Hello, everyone! First I must apologize for the late article today – I’ve had a miserable cold for the past week, which has thrown my update schedule even further out of whack. Thankfully this update isn’t as late as the articles following my trip last month, so I hope to get my regular Monday/Friday schedule going next week. To start off your weekend, here’s a new subclass for the Bard, the College of Ruin.
Bards of the College of Ruin are those who study destruction in all its forms. Naturally, what better subject of study than the devastating power of the Primordials? While most would view the College of Ruin as an exercise in unadulterated nihilism, Bards look to this study as a celebration of renewal.
College of Ruin students will often consider themselves archaeologists, studying the birth and death of entities and civilizations which came before them. These bards will travel from ruin to ruin, studying everything they can from architecture to tools and materials. Because of their interest in death and the afterlife that follows, bards of the College of Ruin also serve as orators for funerals.
Table of Contents
Bonus Cantrips
When you join the College of Ruin, choose any two of the following Cantrips: Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp, Mending, and Spare the Dying and add them to your Cantrips known.
Eulogy for the Lost
Starting at 3rd level, you feel a powerful empathetic connection to living things around you, and this empathy moves you to eulogize friend and enemy alike. When a creature of CR 1 or greater which you can see dies, all of your allies within 20 feet of you gain your Bardic Inspiration die. You cannot use this feature again until you complete a Short Rest or Long Rest.
Inevitable Decay
Starting at 6th level, damage you deal is infused with magical entropy, rapidly aging your foes. Your Weapon attacks count as magical for the purposes of overcoming damage resistance. Additionally, whenever you deal damage to an enemy using a Necromancy or Evocation spell, you may reduce your target’s hit point maximum by an amount equal to the damage taken. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0, and the target magically ages to dust. The creature can be restored to life only by means of a true resurrection or a wish spell.
Song of Erosion
Starting at 16th level, when you cast an Evocation spell, your spells can automatically disintegrate unattended Small or smaller nonmagical objects within their area of effect. If the target of this effect is a Medium or larger object, this effect disintegrates a 1-inch layer of it. Magical items are unaffected by Song of Erosion.