College of the Danse Macabre

Only those with an affinity to the dead may breach the veil and hear the maddening melodies that govern the principles of life and death. The few who gain an insight into these songs are gifted with the ability to bridge the realms of the living and the dead. 

Often a bard will orchestrate a dance for the dead to join, upon the song's crescendo the deceased are free to leave the living realm and allow their old vessels to rest, nullifying necromantic corruption. 

However, the very skilled and crazed bards may twist their songs further to muster more unorthodox communions. 

Whispers Beyond

The barrier of death becomes so trivial that conversing with the dead is second nature. You may spend a Bardic Inspiration die to cast Speak With Dead without using a spell slot or spell components. However, the target of the spell must be willing.

Dance of the Dead

The music rises, the corpses shift and headstones topple as the song begins. 

You may use an action to begin the Dance and summon the dead to dance within 15ft of you, any dead creature within this aura cannot be resurrected or reanimated unless you are willing. This feature lasts for 1 minute or until you lose concentration (as if you are concentrating on a spell) and can only be used once per long rest.

While the dance is active you gain a number of Crescendo die (d6) each turn according to the fulfilled criteria on the table below. These die are accumulated throughout the duration of the dance and removed once it ends. 

 

Gain 1 Crescendo die if The Dance of the Dead is active this round

Gain 1 Crescendo die if you use Bardic Inspiration this round

Gain 1 Crescendo die if you used at least one spell slot this round

Gain 1 Crescendo die if you take the Help or Dodge action this round

Gain 1 Crescendo die if you used a 5th-Level, or higher, spell slot this round

Gain 1 Crescendo die if you rolled a natural 20 this round

Gain 1 Crescendo die if a creature dies within 15ft of you this round

Gain 1 Crescendo die if you command an undead creature this round

 

The Crescendo die changes when you reach certain levels in this class. The die becomes a d8 at 5th level, a d10 at 10th level, and a d12 at 15th level. 

 If the Dance of the Dead has been active for at least 12 seconds you can use an action to perform the Crescendo, this will end concentration, remove all your Crescendo die and the dance will stop. 

When you take the Crescendo action you select a target creature within 15ft to make a Charisma saving throw opposed to your spellcasting DC. The target takes damage equal to the sum of all accumulated Crescendo die on a failure or half as much on a success. 

 Additionally, all hostile undead within 15ft are destroyed, if the undead creature has a CR equal to or greater than half (rounding down) the number of accumulated Crescendo die they are stunned for a round instead. 

Jolly Host

Spells such as Command, Suggestion and Mass Suggestion can be used on undead, even if they are immune to being charmed, as well as intact corpses, who for the spells purpose become undead for the a spells duration. Undead cannot be subject to these spells twice. 

 Additionally, you learn the Animate Dead and Command spells without them contributing to your known spells. 

A Dance with Death

You can challenge death itself for the exchange of a soul. If a creature is slain and are dead for no longer than a minute you can perform a song to resurrect them. The creature's body must be intact and within 5ft of you for the duration of 10 minutes. In this time an Aspect of Death comes forth and plays it's challenging melody which you must oppose with a DC22 Charisma(Performance) skill check. You cannot receive the Help action for this skill check and the Aspect of Death cannot be targeted by any means. 

On a success the target creature is brought back to life with 1 hit point.

This feature can only be used once per long rest and a creature resurrected by this feature cannot be subject to it again.