Base Class: Bard
Bards of the College of Hymns are unique in that they weave divine magic into their songs and music. Through combining traditional bardic techniques with holy guidance, they can heal and protect their allies with ease. These bards are usually devoted to a specific deity or temple, and often travel the world to spread their teachings, seek knowledge, or root out opposing propaganda.
Their songs and stories are often inspired by religious scripture, and focus on imparting a meaningful message as opposed to entertaining the masses. Bards who adopt this college are often compensated by temples as opposed to earning coin in taverns or courts. Many of these bards are raised in temples, while others gravitate to the path later in life. While most who follow this path strive for benevolent causes, this is not always the case; many pursue a neutral agenda, and there are even those who use their performances to bolster dubious forces.
Divine Resonance
When you join the College of Hymns at 3rd level, you learn to weave healing energy into your spells. When you cast a spell of 1st-level or higher, you can choose to expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to restore hit points to a creature within 60 feet. You restore an amount of hit points equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die + double the level of the spell slot used to cast the spell.
Harmonic Aegis
Beginning at 3rd level, whenever you restore hit points to one or more creatures on your turn, you may give one of those creatures resistance to a damage type of your choice until the start of your next turn: cold, fire, lightning, necrotic, radiant, or thunder. You can do so only once per round on your turn.
Sacred Melodies
At 6th level, you gain the following spells: bless, sanctuary, and revivify. These spells count as bard spells for you, and don’t count against the number of bard spells you know.
Heavenly Choir
Starting at 14th level, when you use Divine Resonance, the target receives temporary hit points equal to the total hit points restored by Divine Resonance.
Previous Versions
| Name | Date Modified | Views | Adds | Version | Actions |
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5/5/2018 1:27:18 PM
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1515
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81
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1.0
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Coming Soon
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Posted Sep 10, 2018I love this concept! Worship music is a thing, and it makes sense that some bards would lean that way.
My only complaint would be the 6th Level feature, Sacred Melodies, which seems a bit bland; I get that it's emulating Additional Magical Secrets, but it doesn't really compare in terms of utility, despite being thematic. Perhaps just learning the Revivify spell (or even just the Spare the Dying cantrip) while giving some other, "beefier" benefit might make the feature more attractive?
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Posted Jun 16, 2018I don't really get Harmonic Aegis providing resistances--maybe have it give +1 AC or something instead--but I'm very glad that the subclass exists. For one thing, bards are very low on subclasses compared to other classes, and for another, I have a player who's eventually going to need it if his character gets far enough past 20th level.
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Posted May 5, 2018Introducing version 2 of the College of Hymns!
While very popular as a subclass overall, its early features did not scale with the Bardic Inspiration of the core class. In light of this, its level 3 features have been tweaked while keeping the same theme and very similar effects.
Divine Resonance is far more powerful, but now requires and uses a charge of Bardic Inspiration.
Harmonic Aegis is now an additional effect after healing someone on your turn. It retains its niche as a preemptive measure, as opposed to a guaranteed damage reduction.
Due to the changes of Divine Resonance, Heavenly Choir has been reworked to add temporary hit points on top of Divine Resonance to maintain its single-target support bonus at this level.