College of Misery

When one thinks of bards, they usually imagine energetic party animals. Even the most corrupt bard is considered to be charming and pleasing on the outside. None break this stereotype more so than the College of Misery.

Less of a college and more of a collection of like minded individuals, those of the College of Misery are, as their name suggests, the most miserable beings in the world. While they're not all necessarily evil or possesses Ill intentions, each member of the College of Misery has sorrow built into their very being in one way or another, whether it be through depression, apathy, anxiety, feelings of ineptitude or nihilism. Even if they do get better mentally with the help of friends, they can never truly escape the sorrow in their soul.

 

When those of College of Misery are roused to combat, they generally prefer weakening the enemy rather than supporting their allies. With eulogies, sorrowful poems, and nihilistic words bards of the College of Misery sap the will of their enemies, making them just as miserable as themselves.

Hello Darkness my old friend

Either you spent too much time brooding in the dark or you're that depressed. Either way darkness clings on to you, in more than one way.

When you join the College of Misery, you gain the Darkness spell in addition to any other spells and always have it prepared. It is considered a bard spell for the purposes of casting. Additionally, you gain darkvision of 60ft. If you already have darkvision from race, its range is increased by 30ft.

Killjoy

Intentionally or not, you always seem to find a way to kill the mood. On the plus side, this also applies to your enemies.

When you join the College of Misery, you can use your action to try to fill a creature with negative emotions. Select one creature who's INT is higher than 6, shares the same language as you, and is within 60ft of you. That creature must make a WIS saving throw against your spell save DC. On a success nothing happens. On a failure, you expend 1 of your bardic inspiration dice to make a creature somber. A somber creature can't concentrate on spells and has their movement halved, due to their enthusiasm being sapped and their mind being clouded by dark thoughts. If the creature was currently concentrating on a spell, they immediately lose concentration. Furthermore, whenever they make an attack roll, roll your bardic inspiration dice and subtract it from the attack roll. A somber creature may repeat the saving throw everytime they take damage, ending the effect on a success. Otherwise, the effect ends after 1 minute. A creature that has been targeted by ability can't be targeted again for 24 hours.

Melancholy

Words may hurt just as much as sticks and stones, but you've inadvertently trained yourself to shrug mean words of, purely because you keep calling yourself harsher words.

At 6th level, you gain a resistance to psychic damage. In addition, you have advantage against being frightened condition, because you're used to dealing with anxiety, and being charmed, because you have trouble loving yourself and can't bring yourself to be somebody's terrible friend.

Misery loves company

As the old saying goes, misery loves company. It just so happens you learned how to take this literally.

 

Starting at level 14, once per long rest you can use your action to have an enemy irradiate an aura of despair. Select one creature that is within 60ft of you and has an INT score higher than 6. The enemy must make a WIS saving throw against your spell save DC. On a success, nothing happens. On a failure, that creature is filled with nihilism, anxiety, worry, and depression, causing it to give out a 20 ft aura of despair. All hostile creatures are inflected with the Frightened condition so long as they're in  aura and most always try to escape the aura before anything else. In addition, the target creature also suffers 3d10 psychic damage at the start at each of it's turn and has disadvantage on attack rolls. The creature may repeat the saving throw at the beginning of it's turn, ending the effect on a success. Otherwise, it lasts for 1 minute.