College of Shadows

Favored by thieves and killers, the College of Shadows trains its pupils in the arts of espionage, infiltration, impersonation, and assassination.

The College of Shadows teaches its students that they are wolves among sheep. These bards use their knowledge and magic to wield power from the shadows, changing identities like outfits.

Few know of the College of Shadows beyond whispered rumors, and those who do know fear to speak too loudly. After all, you never know when the person across the table from you might be one of the Shadows.

Espionage Training

When you join the College of Shadows at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in Deception, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and thieves' tools. If you are already proficient with these tools or abilities, choose another equivalent proficiency for each proficiency you already have.

Psychic Trauma

When you join the College of Whispers at 3rd level, you gain the ability to kill without leaving a trace.

When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can transform the weapon or ammunition into shadow energy. You deal an extra 2d6 psychic damage to the target, and the attack leaves no visible wounds. You can do so only once per round on your turn.

If you have advantage on the attack, you can spend 3 uses of this ability to automatically score a critical hit in addition to dealing the extra damage.

You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain all expended uses after a short or long rest.

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.

Infiltration Specialist

At 6th level, your skills have become second nature. When rolling an ability check pertaining to Acrobatics, Deception, Investigation, Perception, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, or Stealth, you may treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

In addition, you can create false identities for yourself. You must spend seven days and 25 gp to establish the history, profession, and affiliations for an identity. You can't establish an identity that belongs to someone else. For example, you might acquire appropriate clothing, letters of introduction, and official-looking certification to establish yourself as a member of a trading house from a remote city so you can insinuate yourself into the company of other wealthy merchants.

Thereafter, if you adopt the new identity as a disguise, other creatures believe you to be that person until given an obvious reason not to.

You also gain the ability to cast a spell using the Subtle Metamagic by expending a use of Bardic Inspiration.

Shadow Step

At 6th level, you gain the ability to step from one shadow to another.

When you are in dim light or darkness, you can teleport up to 60' to another space that is also in dim light or darkness. You then have advantage on the first attack you make before the end of your turn.

You cannot use this ability while wearing Medium or Heavy Armor.

The maximum distance increases to 120' at 10th level.

Shadow Projection

At 14th level, you choose a mark to represent you and your interests. This mark must be unique in some way, as a generic symbol will not trigger the magic.

As an action, you can manifest your shadow in an unoccupied space within 20' of one of your marks, so long as the space is not in direct daylight. You can see, hear, and speak through the shadow, but your physical body is blinded and deafened. You can maintain the manifestation until you choose to end it or until the mark is destroyed. Ending the manifestation requires no action.

In addition, a creature may request your presence by spending an action to summon you while touching one of the marks. You are under no compulsion to appear, but you are aware of the summons and which mark is being used.

Marks can be created by anyone familiar with you as an action. You can distinguish between marks, but you do not know the physical location unless you have created the mark yourself or have manifested there.

You can attune to a number of marks equal to your Charisma bonus plus your proficiency modifier. If a mark is created beyond this limit, you choose whether to replace an existing attunement. You can only attune to and manifest through marks on the same plane of existence as your physical body.