College of Fables

Bards of the College of Fables are talented with their quills, parchments, and imaginations.  They weave fanciful tales of wonder, fantasy, and adventure, enthralling the many who listen and read their stories with romance, betrayal, and discovery, all on the words on the page.   Bards of this college find themselves in all manner of writing professions, from authors to storytellers to playwrights and much more.

These bards are committed to their craft, and in working to achieve their success, learn how to imbue magic in the words they create.  Verbally and written, they can make something from a mere idea, using language and sentences to manipulate the magical forces that surround them.

These bards, like many bards, strive to see their work come alive.  They submit their pieces to publishers, festivals, and theaters, all hoping their words will be seen performed on the stage.  Bards who achieve success in this college often see their names and their works last forever, never fading from history, always being found by new readers and audiences, even long after their deaths.

Spellcasting Focus

Starting when you choose this College at 3rd level, you can use your notebook in which you write your ideas and stories, as well as a quill, as your spellcasting focus instead of an instrument.

Performer's Training

Starting when you choose this college at 3rd level, your education has taught you the skills of the performer.  You gain proficiency in Charisma (Performance) checks, or expertise if you are already proficient.  Also, when you are in costume or a disguise, magical or non-magical, you have advantage on all Charisma checks made while pretending to be someone other than yourself.

Arcane Storytelling

Also at 3rd level, you learn to imbue magic in the words you write on the page.  With your quill, you write in your notebook the words of your imagination.  You choose a literary technique, and as you write the words into existence, you call upon your magic to aid you in your efforts.  You can expend a bardic inspiration to use this feature.  You choose one of the following literary techniques to write into your story as you work to create it.

Foreshadow. You write the words in your story of something that is yet to come, forewarning yourself of a future event.  You choose a saving throw type and roll your bardic inspiration die.  The next time you make that saving throw, you add the rolled number to your total.

Metaphor. You write the words in your story of great comparison, gifting yourself with the might of your mind.  On your next attack that hits a target, you do additional damage equal to a roll of your bardic inspiration die.

Irony. You write the words in your story of the unexpected, changing for yourself an expected outcome.  The next time a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can reverse the damage onto them.  You roll your bardic inspiration die and do that amount of damage to them in the damage type they intended to hit you with.

Soliloquy. You write the words in your story of self reflection, restoring yourself to a state in which you once were.  You may roll the bardic inspiration die and immediately regain the total + your charisma modifier in hit points.

Weaver of Tales

Starting at 6th level, your ability to create a tale can captivate any audience.  As an action, you begin telling a magically imbued story that lasts for 1 minute.  All creatures of your choice within 30 feet of you who can hear you must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Spell save DC.  On a failed save, the creature halts completely, captivated entirely by your story.  The creature's movement becomes 0 and it can not take actions on its turn.  The creature comes out of its captivation and regains its movements and actions if it takes damage while enthralled by your tale.

For the duration of your minute of storytelling, you are speaking to tell your tale.  You cannot communicate verbally with anyone, as it would require you to interrupt your tale, and you cannot cast any spells that require verbal components.  You can not be disrupted from your storytelling, such as with the spell silence, however a magic ending effect, such as dispel magic will end the enchantment of your tale, releasing your audience from their captivation.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Power of the Word

Beginning at 14th level, your ability to use magic as a part of your storytelling becomes powerful enough that you no longer need to perform every aspect of spellcasting when you cast.  You no longer need to use somatic components to cast any bard spell, only relying on verbal components and your notebook as your material spellcasting focus.  If you cast a spell that only requires somatic components, you may choose instead to cast it verbally.  Any spells that require both somatic and material components only require your spellcasting focus or specific material components, if they are required beyond your spellcasting focus.