Bard College: The College of Liars



'Are you sure we're going to be able to get past the guards? They're going to be very thorough.'

The changeling scoffed. 'As if they could stop us. We'll be fine.'

'How can you be so sure?'

'Because I am an amazing liar, darling.'

The College of Liars - originally spelled Lyres after the famous sound-mimicking bird - is filled with bards that focus on deceiving their way through challenges, getting into places they're not supposed to be through bluster, bravado, and generous heapings of strangely convincing bullshit. Useful as spies and sowers of discord, they can be relied on to get the job done if you make it sound like enough fun for them, though you may need to take their own embellishments into account when you follow up.

At 3rd level you get the best possible training on how to deceive others. You gain proficiency and expertise in Deception, as well as either Insight or Sleight of Hand. If you already have proficiency in Deception, you gain proficiency in both of these skills; if you already have expertise in Deception, you can choose one of the other skills to gain expertise in.

You also gain proficiency with the disguise kit and the forgery kit, and you gain expertise with one of these tools.

Finally, you learn the Friends cantrip, and it doesn't count towards the number of cantrips you know. If you already know the Friends cantrip, you can replace it with a different cantrip on the Bard spell list.

Inspired Deception

Also at 3rd level, you learn how to use your own inspiring power to bolster your own lies. Whenever you make an ability check involving one of the skills or tools in the Tools of the Liar ability, you can add a Bardic Inspiration dice to the roll as part of the check.

You can also expend a Bardic Inspiration dice whenever you create an illusion; add the result of the Inspiration Die to the DC of the Investigation check to detect your illusions.

Feigned Submission

At 6th level, you gain both a resilience to the mind tricks of others and the skill to make them think you aren't.

You are immune to being charmed or frightened.

If you are subject to a spell or effect that would inflict either of those conditions, you can try to convince the creature that created the effect that you failed the saving throw. Make a Deception check as a reaction, opposed by source creature's Insight check; if you succeed, the creature believes that you are subject to the charm or frighten effect. The source creature has disadvantage on the Insight check if the effect it used to cause the condition has an area of effect (such as the Fear spell). If the source creature beats your Deception check, they know that the spell failed and that you tried to lie to them.

If you act in a way that is contrary to the charmed or frightened condition (such as by attacking a creature you're meant to be charmed by), you have advantage on the related dice roll and the deception is immediately broken.

You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum once), but you can only use it against a given creature once in a 24-hour period.

I Am Who I Say I Am

At 14th level, you gain absolute control over what and how you present to the world.

Your Feigned Submission ability now works on effects intended to directly control or manipulate you (such as Dominate Person), you gain immunity to psychic damage and to effects that try to directly control or manipulate you, and you can make a Deception check as a reaction to any spell that would read your emotions or thoughts to put up a "false front" of thoughts and feelings; the DC for this check is either the other creature's relevant save DC (if this is an active effect) or their passive Insight (if this is a passive affect).

Magic Item

The Death Fooler

Unique, requires attunement

This is the singular most powerful artefact ever created by a member of the College of Liars, who wanted to lie to detah itself. It appears as a three-sided platinum coin with indescipherable markings on it.

The bearer of this coin has advantage on all Deception checks and can ignore any effect that would impose disadvantage on their Deception checks. If a creature attuned to this artefact dies through any means, they can make a DC 20 Deception check. If they fail, they die as normal; if they succeed, however, they are restored to life with 1 hit point and rendered completely undetectable to all creatures by any means for 1 minute. The attuned creature cannot interact with other creatures while in this state.

In addition, the magic of the coin creates a duplicate of the creature's physical body in a state appropriate for whatever killed it. This duplicate corpse is real to all senses, but vanishes as soon as no creatures are observing it.

The attuned creature can use this artefact to lie to death three times; each time it uses this ability after the first, the save DC increases by 5. Once it uses this power three times, the coin vanishes and reappears somewhere else in the worlds after 1 year.