College of Mimicry

The College of Mimicry is the only school of bardic thought where copying your classmate’s work is considered a good thing. Bards who join this college have little interest in developing their own unique magical style, focusing instead on their ability to quickly register and imitate the abilities of other people and creatures with whom they come into contact.

Colloquially known as Mimics, the consummate performers of this college truly believe that the world is their stage and that they will play many parts in their time. Trained to adapt to any situation, they can change their role and repertoire as easily as others change outfits. One day they may play the crafty infiltrator, the next a powerful evoker or a battle-hardened warrior. In an adventuring party they contribute by replicating the fighting prowess of their companions or turning their enemies’ magics back against them.

Bonus Proficiencies

When you join the College of Mimicry at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the disguise kit and the forgery kit.

Arcane Imitation

Starting at 3rd level, you gain the ability to reproduce the magical effects of another creature’s spellcasting.

When a creature that you can see casts a spell of a level that you can cast, you can use your reaction to make a Wisdom (Perception) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell’s level.

On a successful check, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to temporarily add the spell to your list of Spells Known. A spell learned in this manner counts as a bard spell for you but doesn't count against the number of bard spells you know. The spell is removed from your list of Spells Known when you finish a short or long rest or when you observe a different spell using this feature.

Masquerade

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to unerringly mimic another person’s speech, writing, and behavior. You must spend at least three hours studying these three components of the person’s behavior, listening to speech, examining handwriting, and observing mannerisms.

Your ruse is indiscernible to the casual observer. If a wary creature suspects something is amiss, you have advantage on any Charisma (Performance) check you make to avoid detection.

Martial Impressionist

At 6th level, you gain the ability to magically reproduce the martial abilities of other adventurers.

Whenever you finish a long rest, choose one class from the list below. You gain one use of a feature based on that class. When using the feature, ignore any class resources required. If a feature is modified by levels in the source class, you may instead use your bard level. Follow all other rules of that feature.

Impressions

Class	Feature
Barbarian	Rage
Fighter	Second Wind
Monk	Patient Defense
Rogue	Sneak Attack

Instant Imitation

Starting at 14th level, you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made as part of your Arcane Imitation feature and you may cast the copied spell immediately as part of the same reaction used to perceive it.