College of Comedy

Bards of the College of Comedy are called jesters and fools. They use lowbrow stories, daring acrobatics, and cutting jokes to entertain audiences, ranging from the crowds in a rundown dockside pub to the nobles of a king’s royal court. Where other bards seek forgotten lore or tales of epic bravery, jesters ferret out embarrassing and hilarious stories of all kinds. Whether telling the ribald tale of a brawny stable hand’s affair with an aged duchess or a mocking satire of a paladin of Helm’s cloying innocence, a jester never lets taste, social decorum, or shame get in the way of a good laugh.

While comedians are masters of puns, jokes, and verbal barbs, they are much more than just comic relief. They are expected to mock and provoke, taking advantage of how even the most powerful folk are expected by tradition to endure a jester’s barbs with good humor. This expectation allows a jester to serve as a critic or a voice of reason when others are too intimidated to speak the truth.

Unintentional Humor

When you join the College of Comedy at 3rd level, you are at making failures seem humorous and intentional. When you make a Charisma (Performance) or Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

Jester's Delight

Also at 3rd level, you learn how to use your charisma and cleverness to make any creature laugh. As a bonus action, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration, roll the die, and force one target within 30 ft that can see or hear you to make a wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, rolling a Bardic Inspiration die and subtracting the number rolled from the creature’s roll. If the creature is normally immune to being charmed, it makes this roll with advantage. All creatures that fail the saving throw are charmed for a duration of 1 minute.

Tumbling Fool

At 6th level, you master a variety of acrobatic techniques that allow you to evade danger. As a bonus action, you can tumble. When you tumble, you gain the following benefits for the rest of your turn:

• You gain the benefits of taking the Dash and Disengage actions.
• You gain a climbing speed equal to your current speed.
• You take half damage from falling.

Diffusing Laughter

When you reach the 6th level, your laughter is so contagious and charming that it overpowers feelings of aggression and negativity. If you perform for 10 minutes, all creatures that can see and hear you must make a wisdom saving throw or fall prone laughing for 5 minutes. Creatures affected by this ability also have disadvantage on Wisdom(perception) checks and Intelligence(investigation).

Happy Ending

Starting at 14th level, when you fall to 0 hit points, you can make a performance check, without the benefit of your Unintentional Humor feature, against a DC equal to half the damage you took on that turn. On a success, you regain 1 hit point and do not go down, and on a failure you gain one successful death saving throw.

You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one), and all uses are replenished on a long rest.