College of Whispers Redux

Most people are happy to welcome a bard to their midst, and those of the College of Whispers use this to their advantage. They appear to be like any other bard, sharing news, singing songs, and telling tales to the audiences they gather. In truth, the College of Whispers teaches its students that they are wolves amongst sheep, to use their knowledge and magic to uncover secrets and turn them against others through politicking.

Many other bards hate this College, viewing it as a parasite that uses the Bard's reputation to acquire wealth and power. For this reason, these bards rarely reveal their true nature unless they must. They typically claim to follow some other college, or keep their ture nature a secret to better infiltrate and exploit settings of power such as courts.

Whispers of Terror

When you join the College of Whispers at 3rd level, you learn to infuse innocent-seeming words with an insidious magic that can inspire terror.

If you speak to a creature alone for at least 1 minute or say something to them that could cause terror (DM's discretion), you can attempt to seed paranoia and fear into its mind. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or be frightened of you or another creature of your choice. The target is frightened in this way for up to 10 minutes, until it is attacked or damaged, or until it witnesses its allies being attacked or damaged.

If the target succeeds on its saving throw, the target has no hint that you tried to frighten it, and neither does any creature that heard the conversation, if any. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short rest or long rest.

Psychic Wounding

Also at 3rd level, you gain the ability to make weapon attacks magically toxic to a creature's mind.

Whenever a creature is hit with a weapon attack within 120 feet of you, you can use your reaction to expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration for the attack to deal an additional 2d4 psychic damage. The first time you use this feature each round (from when your turn begins and your next turn begins), it doesn't take your reaction, but you can't use this feature more than once on the same attack. 

The psychic damage increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to 3d4 at 5th level, 5d4 at 10th level, and 8d4 at 15th level.

Weaver of Shadows

At 6th level, you learn to perform magics that suit your pursuit of power through deceit and fear. You gain the following features:

Mantle of Whispers. You gain the ability to adopt a humanoid's persona. Whenever a humanoid dies within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction and capture their shadow, which you retain for up to 1 week. At any point while you have a shadow, you may use it (no action required). The shadow vanishes and you gain a magical disguise of the person on you, as described in the Disguise Self. Once you use a shadow, the disguise lasts for 1 hour or until you dismiss it, and while you're in the disguise, you gain access to all information that the humanoid would freely share with a casual acquaintance, like general details on its background or personal life, enough that you can pass yourself off as the person by drawing on its memories. Once you capture a shadow with this feature, you can't capture another one with it until you finish a long rest, and you may have up to one shadow in your person at any time.

Seeds of Doubt. You gain the ability to misdirect your enemies and cause them to doubt the integrity or loyalty of their allies. As an action, you can choose a creature and attempt to convince a target, which must be a different creature, that the chosen creature is in fact an enemy. The target must be able to hear you and be within 30 feet of you, and they must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, or believe the chosen creature to be hostile to them until the end of your next turn. The target must have an Intelligence score of 6 or greater and be able to understand and hear you. If they succeed on the save, they are immune to this ability for 1 hour. You may use this feature once, regaining the ability to do use it again when you finish a short or long rest. 

Shade of Terror

At 14th level, as an action, you gain the ability to weave dark magic into the nightmares of a creature you can see within range. They must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, as shades gather around you, coalescing into a nightmarish form, a manifestation of its deepest fears. On a failed save, the shade persists, filling up to a 15 foot cube within 120 feet of the target. You choose whether the shade is visible to all creatures, or to the affected creature and you only. You also choose whether the shade haunts or harms the creature.

If the shade haunts the creature, it becomes charmed by you for the next hour or until you or your allies attack or damage it, as the shade and your control over it lingers in its mind as a constant threat. While charmed in this way, the creature obeys your commands for fear of the shade and that you will reveal that fear. It won’t risk its life for you or fight for you, unless it was already inclined to do so. It grants you favors and gifts it would offer to a reluctant acquaintance.

If the shade harms the creature, it instead becomes frightened of the shade for up to 10 minutes and, at the beginning of each of its turns, you can move the shade up to 30 feet in any direction, and the target takes 10d8 psychic damage. At the end of each of its turns, the creature can repeat the saving throw to end the effect early. 

Once a creature fails the save, you can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.