College of Uproar

Most minstrels swear by the standards of respectable musicianship. However, the bards of the College of Uproar rail against those orthodoxies with the sound of rolling thunder. Raucously enthusiastic and radically transgressive, these individuals aim to disrupt the status quo with songs of unparalleled volume. 

To members of this College, the best performances are those that fully assault the senses of an audience. For this reason, the forte of these individuals lies in their ability to give voice to difficult and uncomfortable truths, as these are often the hardest truths to hear. 

Unlike other bards, those of the College of Uproar will almost always be found in the thick of a skirmish. Donned in clangorous metal armor, these bards will use their voices and instruments as deafening weapons, and can electrify the battlefield with their music.

Ear-Splitter

When you join the College of Uproar at 3rd level, you can rock your surroundings with an improved vocal and physical toughness. You gain proficiency in medium and heavy armor, and you can now produce speech, sounds, and music up to triple their normal volume. In addition, you can use instruments you are proficient in as melee weapons you're proficient in.

If an instrument can be played using one or two hands, it counts as a light and versatile weapon that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage (1d8 if wielded in two hands). Such instruments include bugles, flutes, horns, panflutes, saxophones, shawms, and tambourines.

If an instrument can only be played using two hands, it counts as a two-handed weapon that deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage. Such instruments include bagpipes, dulcimers, guitars, harps, drums, lutes, lyres, and viols.

For 15 gold pieces worth of metal and other materials, you can fit bladed or spiked attachments to an instrument, causing it to deal slashing or piercing damage, respectively, instead of bludgeoning damage. You can also plate an instrument with silver or adamantine as you could any other weapon (for their respective costs).

Sforzando

Also at 3rd level, you gain the ability to unleash a deafening, magically-amplified note using your voice or instrument. As an action, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to force all creatures in a 30-foot cone that can hear you to make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC.

On a failed save, targets take thunder damage equal to two Bardic Inspiration dice and become deafened until the end of your next turn. On a successful save, targets take half damage and are not deafened.

The number of Bardic Inspiration dice you roll for this damage changes at certain levels in this class, increasing to three dice at 6th level and four dice at 14th level.

The note you emit with this feature is audible out to 300 feet, and wakes any sleeping creature in the area.

Cacophonous Blows

At 6th level, your unbridled boisterousness endows your attacks with their own magical resonance. You gain resistance to thunder damage, and your attacks with instruments count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.

Additionally, once per turn when you land an attack with an instrument, you can cause your hits to deal an extra 1d8 thunder damage and emit a boom audible up to 120 feet away.

At 14th level, this extra damage increases to 2d8.

Electrifying Solo

After reaching 14th level, your exposure to audible magics grants you immunity to the deafened condition. Furthermore, it allows you to summon volatile thunderstorms by performing an epic vocal or instrumental solo. 

You can begin this solo using an action, and it last for up to a minute. Your solo ends if you become silenced or incapacitated, or if you choose to end it on your turn ( no action required by you).

During your solo, non-allied creatures within 120 feet of you have disadvantage on their saving throws against being deafened or frightened. In addition, whenever you deal thunder damage to a creature within 120 feet of you, you can also use your bonus action to deal 2d12 lightning damage to it. If a target is killed by you during this solo, its face melts.

Once you perform your solo, you can't perform another one, until you finish a long rest.