College of Academia

Bards of the College of Academia are less interested in the aesthetic arts like music, artworks or poems, and instead focus on the importance of studying and learning through thorough research. These bards can often be found in magical academies, studying side-by-side with wizards and grand arcanists of the highest caliber. When these scholars venture out to explore the world as members of adventuring parties, they often do so to explore deeper parts of their field of study, to pass on their knowledge to their allies or to study magical spells and their effects in action.

Academic Scholar

Beginning when you choose this college at 3rd level, you’ve chosen to learn and master magic through academic studies. You gain proficiency in the Intelligence (Arcana) and Intelligence (History) skills.

Additionally, you learn one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. This cantrip counts as a bard cantrip, and doesn’t count against your maximum number of cantrips known.

Studious Inspiration

Also at 3rd level, you can inspire yourself to improve your memory retention and hone your mind. Whenever you roll an Intelligence ability check or saving throw, you can use your reaction to add the result of one roll of your Bardic Inspiration to the check, potentially changing the outcome. You can do this after rolling, but before the DM tells you if you’ve succeeded or not.

Inspired Tutelage

At 6th level, you’re a well-studied and knowledgeable individual, and have learnt how to temporarily pass on some of your knowledge to others. As an action, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration and target one creature of your choice within 60 feet of you. The creature must make an Intelligence ability check with a DC of 15. The DC of this check is lowered by an amount equal to the result of your Bardic Inspiration die + your Intelligence modifier. If the target of this feature succeeds on their check, you can grant them one of the following benefits for up to 1 hour:

• They gain proficiency in one tool, skill or saving throw that you are proficient with.
• They can double their proficiency bonus with a tool or skill they are proficient in.
• Once per turn, they can add your Charisma modifier to the damage of a weapon attack they make.
• They can choose to reroll any Bardic Inspiration die they gain from you once per turn.

You can have a number of creatures equal to your Charisma modifier under the effect of this feature at once, but a single creature can only receive one of the benefits of this feature at a time.

Scholarly Secrets

At 14th level, you’ve studied higher magic than typical bards, granting you access to new spells. You can choose one 1st level, 2nd level and 3rd level spell from the wizard spell list, and add them to your list of prepared spells. These spells count as bard spells for you and do not count against your maximum number of prepared spells. You can cast each of the chosen spells once per long rest, without requiring a spell slot.