College of Tradition

An old man sits on a tree stump, surrounded by the local village children. His age wears heavily on him, and his face creases as he tells of defeat of The Fifth at the hands of the bards. Parents tell their children to pay no attention to the old man’s fables, but the children swear they could hear the echoes of the sounds of battle. A dwarven lass stands in front of three stone doors. She closes her eyes and opens the door to her left. She enters to see before her a wooden chest. With a strum of her mandolin a barrage of fire falls from the ceiling, destroying the chest and unleashing a cacophony of unearthly wails.

College of Tradition

Those belonging to The College of Tradition wield an ability as old as music itself, discovered by the very first bards. They tell odes to ancient battles and sing cautionary tales of gods long dead. Fluctuations in the weave from the events the stories told seep through their words and songs, coalescing into physical effects. These playwrights & storytellers tap into that most primeval of magic, allowing the college’s members to alter the very elements around them.

Bards of Tradition concern themselves with the big picture, for even an elf’s lifespan is but a grain in the sands of time. They favor to operate as guardians of time & keepers of balance, and as such, they tend to be more neutral than members of other colleges. Many of these bards become legend, having prevented a great cataclysm or defeating a world-ending foe. Though their deeds may be well known, once the task is complete, bards of the College of Tradition fade into the shadows not to be seen again. There is no formal college prospective bards may attend; the knowledge on how to gain power from ones’ stories is passed down to an apprentice when a Bard of Tradition deems fit. No matter where the Bards of Tradition are driven, those that hear their tales know that these bards speak with the authority of that which came before.

Ancient Knowledge

When you join the College of Tradition at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in History and can add double your proficiency bonus to any History check. Additionally, you can speak, read, and write Primordial, Draconic, and 1 other exotic (and/or ancient) language.

Elemental Inspiration

Also at 3rd level, your words take on an elemental power of their own. When a creature that has your Inspiration takes acid, cold, fire, thunder, or lightning, they can expend your bardic inspiration to give that creature resistance to that trigger damage until the start of their next turn. Alternatively, when the creature is hit by a melee attack, they can use their reaction to expend the use of bardic inspiration to lash out in primal retribution, dealing 2d6 acid, cold, fire, thunder, or lightning damage to the attacker. The damage increases to 3d6 at bard level 5, 5d6 at bard level 10, and 8d6 at bard level 15.

Thunderous Secrets

Starting at 6th level, the tales you tell seem to bring you closer to more primal magic. You learn 2 evocation spells of your choice from the sorcerer spell list of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip. They are bard spells for you and do not count against your number of spells known. When you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of these two spells and replace it with another evocation spell from the sorcerer list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots. When you cast these spells, you ignore damage resistance and treat damage immunity as resistance.

Tales from The Past

At 14th level, you don’t need material components to cast Legend Lore. Additionally, as an action, you can name or describe a person, place, or thing of which you are familiar. You gain instantaneous knowledge of the direction it is in, but not its exact location. If the person, place, or thing is on another plane of existence, you know which plane. You regain the ability to use this on a short or long rest.