College of Bravado

Bards of the College of Bravado are performers of spectacular feats with unwavering confidence. They can range from being a vigilante through the streets creating infamy and excitement from locals to gladiators and various types of athletic performers with a presence that overcrowds spectator seats and revel in the roars of adoring fans for their physical prowess.  

These bards hold many similarities and lessons to the College of Swords with the exception that they are often much louder and showy than their sword flourishing counterparts. They instead train to be acrobats and grapplers with an arsenal of intricate moves that seem unnaturally dazzling or near impossible to recreate. 

Bonus Proficiencies

As a core of your training, you are proficient in Athletics to be better at the staple of the college's performance to execute a series of locks, holds, and shoves that you've learned. 

Additionally, you've studied an art where spellcasting has become part of the performance and you've transformed your body to become the spellcasting focus through a series of poses and gestures that you've connected with magic that can be done even while holding down an opponent. You can perform the somatic components of a spell even if both hands are occupied.

Daunting Presence

Part of a good defense is also just looking as intimidating as possible to approaching foes. With the addition of a flourishing cape or cloak, a mysterious mask, a decorative helm, or a fancy belt and a ton of personality, your challengers will often approach uncertain of who they are fighting against and if they are capable.  Sometimes, just looking fierce is all that is needed.

When you wear a cape, cloak, mask, helm, or belt (doesn't have to be magical) you gain the following effects:

• Wearing Light Armor: You can add your Strength Modifier or Dexterity Modifier as a bonus to your Armor Class
• Wearing No Armor: Your Armor Class is equal to 10+Strength or Dexterity Modifier+Charisma Modifier

Flashy Maneuver

At 3rd level, you learn to dazzle everyone with flashy maneuvers far more complex and confusing for others to follow and borderline magical.

Whenever you take the Attack action on your turn, if it is of the following types of successful Attack options, you can spend a Bardic Inspiration point to perform a Flashy Maneuver. If you move at least 10 feet, you can perform a Grapple or Shove regardless of creature size.

• Successful Shove Action: The Falling Star. You knock your enemy off-balance, and in their daze, run past them to jump high into the air for a painful landing on them. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration and use a bonus action. You move through the target's square(s) and to the opposite side of it to perform a high jump with an Athletics (Str) check for an attack roll that uses your bardic inspiration die as damage adding your Strength Modifier or Dexterity Modifier. Fall damage you could normally take from a high jump is done to the enemy instead (minimum of 1d6).  If you fail to hit, you only deal the fall damage to the target, but you are prone.
• Successful Grapple Action: The Magic Lock. You grab hold of your enemy, and from intricate maneuvering, position them into a crippling hold. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to move to another threatening square of the target and use a bonus action to perform a Grapple action with an Athletics (Str) check adding your Bardic Inspiration roll. If successful, the target is restrained until they break free from opposed Strength (Athletics) checks. If you fail, the target is still grappled.
• Successful Melee Attack: The Ring of the Ram. You strike your enemy with a dizzying blow followed with a surprising force of momentum crashing into them and reeling them off-balance. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to use a bonus action to perform the Shove action with an Athletics (Str) check. If successful, the target is pushed up to 5 feet away plus a number of feet equal to the number of the bardic inspiration roll and knocked prone. If they collide with another target, the additional target must make a Strength Save equal to your Bard Spell DC versus being knocked prone as well.

Extra Attack

Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Additionally, you can cast one of your bard class cantrips in place of one of those attacks.

 

You Love to See It!

Starting at the 14th level, when you successfully use a Flashy Maneuver you regain the spent point of Bardic Inspiration.