College of Icons

Politicians. Activists. Stars of stage and screen. The inherent presence of those who stand out among the many in these groups, in combination with their carefully curated personas, bolsters devoted cults of personality and imbues the best with the innate ability to form and reshape the Zeitgeist. The College of Icons is the home of A-Listers, whose tweets can topple economies and whose performances can enthrall or even enslave generations. Kin with visionaries and proles, the Icon draws power from their fans and use their voices, words, and gestures to shape aspects of the world into one of their own making.

Iconic Focus

You got branding down. A symbol or image is unanimous with your public persona: think Madonna with her cone breast plate, Michael Jackson's single glove, or even Elvis's signature pelvic shake and greaser hair. You can use the following objects or styles as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells: a t-shirt, a hair style, a unique symbol on a pendant, a tattoo, or whatever design or easily holdable object that has become ubiquitous with your brand.

At 6th level, when you cast a bard spell that deals damage or restores hit points through the Iconic Focus, roll a d6, and you gain a bonus to one roll of the spell equal to the number rolled.

Magnanimous Presence

You have a powerful way of effecting the spaces around you. You learn the thaumaturgy cantrip, which doesn’t count against the number of bard cantrips you know. For you, it has a range of 60 feet when you cast it.

Inspiration of Presence

You can use a bonus action to expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration and roll on the Fame table using your Bardic Inspiration die to determine how your iconic status may affect a situation. You retain this status ability until you bestow the tale’s effect or you finish a short or long rest.

You can use an action to choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you (this can be you) to be the target of your iconic effect. Once you do so, you can’t bestow the iconic effect again until you roll it again.

You can retain only one of these effects at a time, and rolling on the Fame table immediately ends the effect of the previous tale. If the effect requires a saving throw, the DC equals your spell save DC.

1. Autograph A humanoid or fey of your choice you within range recognizes you and is a fan. The targeted humanoid must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, this humanoid or fey regards you and your allies as friendly and wants your autograph. The humanoid or fey remains friendly to you and your allies for one minute or ends when their autograph is denied or if you or an ally attacks them.

2. On the House Choose a number of targets up to your Charisma modifier. For one hour, the targets have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion and Performance) checks while in your presence. 

3. #Cancelled People do not tend to forget what you say in their presence. Choose a target within range to hurl an insult or demeaning comment at. The target must make a Charisma saving throw. On a fail, the target takes psychic damage equal to two rolls of your Bardic Inspiration die + your Charisma modifier and has their hit point max reduced by half that total. On a save, they take half damage and their hit point max is unchanged. 

4. Stalker You have become adept at moving through the streets unnoticed - tabloid hounds abound. You and your chosen targets within range gain advantage on stealth checks. 

5. Biggest Fan Oh, god, not this guy again. Your biggest fan will defend you to the death and has just shown up. For one minute, your target can use their reaction to have your biggest fan verbally berate and physically attack a nearby enemy to deal Psychic OR Bludgeoning damage equal to one roll of your Bardic inspiration die. 

6. Hot Damn! Just being around your rocks and makes people feel special. Choose a creature you can see within range. The target gains temporary hit points equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die + your bard level. While it has these temporary hit points, the target’s walking speed increases by 10 feet. 

7. Get Lost You can push just about anyone into obscurity with the right statements. The target becomes invisible until the end of its next turn or until it hits a creature with an attack. If it hits a creature with an attack during this invisibility, that creature takes psychic damage equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die and is frightened of the target until the end of its next turn.

8. Impenetrable Presence What are they gonna do, kill you? A number of targets within range equal to your Charisma modifier become resistant to non-magical piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning damage and gain advantage on saving throws related to magical attacks. 

9. Livestream Everything is connected. Your target whips out their phone to live stream whatever situation they are in. Any creature chosen within a 30 foot cone of the target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be stunned for one minute. The target can use movement to stun further combatants.

10. Paparazzi Swarm Can't I just get a little privacy? The paparazzi always know where you are. Target any number of creatures within range and have them all be transported safely to a new location within 500 feet as the paparazzi swarm around you all to take pictures, field questions, and block outsiders from seeing where you go.

11. #Iconic Sometimes, just seeing you is all a person needs to feel better. The target regains hit points equal to two rolls of your Bardic Inspiration die + your bard level, and you end one disease or a condition from the following list affecting the target: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, petrified, or poisoned.

12. Your Wish is My Command You have a whole team waiting on you hand and foot. Choose a creature within range. The target can cast any 6th level or lower spell without the need for any components. Once this piece of inspiration is used, it cannot be used again until completing 1d4 long rests, and roll of 12 is not counted during this time.

Power of the Posse

You can make real your will through posts on social media. You can conduct an hour-long ritual where you post selfies, livestream, or make other posts online (which can be done during a short or long rest) with your Iconic focus clearly visible.

You can conduct the ritual with a number of creatures equal to your proficiency bonus (including yourself). At the end of the ritual, you temporarily learn one spell of your choice from any class.

The spell you choose must be of a level equal to the number of creatures that conducted the ritual or less, the spell must of a level you can cast, and it must be in the school of enchantment or evocation. The chosen spell counts as a bard spell for you but doesn’t count against the number of bard spells you know.

Once you perform the ritual, you can’t do so again until you start a long rest, and you know the chosen spell until you start a long rest.

Cult of Personality

You are renowned and loved. While live-streaming or doing a performance of any kind (in person, broadcasted, or any combination of the two), you can weave enchanting magic into your performance. Based on the roll of a percentage die, that percentage of your viewership becomes branded into your fandom cult and is called to perform an action at your behest. The higher the amount of people within your cult, the likelier that what you ask of them will be carried through. This feature can be used once a day and cannot be used again for 7 days after a success.

What you ask of your cult to carry out is open to your imagination and the discretion of your DM, but it should be a simple enough action that a single group of people could carry it out entirely within 8 hours,. Its success is not guaranteed - 50% of viewers is equal to a 50% chance of total success, but varying degrees of success are possible for what you ask of your cult.

For every level above 14th, you can add +10 to your roll when using this feature, up to a total addition of +50. 

At level 20, what you ask of your cult is always carried out successfully.