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Bards with Class: New Bard Spells

Bards with Class: New Bard Spells

The previous entries in this series have provided new options for bards who express their abilities using art forms other than music and oratory. The following spells support those concepts.

Brand of Shame

2nd-Level Enchantment
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a quill)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You brandish your quill, inscribing a brand into the flesh of a creature you touch. The creature projects a 30-foot-radius aura that moves with it until the spell ends. All creatures in the aura feel disgust toward the branded creature. Creatures within the aura deal an extra 1d8 psychic damage to the target whenever they hit it with an attack. Also, choose one ability when you cast the spell. The target has disadvantage on saving throws made with the chosen ability.

If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn to brand a new creature.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th or 5th level, you can maintain your concentration on the spell for up to 8 hours, and the extra damage dealt by creatures in the aura increases to 1d10. When you use a spell slot of 6th level or higher, you can maintain your concentration on the spell for up to 24 hours, and the extra damage dealt by creatures in the aura increases to 1d12.

Castigate

6th-Level Evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 90 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instant

You verbally excoriate one creature. As you speak the words, which can be heard from a mile away, they take on physical form. A creature that cannot understand you is unaffected.

The target must make a Charisma saving throw. On a failure, it takes 8d6 psychic damage and 8d6 thunder damage and is hurled a number of squares equal to your spellcasting ability modifier and knocked prone. On a success, it takes half damage and is not hurled or knocked prone.

Dark Masterpiece

9th-Level Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 150 feet
Components: V, S, M (a stretched 36-by-36-inch canvas)
Duration: 1 hour

You paint the scene before you on the fly, mystically capturing every detail and nuance on canvas. Choose a point within range. All creatures and objects in a 50-foot cube centered on that point are removed from reality and trapped in the painting, which is a demiplane identical to the area removed. Creatures in the area can make Charisma saves to resist being removed from reality. Objects are automatically affected.

In addition to containing all objects that were in the area affected by the spell, the demiplane has impenetrable, opaque walls of force for boundaries. Trapped creatures cannot leave the demiplane, and they cannot affect anything outside the demiplane. Creatures on both sides of the painting can see through it like a window.

The negative space left behind is colorless and empty. Creatures and objects can move and breathe and otherwise exist normally in this space, though the destabilizing effect of partially removing objects from reality might make that hazardous. The spell could cause unforeseen complications, such as causing buildings to cave in, creating new entrances, or damaging structures holding liquids.

The painting is a small object that weighs 5 pounds. It has an AC of 12 and 3 hit points. A creature can do anything to the painting that could normally be done such an object, such as moving it, covering it, or flipping it facedown.

The magic on the painting lasts for an hour, at which point the painting reverts to a blank canvas. All creatures and objects within are returned to where they were before you cast the spell. The spell also ends if the painting is dispelled or destroyed. Any damage caused by complications still exists when the spell ends. It is up to the GM’s discretion what happens.

Toxic Temptation

Conjuration Cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a morsel of tainted food)
Duration: 1 round

You hurl a morsel of tainted food into the mouth of a creature you can see within range and implant a suggestion in that creature’s mind to eat it. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a success, it spits the food out. On a failure, it immediately uses its reaction, if available, to eat the morsel, and until the end of its next turn, the target is poisoned and has disadvantage on saving throws. A creature immune to poison that fails its save must still use its reaction, if available, to eat the morsel, but it is not subject to the other effects.

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6 thoughts on “Bards with Class: New Bard Spells”

  1. For Toxic Temptation, what happens if they already used their reaction? Does it cost the target something else?

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