College of the Skald — Sagor från Valoris

Long before the church began to count the years, the first draught of poetry was taken from the dead and poured into the living, so that no deed worth remembering would ever wholly end. A skald is that theft made flesh — a keeper of names, a caller of the honored dead, the last mouth through which the fallen still speak.

Where a warrior wins a battle, a skald decides whether it is remembered. They walk into the hall with the whole lineage of the dead at their back, and when the need is great they open the door between the told and the untold, and let those who came before stand once more beside the living.

College Features

Bard Level	Feature
3	Keeper of Names, Song of the Honored Dead
6	The Unbroken Line
14	The Saga Made Flesh

Level 3

Keeper of Names

You gain proficiency in the History and Insight skills. The sagas are always within reach: when you make an Intelligence (History) check to recall a deed, a bloodline, a death, or a legend, treat a roll of 9 or lower on the d20 as a 10.

Level 3

Song of the Honored Dead

You can send one of the honored dead along with the courage you give. Each of the four echoes below carries its own strength, and rides your gift in its own way.

How it works

No added action. Whenever you give a creature a Bardic Inspiration die, you may call one echo into it, chosen as you grant the die. The die is Bardic Inspiration in every way; when the creature adds it to a d20 Test, its echo resolves as well, using the number rolled on the die. A die holds only one echo, and if it is spent in a way the echo doesn't apply to, the die still works as normal.

The Warrior

Offense · on a hit

One of the chosen slain, who fell with a blade in hand and feasts now in a hall beyond the world — glad of any reason to swing it again.

Added to an attack roll: on a hit, the strike deals extra force damage equal to the number rolled on the die.

The Seer

Foresight · any roll

One who measures the threads of what will be, and has already seen how this moment ends. She merely lets the target catch a glimpse.

Added to any d20 Test: having glimpsed the blows to come, the target also adds the number rolled to its Armor Class until the start of your next turn.

The Mourner

Mending · any roll

One who once wept a beloved back along the death-road and was turned aside by a single closed door. Her grief still mends what it can reach.

Added to any d20 Test: the target also regains hit points equal to the number rolled plus your Charisma modifier.

The Wanderer

The Watch · on a hit

One who never sleeps and walks the land still, who sees a hundred leagues off and hears the wool grow on the sheep. Nothing hides from that gaze.

Added to an attack roll: on a hit, the creature struck has Disadvantage on its next attack roll and can't benefit from being Invisible or Hidden until the end of its next turn.

Level 6

The Unbroken Line

The dead answer those who remember them. You always have the speak with dead spell prepared, and it doesn't count against the number of spells you can prepare. You can cast it once without a spell slot, regaining that use on a Long Rest — and you need no corpse to do so, provided you speak the name of the dead or recount part of their saga. An ancestral echo answers in their place.

You also learn two spells of your choice from the Cleric or Druid spell lists, in any combination. Each must be a cantrip or a spell for which you have spell slots. They are always prepared and don't count against your prepared spells, and you can swap one for another such spell whenever you gain a Bard level.

Level 14

The Saga Made Flesh

Your greatest song no longer merely remembers the honored dead — it calls one back to the field. As a Magic action, you summon a champion of the fallen to an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet. It remains for 1 minute, until it drops to 0 hit points, or until you dismiss it (no action required). Once you use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a Long Rest, unless you expend a spell slot of level 4 or higher to call the champion again.

When the champion appears, each enemy within 10 feet of it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or be Frightened of it until the end of that creature's next turn. The champion is an ally to you and your companions and acts on your turn, immediately after you. It moves and attacks as you direct, requiring no action from you.

Champion of the Honored Dead

Spectral warrior · summoned

AC 17 · HP 40 + your Bard level · Speed 30 ft., moves through creatures

Immune to the Charmed, Frightened, and Poisoned conditions

Spectral Strike (Multiattack: 2). Melee attack, +your spell attack modifier to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 1d10 + your Charisma modifier force damage.