College of Buskers

Bards of the College of Buskers are always looking for the next performance. By performing impressive magic tricks, dizzying displays of acrobatics, or simply putting on a delightful street show, these Bards always find a way to make ends-meet. These Bards are often masters of deception and sleight of hand, able to perform mind bending tricks even without the aid of magic. Their remarkable capability for street performing often comes in handy when in need of a distraction, and as such often find themselves as a crucial piece in many urban schemes.

Bonus Proficiencies

When you join this college at 3rd Level, you gain proficiency with Sleight of Hand and Deception, as well as with two tools or games of your choice.

Street Performance

At 3rd level select an instrument, tool, game, or skill with which you will perform. This selection will be referred to as your Performance. This can be a deck of cards, acrobatics, or another similar and suitable choice. A chosen performance should not use Charisma as a default ability. A chosen skill should have a physical manifestation of said skill. Acrobatics, Athletics, Medicine, and Sleight of Hand are good examples of easy to play selections. However, always consult your DM before deciding.

You gain expertise with your chosen Performance, and may reroll a roll of 1 when using it but must use the new roll.

A Magicians Secrets

At 3rd level, you find yourself uncannily adept with your Performance, and are able to infuse it with magic to give it an edge in combat.

Attacks can be made with your Performance as if they were a weapon, using your Performance modifier for the Attack modifier and Damage modifier. If not using a skill, they may be used as a spellcasting focus, and you may pick one attribute for your Performance from the following list. This attribute will give your Performance a special feature, and also determine the ability score used when rolling attack and damage with the Performance:

• Thrown (80/320),  Dexterity: The instrument, tool, or game (such as a deck of cards) may be thrown with the given distance.
• Grappling, Strength: The instrument, tool, or game (such as interlocking rings) may grapple the target after a successful attack on a check of your Performance contested by the target's Strength check as a bonus action.
• Light, Dexterity or Strength: The instrument, tool, or game (such as a flute) is able to be wielded in one hand, allowing for another weapon or object to be held in the other.

When using a skill as a Performance, you may instead make this attack as a bonus action, and you will use the default ability of the skill for your attacks. 

For the purpose of damage immunity or resistance, these attacks are considered magical. The damage type of your attacks are determined by your DM when you first select a performance, and do not change throughout the play of your class.

For example for a level 3 Bard with cards as a Performance and a Dexterity of +3 would have +7 to hit, and 1d6 + 7 damage, with a thrown range of 80/320. For a level 11 Bard with athletics as a Performance and +5 Strength, they would have +13 to hit and a damage of 1d10 + 13 damage.

Captivating Performance

At 6th level, you find yourself able to hold an audience captive.

Outside of combat, all creatures in attendance which fail a wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC during one of your performances have their passive perception decreased by 5, and have disadvantage on perception checks. You must maintain concentration on this effect to sustain it. To be "in attendance", a creature must either be able to see or hear you, and be within 60ft of you. This effect is magical in nature, and as such should you encounter any anti-magic effects such as dispel magic, or have concentration broken, the effect ends.

Additionally, while using a bard spell in combat, you may expend a use of your bardic inspiration to attempt to charm a target.  You may make a Performance Check; if the check surpasses the Wisdom score of the target, the target is charmed for a number of rounds determined by a roll of your bardic inspiration die. You must maintain concentration on this effect to sustain it. The effect ends if you or your allies deal any damage to the target. However, if the target does not perceive the damage to have come from you or your allies, the effect remains active.

Rabbits out of Hats

At 14th level, you find yourself able to to pull of things that may seem impossible from the outside. Your enemies may perceive this as you always being just one step ahead, while in truth you know that just a bit of deceit can go a long way.

When attempting to deceive, persuade, or intimidate a character, you may instead turn the roll into a number equal to your Bard level. You may know the value of the roll but not the outcome when using this feature. Any modifiers still apply as normal. If used at 20th level, the roll is not counted as critical for players and DMs that use automatic successes on a roll of 20. You may use this feature once per short or long rest.

Additionally, within combat, you find yourself able to determine the outcome of an action before it happens. After knowing the outcome of a skill check, attack roll, or saving throw, you may expend a bardic inspiration die as a reaction to reduce the roll by your bardic inspiration die + your spellcasting ability modifier, potentially causing the target to fail.