College of Range

Bards of the College of Range are called bowers or throwers and they entertain through daring feats of weapon prowess. Bowers perform stunts such as sword swallowing, knife throwing and juggling, mock combats, and archery contests. Though they use their weapons to entertain, they are also highly trained and skilled warriors in their own right.

Their talent with weapons inspires many bowers to lead double lives. One bower might use a circus troupe as cover for nefarious deeds such as assassination, robbery, and blackmail. Other bowers strike at the wicked, bringing justice to bear against the cruel and powerful. Most troupes are happy to accept a bower’s talent for the excitement it adds to a performance, but few entertainers fully trust a bower in their ranks.

Bowers who abandon their lives as entertainers have often run into trouble that makes maintaining their secret activities impossible. A bower caught stealing or engaging in vigilante justice is too great a liability for most troupes. With their weapon skills and magic, these bowers either take up work as enforcers for thieves’ guilds or strike out on their own as adventurers.

Bonus Proficiencies

When you join the College of Bows at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with medium armor and the hand crossbow.

If you’re proficient with a simple or martial ranged weapons, you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.

Fighting Style

At 3rd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

Archery

You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.

Thrown Weapon Fighting

You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon.
In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll.

Ranged Flourish

Defensive Flourish. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target you hit. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die. You also add the number rolled to your AC until the start of your next turn.

Slashing Flourish. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target you hit and to any other creature of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of you. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die.

Mobile Flourish. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target you hit. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die. You can also push the target up to 5 feet away from you, plus a number of feet equal to the number you roll on that die. You can then immediately use your reaction to move up to your walking speed to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the target.

Extra Attack

Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Master's Flourish

Starting at 14th level, whenever you use a Ranged Flourish option, you can roll a d6 and use it instead of expending a Bardic Inspiration die.