“I hope you knew what you signed up for when you joined this college, because we do not sing those silly little birdcalls other bards do. We sing ballads of tragedy, like the blue plague of 601, or the tale of Zinglebord the halfling who stretched his luck and got decapitated by an ogre. If these are to grim for you, leave now. The College of Death does not accept happy go lucky fools like you.” — Professor Murdood of the College of Death.

Many a bard has told a happy tale, whether through music, dancing, or even swords. But it takes a brave bard to focus on the sadder sides of life. The College of Death bards are these brave ones who weaken the enemy, and win hearts, with sad tales. Being able to manipulate the audiences feelings through the magic of song, many a College of Death bard  has had the audience burst into tears.

Shadows of Sorrow

By channeling the magic of a sad story, you can weaken opponents. At 3rd level when a creature within 90 ft of you attacks, you can use your reaction to give it disadvantage on the attack roll. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You gain all expended uses after a long rest

Target of Tragedy

Songs can evoke any feeling, although this feature is a bit more powerful than a sad song. At 3rd level by spending 1 die of bardic inspiration, you can use your bonus action to make a creature your target of tragedy for one minute.

A Target of tragedy suffers the following effects:

• At the start of each of their turns, they must make a DC 14 constitution saving throw or take damage equal to your proficiency bonus

• Subtract 1 from all die rolls the target makes.

You can only have one target of tragedy at a time.

Greater Tragedy

At 6th level your Target of Tragedy has the following effects:

• You can make them make a wisdom saving throw (dc = 10 + Cha modifier + Prof bonus) and on a fail the target becomes either charmed or frightened by you. On a save the target is immune to this effect for 24 hours.

Death Note

At 14th level, your experience with sad songs about death is so great you have advantage on constitution saving throws