College of the Stinging Tongue

In the College of the Stinging Tongue, the term weaponized words becomes reality, and the cantrip vicious mockery is taken to the next level. Bards of this college entertain crowds by picking out an unsuspecting audience member and divulging their secrets and weaknesses for all to hear, ultimately crushing them emotionally as they are embarrassed in a great display by these merciless bards.

By demoting others through tales of humiliation, many of these bards, sometimes known as divulgers or wasp-tongued, promote themselves with excessive amounts of pride and selfishness, leading many to believe they are above others. Some of these bards become politicians and use their talents of belittlement in political matters, while others simply make themselves feel better by making others feel worse.

The College of the Stinging Tongue is different from other colleges in that they prefer not to share their Bardic Inspiration, rather, they use it on themselves. While some bards of this college may use their Bardic Inspiration on others from time to time to achieve certain goals, most choose to use their inspiring skills to inspire themselves and themselves only, adding to the air of selfishness that follows these narcissistic bards. 

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Expert in Mockery

When you join the College of the Stinging Tongue at 3rd level, you learn the cantrip vicious mockery if you have not already learned it, and it doesn't count against the number of spells you know. Additionally, whenever you cast vicious mockery, you can choose to have the creature targeted by the cantrip automatically fail the Wisdom saving throw. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus before finishing a long rest to do it again.

Divulge Secrets

At 3rd level, you learn to discover information about other creatures by carefully viewing their bodily functions, social interactions, and other characteristics. You gain proficiency in the Insight or Intimidation skill (your choice) if you are not already proficient in one of them, and once per turn as an action during combat, you can make an Insight check against a friendly or unfriendly creature's Wisdom saving throw. If you fail, the creature is aware you tried to learn more about itself. If you succeed, you learn one of the following options of your choice without the creature knowing:

• You learn all of the creature's damage resistances, vulnerabilities, and immunities.
• You learn all of the creature's condition immunities.
• You learn all of the creature's ability score numbers and modifiers.
• You learn the creature's hit point maximum, current amount of hit points, temporary amount of hit points, and armor class.
• You learn the creature's difficulty class and XP giveaway.
• You learn all of the creature's personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws.
• You learn the creature's race, class, and background.
• You learn the creature's age, height, and weight.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your bard level before finishing a short or long rest to use it again.

Self Inspiring

At 3rd level, you learn to inspire yourself using your own Bardic Inspiration. When you use your Bardic Inspiration feature, you can choose to target yourself instead of others.

Withering Words

At 6th level, you learn to harm others with your hurtful speech. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn during combat using a melee attack, you can choose to insult the creature you attacked, dealing extra psychic damage equal to one roll of your Bardic Inspiration die (this does not expend any of your Bardic Inspiration uses). Creatures that cannot hear or have the deafened condition are immune to this extra damage. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier before finishing a short or long rest to use it again.

Above All Others

At 14th level, you learn to extrude your belittling presence upon those around you. As an action, you sing a song of scornfulness towards others, ultimately ridiculing everyone around you, and assume a dominating aura, gaining the following benefits for 1 minute:

• You grow to Large size (as long as there is room for you to do so).
• You shed an aura of intimidation outward from you in a 15 foot radius. Any creature (including friendly creatures) that ends their turn within this radius takes psychic damage equal to 1d12 plus your Charisma modifier.
• Whenever a creature hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to yell at them, dealing psychic damage equal to 1d4 plus your Charisma modifier.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus before finishing a long rest to use it again.