College of Villainy

The college of villainy is for the overly dramatic, the needlessly extravagant, and the overwhelmingly petty. The bards of this college are not necessarily evil, but they are schemers, masterminds, and dastards of what it truly means to be villains. Monologues that are too long, theatric escape routes, luscious and impractical capes and masks; these are all the traits of what makes a villain interesting to the audience. The motivations of each villain vary: maybe they hide truly good intentions behind a facade of evil to maintain their confidence and public image, maybe they seek only to be the source of the pain of their longest rival, or maybe they just like stealing things with a motif while cackling maliciously. Whether simple or complex, justified or not, the bards of this college harness the sting of their words to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies, and harness their wit to construct the most convoluted plots.

Masterful Mockery

When you join the College of Villainy at 3rd level, you learn the vicious mockery cantrip. It doesn't count against your number of bard cantrips, and you may cast it as a bonus action. In addition, you may use a bardic inspiration to increase the damage of your vicious by an amount determined by your level. When you do so, you may roll your inspiration die anytime once when the affected creature rolls an ability check, saving throw, or attack roll within the 10 minutes of it being affected by your masterful mockery. The extra damage to your masterful mockery is 1d4 at 3rd level, 2d4 at 10th level, and 3d4 at 15th level. 

Instruct Minion

Also at 3rd level, you use your devious cunning to inspire your minions in the most dire circumstances. When a creature that you can see within 60 feet of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to inspire them with a bardic inspiration. You can choose to use this feature after the creature makes its roll, but before the DM determines whether the attack roll, ability check, or saving throw succeeds or fails.

Maniacal Mind

At 6th level, the mere thought of your schemes fills you with infinite vigor. At the beginning of your turn, if you are concentrating on a spell, you gain temporary hit points equal to your charisma modifier. If you take damage, but you still have the temporary hit points gained from this feature, you do not have to make a concentration saving throw to maintain your spell concentration. At 14th level, your temporary hit from this feature become twice your Charisma modifier.

Climatic Demise

Starting at 14th level, defeating you for good has become exceedingly difficult. When you are brought down to 0 hit points, but are not killed outright, you may fake your death in an extravagant way of your choice (dissolve into a puddle, burn into ash while screaming, laughing as your face morphs into the face of your rival's brother, etc). After you do so, you may appear in any unoccupied space 30 ft from the place you faked your death and become invisible until the end of your next turn or until you deal damage or force a creature to make a saving throw. This method does not deal damage in any way, however, as soon as you stop being invisible, every creature of your choice that can see you must make make a wisdom saving throw against your bard spell DC or become frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Once you use this feature, you cannot use again until you finish a long rest.