College of the Dead

"There is no crowd as great as them. They rise, they dance, and seat themselves when you're finished. There really is no better audience. Huh? You don't know who I'm talking about? Well, the dead of course!" ~Suraggan, death's musician~

The bards of the College of the Dead have researched the tunes of death and have discovered how to play music that reaches beyond the mortal plane. Their songs reach the souls of the dead for many reasons. Some in this college aim to amass armies of the dead under their sensational grooves while others wish to reach the souls of the dead to allow them to achieve peace.

Phantasm spasm

When you join the College of the Dead at 3rd level, you gain the ability to induce a fliting semblance of life within a corpse. Using a bonus action, you can cause a corpse within sight of you to make an attack against another creature within melee range. The target of the attack has to make a DEX saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, they take 1d6 + spellcasting modifier necrotic damage.

At 6th level, the attack deals 1d8 + spellcasting modifier. At 6th level, you may also instead choose for the corpse to take the help action for an ally within 5ft.

Sheet music of the Necronomicon

At 3rd level, many necromancy spells have been added to your spell list. 

At 3rd level, you can expend one bardic inspiration die to create one ghoul out of a corpse with hit points equal to a roll of your bardic inspiration die that lasts until your next short or long rest.

At 3rd level, you can expend one bardic inspiration die to heal an undead. The undead gains hit points equal to one roll of your bardic inspiration die.

Dancing souls

You gather the souls of the slain around you to dance and flit about, empowering you. Expending a bardic inspiration die in the presence of a corpse within 30 feet of you causes motes of spiritual energy to gather around you. These motes will continue to surround you for 15 minutes. During the duration, the motes provide 15 feet of a lime, eerie light, you benefit from a bonus to your AC and saving throws equal to your charisma modifier, and your movement speed increases by 10 feet.

Dance of the dead

Starting at 14th level, your undeads have synchronized their movements.

Whenever you create an undead using a necromancy spell, it has additional benefits:

• The creature adds your proficiency bonus to its weapon damage rolls
• The creatures benefit from the effects of Pack Tactics
• The creatures double their movement speed