College of Compassion

Bards of the College of Compassion act as caretakers of the soul. Trained in the arts of counseling, conversation, and emotional insight, they foster deep bonds with their companions - bringing clarity in chaos and strength in suffering. Their magic isn’t showy or sharp; it is restorative, personal, and enduring, providing those around them with unseen but unwavering support.

Compassionate Bond (3rd Level)

Through extended, meaningful conversation, you can create a lasting emotional bond with an ally.

After spending 1 hour in uninterrupted discussion with a willing creature—focused on the creature’s personal concerns, ideals, or experiences—you may form a Compassionate Bond with them. This process must be meaningful to the creature and done during a Short or Long Rest.

A creature can only benefit from one Compassionate Bond at a time. While bonded in this way:

  • The creature’s AC increases by 1.

  • You always know the direction and general emotional state of the bonded creature if they are within 1 mile of you.

  • The bond ends if either of you dies, you form a bond with another creature, or the creature willingly ends the bond.

You may form one Compassionate Bond per Bard level over the course of your adventures. If you gain a new level, you may choose to form another bond following the same process.

Therapeutic Inspiration (3rd Level)

When you give a creature Bardic Inspiration, you can choose to sacrifice the die without rolling it to end either the Charmed or Frightened condition on that creature.

You can choose to make this decision when the creature receives the die or on their turn as a bonus action. Sacrificing the die in this way consumes it.

Stead Presence (6th Level)

Your unwavering demeanor allows you to reinforce your companions' willpower and focus. A creature that has a Compassionate Bond with you gains advantage on saving throws to maintain concentration on spells.

Once per turn, when a bonded creature within 60 feet of you regains hit points from a spell or class feature, they regain additional HP equal to your Charisma modifier.

Shared Burden (10th Level)

You can lighten the emotional and mental toll your allies experience in battle. As a reaction when a creature you can see within 60 feet that has a Bardic Inspiration die fails a saving throw or is hit by an attack, you can expend that die to reduce the damage taken by an amount equal to the roll + your Charisma modifier.

If the damage is reduced to 0, the creature also gains temporary hit points equal to your Bard level.

Enduring Connection (14th Level)

Your Compassionate Bonds deepen into permanent psychological anchors. Each creature you are bonded with gains the following benefits while the bond is active:

  • The first time each day they would drop to 0 HP, they instead drop to 1 HP, so long as the damage dealt does not exceed their maximum health in one instance. This effect refreshes for each creature at the end of their next Long Rest.

  • If the bonded creature rolls a Bardic Inspiration die and the result is 1, they may reroll it and must use the new result.