College of Horror

 

This subclass was heavily inspired by a subclass of the same name made by Viandemoisie on D&D Beyond. I love most of the feature implemented, but thought they could use some clarity or rewording at some points, and changed a couple albites around a bit that I thought would work better to implementing the fantasy of a Bard following stories and tales or horror and terror. But wanted to give a shoutout and credit to the majority of the inspiration to Viandemoisie.

Scary Facade

When you join the College of Horror at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with intimidation checks.

You also learn the Thaumaturgy cantrip, which you can use to temporarily change your physical attributes, adding features that are hard to look at, such as deformities or massive scars. Your voice becomes unsettling, as it is either grating, raspy, booming or else, making you sound threatening in most conversations.

As a bonus action, you activate your scary façade, gaining advantage on all Charisma (intimidation) checks and disadvantage on all Charisma (persuasion) checks for one minute. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of once). You regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Frightening Melody

Also at 3rd level, you learn how to infuse your arcane music with horror. When a creature that has a Bardic Inspiration die from you makes an attack roll or an ability check targeting another creature, they can use the Bardic Inspiration die to force the targeted creature to make a wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or be frightened of the inspired creature for one minute.

Mounting Dread

At 6th level, you learn to manipulate and exploit your opponent’s dread. When a frightened creature within 60 feet of you makes a saving throw against a spell or other magical effect, it must roll a d6 and subtract the number rolled from the saving throw.

Additionally, while they can see you, all hostile creatures must subtract a d6 when making a saving throw against being frightened.

Master of Terror

Starting at 14th level, people are simply terrified of you. Whenever you attempt to frighten a creature, if they are immune to being frightened they lose their immunity to your effects, and instead make the saving throw at advantage. 

Additionally, whenever a creature targets you with an attack roll or you become subject to a spell that requires concentration, they must first make a wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failure, their attack automatically misses, and they immediately lose concentration of their spell. They also are frightened of you for as long as they are within 60 feet of you. Once a creature succeeds this saving throw, they are immune to its effects for 24 hours.