College of Brutality
Today, we have a slice of homebrew for the metalheads and punks out there. In our experience, the overlap of DnD nerds and metal nerds is pretty large, and regardless, half of our writers are huge metal nerds, and a slightly different half are musicians. Honestly, the fact that hardcore bard took this long to happen is the only surprise.
For fans of the genre, we hope you are satisfied with how aggressively loud this particular bard is. We built most of the features around a thunder damage theme, and once you get booming blade at 6th, you won't even have to choose each turn between earthshaking noise or bloody savagery; you can play your axe and swing it, too.
Meanwhile, for bard enthusiasts just looking for some variety, this archetype has some especially brutal ways to support allies and disrupt enemies, classic hits for any bard purist.
Did you read enemies abound and think, why doesn't this upcast? Because you weren't heavy metal enough, that's why. Now, with the power of rock music, you can start a full riot with one high level spell slot, just like the dark gods intended.
We hope you enjoy all your noise complaints.
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College of Brutality
The College of Brutality houses bards who use loud, outlandish, and thrilling performances to inspire both fear and wonder. Though members are not inherently evil, they co-opt macabre themes and aesthetics taken from the world around them as a means of their expression. These bards use their pounding music and dark appearance to signal power and aggression, but they are rarely loners, holding intense bonds with those that face the brutalities of the world alongside them.
Bonus Proficiencies
3rd-level college of brutality feature
You gain proficiency with battleaxes, greataxes, and medium armor.
Blast Beat
3rd-level college of brutality feature
When a creature adds one of your Bardic Inspiration dice to an attack roll and that attack hits, that attack deals additional thunder damage equal to the number rolled and the target is deafened until the start of your next turn.
Sinister Bravado
3rd-level college of brutality feature
When you use an action to play an instrument, sing, or shout, you can replicate any effects of the thaumaturgy cantrip as part of the same action.
Crank It Up
6th-level college of brutality feature
You learn the booming blade cantrip. Additionally, whenever you or a creature with one of your Bardic Inspiration dice deals thunder damage, you or that creature can push damaged creatures up to 5 feet away from the source of the damage.
Mosh Pit
6th-level college of brutality feature
You learn the enemies abound spell, and it doesn’t count against the number of bard spells that you know. When you cast enemies abound, if you cast it using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can target an additional creature for each slot level above 3rd.
Bat Out of Hell
14th-level college of brutality feature
When a Large or smaller creature that you can see within 60 feet drops to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to briefly ignite and reanimate that creature’s corpse. That corpse runs up to 60 feet towards a point of your choice, and then explodes in a spectacular blast that destroys the corpse. Each creature within 10 feet of the corpse when it explodes must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC, taking 4d6 fire damage and 4d8 thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.
Once you animate a corpse in this way, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a spell slot of 5th level or higher to do so again.