bards before desire causing reflect

Madcap

Monsters Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

been. A redcap’s desire to slay is rooted in its will to survive. VARIANT: MADCAPS A madcap is a redcap that soaks its hat in demon ichor instead of blood. Contact with demon ichor makes the

creature even more psychotic, causing it to brood over irrational hatreds. A group of madcaps will sometimes band together over a shared hatred of something, such as music, creatures with curly hair

Brain in a Jar

Monsters Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

whom it can speak. It also likes to think out loud and reflect on the events and decisions that led to its great transformation. Brain Vessels The brain floats in a jar of solution, pulsating as it

wrought masterwork, depending on its creator. Still other brains desire nothing more than to regain a body. This might be the brain’s original body, another frame they covet, or some more

Way of the Astral Self (TCoE)

Classes Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

mighty. FORMS OF YOUR ASTRAL SELF The astral self is a translucent embodiment of the monk’s soul. As a result, an astral self can reflect aspects of a monk’s background, ideals, flaws, and

with something? Are you driven by justice or a selfish desire? Any of these motivations could manifest in the form of your astral self.

Dragonflesh Abomination

Monsters Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

abomination is the final stage of a grafter’s transformation—a hulking monster whose corrupted brain is ablaze with desire for treasure. Its abhorrent transformation erases the last

vestiges of its previous life. It sprouts a tail and clumsy wings and grows to enormous size, barely retaining a bipedal shape. Its stomach churns with acid, causing noxious fumes to waft from its mouth and

Needle Lord

Monsters Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1

wrap around the corpse to animate it, causing it to rise and lurch about like a zombie. Invasive Species. When a great battle is fought in a fey woodland, the plants of the wood sometimes take on the

implacable foe. Driven only by a desire to conquer and rule, it wages endless war with its army of mobile dead against all creatures it views as a threat to its domination. It might even forge treaties with

Way of the Astral Self

Classes Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

. FORMS OF YOUR ASTRAL SELF The astral self is a translucent embodiment of the monk’s soul. As a result, an astral self can reflect aspects of a monk’s background, ideals, flaws, and

something? Are you driven by justice or a selfish desire? Any of these motivations could manifest in the form of your astral self.

Bard Legacy

Classes Basic Rules (2014)

set bards apart from their fellows. Only rarely do bards settle in one place for long, and their natural desire to travel—to find new tales to tell, new skills to learn, and new discoveries

of song, speech, and the magic they contain. Bards say that the multiverse was spoken into existence, that the words of the gods gave it shape, and that echoes of these primordial Words of Creation

Nilbog Legacy

Monsters Volo's Guide to Monsters

Maglubiyet, this trickster god survives in splintered form as a possessing spirit that arises when goblinoids form a host, causing disorder in the ranks unless it is appeased. Goblins have no name for

fearless of reprisal. It gives the goblin strange powers that drive others to do the opposite of what they desire. Attacking a goblin possessed by a nilbog is foolhardy, and killing the creature just

Tabaxi Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

mull over the stories and rumors they collected like a miser counting coins. Although material wealth holds little attraction for the tabaxi, they have an insatiable desire to find and inspect ancient

. Fleeting Fancies Wandering tabaxi are mercurial creatures, trading one obsession or passion for the next as the whim strikes. A tabaxi’s desire burns bright, but once met it disappears to be

Learning from Experience

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)

magic set bards apart from their fellows. Only rarely do bards settle in one place for long, and their natural desire to travel — to find new tales to tell, new skills to learn, and new discoveries

Learning from Experience True bards are not common in the world. Not every minstrel singing in a tavern or jester cavorting in a royal court is a bard. Discovering the magic hidden in music requires

Selesnya Initiate

Backgrounds Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica

fervent desire to share the joy you have experienced with Ravnica. Along with the rest of the conclave, you are committed to resisting the ambitions of the other guilds — with military force if

. 3 I enjoy comfort and quiet, and prefer to avoid extra effort. 4 I have a fierce temper that doesn’t reflect the inner calm I seek. 5 I’m convinced that everyone else in the

Learning from Experience

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)

magic set bards apart from their fellows. Only rarely do bards settle in one place for long, and their natural desire to travel — to find new tales to tell, new skills to learn, and new discoveries

Learning from Experience True bards are not common in the world. Not every minstrel singing in a tavern or jester cavorting in a royal court is a bard. Discovering the magic hidden in music requires

Modifying a Class

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)

modify existing classes to better serve your game’s needs. Changing Proficiencies Changing a class’s proficiencies is a safe and simple way to modify a class to better reflect your world. Swapping

your world might worship a patron deity, performing secret missions in that deity’s name. To reflect this cultural detail, you could add Religion to the list of skills that a rogue character can choose

Optional Rules

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)

Optional Rules Each of the Outer Planes has peculiar characteristics that make traveling through it a unique experience. A plane’s influence can affect visitors in various ways, such as causing them

to take on personality traits or flaws that reflect the disposition of the plane, or even shift alignment to more closely match the native inhabitants of the plane. Each plane’s description includes

Zil Characters

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

appropriate, reflecting their love of intrigue. Classes that specialize in melee combat are rare among the Zil. The soldiers of Zilargo include rogues, bards, wizards, and artificers. The Trust. In

agent or acquire a particular object from their base. While the spy background is a logical choice for a Trust agent, the agency recruits characters of every class and background. Your class abilities reflect specialized training and granted abilities—the magical equivalent of spy gadgets!

Talentan Characters

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron

, and bards and rogues certainly have a place on the plains. Outlander is a logical background, but you could easily be a bold folk hero, a dashing entertainer, or a clever charlatan. You could even be an

the form of dinosaurs. However, you could reflect a strong bond to spirits by playing an Archfey warlock, Nature cleric, Oath of the Ancients paladin, or a Beast Totem or Ancestral Guardian barbarian

Signature Case

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

secrets that might have better remained hidden, causing untold harm in the process. Whether true or false, stories like these tend to cling to inquisitive agencies and color their reputations. What

big story is associated with your agency (and possibly your party)? Are the stories accurate, or do they reflect only one side of a complicated situation? Roll on the Signature Case table or choose a

Charisma

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)

. The Deception, Intimidation, Performance, and Persuasion skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Charisma checks. Deception. Your Charisma (Deception) check determines whether you can convincingly

, rumors, and gossip Blend into a crowd to get the sense of key topics of conversation Spellcasting Ability Bards, paladins, sorcerers, and warlocks use Charisma as their spellcasting ability, which helps determine the saving throw DCs of spells they cast.

Phenax as Campaign Villain

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mythic Odysseys of Theros

. As a campaign villain, Phenax might be driven by a desire to incite conflict against his fellow gods, usually to serve his own ends. Although Phenax doesn’t desire rulership over Nyx, he does love to

engages in a shadow war with Erebos, causing pandemonium in the Underworld. As a result, droves of Returned flood the mortal world. 2 Phenax undertakes a plot to transform Erebos into one of the

Build Your Group

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

some developing skills as clerics, rogues, wizards, or other classes. Such characters often come from the sage background and have proficiency in skills that reflect their studies, such as Arcana

Charisma to work in the service of the state. These characters often come from a noble background and bring proficiency in skills such as Intimidation and Persuasion to their work. Bards are natural fits in

Charisma

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)

. The Deception, Intimidation, Performance, and Persuasion skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Charisma checks. Deception Your Charisma (Deception) check determines whether you can convincingly

, rumors, and gossip Blend into a crowd to get the sense of key topics of conversation Spellcasting Ability Bards, paladins, sorcerers, and warlocks use Charisma as their spellcasting ability, which helps determine the saving throw DCs of spells they cast.

A Bard's Muse

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Xanathar's Guide to Everything

A Bard’s Muse Naturally, every bard has a repertoire of songs and stories. Some bards are generalists who can draw from a wide range of topics for each performance, and who take pride in their

versatility. Others adopt a more personal approach to their art, driven by their attachment to a muse — a particular concept that inspires much of what those bards do in front of an audience. A bard who

Aasimar Traits

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Volo's Guide to Monsters

urge to stand against evil. Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1. Radiant Soul. Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing

this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest. Scourge Aasimar Scourge aasimar are imbued with a divine energy that blazes intensely within them. It feeds a powerful desire to destroy

Bard Subclasses

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player’s Handbook

Bard Subclasses A Bard subclass is a specialization that grants you features at certain Bard levels, as specified in the subclass. Bards form loose associations, which they call colleges, to preserve

Harmony with the Cosmos Bards of the College of Dance know that the Words of Creation can’t be contained within speech or song; the words are uttered by the movements of celestial bodies and flow

Green Dragon Treasures

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

Green Dragon Treasures Green dragons relish gems and jewelry whose palettes reflect their chosen forest environments, favoring viridescent colors and bursts of floral brilliance. Many develop vast

world of Krynn, Cyan Bloodbane used one of the Orbs of Dragonkind to poison the mind of the elf king Lorac, causing the land of Silvanesti to become swallowed up in Lorac’s nightmares. The green

Seven Secrets of Ravenloft

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

and falling as the Dark Powers desire. Tales attribute ominous powers to the Mists, from cloaking monsters to causing entire villages to vanish. The Mists are not bound to Ravenloft and slip across

undergo terrifying transformations, whole villages disappear unnoticed, and the Mists bar every method of escaping a threat. Any surreal development you desire is also the will of the Dark Powers, assuring

Evil Inchoate

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

status, and they typically don’t set impossible goals — a lesser demon, for instance, might simply run amok when unleashed into the world, its only desire to spread chaos, but a marilith or other

powerful demon usually has an intent that goes beyond merely causing carnage, and a plan to achieve it. DEMONIC AMULETS: BLESSING AND CURSE Some demon lords have a way of cheating death, but this great

3. Halaster Puppet

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Halaster’s voice, “Terrible and painful magical death! Fireballs and lightning bolts! Begone!” It speaks and understands Common, but voices nothing but empty threats and a desire to continue its “work

points or if a successful dispel magic spell (DC 15) is cast on it. Hidden inside the puppet is a flask of alchemist’s fire that shatters as the puppet falls to pieces, causing its remnants to catch

Hall of Illusions

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

within. The Hourglass Coven’s thieves slip in and out of the tent as they desire, and most of the carnival staff prefer to give the attraction a wide berth, believing it to be jinxed or haunted

causing mischief throughout the carnival and sometimes uses magic to conceal her true form. If the characters agree to help Candlefoot, he performs a few delightful magic tricks for their amusement

Dragonflesh Abomination

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

Dragonflesh Abomination A dragonflesh abomination is the final stage of a grafter’s transformation—a hulking monster whose corrupted brain is ablaze with desire for treasure. Its abhorrent

transformation erases the last vestiges of its previous life. It sprouts a tail and clumsy wings and grows to enormous size, barely retaining a bipedal shape. Its stomach churns with acid, causing noxious fumes

Peryton

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual (2014)

humanoid rather than reflecting the creature’s physical form. Sages postulate that the first perytons were humans transformed by a hideous curse or magical experiment, but bards tell a different tale

consumes a heart, its shadow changes for a brief time to reflect its true monstrous form. When attacking a humanoid, a peryton is single-minded and relentless, fighting until it or its prey dies. If a

Lorehold Student

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

, and your spell effects might reflect the appearance of the reference books you study. Building a Lorehold Character Any class or subclass that deals with knowledge of the past can be a good fit in

Lorehold. Bards thrive in Lorehold, and wizards (particularly those of the School of Divination) are numerous among its students. Clerics (often with the Knowledge or Light domains) are also quite common

Guilds and Groups

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

city of Sharn, which is both the cultural heart of Breland and a nexus for intrigue and diplomacy. Bards have much to gain from the company of other bards, as they exchange news, stories, and songs

. For this purpose, long ago a group of the finest bards in Sharn founded the Circle of Song, an alliance of entertainers and adventurers. The Circle of Song is an informal organization, open to any

College of Creation

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

College of Creation One bard’s song of creation is the score to another person’s nightmares. Tasha Bards believe the cosmos is a work of art—the creation of the first dragons and gods. That

creative work included harmonies that continue to resound through existence today, a power known as the Song of Creation. The bards of the College of Creation draw on that primeval song through dance

Mortuary Encounters

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Adventure Atlas: The Mortuary

characters interrupt or otherwise ruin the tune, 1d4 irascible specters emerge from the walls and attack, causing the bards to flee. 10 Three skeleton farmers quietly tend to corpse-white grave

to expel a dybbuk† from a corpse. The exorcist asks the characters to help in dispatch the Fiend. 9 Two bards† in the Heralds of Dust approach the characters and sing a ballad honoring the dead. If the

D&D Beyond

Search Results