bards that have devoted themselves to replicating and interpreting the Song of Red Iron.

Some bards of this “college” travel the world, performing the Song to all who would hear it. Other bards of Red Iron prefer to play a more active role in bringing about the apocalypse (or emulating it after the fact), and ride alongside warlords into battle and death.

Fire And Thunder

At 3rd level when you join this College, you learn the produce flame and shocking grasp cantrips, if you did not know them already. Additionally, you learn the burning hands spell. These spells do not count against the number of bard spells that you know.

Song of Red Iron

At 3rd level, your performance itself enhances flames, empowers lightning, and makes the ground around you shake with thunder. Whenever you or a friendly creature within 40 feet of you deals fire, lightning, or thunder damage, you can expend a use of Bard Inspiration as a reaction to roll a Bardic Inspiration die and add it to the damage.

Death Knell

At 6th level, once per turn when you deal thunder damage to a creature, you can cause your notes to reverberate and impact with physical force. The creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your Spell Save DC or be stunned until the end of your next turn.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain all expended uses of this feature when you finish a long rest.

War Pig

At 14th level, your warlike cries and masterful tempest of noise radiate out before you, wreathing your allies’ weapons in the forces of destruction. You can expend a use of your Bardic Inspiration to choose a number of friendly creatures equal to your Charisma modifier. The first time each creature affected by this feature hits with an attack within the next minute, they add one die of fire, thunder, or lighting damage (you choose when you use this feature) to the damage roll of the attack. This die is equal to your Bardic Inspiration die.