Bard College: College of Witches (Delver's)

Also called witches, bards of this college perform for an audience that offers power in return for their talents. They look into the gray, negative space that dwells behind everything in the material world. The Netherworld is their stage. By inviting the ghosts who watch them perform to follow along beside them, a witch can call on them for aid.

Witches are peculiar to most folks in the Beast World, but their work isn’t necessarily offensive. A ghost’s bid for attention is always troublesome, and occasionally dangerous. Anyone who knows of the world a witch plays in is grateful that someone else is the subject of their fawning.

Haunted Consort

The College of Witches trains a bard to attract ghosts in the Netherworld with a performance. A witch can then consort with ghosts to exchange attention for power. As part of a long rest, your eyes become cloudy and gray as you look into the Netherworld and perform for a ghostly audience. Your GM determines how many ghosts are in your audience according to the Haunted Audience Table.

Haunted Audience

                      Location                                                                                      Ghosts

Deserted. Rarely sees willful creatures.                                                      3

Quiet. Life is uncomplicated.                                                                        4

Populous. Thousands gather and live here.                                               5

Haunted. Sudden, strong emotions or persistent repetition are common. 6

Woefully Haunted. There are horror stories about this place.                   7

 

Roll a d6 for each ghost in your audience, based on your location. The results determine each ghost’s capabilities according to the Ghost Essence Table.

At the end of your long rest, you can also make a DC 15 Charisma (Performance) check, attracting one additional ghost of an essence you choose on a success. Starting at 13th level, success attracts two ghosts with an essence you choose.

Ghost Essence

d6                     Essence
1-2              The Steward
3-4          The Scoundrel
5-6               The Scholar

 

Choose a number of ghosts up to your proficiency bonus from your audience. Until the start of your next long rest, each haunts a friendly creature you choose within 60 feet of you (multiple ghosts can haunt one creature).

You can use a bonus action to spend Bardic Inspiration to manifest a ghost haunting a creature you can see within 60 feet of you for 1 minute. Each ghost confers abilities while manifested, dependent on its Essence outlined below. At the end of the manifestation, a ghost haunting a creature other than you has fulfilled its end of the compact and disappears back into the Netherworld. A ghost haunting you remains, and can be manifested again.

Essence

The Steward. When The Steward manifests, the haunted creature gains a +1 bonus to attack rolls for the duration. This bonus increases to +2 at 9th level, and +3 at 15th level.

Additionally, The Steward materializes in front of the haunted creature as a floating shield of black stone. The creature is treated as if wielding an animated shield it is proficient with.

As a bonus action, the haunted creature can command The Steward to transform into a wall of stone up to 10 feet on a side and 6 inches thick, at a point within 60 feet the haunted creature can see. This wall has AC 15 and 30 hit points. The haunted creature can use a bonus action within 15 feet of it to transform it back into an animated shield and wield it.

 

The Scoundrel. This ghost possesses an item the haunted creature chooses on its person. The haunted creature can use an action to order The Scoundrel to possess a different item. Items remain possessed at any distance, until a new one is chosen or the haunting ends.

When The Scoundrel manifests, the haunted creature gains a +1 bonus to ability checks for the duration. This bonus increases to +2 at 9th level, and +3 at 15th level.

While manifested, the haunted creature senses the direction and distance of the possessed item. The item is visible to the haunted creature through solid objects, appearing as a faint gray outline. Weapon attacks made by the haunted creature using the possessed item deal an extra 1d6 force damage on a hit.

While holding the possessed item, the haunted creature can use a bonus action to order The Scoundrel to hide it. The item disappears, following the haunted creature from the Netherworld. The haunted creature can use a bonus action to make it reappear in its hand.

 

The Scholar. When The Scholar manifests, the haunted creature gains a +1 bonus to saving throws for the duration. This bonus increases to +2 at 9th level, and +3 at 15th level.

As a reaction to The Scholar manifesting, the haunted creature can activate a held magic item if it can normally activate the item with an action or bonus action. If the magic item regains charges at dawn, this activation costs one fewer charge.

While The Scholar is manifested, the haunted creature can cast the ray of frost cantrip. Charisma is its spellcasting ability for the spell. Additionally, cantrips cast by the haunted creature that deal damage deal an extra 1d6 force damage.

The Scholar can translate magic secrets. If the haunted creature holds a magic scroll for the manifestation’s full duration, black flames immolate the scroll, destroying it and causing the haunted creature 1d3 fire damage. The haunted creature is left holding a scroll of the same spell. The haunted creature (and only the haunted creature) can cast the spell on this scroll, ignoring all class, race, and level requirements.

Spectral Decoy

You can call a ghost into service as a spy or decoy. By spending 1 minute performing music or otherwise consorting with a ghost haunting you, it physically appears for 1 hour in an unoccupied space you choose within 10 feet of you. The ghost looks like the creature who caused its creation. Any magic items it carries are nonmagical facsimiles, and any objects it appears with disappear if not on its person. While acting as your decoy, you cannot manifest the ghost with the Haunted Consort feature.

The ghost follows your commands to the best of its ability. It cannot speak, and it can only convey the emotion that created it. It avoids drawing attention to itself and takes the Dodge action in combat. The ghost can communicate telepathically with you to a range of 300 feet.

The ghost acts on its own turn in initiative. You can use a bonus action to command it to move and act. It can’t make attacks, cast spells, or take actions that affect creatures (such as the Help action). It shares your speed, ability scores, and proficiencies, but it has AC 10 and 1 hit point.

At the end of the duration, if it drops to 0 hit points, or if you dismiss it as a bonus action, the ghost resumes haunting you. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Play By Ear

Your sense of the Netherworld bleeds into time in the material world. Every waking moment, you hear songs played from behind the curtain by the ghosts of bards. When you use the Haunted Consort feature at the end of a long rest, this eerie rendition of the Universal Symphony temporarily adds to your spells known. Choose bard spells worth a number of levels up to half your bard level - 1 (rounded up). You know the chosen spells until you finish a long rest. For example, an 8th-level bard can choose one 3rd-level spell or a combination of 2nd-level and 1st-level spells whose level adds up to 3.

Ghosts of the Known

You have learned the means of creating a ghost by watching the churning of oblivion. As a reaction to a Humanoid with a number of hit dice up to yours dying within 60 feet of you, you can imprint a ghost of the creature into the Netherworld 5 feet from you. If the creature knows it will be resurrected when it dies (such as with the revivify spell), this ability fails to capture a strong enough emotion to create a ghost.

It can perform one of the following actions you know it can use, which you choose when you create the ghost:

• Cast a spell up to 5th level with a casting time of 1 action that the dead creature cast within the last 7 days. The spell can’t require material components with a listed gold cost. • Take the Attack action, with the number of weapon attacks allowed by the dead creature’s Attack or Multiattack action, using a weapon it wielded in the last 7 days. If the weapon is a magic weapon with a rarity above rare, it is treated as +1 weapon instead.
• Take a special action the dead creature could take at least once after a long rest, unless granted by a class feature at 10th level or higher. The special action must not take longer than a single action or bonus action.
• Use a magic item that the dead creature possessed when it died and that regains charges or uses at dawn. The magic item must have a rarity no higher than rare.

 

After you finish your next long rest, you gain the ability to use your action to expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to empower your Ghost of the Known. It appears in an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet of you and immediately performs its action. It then disappears and returns to a space in the Netherworld 5 feet from you. Once it uses its action, it can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. The ghost remains with you until you use this feature to create another one.