College of the Wayfarer's Song

The College of the Wayfarer's Song trains bards not in grand halls, but on the road — in alleys, checkpoints, and border crossings, where the only weapon that matters is a melody played at exactly the right moment. These bards don't overpower a mind; they nudge it. A soft tune can make a suspicious guard suddenly find you the most boring thing he's seen all shift, or turn genuine fear into a fond memory of a warm tavern and the end of a long day.

Wayfarer bards travel light and arrive prepared anyway — their instrument cases are quietly enchanted, holding tents, climbing gear, even a passable palanquin, all folded down to nothing until a "song of shaping and binding" calls them into being. It's a trick equal parts magic and showmanship, and one that has talked more than a few fugitives, exiles, and runaways past the people hunting them.

But that power has a cost: for a Wayfarer bard, music is the magic, and the instrument is what makes it real. Take the instrument away, and the magic goes silent with it — which is exactly why these bards learn to never let go of it for long.

Traveler's Tune

As an action, you can play a soft, unassuming melody and target one creature within 30 feet that can hear you. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failure, for the next minute the creature finds you and your companions thoroughly uninteresting: it has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to notice or scrutinize you or creatures traveling with you, and it will not attack, pursue, or raise an alarm about you unless you or an ally takes a hostile action against it or someone it's protecting.

The creature can attempt a new save whenever it takes damage, or once at the end of each of its turns after the first.

This effect only works on a creature that has no strong existing reason to distrust or fear you

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest, though you can spend a spell slot of 1st level or higher to use it again immediately.

A Bard Never Travels Light

Your instrument is enchanted — its case holds far more than it should. Choose a mundane object or simple structure worth no more than 50 gp that could plausibly fit disassembled inside an instrument case (a tent, climbing gear, a stretcher, a small raft, a disguise, a wheeled cart). As an action, you can play a "song of shaping and binding," spending one stored object as you do — it assembles itself around you over the course of the action, fully formed and functional.

You can have a number of these objects stored at once equal to your Bardic Inspiration die count (minimum one), chosen when you finish a long rest. Once assembled, an object reverts to inert, ordinary material — no longer magical — after 24 hours or if it takes damage.

Uninterested Crowd

Your Traveler's Tune has grown into something that can cover more than one set of eyes. When you use Traveler's Tune, you can target a number of additional creatures within 30 feet of the first equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum one), provided all targets can see and hear the melody together. Each target makes its own save.

Additionally, once per long rest, you can use Traveler's Tune without expending your daily use, provided every creature you target is currently unaware of your presence.

Song of the Road

You've carried people farther than they thought they could go. As an action, you can play a tune that sustains a willing creature within 30 feet, including yourself. For the next 8 hours, that creature:

• Doesn't suffer the effects of exhaustion from a forced march or lack of rest (it still needs food, water, and eventually real sleep).
• Has advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed.
• Once during that duration, when it would drop to 0 hit points but isn't killed outright, it instead drops to 1 hit point, as your music carries it one step further than it should be able to go.

You can target one additional creature for every four bard levels you have beyond 14th (two at 18th). Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Bonus Proficiencies

You gain proficiency in the Sleight of Hand and Persuasion skills. If you're already proficient in one or both, you instead gain proficiency in one skill of your choice.

Instrument-Bound

Your magic isn't innate — it lives in the music, and the music needs an instrument. You must have a musical instrument in hand, unbound and undamaged, to cast any spell or use any feature of this subclass, and to expend uses of Bardic Inspiration. This applies even to spells that don't normally require a material or somatic component. You cannot sing, hum, or whistle your way around this — without an instrument, the magic simply isn't there.

A held instrument can be disarmed like a weapon. If a creature knocks your instrument from your hands, you lose access to all bard spellcasting and this subclass's features until you retrieve it or draw another instrument you're proficient with. 

Quick Draw. You've learned to never be caught without a tune. Drawing a musical instrument no longer uses your object interaction for the turn — you can draw one as part of the same movement or action that requires it, and drawing your primary instrument no longer provokes opportunity attacks.

This doesn't affect any other Bard feature that explicitly says it works without an instrument.