College of Dissonance

The world can be a dangerous place, and a bard living through particularly trying times can turn towards harsher methods to get what he/she wants.  Sometimes traveling with an entertainment troupe will reveal the harshness of society and the terrible forces of evil that go bump in the night.  The can weigh heavy on the shoulders of a person that wishes to protect those that they love and bring joy to all of those with their creativity.  Using that melancholy as fuel for their adventuring endeavors, Bards of the College of Dissonance focus on using their magical musical talents to shred and/or hinder their enemies with discordant tones.

Warped Tour-de-Force

When you join the College of Dissonance at 3rd level, you gain the ability to warp aspects of your instrument into martial features such as spikes, blades, or knobs.  Whenever you finish a long rest, you can choose to make your instrument an improvised melee weapon with finesse that deals slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning damage equal to your Bardic Inspiration die.  You have proficiency with the weapon and Charisma is your primary attack modifier when wielding it.  Although, you can choose to utilize Dexterity or Strength as well. 

Whenever you utilize your Bardic Inspiration die for any of your abilities, you can choose to warp the instrument into a different form using a little bit of magic.  As a part of the same of action/bonus action/reaction, you can change the damage type to slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning.  Otherwise, you cannot change the form of the instrument until you finish a long rest.

It also can be utilized as a bardic focus for spellcasting.  Whenever you cast a spell that deals thunder damage while wielding your warped instrument, it deals bonus thunder damage equal to your Charisma modifier.

Additionally, you learn the booming blade cantrip.

Bonus Proficiencies

Also at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with medium armor, improvised weapons, and martial weapons.

Performance of Discordance

At 6th level, you can lace the melody of your Countercharm with harsh tones that are designed to disrupt nearby enemies and lash out with your weapon to add their cries of failure and pain to the song.  As apart of the same action when you use your Countercharm ability, you can use your Bardic Inspiration die to give a number of creatures within 30 feet a penalty to their next ability check, attack roll, or saving throw equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die.  If the creature fails that roll, they take thunder damage equal to the amount rolled.  The maximum amount of creatures you can choose is equal to your proficiency bonus.

While Countercharm is active, you can use a bonus action to make an attack with your warped instrument and all of your weapon attacks deal bonus thunder damage equal to the weapon damage rolled.  Additionally, you gain resistance to thunder damage and are immune to the deafened condition during this time.

This Chord of Discord

Starting at 14th level, you can strike a note on your warped weapon to unleash the magic within and send out waves of destructive sound.  As an action, you can force creatures within a 30 foot cone in front of you to make a Constitution saving throw.  Creatures within that radius take a number of Bardic Inspiration's die worth of thunder damage equal to your proficiency bonus and are deafened for 1 minute on a failed save.  On a successful save, they take half damage and are not deafened.  You can increase the damage of this ability and the DC to save against it by spending a Bardic Inspiration die when you use it.  The thunder damage die and DC increases by one for each Bardic Inspiration die that you spend.

Utilizing this ability transforms your warped instrument back into a normal instrument.  It loses all of the bonuses it receives from your Warped Tour-de-Force ability until you restore the magic the next time you utilize your Bardic Inspiration die or until you finish a long rest.