College of Inquiry

Bards of the College of Inquiry are the universe’s brilliant thinkers. Bards of this college are naturally drawn to the pursuit of justice and guaranteeing that wrong doers get what is coming to them. It is their job, and truly their passion, to discern who or what is guilty for any given crime. Unlike most bards, these focus more on the rational and logical world, rather than the arts. Bards of this college have their whole personas built around truth, justice and logic and their goals are always to pursue just that.

Discerning Investigation

Starting at 3rd level, you have a keen eye for what you’re looking for and are quick to pick out a lie. When you make a Wisdom (Insight) or Intelligence (Investigation) check, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

Combat Analysis

As a bonus action, you may expend a use of your Bardic inspiration to select a creature that you can see within 60 feet of you and force it to make a Charisma Saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save you may choose one of the following effects to inflict on the target creature:

• Predictive Sidestep. When the creature makes an attack roll against you, it must subtract a roll of your bardic inspiration die from the result.
• Pinpoint Weakness. When you hit the creature with an attack it deals additional damage equal to a roll of your bardic inspiration die.

This effect lasts for one minute or until you use this feature again on a different creature. On a successful save, this feature has no effect.

Compelling Interrogation

Starting at 6th level, if you spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with another creature outside combat, you can learn certain information about its capabilities compared to your own. The DM tells you two of your choices of the following:

• Whether the creature is able to cast spells or not.
• The creature’s best ability score.
• The creature’s current emotional state.
• The creature’s surface thoughts that you could feasibly read through body language.
• The creature’s current desire or motivation.
• The creature’s alignment.
• The creature’s relationships to one creature of your choice that you can see or that you have talked to the target creature about.

Quick Reflexes, Alert Senses

When you reach 14th level you’re always acutely aware of your surroundings and your enemies actions. When you use your Combat Analysis feature, once per short rest you can choose to apply both Predictive Sidestep and Pinpoint Weakness to one creature without spending a bardic inspiration die.

Additionally, you are considered to always be passively investigating, even when you are doing other actions, and are acutely aware of any illusions around you, though you have no insight into the nature of the illusion or what is behind it.