College of Tears

A silence falls on the party as the bard reaches the climax of their tragedy, their voice barely more than a whisper. The crackling of the campfire seems deafening, broken only by the landing of salty drops. The group hangs on every word, with the spell only broken as the goliath barbarian loudly blows their nose. At the tavern the audience is raucous with laughter, streams pouring from their eyes as pure joy bursts forth and they struggle for breath. Even as their sides split and their bellies ache, any pains from cruel reality are long forgotten. In the theatre a singer stands alone in a shaft of light, their voice cutting through the darkness beyond. The song pierces the souls, envelops the hearts, fills the minds and reverberates through the bodies of all present.

When a bard from the College of Tears performs, there is not a dry eye in the house. These bards are masters of provoking emotions, having tuned their craft to move even the most stoic of targets.

Inspire Lesser Emotion

Beginning at third level, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to inspire great emotion to bolster your allies, turn foes to friends or make enemies vulnerable.

As a bonus action, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to instil strong feelings in a target with 60 feet that can see and hear you. You may choose one of the following effects:

Tears of Beauty

Your target is filled with a sense of serenity. Roll your Bardic Inspiration die; your target must succeed a Wisdom saving throw against a DC of 10 + your roll + your Charisma modifier (minimum total of 11). On a fail, the target is charmed for 1d10 minutes, or until you or your allies attack it, damage it, or force it to make a saving throw.

Tears of Despair

Your target is filled with a sense of hopelessness, feeling raw from the daily grind of life. Roll your Bardic Inspiration die; your target must succeed a Wisdom saving throw against a DC of 8 + your roll + your Charisma modifier (minimum total of 9). On a fail, the target is incapacitated for a minute, or until it succeeds on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, which it may attempt at the end of each of its turns.

Tears of Joy

Your target is filled with joy and a zest for life. Roll your Bardic Inspiration die; your target receives that many Temporary Hit Points plus your charisma modifier (minimum of 1).

Interpretive Dance

You have perfected the art of movement to convey a story, be it comedy or tragedy or even a combination of the two. As long as you are not affected by the grappled, incapacitated, paralyzed, petrified, restrained, stunned or unconscious condition, you may use an action to perform an interpretive dance to convey a message that can be understood by any creature that can see you.

Inspire Greater Emotion

Beginning at 14th level, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to inspire even greater emotions in your targets.

As a bonus action, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to instil strong feelings in a target with 60 feet that can see and hear you. You may choose one of the following effects:

Tears of Catharsis

Your target is filled with the memory of all their previous pains and the knowledge that this too shall pass. Roll a Bardic Inspiration die; your target is healed by the value plus your charisma modifier. Additionally they may be healed of a single condition.

Tears of Pain

Your target is filled with pain that demands to be felt. Roll a Bardic Inspiration die; your target takes the value plus your charisma modifier as psychic damage.