College of Jesters

Bard Subclass

Comments from the writer: A little bit clown prince of crime, a little bit Danny Kay – you knew this was coming! This is the most up-to-date version of a subclass we released in 2020 and collected in Valda’s Spire of Secrets.

Consummate humorists, acrobats, and orators, bards of the College of Jesters can often be found in royal courts and livening up the local tavern. These bards specialize in truth through biting humor, rather than stories or sonnets, and compliment their razor wits with acrobatic stunts and other feats of showmanship. When among nobility, jesters offer off-kilter wisdom and fierce satire in equal measures. Among their peers, jesters make fine companions, as long as you can take a joke.

Raconteur

When you join this college at 3rd level, you learn the vicious mockery cantrip if you don’t already know it. You can spend a use of your Bardic Inspiration when a creature fails a saving throw against your vicious mockery to add a roll of the Bardic Inspiration die plus your Charisma modifier to the damage roll. If a creature fails its saving throw against your vicious mockery by 5 or more, it also has disadvantage on the first saving throw it makes before the start of its next turn.

Advanced Tumbling

Also at 3rd level, you can move through the space of any creature by performing acrobatic bounds and flips. Once you have moved through a creature’s space, that creature has disadvantage on opportunity attacks against you until the end of your turn.

Juggling

By 6th level, you are a renowned and daring juggler. You can use your bonus action to start juggling a number of thrown weapons up to twice your proficiency bonus. Once on each of your turns, when you take the Attack action to throw a weapon, move out of a creature’s reach, or cast the vicious mockery cantrip, you can make one ranged weapon attack against a creature you can see using one of your juggled weapons.

Grand Finale

Starting at 14th level, you can perform a climactic stunt, conclude a stirring oration, or bring a song to a close with pizzazz. When you use this feature, you can take one additional action. You can’t use this feature on the first round of combat. Once you use this feature, you can’t take actions or bonus actions on your following turn.