Outcast Bard

When you were a member of the Bard Colleges you enjoyed the prestige and comfort that came with it, often finding that with a simple song you could gain the trust and assistance of the common folk, but not anymore, as your reputation often precedes you wherever you go, hastened by the lips of your fellow bards who wish you ill. You have become estranged from typical humanoid society and in your estrangement, you have adapted.

Choose a type of Unlikely Ally: Aberrations, Beasts, Celestials, constructs, Dragons, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, Giants, Monstrosities, oozes, Plants, or Undead. Alternatively, you can select two races of humanoid (such as Gnolls and orcs) with the exception of humans, as strange bedfellows.

You have advantage on wisdom (Insight) checks to determine the mood of your Unlikely Allies, as well as on charisma checks against them and on Intelligence checks to recall cultural customs and mores, if such a check is deemed necessary.

The Colleges are vile and corrupt, but you alone seem to be one who knows this secret, and even then you didn't always want to believe it. You too once counted yourself a member of the Bard Colleges, until you witnessed a crime so heinous that you turned away and could never look back, but it was not the crime per se that caused you to become embittered and mistrustful, it was the length that the members of the Colleges went to cover it up, so that it would not tarnish their reputation. Now you live with an avid mistrust of those you once called brother, never sure if they would be the ones to stick the knife in your back and then make it as if it never happened.

Choose a Crime against the Colleges that you have witnessed and believe was covered up or that a lesser bard was framed for, or roll one on the Crime Against The Colleges table in order to determine the event which caused you to turn your back on the Bards.

If your prior experience is as a Forsworn Bard then your proficiencies are Perception and Insight instead of a choice of two between Perception, Persuasion, and Deception and your bonus language may be any language that would make sense for your character backstory. Adjust personality traits and characteristics from those suggested for Outcast Bard as appropriate in order to make them relate to a character who has witnessed a crime or a frameup rather than one who has committed a crime or been framed.

(This background Variant may only be chosen by characters who do not start as bards at level 1)

Your time amongst the Bard Colleges is in the past and put behind you, but even though time may eventually dull the ache of frustration and anxiety you feel due to their actions, it's passing can never fully erase the skills you learned there, nor can you deny the benefit that you experience by still knowing them. 

You know one Bard Cantrip and you have one Bardic Inspiration Die, which is a D6 and function according to the Bard feature: Bardic Inspiration.