kosh49
2021-01-28, 01:06 PM
Back in the original AD&D PHB, the Bard presented in the Appendix definitely leaned into Celtic archetypes by establishing a strong connection between the Bard class and the Druid class. In fact, you needed to actually be trained by a Druid in order to become a Bard. I decided to create a Bard subclass that evoked that connection.
College of the Forest
Bards of the College of the Forest prefer the wilderness to civilization. They revere life and nature and seek to protect the balance of the natural order. They listen to the music of nature and are inspired by the harmony of the wild. Their music frequently seeks to evoke natural sounds like birdsong, rustling leaves, or babbling brooks.
Student of Nature
When you join the College of the Forest at 3rd level, you learn one cantrip from the druid spell list. This cantrip counts as a bard cantrip for you but it does not count against your cantrips known. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this cantrip.
In addition you gain proficiency with the herbalism kit and in two skills of your choice from Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, and Survival.
Skilled Healer
At 3rd level, you can treat injured creatures to restore their health. As an action you bestow healing on one creature you can touch equal to one roll of your Song of Rest die plus your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Each creature who benefits from this feature must complete a long rest before they can benefit from it again. At 14th level the healing from this feature increases to two rolls of your Song of Rest dice plus your Charisma modifier.
Secrets of the Wilderness
At 6th level you learn two druid spells of a level you can cast and one druid cantrip. The chosen spells and cantrip count as bard spells for you but don't count against the number of bard spells or cantrips you know.
Also at 6th level, you can use magic items useable by druids in addition to those useable by bards.
Master of Many Forms
At 14th level you learn the spell polymorph if you do not already know it. If you do know it, you may choose to learn any other bard or druid spell that is of a level you can cast. The spell you learn with this feature count as a bard spell for you but doesn’t count against the number of bard spells you know.
Additionally you can cast polymorph without expending a spell slot. When you do this, you can only target yourself, you can only transform into a beast of challenge rating 1 or lower, and you do not need to concentrate on polymorph – the spell lasts one hour, until you drop to 0 hit points, or until you use a bonus action to end the spell, whichever comes first. Once you use this feature you can not use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
My design thoughts for this:
I know the descriptive lore in the preamble is a bit thin. I am afraid that kind of writing is not really my strength.
Student of Nature is the bonus proficiency/cantrip part of the subclass, designed to give a Druid like feel to the character.
Skilled Healer takes the place of the 3rd level feature that normally gives new ways to use Bardic Inspiration. I had difficulty using Bardic Inspiration for healing, any amount that was big enough that I thought someone would actually use the feature felt overpowered. So I looked for an alternate Bardic resource to use for it and noticed Song of Rest. Giving a new way to use Song of Rest felt like a reasonable alternative to a new way to use Bardic Inspiration and Song of Rest felt thematically appropriate as the resource to use for a healing ability. The ability needed a limit, and since the limit for the standard use of Song of Rest is tied to the character's rests I tied this ability's use to the rest cycle. Giving it once per creature per short or long rest felt like too much of an upgrade, so I scaled it back to once per creature per long rest.
Secrets of the Wilderness is like Lore Bard's bonus Magical Secrets, but it is restricted to the Druid spell list to increase the connection to the Druid class. Since the restriction makes it is less flexible than the standard Magical Secrets I added another cantrip to make it feel more impactful.
I added the ability to use Druid only Magic items to further increase the connection between the classes. There aren't that many magic items that can be used by Druids but not by Bards, so this bonus won't have much impact for most characters. I think of this part as being only marginally stronger than a ribbon. The biggest question I have for this perk is whether it should be part of the level 6 ability or the level 14 ability.
Master of Many Forms is basically using the Polymorph spell to emulate the Druid's Wild Shape ability. I wanted an ability with a Wild Shape like feel, but I didn't want to actually give them the Wild Shape ability as that felt too much like stepping on the Druid's toes. Using the spell to emulate it gives most of the feel while tying the ability to the spellcasting capability that is already part of the Bard. It's not as good as the actual Wild Shape ability because the mental stats change to the beast's stats (because it is Polymorph), but it still gives you the a Wild Shape like feel. It also is fairly comparable to the School of Transmutation's Shapechanger ability.
The most unusual part of the Master of Many Forms ability is the alternate spell for Polymorph, but since Polymorph is first available at level 7 it seemed likely that a player who wanted to use Polymorph would already have it long before this ability gave it to the character. On the other hand, since this ability uses Polymorph it felt like the ability had to guarantee that the character had the spell, but giving a benefit that you only benefit from if you massively delay acquiring something thematic for your subclass feels wrong.
Any and all feedback is much appreciated.
College of the Forest
Bards of the College of the Forest prefer the wilderness to civilization. They revere life and nature and seek to protect the balance of the natural order. They listen to the music of nature and are inspired by the harmony of the wild. Their music frequently seeks to evoke natural sounds like birdsong, rustling leaves, or babbling brooks.
Student of Nature
When you join the College of the Forest at 3rd level, you learn one cantrip from the druid spell list. This cantrip counts as a bard cantrip for you but it does not count against your cantrips known. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this cantrip.
In addition you gain proficiency with the herbalism kit and in two skills of your choice from Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, and Survival.
Skilled Healer
At 3rd level, you can treat injured creatures to restore their health. As an action you bestow healing on one creature you can touch equal to one roll of your Song of Rest die plus your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Each creature who benefits from this feature must complete a long rest before they can benefit from it again. At 14th level the healing from this feature increases to two rolls of your Song of Rest dice plus your Charisma modifier.
Secrets of the Wilderness
At 6th level you learn two druid spells of a level you can cast and one druid cantrip. The chosen spells and cantrip count as bard spells for you but don't count against the number of bard spells or cantrips you know.
Also at 6th level, you can use magic items useable by druids in addition to those useable by bards.
Master of Many Forms
At 14th level you learn the spell polymorph if you do not already know it. If you do know it, you may choose to learn any other bard or druid spell that is of a level you can cast. The spell you learn with this feature count as a bard spell for you but doesn’t count against the number of bard spells you know.
Additionally you can cast polymorph without expending a spell slot. When you do this, you can only target yourself, you can only transform into a beast of challenge rating 1 or lower, and you do not need to concentrate on polymorph – the spell lasts one hour, until you drop to 0 hit points, or until you use a bonus action to end the spell, whichever comes first. Once you use this feature you can not use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
My design thoughts for this:
I know the descriptive lore in the preamble is a bit thin. I am afraid that kind of writing is not really my strength.
Student of Nature is the bonus proficiency/cantrip part of the subclass, designed to give a Druid like feel to the character.
Skilled Healer takes the place of the 3rd level feature that normally gives new ways to use Bardic Inspiration. I had difficulty using Bardic Inspiration for healing, any amount that was big enough that I thought someone would actually use the feature felt overpowered. So I looked for an alternate Bardic resource to use for it and noticed Song of Rest. Giving a new way to use Song of Rest felt like a reasonable alternative to a new way to use Bardic Inspiration and Song of Rest felt thematically appropriate as the resource to use for a healing ability. The ability needed a limit, and since the limit for the standard use of Song of Rest is tied to the character's rests I tied this ability's use to the rest cycle. Giving it once per creature per short or long rest felt like too much of an upgrade, so I scaled it back to once per creature per long rest.
Secrets of the Wilderness is like Lore Bard's bonus Magical Secrets, but it is restricted to the Druid spell list to increase the connection to the Druid class. Since the restriction makes it is less flexible than the standard Magical Secrets I added another cantrip to make it feel more impactful.
I added the ability to use Druid only Magic items to further increase the connection between the classes. There aren't that many magic items that can be used by Druids but not by Bards, so this bonus won't have much impact for most characters. I think of this part as being only marginally stronger than a ribbon. The biggest question I have for this perk is whether it should be part of the level 6 ability or the level 14 ability.
Master of Many Forms is basically using the Polymorph spell to emulate the Druid's Wild Shape ability. I wanted an ability with a Wild Shape like feel, but I didn't want to actually give them the Wild Shape ability as that felt too much like stepping on the Druid's toes. Using the spell to emulate it gives most of the feel while tying the ability to the spellcasting capability that is already part of the Bard. It's not as good as the actual Wild Shape ability because the mental stats change to the beast's stats (because it is Polymorph), but it still gives you the a Wild Shape like feel. It also is fairly comparable to the School of Transmutation's Shapechanger ability.
The most unusual part of the Master of Many Forms ability is the alternate spell for Polymorph, but since Polymorph is first available at level 7 it seemed likely that a player who wanted to use Polymorph would already have it long before this ability gave it to the character. On the other hand, since this ability uses Polymorph it felt like the ability had to guarantee that the character had the spell, but giving a benefit that you only benefit from if you massively delay acquiring something thematic for your subclass feels wrong.
Any and all feedback is much appreciated.