College of the Arma

Bards of the College of the Arma are called sharpshooters, and they entertain through daring feats of weapon prowess. Sharpshooters perform stunts such as exhibition shooting, splitting bullets mid flight with their own shot, and mock combats. Though they use their weapons to entertain, they are also highly trained and skilled warriors in their own right.

Their talent with weapons inspires many sharpshooters to lead double lives. One sharpshooter might use a circus troupe or traveling athlete as cover for nefarious deeds such as assassination, robbery, and blackmail. Other sharpshooters strike at the wicked, bringing justice to bear against the cruel and powerful. Most troupes and coliseums are happy to accept a sharpshooter's talent for the excitement it adds to a performance, but few entertainers fully trust a sharpshooter in their ranks.

Sharpshooters who abandon their lives as entertainers have often run into trouble that makes maintaining their secret activities impossible. A sharpshooter caught stealing or engaging in vigilante justice is too great a liability for most organizations. With their weapon skills and magic, these sharpshooters either take up work as snipers and assassins for thieves' guilds or strike out on their own as adventurers.

 

Bonus Proficiencies

When you join the College of the Arma at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with longbows, shortbows, heavy crossbows, hand crossbows, and light crossbows.

If you’re proficient with any bow or crossbow, you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.

Gunner Fighting Style

At 3rd level, you adopt the Gunner style of fighting as your specialty.

Gunner

You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.

Arts of the Arma

At 3rd level, you learn to perform impressive displays of martial prowess and speed.

Whenever you take the Attack action on your turn, your walking speed increases by 10 feet until the end of the turn, and if a weapon attack that you make as part of this action hits a creature, you can use one of the following Arts of the Arcus options of your choice. You can use only one Arts of the Arcus option per turn.

Defensive Shot. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target you hit. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die. You also add the number rolled to your AC until the start of your next turn.

Ricocheting Bullet. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target you hit and to any other creature of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of you. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die.

Sharpshooter's Technique. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target you hit. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die. You apply the number rolled as a bonus to the next ranged attack roll you make with a firearm this turn. If the target of the attack is an unattended, inanimate object, the bonus equals double the die roll.

Extra Attack

Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Become the Gun

Starting at 14th level, whenever you use a Arts of the Arma option, you can roll a d6 and use it instead of expending a Bardic Inspiration die.