A mobster’s scout saw a man covered in burlap looking at market stalls, but clearly didn’t have any cash on him. The man was clearly talented with automation because he had a golem following shortly behind that looked like it was doing a lot more than just following orders. The boss wanted him brought in and told him about a stash that he wanted to get into, but it was guarded by 2 large golems, too big for normal people to handle. The new guy said he could handle it, but it would cost a shiny silver with half up front. Boss man said if he could get in the building, then he was worth it. Big Julie was sent with him to make sure the new recruit didn’t run off as well as to transfer the other half of the deal. The boss was on the “phone” when Big Julie started babbling nonsense of how the new guy got close to a golem and just started talking to it before it just walked off. The guy never gave the boss his name, so he just called him the golem whisperer, or just “whisper” for short. Something must have spooked Whisper cuz he ran away shortly after he was paid. The boss said if Whisper ever needs work again, to come find him.

 597-196 does not want to be known as someone who is good with golems since that may raise attention. The golem guard resumed its post after the divine blood programming had worn off. 597-196 stole some lacrima fragments.

The Mark of Handling gives its bearer a primal connection to beasts and the natural world, granting the power to calm and coax. This extends beyond purely natural animals; the mark allows its bearer to guide a hippogriff as easily as a horse.

House Vadalis

Leader: Dalin d’Vadalis

Headquarters: Foalswood (near Varna, Eldeen Reaches)

Represented by the hippogriff, House Vadalis plays an important role in daily life, offering meat, mounts, and more. Vadalis isn’t one of the most powerful houses, but its barons are generally content; they’re more interested in discovering new monstrosities than engaging in politics. The current head of the house, Dalin d’Vadalis, disdains the use of a title and has no aspirations to nobility or greatness for himself or his house.

House Vadalis breeds and trains beasts for a wide range of purposes. While the house maintains vast cattle ranches and trains horses and hounds, the Mark of Handling allows Vadalis to work with more exotic creatures as well. Griffons, hippogriffs, and even bulettes can be bred and trained. Even with the Mark of Handling, this is dangerous work; there’s a lot of turnover at the bulette ranch. But these exotic creatures aren’t enough to satisfy the most innovative members of the house, leading to the practice of magebreeding. Using dragonshard focus items, Vadalis has found ways to create magical creatures. Typically, this results in a superior version of a creature—an animal that is stronger, faster, and smarter. But rumors claim that Vadalis has crafted monsters of its own. Some rumors even insist that Vadalis is trying to magebreed better humans.

Ability Score Increase

Your Wisdom score increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Wild Intuition

When you make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) or Intelligence (Nature) check, you can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the ability check.

Primal Connection

You can cast the animal friendship and speak with animals spells with this trait, requiring no material component. Once you cast either spell with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a short or long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

The Bigger They Are

Starting at 3rd level, you can target a beast or monstrosity when you cast animal friendship or speak with animals, provided the creature’s Intelligence score is 3 or lower.

Spells of the Mark

If you have the Spellcasting or the Pact Magic class feature, the spells on the Mark of Handling Spells table are added to the spell list of your spellcasting class.

Humming as she traces her fingers over an ancient monument in a long-forgotten ruin, a half-elf in rugged leathers finds knowledge springing into her mind, conjured forth by the magic of her song—knowledge of the people who constructed the monument and the mythic saga it depicts.

A stern human warrior bangs his sword rhythmically against his scale mail, setting the tempo for his war chant and exhorting his companions to bravery and heroism. The magic of his song fortifies and emboldens them.

Laughing as she tunes her cittern, a gnome weaves her subtle magic over the assembled nobles, ensuring that her companions’ words will be well received.

Whether scholar, skald, or scoundrel, a bard weaves magic through words and music to inspire allies, demoralize foes, manipulate minds, create illusions, and even heal wounds.

Music and Magic

In the worlds of D&D, words and music are not just vibrations of air, but vocalizations with power all their own. The bard is a master of song, speech, and the magic they contain. Bards say that the multiverse was spoken into existence, that the words of the gods gave it shape, and that echoes of these primordial Words of Creation still resound throughout the cosmos. The music of bards is an attempt to snatch and harness those echoes, subtly woven into their spells and powers.

The greatest strength of bards is their sheer versatility. Many bards prefer to stick to the sidelines in combat, using their magic to inspire their allies and hinder their foes from a distance. But bards are capable of defending themselves in melee if necessary, using their magic to bolster their swords and armor. Their spells lean toward charms and illusions rather than blatantly destructive spells. They have a wide-ranging knowledge of many subjects and a natural aptitude that lets them do almost anything well. Bards become masters of the talents they set their minds to perfecting, from musical performance to esoteric knowledge.

Learning from Experience

True bards are not common in the world. Not every minstrel singing in a tavern or jester cavorting in a royal court is a bard. Discovering the magic hidden in music requires hard study and some measure of natural talent that most troubadours and jongleurs lack. It can be hard to spot the difference between these performers and true bards, though. A bard’s life is spent wandering across the land gathering lore, telling stories, and living on the gratitude of audiences, much like any other entertainer. But a depth of knowledge, a level of musical skill, and a touch of magic set bards apart from their fellows.

Only rarely do bards settle in one place for long, and their natural desire to travel—to find new tales to tell, new skills to learn, and new discoveries beyond the horizon—makes an adventuring career a natural calling. Every adventure is an opportunity to learn, practice a variety of skills, enter long-forgotten tombs, discover lost works of magic, decipher old tomes, travel to strange places, or encounter exotic creatures. Bards love to accompany heroes to witness their deeds firsthand. A bard who can tell an awe-inspiring story from personal experience earns renown among other bards. Indeed, after telling so many stories about heroes accomplishing mighty deeds, many bards take these themes to heart and assume heroic roles themselves.

Creating a Bard

Bards thrive on stories, whether those stories are true or not. Your character’s background and motivations are not as important as the stories that he or she tells about them. Perhaps you had a secure and mundane childhood. There’s no good story to be told about that, so you might paint yourself as an orphan raised by a hag in a dismal swamp. Or your childhood might be worthy of a story. Some bards acquire their magical music through extraordinary means, including the inspiration of fey or other supernatural creatures.

Did you serve an apprenticeship, studying under a master, following the more experienced bard until you were ready to strike out on your own? Or did you attend a college where you studied bardic lore and practiced your musical magic? Perhaps you were a young runaway or orphan, befriended by a wandering bard who became your mentor. Or you might have been a spoiled noble child tutored by a master. Perhaps you stumbled into the clutches of a hag, making a bargain for a musical gift in addition to your life and freedom, but at what cost?

QUICK BUILD

You can make a bard quickly by following these suggestions. First, Charisma should be your highest ability score, followed by Dexterity. Second, choose the entertainer background. Third, choose the dancing lights and vicious mockery cantrips, along with the following 1st-level spells: charm person, detect magic, healing word, and thunderwave.

The Bard Table

Class Features

As a bard, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per bard level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per bard level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords
Tools: Three musical instruments of your choice
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Charisma
Skills: Choose any three

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a rapier, (b) a longsword, or (c) any simple weapon
• (a) a diplomat’s pack or (b) an entertainer’s pack
• (a) a lute or (b) any other musical instrument
• Leather armor and a dagger

Spellcasting

You have learned to untangle and reshape the fabric of reality in harmony with your wishes and music. Your spells are part of your vast repertoire, magic that you can tune to different situations. See Spells Rules for the general rules of spellcasting and the Spells Listing for the bard spell list.

Cantrips

You know two cantrips of your choice from the bard spell list. You learn additional bard cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Bard table.

Spell Slots

The Bard table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your bard spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell cure wounds and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast cure wounds using either slot.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know four 1st-level spells of your choice from the bard spell list.

The Spells Known column of the Bard table shows when you learn more bard spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots, as shown on the table. For instance, when you reach 3rd level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the bard spells you know and replace it with another spell from the bard spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability

Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your bard spells. Your magic comes from the heart and soul you pour into the performance of your music or oration. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a bard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier

Ritual Casting

You can cast any bard spell you know as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag.

Spellcasting Focus

You can use a musical instrument (see the Tools section) as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.

Bardic Inspiration

You can inspire others through stirring words or music. To do so, you use a bonus action on your turn to choose one creature other than yourself within 60 feet of you who can hear you. That creature gains one Bardic Inspiration die, a d6.

Once within the next 10 minutes, the creature can roll the die and add the number rolled to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes. The creature can wait until after it rolls the d20 before deciding to use the Bardic Inspiration die, but must decide before the DM says whether the roll succeeds or fails. Once the Bardic Inspiration die is rolled, it is lost. A creature can have only one Bardic Inspiration die at a time.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of once). You regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Your Bardic Inspiration die changes when you reach certain levels in this class. The die becomes a d8 at 5th level, a d10 at 10th level, and a d12 at 15th level.

Jack of All Trades

Starting at 2nd level, you can add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down, to any ability check you make that doesn’t already include your proficiency bonus.

Song of Rest

Beginning at 2nd level, you can use soothing music or oration to help revitalize your wounded allies during a short rest. If you or any friendly creatures who can hear your performance regain hit points at the end of the short rest by spending one or more Hit Dice, each of those creatures regains an extra 1d6 hit points.

The extra hit points increase when you reach certain levels in this class: to 1d8 at 9th level, to 1d10 at 13th level, and to 1d12 at 17th level.

Bard College

At 3rd level, you delve into the advanced techniques of a bard college of your choice: the College of Lore detailed at the end of the class description or another from the Player's Handbook or other sources. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th and 14th level.

Expertise

At 3rd level, choose two of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.

Font of Inspiration

Beginning when you reach 5th level, you regain all of your expended uses of Bardic Inspiration when you finish a short or long rest.

Countercharm

At 6th level, you gain the ability to use musical notes or words of power to disrupt mind-influencing effects. As an action, you can start a performance that lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, you and any friendly creatures within 30 feet of you have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed. A creature must be able to hear you to gain this benefit. The performance ends early if you are incapacitated or silenced or if you voluntarily end it (no action required).

Expertise

At 10th level, choose two more of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.

Magical Secrets

By 10th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any classes, including this one. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip.

The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and are included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Bard table.

You learn two additional spells from any classes at 14th level and again at 18th level.

Magical Secrets

At 14th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any classes, including this one. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip.

The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and are included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Bard table.

You learn two additional spells from any classes at 18th level.

Magical Secrets

At 18th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any classes, including this one. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip.

The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and are included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Bard table.

Superior Inspiration

At 20th level, when you roll initiative and have no uses of Bardic Inspiration left, you regain one use.

Optional Class Features

Additional Bard Spells

1st-level bard feature
The spells in the following list expand the bard spell list in the Player’s Handbook. The list is organized by spell level, not character level. If a spell can be cast as a ritual, the ritual tag appears after the spell’s name. Each spell is in the Player’s Handbook, unless it has an asterisk (a spell in chapter 3 of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything). Xanathar’s Guide to Everything also offers more spells.

Magical Inspiration

2nd-level bard feature
If a creature has a Bardic Inspiration die from you and casts a spell that restores hit points or deals damage, the creature can roll that die and choose a target affected by the spell. Add the number rolled as a bonus to the hit points regained or the damage dealt. The Bardic Inspiration die is then lost.

Bardic Versatility

4th-level bard feature
Whenever you reach a level in this class that grants the Ability Score Improvement feature, you can do one of the following, representing a change in focus as you use your skills and magic:

• Replace one of the skills you chose for the Expertise feature with one of your other skill proficiencies that isn’t benefiting from Expertise.
• Replace one cantrip you learned from this class’s Spellcasting feature with another cantrip from the bard spell list.

Bard Colleges

The way of a bard is gregarious. Bards seek each other out to swap songs and stories, boast of their accomplishments, and share their knowledge. Bards form loose associations, which they call colleges, to facilitate their gatherings and preserve their traditions.

Walden Stein has obtained the rights and ownership to the Harmony Opera House. He intends to turn the place into a swinging club and a hang out place for him and his friends. However, as the construction started strange things started happening here. Mysterious deaths started occurring prompting Walden to reach out to a unique group of individuals. Knowing that the king's guards wouldn't assist in any way, this was his last resort to get down to the bottom of things.

Creatures who stare deeply at this starknife find their minds plagued with thoughts of their cosmic insignificance—the unsettling awareness that they’re nothing more than irrelevant specks of dust compared to the vastness of the multiverse, and that their actions and choices are meaningless and ultimately inconsequential. Luckily, slicing your foes in half with a mini-galaxy is a phenomenal way to vent those feelings.⁠
⁠
The starknife has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.⁠
⁠
Galactic Disc Throw. As an action while holding the starknife, you can expend 1 charge to channel the cosmic energy in the weapon and throw it in a 15-foot-long line. When you do, the starknife spins rapidly and takes the shape of a disc galaxy as it travels. Make a ranged weapon attack with the starknife against each creature in the line. After it reaches the end of the line, the starknife stops and spins in place until the end of the turn, at which point it returns to you in a straight line. When it does, make another ranged weapon attack with the starknife against each creature in that line. Attacks made with this property deal slashing damage instead of piercing damage. If the spinning starknife hits a Medium or larger object at any point, it stops spinning and flies back to your hand.⁠

Proficiency with a dagger allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.

Long ago, the Frecia Army invaded Cradania through the city of Mikatia. The plan was to invade and take resources to further enhance the technological advances Frecia was conducting. However, in the battle their magic was proven to be useless due to The Divine Crystal. The battle only lasted a few hours before the Cradania Army pushed Frecia out.