College of Shadowsong

Bards of the College of Shadowsong use their talents not to inspire hope, but to instill fear, silence opposition, and strike with deadly precision. These bards are spies, assassins, and manipulators—masters of weapon, word, and shadow alike. Their music is the tension before the kill and the breath that never comes.

Deadly Changes

Deadly Inspiration

Subclass Variant Feature: Replaces Bardic Inspiration

You don’t rouse courage with words—you inspire with silence, menace, and the promise of death well-delivered. Your Bardic Inspiration becomes a tactical edge, a whisper in the shadows, a flick of the blade that turns a skirmish into a massacre. You can grant Deadly Inspiration to yourself or an ally within 60 feet who can see or hear you, but only if they have made or are about to make a weapon attack or Dexterity (Stealth) check.

A creature with a Deadly Inspiration die can choose to roll it and add it to one of the following:

• A weapon damage roll

• An attack roll

• A Dexterity (Stealth) check.

• An initiative roll.

• If the character is a rouge, then they gain sneak attack and add the inspiration dice to the damage

Whispers of the Quiet

Replaces Song of Rest

Starting at 2nd level, when you or any friendly creatures who can see or hear you regain hit points at the end of a short rest, they also gain the benefits of your eerie stillness.

Instead of a song, you sit in silence—blade in lap, eyes half-closed—as your presence alone mends more than wounds.

Any creature who hears or sees you during the short rest regains an extra 1d6 hit points, as normal for Song of Rest. This die increases to 1d8 at 9th level, 1d10 at 13th level, and 1d12 at 17th level.

In addition, during the rest, affected allies:

• Have advantage on the next Stealth check they make within 1 hour.

• Gain resistance to psychic damage until the end of their next turn the first time they roll initiative after the rest.

Blade in the Silence

You gain proficiency in Stealth and with martial weapons. If you're already proficient in Stealth, you may double your proficiency bonus on Stealth checks.

Additionally, when you hit a creature that is surprised or hasn’t acted yet in combat, you can expend a Bardic Inspiration die to deal an additional 2d6 psychic damage, plus the result of the die. This damage increases to 3d6 at level 10 and 4d6 at level 15.

Phantom Step

Your movement becomes unpredictable and unnerving. When you take the Hide action, you can also move up to half your speed as part of the same action.

Additionally, while hidden, you can move through a creature’s space without provoking opportunity attacks, and attacks made from hiding ignore resistance to psychic or poison damage.

Dirge of the Dying

You can invoke a killing rhythm that fills a creature’s mind with the certainty of death.

As an action, choose one creature within 60 feet that can hear you. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw DC 14 On a failure, it becomes Frightened of you for 1 minute, and on its next turn, it can take only a Dash, Disengage, or Dodge action.

While frightened this way, the creature has disadvantage on Constitution saving throws and saving throws to maintain concentration. It can remake the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

You may use this feature once per long rest, or again by expending two Bardic Inspiration dice.