College of Madness
“We like to think our lives have meaning, but after we die, we live on through those who knew us, we will live on through their memories of us, we will live on through the stories they tell of us. But what happens when the last person to know you, the last person to say your name aloud, the last person to tell your story dies? Once they are gone, you are gone. You cease to exist, you are dust on the pages of a book that will never open again. Dust on top of a story that was once your story, and now the pages are blank. Dust. And what do you do when the last person to know you, the last person to say your name aloud, the last person to tell your tale... lies?” - Musings of the Dreadmen.
The College of Madness has no home, no location people can seek out, nor any history even. Bards of Madness study their tricks, their lies, their truths within their own heads and the heads of others. Their aims, goals, plans are unknown even to themselves; seeking out truths in the broken planes of their own mind.
Madmen are a constant in the universe. Forces of chaos and evil perpetuate such behavior. Bards of Madness range from Prophets of the Forsaken to Undertakers of the Mind, from Truth Sowers to Blasphemous Storytellers. They do not appear as lunatics or psychopaths. No, they tend to look like the common man, for inside is where one hides their true self. Inside, a place of constant questions and worries, a fallible mind. A mad bard’s mind is quite gone, yet they speak nothing but truth.
Hollow Unveiling
When you join the College of Madness at 3rd level, your mind has fractured being shown things beyond fathoming.
You gain three madness levels granting you an indefinite madness flaw. The flaw is determined by your DM's discretion, a roll of a d100, or of your own choice. This madness flaw can be suppressed, but never cured outside of a wish spell.
In addition, you can spend at least one minute talking to a creature to enlighten them of what lurks beyond. At the end of the conversation, they must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or be frightened of everyone around them. Creatures that can't be charmed make this save with advantage. The target is frightened this way for 1 hour or until it spends one minute blinded, is attacked or damaged, or witnesses one of its allies being attacked or damaged.
If the target succeeds on its saving throw, the target knows you tried to frighten it.
You can instead perform a ballad or an eerie tune for at least one minute, and target one creature within 60 feet of you who can hear you subjecting them this feature at the end of your performance.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Splinter the Mind
Starting at 3rd level, your words pierce the minds of others and peel away reason.
When you cast a spell or use an ability that would cause a creature to make a Wisdom saving throw, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to inflict a penalty to the target's saving throw. The penalty equals half of the number you rolled on the Bardic Inspiration die (minimum 1). Subtract that number from the target's saving throw result.
Mantle of Eclipsed Sanity
At 6th level, you can pull back the veil and show a grand display of what's hidden.
As a bonus action, you can cast cause fear, without expending a spell slot, targeting a number of creatures equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), projecting images of your own manifestation into their minds in place of you. While concentrating, you can target another creature to also be affected by this spell as a bonus action on each of your turns.
As an action, you can end this spell and cause each affected creature to be frightened of everything around them for the next minute.
Any creature frightened by you or from your Hollow Unveiling feature, automatically fails its saving throw against the cause fear spell you cast with this feature. If you use your Splinter the Mind feature to penalize a creature's saving throw, you penalize each creature's saving throw against the cause fear spell you cast with this feature.
Once you use this feature to cast cause fear, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Reality Distortion
Beginning at 14th level, reality has become relative. The world is but pieces of one's perception.
The world around you alters and fragments as a result of your presence. You can cast an illusion spell of 5th-level or lower that you know as a 5th-level spell, without expending a spell slot. The spell doesn't require concentration and its duration lasts until you choose to dismiss it as a bonus action, or until you finish your next long rest.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Credits
Bardic College: College of Madness by /u/Eiti3
Special thanks to /u/LettersBrew as always!
Madness Mechanics
Madness is a variant rule offered on page 258-260 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. If you would like to use the original Going Mad rules, visit the DMG to learn more. However, from here on is a redux on the variant rules designed by /u/Eiti3 to create madness effects that don't derail the game. If your game isn't grim dark, horror, or otherwise non-wholesome, consider it best to not use the Madness variant rule.
Adventurers are only as strong as their will to continue. That same drive can be tested, bent, and broken. A broken will creates a broken man whose sanity teeters on the brink.
Madness levels are tangible effects that can be bestowed upon a character. They allow for more roleplaying experiences, possible quest lines, and a hint more difficulty.
Going Mad
Madness is the breaking of the psyche. Going mad by the breaking of the mind requires a Wisdom saving throw; breaking of the spirit requires a Charisma saving throw.
One can go mad by beholding a great terror, enduring a possession, sustaining a traumatizing fear, prolonged or systematic torture, the irreversible death of a loved one, taking massive psychic damage, Dark SpeechDMG p.223, attempts at deciphering something beyond comprehension, eldritch phenomena, resurrection, cursed magical items, specific poisons or diseases, extensive isolation, and so much more. It is up to the Dungeon Master to determine when madness would make an appropriate appearance.
The madness saving throw should be determined by a DC of 13 + the target's current madness levels. If it is caused by a spellcaster, it would be their spellcaster’s saving throw DC + the target's madness levels.
Madness Effects
Madness can be short-term, long-term, or indefinite. Most people will only experience a first level madness in their life, causing them to irrationally fear a creature, place, or event.
A character afflicted with one level of madness is subjected to an effect from the Short-Term Madness table for one minute. Another creature can take an action to snap them out of the minute long madness.
A character afflicted with two levels of madness is subjected to an effect from the Long-Term Madness table that lasts until cured. The character can reroll the saving throw at the end of each week to rid themselves of it.
A character afflicted with three levels of madness gains a new character flaw from the Indefinite Madness table that lasts until cured.
When a creature is afflicted with a madness level, the creature will act as if affected by the antipathy effect of the antipathy/sympathy spell. The target is up to the Dungeon Master’s discretion.
Madness Levels
A character will always keep their madness levels, even if they are no longer affected by the first and second level effects. Each time a character gains a new madness level, it adds to the previous one become a second or third madness level. When a character with three levels in madness gains another madness level, it gains another first level of madness aside from its previous three. This cycle repeats allowing a character to potentially gain more than one level three indefinite madness flaw.
Although, the character's madness levels start again at one after every three levels, you count up the total amount of levels when it comes to calculating madness saving throws or curing madness.
Limit Madness
You may limit a character's madness levels to 3.
Curing Madness
A calm emotions spell can suppress the effects of madness, while a lesser restoration spell can rid a character of a short-term or long-term madness. Depending on the source of the madness, remove curse or dispel good and evil might also prove effective. A greater restoration or more powerful magic, such as wish, is required to rid a character of indefinite madness.
Attempting to cure, or even suppress, madness outside of magical means is a long and arduous process that rarely succeeds. A character can spend a year downtime to be professionally cared for and allow them another chance to save on their madness saving throw. On a success, their overall madness drops by one level.
Creating Madness Flaws
Insanity is not explicitly defined in Dungeons & Dragons and instead covers a broad scope of mental issues one may encounter. As either a player or Dungeon Master, you may not feel like the current indefinite flaws may fit a certain character, event, or theme.
Creating a new madness flaw can be a slippery slope. The flaw should reflect an extreme that has been found common for those with a mental break. This flaw needs to represent some vice, compulsion, fear, or weakness that can be exploited by others to bring ruin or cause the character to act against their best interests. For example, “I do the same thing over and over again until I get different results” is an acceptable indefinite madness flaw. It is an extreme compulsion that can be easily exploited by a foe to distract or delay.
Additionally, one could take a base flaw, as found in the character’s background, and amplify it to the extreme. This sort of indefinite madness opens up possible character growth and perhaps a redemption to sanity, allowing that flaw to relax to the original, manageable state, but never truly leaving.
Level 1 Madness Effects (Short-Term)
| d10 | Effect (1 minute) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The character falls prone in agony and taks 1d4 psychic damage at the beginning of each round | |
| 2 | The character becomes stunned and murmurs an incoherent language that deals 1d4 psychic damage to each creature within 10 feet of character | |
| 3 | The character becomes affected by the crown of madness spell | |
| 4 | The character becomes incapacitated and spends the duration screaming, laughing, or weeping | |
| 5 | The character becomes wide-eyed and deafened | |
| 6 | The character becomes frightened of the source of madness and spends each entire turn fleeing | |
| 7 | The character becomes paralyzed by fear | |
| 8 | The character becomes charmed by the source of the madness and regards it as benign | |
| 9 | The character experiences mental anguish | |
| 10 | The character experiences vivid hallucinations |
Level 2 Madness Effects (Long-Term)
| d10 | Effect (At least 1 week) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The character suffers from partial amnesia. The character knows who they are and retains racial and class features, but does not recognize anyone or remember anything before the madness took effect | |
| 2 | The character suffers extreme paranoia and has disadvantage on Wisdom and Charisma checks | |
| 3 | The character becomes attached to a "lucky charm", and has disadvantage on all rolls while more than 30 feet away from it | |
| 4 | The character experiences vivid hallucinations | |
| 5 | The character starts to see writing on the walls | |
| 6 | The character feels compelled to repeat a specific activity over and over again, at least once per hour | |
| 7 | The character starts talking to an object as they think out loud, seemingly unable to keep thoughts within | |
| 8 | The character is haunted by an image that fills them with guilt or dread | |
| 9 | The character insists they are playing host to something within them. They hear a voice, feel scratches, pinches, or crawling under their skin | |
| 10 | The character feels as if their actions are no longer their own, as if puppeted from an unseen force. Whispers ring in their head as if someone is narrating their entire lives |
Level 3 Madness Effects (Indefinite)
| d10 | Effect (Until cured) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The character suffers from partial amnesia. The character knows who they are and retains racial and class features, but does not recognize anyone or remember anything before the madness took effect | |
| 2 | The character suffers extreme paranoia and has disadvantage on Wisdom and Charisma checks | |
| 3 | The character becomes attached to a "lucky charm", and has disadvantage on all rolls while more than 30 feet away from it | |
| 4 | The character experiences vivid hallucinations | |
| 5 | The character starts to see writing on the walls | |
| 6 | The character feels compelled to repeat a specific activity over and over again, at least once per hour | |
| 7 | The character starts talking to an object as they think out loud, seemingly unable to keep thoughts within | |
| 8 | The character is haunted by an image that fills them with guilt or dread | |
| 9 | The character insists they are playing host to something within them. They hear a voice, feel scratches, pinches, or crawling under their skin | |
| 10 | The character feels as if their actions are no longer their own, as if puppeted from an unseen force. Whispers ring in their head as if someone is narrating their entire lives |
Beyond Madness
Madness is like gravity; all it takes is a little push. What happens to those who continue to freely jump into shattered delirium that echoes endlessly amongst the walls of their skull? Here are some options a Dungeon Master may implement: Sanity Break and Mad Godhood.
Sanity Break. When a character with three madness levels would be forced to make another madness saving throw they don't risk another first level madness, but instead risk losing their mind entirely. The character must make the madness saving throw or fall unconscious in a comatose state becoming under the slumber effect of the imprisonment spell as their mind recedes into the depths of the Abyss. On a success, the character gains an additional madness level but doesn't suffer any of the effects that come with gaining another madness level.
Mad Godhood. A character with numerous madness levels can become difficult to interact with or play in general. Talk with either your player or your DM to discuss how you are going to proceed. You may need to retire the character, suspend the madness effects, or perhaps enter the beginning stages of ascending to Mad Godhood.
There are no explicit instructions on how to become a mad god, as it is up to DM discretion. Some options include creating a Prestige Class with a final level requiring a ritual to fully ascend, or a series of limited feats that are only accessible when a certain madness level is reached, with the final feat being the ascendancy.