Bardic Artisan: Master Chef

 

 Bardic Artisan College

There are many fields of study in the arts. The Bardic Artisan College oversees all of these studies. Though many bards choose to study in the preforming arts nor music, there are some who would seek out new ways to inspire the world through the art of cooking. 

As bards found more ways to use their cooking to inspire their friends and allies, they formed the College of the Common Table. This Academy focuses on dishing out buffed up meals to keep your friends strong, focused, and healthy in any and every encounter.

However, some found that the tools they use in the kitchen often also do well as makeshift weapons, so to further their expertise in "cooking combat" as some call it, they formed the College of the Scorched Ladle.  This Academy focuses on fighting, strengthening allies, and finding clever ways to use those kitchen utensils that they're oh so familiar with to strike down foes.

Level 3: Chef's Kiss

Your career in cooking has led you to the Bardic Artisan College. How will you Proceed?

College of the Common Table:  Some bards tune lutes. Others tune morale. The bards of the College of the Common Table sharpen knives, stir pots, and turn a battlefield into a banquet of courage. They believe heroism tastes better when shared, and that a well-timed bite can steady hands better than any song. Where others inspire with melody, these bards season the moment.

Their art is culinary magic, blending performance, ritual, and instinctive hospitality. A Common Table bard does not shout orders. They offer a bowl, a skewer, a sip. Allies fight harder with warm bellies and warmer spirits.

College of the Scorched Ladle: Some kitchens are places of comfort. Others are places of danger. Bards of the College of the Scorched Ladle believe that flavor, like fear, must be respected. They turn heat into spectacle, spice into strategy, and timing into violence. Where other bards soothe allies, these chefs weaponize appetite, hurling boiling stock, blinding powders, and sizzling iron with practiced flair.

A Scorched Ladle bard performs in the same way a master chef cooks during a rush. Fast hands. Loud impact. No wasted motion.

 

College of the Common Table

When you join the College of the Common Table, you vow to support those around you. Devoted to hospitality, you seek to inspire and support your allies with your cooking expertise.

These bards are travelers, innkeepers, camp cooks, and wandering chefs. Their performances happen around fires, not stages. They measure success by empty plates and steady hands, by the way companions stand a little taller after a meal.

To them, food is memory, promise, and proof that tomorrow is worth fighting for.

On the battlefield, steel may decide the outcome.
But the College of the Common Table makes sure everyone is strong enough to raise it.

College of the Scorched Ladle

When you join the College of the Scorched Ladle, you hone your fighting skills by taking what you learned in the kitchen and applying it to combat.

Scorched Ladle bards thrive in chaos. They dart in and out of danger, seasoning attacks with bursts of damage and short-lived disruption. They excel at punishing priority targets and opening gaps for allies rather than locking down entire encounters.

Their magic smells of smoke, oil, citrus, and heat. Their performances are more likely to involve sparks and shouted timing than harmony.

They do not feed hope.
They feed fear.

Level 3: The Shared Table

Artisan College bards are almost never refused shelter. Inns, caravans, and villages recognize their craft. You can almost always secure a place by offering to cook, and your meals naturally encourage conversation, trust, and camaraderie.

Level 3: New Inspiration

Utilize your newfound knowledge on the battlefield by cooking up inspiration for your friends, or seasoning your foes in fear.

Those who study in the College of the Common Table protect, inspire, and sew strength in their allies with their cooking.

• Vitality/Armor Buffs
• Protection
• Inspiration

Those who study in the College of the Scorched Ladle create chaos with their cooking, putting a little more bite in their dishes to sew fear in their enemies.

• Attack/Strength Buffs
• Offensive
• Frontline

Cook’s Tools Proficiency

You gain proficiency with cook’s utensils.
If you are already proficient, you gain expertise with them.

In addition, improvised weapons you wield that are kitchen tools (pans, knives, ladles, cleavers) deal 1d6 damage instead of 1d4 and count as finesse weapons for you.

Cook’s Tools Proficiency

You gain proficiency with cook’s utensils.
If you are already proficient, you gain expertise with them.

Additionally, during a short rest, if you have access to cook’s utensils, any creature who spends one or more Hit Dice to regain hit points regains additional hit points equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).

A creature can benefit from this feature only once per short rest.

Culinary Inspiration

When you grant Bardic Inspiration, you create an Edible Inspiration instead of performing. A creature can consume the food as part of the same action, bonus action, or reaction it uses to gain the die.

In addition to the normal Bardic Inspiration effect, choose one of the following benefits when the die is granted:

• Hearty Bite: The creature gains temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).

• Sharp Flavor: The creature adds your Charisma modifier to one damage roll it makes before the end of its next turn.

• Comfort Food: The creature has advantage on one saving throw it makes before the start of your next turn.

The edible inspiration spoils harmlessly if unused after 10 minutes.

Spiteful Seasoning

When you hit a creature with a weapon attack or deal damage with a bard spell, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to add the Bardic Inspiration die to the damage roll.

The damage type is fire, acid, or poison (your choice when you use this feature).

You can use this feature once per turn.

Level 6: Turn up the Heat

College of the Common Table

Seasoned for Battle

Your meals steel allies against sudden danger.

When a creature expends one of your Bardic Inspiration dice, it gains one of the following benefits of its choice:

• Fortified: Reduce the damage of one attack or effect by the number rolled on the Bardic Inspiration die.

• Clear the Palate: End either the charmed or frightened condition affecting the creature.

• Quick Step: The creature can immediately move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Battlefield Banquet

You can nourish many with little time.

As an action, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to create a Field Feast. Choose up to three creatures (including yourself) within 15 feet of you.

Each chosen creature gains:

• Temporary hit points equal to one roll of your Bardic Inspiration die

• Advantage on one saving throw it makes before the end of its next turn

Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

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College of the Scorched Ladle

Burning Aftertaste

Your attacks leave pain that lingers.

When you deal damage using Spiteful Seasoning, the target takes additional damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1) at the start of its next turn.

A creature can be affected by only one instance of Burning Aftertaste at a time.

Battlefield Sabotage

You disrupt enemies through culinary cruelty.

When a creature takes damage from your Spiteful Seasoning, you can impose one of the following effects until the start of your next turn:

• The creature’s speed is reduced by 10 feet

• The creature has disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes

• The creature cannot take reactions

You can apply this effect once per turn.

Level 14: The Grand Feast

All of your studies have lead you here. Now, you've refined your culinary skills to serve on and off the battle field.

Those who study in the College of the Common Table can now create a Feast of Fellowship. A Hearty, homecooked meal that can carry your whole party all day. 

Those that study in the College of the Scorched Ladle can now create a Catastrophic Course. A meal that bolsters you in battle, helping you to end the fight in one swift blow. 

Catastrophic Course

When you hit a creature with a weapon attack or deal damage with a bard spell, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to force the target to make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC.

On a failure, the target takes additional damage equal to two rolls of your Bardic Inspiration die, and is staggered until the end of its next turn.

While staggered, the creature:

• Has disadvantage on saving throws

• Cannot take reactions

On a success, the creature takes half the additional damage and suffers no staggered effect.

Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Feast of Fellowship

Once per long rest, you can spend 10 minutes preparing a communal meal for up to six willing creatures. Creatures who partake gain the following benefits for 8 hours:

• They regain hit points as if they had completed a short rest.

• They have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

• Once during the duration, when a creature would be reduced to 0 hit points, it is instead reduced to 1 hit point, and this benefit ends for that creature.

This feast requires only simple food and cookware.