Some bards rouse hearts with soaring ballads. You… weaponize the wrong note. Your timing is abysmal, your stories meander, and your kazoo solo is a war crime—and somehow that’s the point. Your “performances” grind confidence down to dust, making foes fumble, hesitate, and second-guess every move.

Design pitch (plain 5e): this college flips Bardic Inspiration outward. Instead of buffing allies, you can spend your inspiration to sabotage enemies’ rolls and project short-range “cringe auras.” It’s distinct from Lore’s Cutting Words (a die subtraction) by offering true disadvantage with hearing/Charm-immunity gating and tight action-economy limits.

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Subclass Features

3rd Level — Bonus Proficiencies

You gain proficiency in Intimidation and one instrument of your choice. If you already have Intimidation, choose Deception or Performance instead.

3rd Level — Discordant Inspiration

You can aim your Bardic Inspiration at an enemy as a sabotaging heckle.

• Reaction; 60 ft; must hear you. When a creature you can see within 60 feet makes an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to impose disadvantage on that roll. You must decide before the d20 is rolled.

• A creature immune to being charmed or that can’t hear you (deafened, in silence, etc.) is immune to this feature.

• You can use Discordant Inspiration only once per turn (even if you have multiple reactions from other features).

• This counts as using Bardic Inspiration, so it scales with your Bardic Inspiration die size and refresh schedule.

Table impact: Compared to Cutting Words (average –3.5 to –6.5), true disadvantage averages ~–5 on a straight d20, but you pay a reaction, hearing line, charm-immunity gate, and stricter timing (before the roll).

3rd Level — Winces & Flinches

The first time each turn you deal psychic damage to a creature (for example with vicious mockery or dissonant whispers), you can force it to stumble 5 feet in a direction you choose. This movement isn’t forced movement for the purposes of avoiding opportunity attacks (it can trigger them). A creature moved this way can’t be moved by this feature again until the start of your next turn.

Use this to peel enemies off allies or bump them into hazards—your mockery actually makes them trip over their own feet.

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6th Level — Harrowing Refrain

You can sustain a low, off-key undertone that makes competent swordplay feel impossible.

• Bonus Action to start; Concentration (as a spell) up to 1 minute. While it lasts, hostile creatures of your choice that start their turn within 10 feet of you and can hear you must succeed on a Wisdom save against your spell save DC or have disadvantage on the first attack roll they make before the start of their next turn.

• On a success, that creature is immune to this instance of your refrain until it leaves the aura and re-enters.

• You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

This rewards bold positioning—think “front-row heckler.” Silence, deafness, or Charm immunity shut it down as usual.

6th Level — Fray the Nerves

When a creature within 60 feet of you fails an attack roll or saving throw because it had disadvantage from one of your subclass features, you can use your reaction to deal psychic damage to it equal to your Bardic Inspiration die + your Charisma modifier.

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14th Level — Showstopper of Shame

You unleash a crescendo of flubs so profound that trained killers want to crawl under a stage.

• Action; choose up to CHA mod creatures (minimum 1) within 60 feet that can hear you. Expend 1 use of Bardic Inspiration per target. Each target makes a Wisdom save against your spell save DC.

  • On a failure: The target is frightened of you until the end of your next turn. While frightened this way, the first saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn is at disadvantage. The target can repeat the save at the end of its turn if it took damage since its last turn, ending the effect on itself.

  • On a success: The target has disadvantage on the next attack roll or saving throw it makes before the start of your next turn.

• Once you use Showstopper, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend 3 additional uses of Bardic Inspiration to use it again.

One round of wide debuff at 60 ft, tightly gated by hearing and inspiration economy.

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Playing a Dissonance Bard

Core loop (level 5+):

• Bonus Action (if needed): start Harrowing Refrain before you wade in.

• Reaction: Discordant Inspiration to flip a boss’s big swing or save.

• Action: control & psychic tools—vicious mockery, dissonant whispers, hold person, slow, hypnotic pattern.

• Move: stay just inside 10 ft to project your aura; use Winces & Flinches to peel targets or shove them into danger.

Spell picks that sing (badly):

• Vicious Mockery (must-have), Bane, Dissonant Whispers, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Silence (turn off your own kit carefully!), Calm Emotions, Heat Metal, Fear, Slow, Hypnotic Pattern, Greater Invisibility (slip into the front row), Synaptic Static.

Feats & ASIs: Max CHA, then CON (for concentration) or DEX. Consider Warcaster (keep the aura up), Resilient (CON), Actor (RP gold), or Alert (turn-1 aura online).

Items & tactics:

• Anything that buffs Concentration (headband, cloak) is huge.

• Coordinate with allies who can capitalize on disadvantage: grapplers, guiding bolt users, Sneak Attack rogues (your 5-ft stumble can provoke OAs), and casters forcing saves on your Showstopper turn.

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DM & Table Clarifications

• Hearing & Charm Gates. All subclass effects require the target to hear you; deafened targets or areas under silence are safe. Creatures immune to charm ignore these features. Construct/undead immunity varies by stat block—check the tag.

• No stacking disadvantage. Multiple sources still only produce one disadvantage—your features aim to guarantee it’s present at the right time.

• Timing matters. Discordant Inspiration is declared before the roll. If your table prefers near-miss drama, a variant is to allow it after seeing the d20 but before success is announced, forcing an immediate second d20 and taking the lower; this mirrors how some groups run similar interruptive effects.

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Sample Lines (pure flavor)

• “Boo? No, boo-hoo—for you.”

• “On three: left foot, then the other left foot.”

• Kazoo brap “That was your battle cry, right?”

• “I’ll wait while you roll the bad one.”

Level 3: Discordant Inspiration

• Reaction; 60 ft; must hear you. When a creature you can see within 60 feet makes an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to impose disadvantage on that roll. You must decide before the d20 is rolled.

• A creature immune to being charmed or that can’t hear you (deafened, in silence, etc.) is immune to this feature.

• You can use Discordant Inspiration only once per turn (even if you have multiple reactions from other features).

• This counts as using Bardic Inspiration, so it scales with your Bardic Inspiration die size and refresh schedule.

Table impact: Compared to Cutting Words (average –3.5 to –6.5), true disadvantage averages ~–5 on a straight d20, but you pay a reaction, hearing line, charm-immunity gate, and stricter timing (before the roll).

Winces & Flinches

The first time each turn you deal psychic damage to a creature (for example with vicious mockery or dissonant whispers), you can force it to stumble 5 feet in a direction you choose. This movement isn’t forced movement for the purposes of avoiding opportunity attacks (it can trigger them). A creature moved this way can’t be moved by this feature again until the start of your next turn.

Use this to peel enemies off allies or bump them into hazards—your mockery actually makes them trip over their own feet.

Harrowing Refrain

You can sustain a low, off-key undertone that makes competent swordplay feel impossible.

• Bonus Action to start; Concentration (as a spell) up to 1 minute. While it lasts, hostile creatures of your choice that start their turn within 10 feet of you and can hear you must succeed on a Wisdom save against your spell save DC or have disadvantage on the first attack roll they make before the start of their next turn.

• On a success, that creature is immune to this instance of your refrain until it leaves the aura and re-enters.

• You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

This rewards bold positioning—think “front-row heckler.” Silence, deafness, or Charm immunity shut it down as usual.

Level 6: Fray the Nerves

When a creature within 60 feet of you fails an attack roll or saving throw because it had disadvantage from one of your subclass features, you can use your reaction to deal psychic damage to it equal to your Bardic Inspiration die + your Charisma modifier.

Level 14: Showstopper of Shame

You unleash a crescendo of flubs so profound that trained killers want to crawl under a stage.

• Action; choose up to CHA mod creatures (minimum 1) within 60 feet that can hear you. Expend 1 use of Bardic Inspiration per target. Each target makes a Wisdom save against your spell save DC.

  • On a failure: The target is frightened of you until the end of your next turn. While frightened this way, the first saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn is at disadvantage. The target can repeat the save at the end of its turn if it took damage since its last turn, ending the effect on itself.

  • On a success: The target has disadvantage on the next attack roll or saving throw it makes before the start of your next turn.

• Once you use Showstopper, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend 3 additional uses of Bardic Inspiration to use it again.

One round of wide debuff at 60 ft, tightly gated by hearing and inspiration economy.