Base Class: Bard
Red Mage is a hybrid ranged/melee style achieved via high-speed positioning. In battle, Red Mages use rapiers for melee strikes and Red Magic for ranged attacks. They deal massive damage by linking multiple spells with Dualcast and following them up with melee attacks.
Swagger
When you join the College of Red Mages at 3rd level, your AC now equals 10 + DEX + CHA.
If you’re proficient with a simple or martial melee weapon, you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.
Dualcast
At 3rd level, your mastery over evocation and enchantment magic has reached a point where you can weave both schools fluidly with each other. Whenever you cast a spell from the Evocation school of magic as an Action, you can cast, on your next turn, an enchantment spell with a cast time of an Action as a Bonus action. This feature works the other way around as well.
Feats of Derring-do
At 3rd level, you learn to perform impressive displays of martial prowess and speed. Once per round, you can expend uses of Bardic Inspirations whenever you make a melee weapon attack with a finesse weapon to empower your strike in many ways :
Corps-a-Corps You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to lunge 10 feet towards a creature as part of your Attack action. Roll the attack before lunging : If the attack hits, the target suffers extra damage which equals the number you rolled on the Bardic Inspiration die and the dash does not trigger opportunity attacks. If it doesn't hit, you still lunge to the target, however you trigger any opportunity attacks enemies could make on you.
Moulinet. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target you hit and to any other creature that you can see within 5 feet of you. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die.
Redoublement. You can expend two uses of your Bardic Inspiration to gain the Extra attack feature this turn and add the result of your roll to both damage rolls.
Displacement. You can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target you hit. The damage equals the number you roll on the Bardic Inspiration die. Regardless if the attack hits or not, you jump backwards up to 5 feet back plus a number of feet equal to the number you roll on that die, but only on a hit does your movement not trigger opportunity attacks.
Balance
Starting at 6th level, you bring balance into your fighting style, allowing you to make one melee weapon attack as a Bonus action whenever you cast a spell as an Action on the same turn.
Masterful Display
Starting at 14th level, you weave blade work and spell slinging to a point where they work in tandem with perfect harmony. Whenever you successfully Dualcast a spell, you gain a stack of Acceleration, which go to a maximum of (1 + your Charisma score modifier) stacks. You can expand one stack of Acceleration to enhance one of your Feats of Derring-do in one of several ways :
- You can add the number rolled on your Bardic inspiration to your AC until the start of your turn.
- You can use your reaction to move a number of feet equal to the number rolled on your Bardic Inspiration die. This movement does not trigger opportunity attacks
- One creature hit by your Feat of Derring-do cannot take a reaction this round

I hope you enjoy the new version
For an updated version using the 2024 rules, see https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/2376949-college-of-red-mages-2024
Any chance to make a version of this class for the '24 rules as well? I'm 100% on board for it.
I have a question about dual cast. I assume it still only allows you to cast one leveled spell per turn, right?
Enchantment are mostly Mental/Compulsion spells and that doesn't sound true to the aesthetic.
How about Evocation/Conjuration instead?
Where to start..
So. Dualcast is a free quicken magic, with only the stipulation of having 2 schools of spells to alternate between, a very strong feature for lvl 3.
Redoublement is unclear, do you really intend that you'd add the 2d6 inspiration dice as extra damage on both attacks at lvl 3? Cause that's a really strong feature to get so early. Makes alpha strike potentials even higher.
Displacement doesn't work in most games due to 5e being constructed around a 5x5 battle-map.
The lvl 6 feature is just the lvl 14 feature of valor bard, how could you ever think that was ok to give at lvl 6?
Masterful display has the same problem as displacement, in the move department. and it's both underpowered and overpowered, since the only thing worth anything in that list of things you can spend a charge on, is the bonus to ac.
Thank you for your comment! As for the AC, you may be right, however I designed it to be a bit on the higher end since this subclass is supposed to be a "caster that also fights in melee", and while a bard's Hit Die isn't like a wizard's or a sorcerer's, it's still on the lower side, so some defensive capabilities had to be added in my opinon.
If you get to play this subclass in a game, be sure to let me know how it went!
Personally the AC looks like it can be a bit high, and in ffxiv the red mage isnt that tanky but I still cant wait to try this out. Gonna run a tiefling make it look like an Au'Ra