College of the Virtuoso

Bards of the College of the Virtuoso transform performance into a conduit for increasingly powerful magic. Where other battle-bards weave through a fight, a Virtuoso chooses their stage and holds it.

As the performance continues, its resonance spreads across the battlefield. Allies become connected through the music, spells develop additional voices, and the performance itself becomes powerful enough to strike like thunder. At the height of their art, a Virtuoso can turn a single spell into a bravura display or pour the entire performance into their Magnum Opus.

 

Virtuoso Performance

As a Bonus Action, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to begin a Virtuoso Performance, which lasts for 1 minute.

While your Virtuoso Performance is active, your Speed is 0 and can’t be increased. Forced movement doesn’t end the performance.

You create an Emanation originating from yourself called your Performance Emanation. Its radius equals 5 feet times your Charisma modifier (minimum 5 feet).

While performing, you can use a musical instrument as a Spellcasting Focus for your Bard spells, and playing that instrument can fulfill the Somatic components of those spells.

Your Virtuoso Performance ends early if you have the Incapacitated condition, become unable to continue performing, or choose to end the performance at the start of your turn (no action required).

Crescendo

Your performance gathers magical intensity as you sustain it.

When you begin your Virtuoso Performance, you have 0 Crescendo.

At the start of each of your turns while your Virtuoso Performance is active, you gain 1 Crescendo, to a maximum equal to your Proficiency Bonus.

Each Crescendo you currently have increases the radius of your Performance Emanation by 5 feet.

Your Performance Emanation’s radius is therefore:

(5 × your Charisma modifier) + (5 × your current Crescendo) feet.

You lose all Crescendo when your Virtuoso Performance ends.

 

Legato

Your performance creates an unbroken magical connection between you and those within its resonance.

While your Virtuoso Performance is active, when you cast a Bard spell with a range of Touch that targets a willing creature within your Performance Emanation, you can target that creature as though you were touching it.

All other requirements of the spell still apply.

 

Fugue

Your spell becomes a magical theme repeated in a second voice.

Once per turn when you cast a Bard spell of 1st level or higher that initially targets only one creature, you can expend 1 Crescendo to choose one additional eligible creature within your Performance Emanation. The additional creature becomes another target of the same casting of the spell.

The spell’s level can’t exceed your Proficiency Bonus.

The additional creature must otherwise be an eligible target of the spell. If the spell requires an attack roll, make a separate attack roll for the additional creature. Each creature makes its own saving throws, if applicable.

Fugue doesn’t cause you to cast the spell again. If the spell requires Concentration, you concentrate on one spell, and ending your Concentration ends the spell’s effects on all its targets.

Determine whether the additional target is within your Performance Emanation before expending Crescendo. Reducing your Crescendo as part of this feature doesn’t make that creature ineligible for that casting of the spell.

You can use Fugue only once per turn.

Example:

A 6th-level Virtuoso casts Cure Wounds on one creature and spends 1 Crescendo. A second eligible creature within the Performance Emanation also becomes a target and receives the spell’s healing.

A 2nd-level Invisibility can similarly affect two creatures while requiring only one Concentration.

 

Sforzando

You suddenly accent your performance with a burst of concussive magical force.

As a Bonus Action while your Virtuoso Performance is active, choose any number of other creatures within your Performance Emanation.

Each chosen creature takes Thunder damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).

If your current Crescendo equals your Proficiency Bonus, roll your Bardic Inspiration die. The Thunder damage instead equals the number rolled plus your Charisma modifier.

Using Sforzando doesn’t expend Bardic Inspiration or Crescendo.

 

Bravura

Your most intricate magical passages inspire extraordinary feats from those drawn into them.

When a willing creature becomes an additional target of a Bard spell through your Fugue feature, that creature gains Heroic Inspiration if it doesn’t already have it.

Once a creature gains Heroic Inspiration from Bravura, it can’t gain Heroic Inspiration from this feature again until you begin a new Virtuoso Performance.

 

Magnum Opus

You pour the entirety of your accumulated performance into a single, extraordinary passage.

As a Bonus Action while your Virtuoso Performance is active, you can expend all your current Crescendo to perform your Magnum Opus. You must have at least 1 Crescendo to use this feature.

Before reducing your Crescendo, increase the radius of your Performance Emanation by an additional 5 feet for each Crescendo expended.

The enlarged Performance Emanation lasts until the start of your next turn, even though your Crescendo has been reduced to 0.

When you use Magnum Opus, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration. If you do, each willing creature of your choice within the enlarged Performance Emanation gains one of your Bardic Inspiration dice.

A creature that already has one of your unexpended Bardic Inspiration dice doesn’t gain another from this feature.

Once you use Magnum Opus, you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest.