College of Silence

Most bards fill a hall with music. Bards of the College of Silence fill it with the thing that comes after: the held breath, the unsaid word, the footfall that never arrives. They treat quiet as an instrument and absence as a stage. Spies, court whisperers, temple mute-singers, and killers who never announce themselves all find a home in this college. A Silence bard does not merely sneak. They edit the world until sound itself answers to them.

Silent Voice

3rd-level College of Silence feature

You learn to speak without speaking and to strip sound from yourself and your magic.

• Telepathy. You gain telepathy out to 120 feet. You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within that range that understands at least one language. You don’t need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your meaning.
• Soundless Form. No action required, you can cause yourself to produce no sound. While you do so, your voice, footsteps, breathing, equipment, and other noises you would make are inaudible. You can end this effect at any time (no action required).
• Wordless Magic. You can ignore the verbal components of spells you cast. If a spell would require a creature to hear you or hear the spell in order for the spell to function, the spell still functions even if the creature cannot hear it. Your spells and magical effects produce no sound unless you wish them to.
• Unbroken Hearing. You cannot be unwillingly deafened. If you are deafened, you can end that condition on yourself (no action required). You are immune to thunder damage.

Unheard Presence

3rd-level College of Silence feature

Quiet has trained your body and your senses.

• You gain expertise in Stealth and Perception. You have advantage on Stealth checks. You have advantage on Perception checks that rely on hearing.
• You can take the Hide, Disengage, or Dash action as a bonus action.
• Heard Without Hearing. You can sense when a creature casts a spell that has a verbal component, even if that creature does not provide the verbal component, provided you are within the spell’s range of the caster (use 60 feet if the spell’s range is Self or Touch). When you sense a spell this way, you can target it with counterspell and similar spells normally, as if you could hear and see the casting.

Still Strike

3rd-level College of Silence feature

A blow that lands from perfect quiet hits twice as hard as one announced by sound.

While you are hidden and either producing no sound or within an area of silence, any attack you make has advantage on the attack roll even if you would otherwise have disadvantage. If the attack hits, the damage from that attack is doubled.

While you are hidden, creatures have disadvantage on saving throws against your spells and magical effects. If a creature fails a saving throw against one of your spells, any damage from that spell is doubled.

Phantom Stage

3rd-level College of Silence feature

You can hang a false scene in the air and throw your magic through it, and you can call down hush whenever you wish.

You can cast silent image at will, without expending a spell slot, and you can cast it as a bonus action. You don’t need to concentrate on a silent image cast using this feature. The illusion lasts for 10 minutes, until you dismiss it (no action required).

When you cast a spell, you can choose for the spell to originate from a silent image you created with this feature, as if you were in the illusion’s space. A spell you cast this way is silenced: it produces no sound, and you ignore any verbal component it would require.

You can cast silence at will, without expending a spell slot, and you can cast it as a bonus action. When you cast silence, you don’t need to concentrate on it. It lasts for its normal duration or until you dismiss it (no action required).

Suffocated Magic

6th-level College of Silence feature

You no longer ask the world for quiet. You impose it, and you punish the first syllable of a rival spell.

• Stolen Word. When a creature you can see within 120 feet of you attempts to cast a spell that has a verbal component, you can use your reaction to cast silence centered on that creature. The triggering spell fails.
• Chosen Thunder. Creatures and objects of your choice within an area of silence created by you are unaffected by thunder damage unless you wish them to be.
• Silencing Strike. When you cast a spell that requires a target, you can treat that casting as if you are also casting silence centered on that target.
• Soft Footing. While you or any of your allies are within an area of silence created by you, you and those allies gain a +10 bonus to Stealth checks.

Absolute Silence

14th-level College of Silence feature

Your hush can walk. It can swell. And inside it, sound is no longer a law of nature. It is a privilege you grant.

• Moving Quiet. When you cast silence, you can center it on a creature or an object. If you do, the area remains centered on that creature or object even if the creature or object moves.
• Widened Hush. When you cast silence, you can double the spell’s radius.
• Closed Border. Spells and magical effects that require verbal components, or that produce sound, cannot pass into, pass through, or exit an area of silence created by you unless you wish them to.
• Forbidden Voice. Creatures of your choice within an area of silence created by you cannot cast spells that have verbal components, even if those creatures would not use verbal components for the spells.