College of the Autumn Circus

There are some bards who arrive in the dead of night; performers from a wave of dark circuses that travel the vespertine roads of autumn. These uncanny entertainers delight, excite and unsettle.  Bards of this college are mysterious, bewitching and uncanny. 

Arriving, almost imperceptibly, over-night the autumn circus stays for two nights - enchanting the locals with magic and wonder.  Then, before the sun rises, the whole troupe silently departs without a trace.  However, it is rumoured that the circus takes rather more than coin with a visitation and many tales are told of troubling disappearances after it leaves.

Such autumn circuses are home to wondrous and macabre entertainers:  fire-breathers, ghosts, barely-tamed beasts, exotic animal handlers and mysterious masked bards.  

Bards of the "Autumn Circus" are always masked in public and their identities are secret and mercurial.  They are charismatic, entertaining, agile and deadly; displaying great skill in acrobatics, juggling, and the use of unusual weapon skills.    

Finally, and perhaps most uncanny of all, these dark bards cannot speak in the usual sense.  Their vocal communication is limited to whistle, song or rhyme.

Expanded Spell List

The Autumn Circus grants you the ability choose from an expanded list of spells.  The following spells are added to the Bard spell list for you:

SPELL LEVEL	SPELLS
0	Shocking grasp
1st	Hex, Arms of Hadar
2nd	Darkness, Shadow blade
3rd	Slow, Vampiric touch
4th	Phantasmal killer, Shadow of moil
5th	Passwall, Steel wind strike

 

Nimble

When you join the College of Autumn Circus, you develop skills which allow you to move in miraculous, agile ways.   This means, as a bonus action, you can tumble away from a creature once you have made an attack. When you tumble, you gain the benefits of taking the Dash and Disengage actions.

In addition you can climb with a speed equal to your current speed and only take half damage from falling.

Fan of blades

Also at the 3rd level, you gain the ability to expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to make a ranged spell attack, conjuring a fan of magical knives and hurling them, dealing 3d6 psychic damage to that target. You can do so only once per round on your turn.

The psychic damage increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to 4d6 at 5th level, 6d6 at 10th level, and 8d6 at 15th level

Contortionist

Starting at the 6th level, you have honed your ability to bend and flex your limbs to such a degree that it has allowed you to make an additional attack. 

Uncanny Movement

At the 14th level, your bizarre movement and uncanny reflexes instinctively steer your from harm. So, as a Reaction to taking damage, you can halve that damage against you - providing you are not wearing medium or heavy armour.