College of Bones

Bards of the College of Bones seek to preserve tales of the most sacred knowledge in the wastes: the knowledge of how to survive. They perform ceremonies and rituals through song, story, or poetry as they butcher and cook the bodies of beasts and monstrosities, using whatever bones are left as costume, supplies, or for their own more esoteric magical purposes.

Everyone has to cook their own food in the wastes, but it takes a special person to make a meal pleasant and safe to eat. Bards of the College of Bones can do exactly that. The hearth is their stage, a knife is their instrument, and a carcass is their muse. Bards of the College of Bones pass their knowledge between generations through the ritual feasts they prepare, the stories they tell as they work, and the inscribed bones they leave in their wake—a bleached bone wrapped in leather will last far longer in the wastes than any scroll.

College of Bones

Bard Level	Features
3rd	Butchercraft, Osseous Focus, Epic Bones
6th	Meatgrinder
14th	Skeletal Inhabitant

Level 3: Butchercraft

You can confer with the spirits of the dead you once prepared for nourishment and get the ability to perform small wonders. You know the Druidcraft cantrip, which doesn’t count against the number of bard cantrips you know. You also know Speak With Dead and Purify Food and Drink , which don’t count against the number of bard spells you know and each of which you can cast once per long rest without expending a spell slot.

Level 3: Osseous Focus

A bone of any creature that you have butchered yourself becomes your spellcasting focus.

Starting at 6th level, when you roll an Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Animal Handling) check and you are holding your osseous focus, you may add 1d6 to your roll.

Level 3: Epic Bones

You can chant a grand poem of knowledge you’ve gained from the bones of beasts and monstrosities. While you are holding your osseous focus, you can use an action to expend one of your Bardic Inspiration dice to roll on the Epic of Bones table.

You retain the poem in your mind until you bestow the poem’s effect or until you finish a short or long rest. You can use a bonus action to choose yourself or one creature you can see within 30 feet of you to be the target of the poem’s effect.

When you reach 6th level, you may expend two of your Bardic Inspiration dice to affect three creatures at once with the same effect. At 14th level, you may expend three of your Bardic Inspiration dice to affect four creatures at once.

Level 6: Meatgrinder

You can use your knowledge of anatomy to help your allies hit in just the right place. If a creature with your Bardic Inspiration hits a creature with a weapon attack, that creature may expend the Bardic Inspiration to turn the hit into a critical hit. Once a creature with your Bardic Inspiration uses this ability, it cannot be used by anyone until you finish a short or long rest.

Level 14: Skeletal Inhabitant

you learn to beseech a spirit to embody the skeleton of a beast or monstrosity and help you in your adventures.

This ritual takes 1 hour to perform, and it can be performed as part of a long rest. Choose either (a) up to three corpses of Medium or smaller beasts or monstrosities with skeletons or (b) the corpse of one Large beast or monstrosity with a skeleton within 10 feet of you. If you choose Medium or smaller corpses, they become ghouls under your control. If you choose the Large corpse, it rises as an ogre zombie. (The GM has game statistics for these creatures.)

As a bonus action on each of your turns, you can mentally command any one creature you animated in this way as long as it is within 120 feet of you. You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.

The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you have given it. To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must perform this ritual on the creature before the current 24-hour period ends. This use of the ability reasserts your control over the creatures you have animated with this feature rather than animating new ones.

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