College of Echoes

In the caverns beneath the surface of the world, sound works differently. Your exposure to echoes has taught you about how sound changes as it moves and encounters obstacles. Inspired by the effect caves and tunnels have on sounds, you have learned to manipulate sound with your magic, curving it and altering it as it moves. You can silence the most violent explosions, you can make whispers seem to reverberate forever, and you can even change the sounds of music and words as they are created.

Echolocation

When you join the College of Echoes at 3rd level, you learn how to see with your ears as well as your eyes.

As long as you can hear, you have blindsight out to a range of 10 feet, and you have disadvantage on saving throws against effects that would deafen you.

At 14th level, your blindsight is now out to a range of 15 feet, and you no longer have disadvantage on saving throws against effects that would deafen you.

Alter Sound

At 3rd level, you can manipulate the sounds of your speech to mimic any sounds you’ve heard, including voices. A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a successful Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check. In addition, you can manipulate some of the sounds around you. You can use your reaction to cause one of the following effects.

Enhance. You can increase the volume of a sound originating within 30 feet of you, doubling the range it can be heard and granting creatures in range of the sound advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect the sound. In addition, when a hostile creature within 30 feet of you takes thunder damage, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration and increase the thunder damage by an amount equal to the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die.

Dampen. You can decrease the volume of a sound originating within 30 feet of you, halving the range it can be heard and granting creatures in range of the sound disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect the sound. In addition, when a friendly creature within 30 feet of you takes thunder damage, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration and decrease the thunder damage by an amount equal to the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die.

Distort. You can change 1 word or up to 2 notes within 30 feet of you to another word or other notes.

The Range of Sound

Some effects that create sounds specify the range at which they can be heard, such as the horn of blasting, but the range of sound on many effects is more ambiguous, such as the voice-altering aspect of the thaumaturgy spell.

Before you play a College of Echoes bard, discuss with your GM how sounds and their ranges, especially for the more ambiguous effects, will be treated in your game.

This will keep you both on the same page of how sound will work throughout the course of play and help avoid frustrations when you use your Alter Sounds feature to manipulate the sounds around you.

At your GM’s discretion, the dampening and enhancing effects of your Alter Sounds can allow message spells to travel further, allies to sneak more quietly, your group to have a private conversation in a crowded area, or other similar effects.

You can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to change a number of words within 30 feet of you equal to 1 + the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die, or you can change a number of notes of a melody within 30 feet of you equal to 2 + double the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die. A creature that can hear the sound can notice it was altered by succeeding on a Wisdom (Perception) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check. At your GM’s discretion, this effect can alter sounds that aren’t words or melodies, such as altering the cries of a young animal to sound like the roars of an adult.

Disrupt. When a spellcaster casts a spell with verbal components within 30 feet of you, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to disrupt the sounds of the verbal components. The spellcaster must succeed on a concentration check (DC 8 + the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die) or the spell fails and has no effect. You can disrupt a spell only if it is of a spell level you can cast.

Resounding Strikes

Starting at 6th level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal thunder damage to the target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The extra damage is 1d6 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d6 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 6d6. The damage increases by 1d6 if the target is made of inorganic material such as stone, crystal, or metal.

Reverberating Strikes

At 14th level, your Bardic Inspiration infuses your allies’ weapon attacks with sonic power. 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, and all of the damage from that attack becomes thunder damage. The target of the attack must succeed on a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC or be forced prone.