College of Legerdemain

Bards of the College of Legerdemain appear to be like any other bard, sharing news, singing songs, and telling tales to the audiences they gather.

In truth, the College of Legerdemain teaches its students that knowledge is power, and to hold that power close. These bards use their magic and skills subtly. A Legerdemain Bard can weave an imperceptible web of influence around a creature, a village, or even a kingdom.

Many other bards hate the College of Legerdemain, viewing it as a corruption of a Bard's true nature. For this reason, these bards rarely reveal themselves unless they must. Among the secrets they keep, perhaps the most perilous is their membership in the College of Legerdemain itself.

 

Veiled Viciousness

When you join the College of Legerdemain at 3rd level your words become your most powerful weapon.

For you, Vicious Mockery has the following changes:

• Creatures who fail their save have disadvantage on all attack rolls until the end of their next turn.
• Creatures who fail their save subtract 1 from their Spell Save DC until the end of their next turn.
• You can expend a use of Bardic Inspiration to cast Vicious Mockery as a Bonus Action.

Discourse of Despair

When you join the College of Legerdemain at 3rd level, you gain the ability to make your spells magically toxic to a creature's mind.

When you deal damage to one or more creatures with a spell that has a Verbal Component, you can expend uses of your Bardic Inspiration, one at a time, to deal an additional 2d6 psychic damage. Each use of Bardic Inspiration you expend applies to a different creature damaged by the spell.

The psychic damage increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to 3d6 at 5th level, 5d6 at 10th level, and 8d6 at 15th level.

You can whisper the Verbal Components of spells. If you have the Invisible condition as a result of taking the Hide action, and no creatures other than your allies are within 30 feet of you, casting a spell doesn't end that condition on account of the spell's Verbal Component. Other triggers still apply — for example, the condition still ends if the spell requires an attack roll or if an enemy finds you.

Mantle of Misdirection

Dread and Disguise

At 14th level, you gain the ability to reach into the mind of any foe who can comprehend your words.

When a creature that can hear and understand you rolls initiative, you can expend a use of Bardic Inspiration and roll one of your Bardic Inspiration Dice. That creature subtracts the number rolled from its initiative roll, and until the end of its first turn it has the Frightened condition with regard to you.

While you are disguised as someone other than yourself, you have Advantage on Charisma checks made to establish, maintain, or exploit that disguise.