College of Puppetry

The College of Puppetry sees the world as the greatest show of all, and the puppeteer excels at controlling people and the battlefield to turn themselves and their friends into the heroes of the story. The Puppeteer Bard uses the magical weave to create binding threads between foes and allies alike, and is able to maneuver them across the battlefield as it sees fit. 

Puppeteer

Upon reaching level 3 with this subclass you gain the ability to create puppet strings around a Large or smaller creature. Using a bonus action you attempt to tie weaves of magic around an enemy or ally that you can see within 60ft of you. The enemy can attempt to make an Intelligence saving throw of 8 + Spellcasting Modifier + PB or it becomes your puppet. A creature that is incapacitated automatically fails their saving throw. You can have a maximum of two puppets at a time and each puppet requires the use of one of your hands. If you have two puppets you cannot cast spells that require a somatic component. Any creature that has become your puppet is aware of what is happening to it and can speak as normal, otherwise it cannot take any actions or reactions of its own. The creature can make a saving throw to attempt to escape your puppet strings at the beginning of each of its turns.

When you are in control of a puppet you can use your action to make any of the following moves:

1. Attack - Use your spell attack bonus to make a melee attack with the puppet. The attack damage is equal to a roll of your bardic inspiration die plus your CHA modifier. When determining advantage and disadvantage use your own statistics (i.e. a barbarian puppet that used reckless attack on its turn and is now your puppet does not get advantage on the attack).

2.  Move - You can move the puppet up to twice its movement in distance. This provokes opportunity attacks as normal. When you use your action to Move a puppet and you have a second puppet active, you can also move that puppet at the same time (no action required).

3. Disengage - The puppet disengages from combat and you can move it up it to its normal speed.

If you do not take any action the puppet gains the benefits of the Dodge action.

You can use a bonus action to end this effect on a target.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest. Once you have run out of uses you can expend a spell slot of 1st Level or higher to use this feature again.

Advanced Puppetry

At 6th level you gain the Advanced Puppetry feature. 

You gain the ability to speak through your puppets and the puppets use their own voice.

You can now use your reaction to do one of the following through your puppets:

1. Opportunity Attack - You can use your reaction to make an opportunity attack with one of your puppets.

2. Block - When an enemy you can see within 30ft of you or one of your puppets makes an attack against an ally, you can move your puppet into the line of fire to impose disadvantage on the attack. If the attack misses the intended target then the puppet takes the damage instead.

Extra Attack

Now whenever you use your Action to make an attack with your puppet you can make a second attack with one of your puppets or you can move your puppets up half their speed.

Master Puppeteer

At 14th Level you have gained even greater power over your puppet skills. Now, whenever you target an ally with your Puppeteer feature they can move and take their own actions on their turns while remaining tethered to you and whenever you make an attack through a puppet ally you can choose to use your own damage roll or the ally's damage roll including any weapon bonuses and modifiers.

In addition to that you can expend a use of your Bardic Inspiration die whenever you land an attack with a puppet and add that number to the damage roll.

Your puppets can now only attempt a saving throw once per minute, unless they are attacked during the round of combat.

Whenever you enter combat without a use of your Puppeteer skill, you regain 2 charges.