College of Legacy

Bards record, chronicle, and teach knowledge of many different things, but your specialty is the heritage and history of those who preceded you. You track genealogies, research biographies, draw family trees, and record births and deaths. This is no mere academic pursuit, however, for your work helps others who want to get in touch with their roots or avoid past mistakes.

More than anything, your training compels you to remind others of who people actually were, good and bad. No legacy is uncomplicated, and though most prefer not to speak ill of the dead, bards of your college are known for scrupulous honesty in describing past personages. Whether this means exposing great heroes’ mistreatment of those closest to them, rediscovering past achievements that later usurpers tried to erase, or reminding self-righteous leaders of the brutal deeds that built their empires, you have been taught that a historian’s greatest obligation is to truth itself.

Scholar of Antiquity

At 3rd level when you select this bardic college, you gain a deep and reliable understanding of those who came before you and the knowledge they left behind. You gain proficiency in the History skill, or if you already have it, in one other skill of your choice. Also, whenever you make an Intelligence check that includes your proficiency bonus, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

Echoing Reminder

At 3rd level, you have a special way of reminding those around you of the legacy they are fighting for—or that they must fight against. As a bonus action, roll a Charisma check and describe how you communicate this legacy to your comrades. You can add your proficiency with an appropriate skill that suits your description to the roll (Performance to sing a stirring song, Intimidation for a frightening tale, Persuasion for rousing oratory, etc.).

For 1 minute after you make this check, whenever a creature with a Bardic Inspiration die from you ends their turn within 10 feet of you, that creature gains temporary hit points if they can see or hear you. The temporary hit points gained equal half your Charisma check result or half your bard level, whichever is higher.

If a creature who has a Bardic Inspiration die from you during this effect’s duration loses or expends that die (such as by rolling it), you can choose to allow the creature to continue benefiting from this feature until the duration ends.

Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Come Together

At 3rd level, when you use a spell slot to cast a spell, or make a successful Charisma check during your turn, at the end of that turn you can choose up to three creatures within 30 feet of you who can see or hear you.

Each chosen creature can use their reaction to move up to 15 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. A creature cannot end this movement further away from you than they were when they started moving.

Archaic Lore

Starting at 6th level, whenever you finish a long rest, you can choose one divination spell from any class’s spell list that is of a level you can cast. You temporarily learn that spell, as if it were one of your bard spells, but it doesn’t count against the number of bard spells you know. You know the chosen spell until the next time you finish a long rest.

After you use this feature, once before the next time you finish a long rest, you can cast the chosen spell without expending a spell slot.

Grateful Spirit

Starting at 14th level, if you are reduced to 0 hit points or are incapacitated against your will at the end of your turn, you can immediately choose for a wraith to appear (your GM has statistics for wraiths). This wraith is unaligned, but loyal to you, as it wants you to live to continue telling tales of its era. It has the benefits of the Poltergeist Spells trait (described at the end of this college). The wraith appears in the unoccupied space closest to you. It ignores creatures friendly to you and attacks any target hostile to you, protecting you as best it can. The wraith vanishes after 1 hour or whenever you choose to dismiss it. Any specters created by the wraith vanish with it.

Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.

Poltergeists

Certain undead spirits are animated by such overpowering, unreasoning rage that it manifests as violent psionic spell effects. Such spirits are known as poltergeists. This is represented by the Poltergeist Spells trait, described below, which can be added to any Undead that has the Incorporeal Movement trait. Adding this trait increases the Undead’s challenge rating by 1.

Poltergeist Spells. The undead casts one of the following spells, requiring no material components and using its highest ability score as its spellcasting ability (spell save DC = 8 + its proficiency bonus + its spellcasting ability modifier):

At will: eldritch blast, mage hand, greater invisibility (self only), poltergeist’s fury, prestidigitation 1/day: telekinesis