Rogue Subclass - Athasian Bard

# Rogue Archetype - Athasian Bard
Athas is a land steeped in intrigue and betrayal, where covert dealings and clandestine groups thrive—truly a haven for rogues. Within the fortified city-states, many traditionally rogue-like professions have evolved into established institutions. Assassins, bards, and thieves now serve as tools of the elite, entangled in the deadly web of deception spun by nobles and officals.

### The Athasian Bard
The people of the Tyr Region have grown wary of placing blind trust in you or your kind. Whether you appear as a humble minstrel, an elegant dancer, or a singer with a voice like honey, you could just as easily be an assassin sent by a vengeful foe. Tradition dictates, however, that entertainers must not be turned away. Every household is expected to offer you hospitality, even if suspicion lingers. Still, some nobles—gripped by paranoia—may deny you entry, fearing poison in their goblet or a dagger in the dark.

##### Athasian Bard Features

| Rogue Level | Feature |
|:----:|:-------------|
|3rd | Distracting Performance, Bardic Inspiration |
| 9th  |Master of Poisons  |
| 13th | Keeper of Secrets |
| 17th | Venomous Strike |

#### Bonus Proficiencies
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the poisoner’s kit and one instrument of your choice. You also gain proficiency with the Performance skill if you don’t already have it. Additionally, you can select poisoner's kit as a skill for Expertise once you reach 6th level.

#### Distracting Performance
Starting at 3rd level, you can sing, recite a poem, or dance with the intent of distracting an opponent. As a bonus action, you can make a Charisma (Performance) check against a contested creature's Wisdom (Insight) check. The creature must be able to see and hear you. If you succeed, you can use your Sneak Attack against that target even if you don’t have advantage on the attack roll, but not if you have disadvantage on it.

This benefit lasts for 1 minute or until you successfully use this feature against a different target.

#### Bardic Inspiration
At 3rd level, you can spark inspiration through powerful words or moving music, This ability is identical to the Bard class feature of the same name.

Your Bardic Inspiration die changes when you reach certain levels in this class. The die becomes a d8 at 8th level, a d10 at 13th level, and a d12 at 18th level.

<img 
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#### Master of Poisons
At 9th level, you become an expert at poisons and their application. You have advantage on saving throws against poison and gain resistance to poison damage.
 
 Additionally, you can apply poison to a weapon already in hand as a bonus action.

####  Keeper of Secrets

Beginning at 13th level, your mind becomes a labyrinth of misdirection.  When a creature attempts to read your thoughts, memories, or emotions through a spell or similar effect, you may use your reaction to trigger a trained mental reflex. The intruder must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or suffer one of the following effects of your choice:

- You implant a false memory or misleading thought

- You learn one surface-level intention or emotional state of the intruder

- The intruder becomes disoriented, suffering disadvantage on Insight and Perception checks for 1 minute

Once you have used this ability, you can’t use it again until you have completed a short or long rest.

Additionally, you cannot be forced to reveal information through mundane interrogation unless you choose to.

#### Venomous Strike
Beginning at 17th level, when you deal sneak attack damage with a poisoned weapon the creature’s saving throw suffers disadvantage versus the poison’s effects. Additionally, add three more die damage of the poison's die damage type.

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### Crafting Posion

## Foraging
A character may spend time during rest, travel, or downtime between adventures foraging for plants, animals, or minerals from which remedies or toxins may be derived. To forage ingredients, a character must make an Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) check. The result of this check should be compared to the foraging DC table appropriate to the region in which the character is foraging to determine what, if any, ingredient materials they were able to source. A character must spend 1 hour foraging to obtain enough material to create one full dose of its antidote or poisonous product. This time encompasses searching, harvesting, and safely storing the materials, as well as travel time to and from the material's location. For every hour spent foraging, the character may harvest a different ingredient from the environment, as long as its foraging DC falls under their original Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) ability check total.

Each listing of the tables provides; material names; a brief description of its appearance; the useful parts of the material and the forms the poison might take; the specific effect that might be crafted from the material; and it's foraging DC. A single material might have multiple possible products, but only one may be produced at a time. An easy shorthand is that a semi-colon means "or".

## Crafting
The brewing of poison requires access to a poisoner's kit and proficiency to use one. The poisoner's kit contains 5 vials in which to properly store and preserve poisons for use. Additional containers must be purchased and secured if a character wishes to craft and carry more products than this kit can hold.

Proficiency with a poisoner's kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks made to brew, harvest, or identify poisons using this kit.

## Brewing Poison

To brew poisons from raw materials using a poisoner's kit, a character must use a full dose's worth of ingredients, spend 1 full hour, and make an Intelligence check using the material's foraging DC as the craft DC. A successful check provides a poison of the desired effect (of which the ingredients are capable). An unsuccessful check expends the time and materials with the outcome often an unfortunate case of unintentional self-affliction (self-afflication occurs if a character fails the check by 8 or more).

For every additional hour spent preparing a single dose of poison, the DC is lowered by 1. Additional ingredients may be added to a concoction if they share an effect outcome with the primary ingredient. For every additional full dose's worth of an ingredient contributing to the preparation of a single dose of poison, the saving throw DC is increased by 1.

A  creature subjected to a crafted poison must succeed on a Constitution saving throw equal to DC 15 + 1 for every additional dose's worth of ingredient used in it's preparation. If a poison would cause immediate damage to the target, that target takes half damage on a success and shrugs off all other effects. Ongoing damage does not affect a target that makes a successful saving throw.

## Harvesting Poison

A character can also attempt to harvest poison from a poisonous creature, such as a large snake, wyvern, or silk wyrm. The creature must be incapacitated or dead, and the harvesting requires 1d6 minutes followed by a DC 20 Intelligence (Nature) check. (Proficiency with the poisoner’s kit applies to this check if the character doesn’t have proficiency in Nature.) On a successful check, the character harvests enough poison for a single dose. On a failed check, the character is unable to extract any poison. If the character fails the check by 5 or more, the character is subjected to the creature’s poison.

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### Coast (The Last Sea) 
</a>

| Name | Appearance | Form | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Puddingfish Ephyra, Domefish | Floating on the water like a blue bubble with a sail,<br>its translucent body and long stinging tail are easily stranded | Tail (injury) |  (2d6/round, Paralyzed) | <div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>|
| Reef Viper, Gaper | A mottled brown and black snake with a habit of baring its fangs and exposing the bright white interior of its mouth when threatened | Venom (Injury) |   (5d6/round) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Dead Men's Bells, Bloody Fingers, Sea Thimbles | Vibrantly coloured and patterned bell shaped flowers bloom by the dozens from a single tall spike | Whole plant (Ingested) |  (2d6, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Milky Mangrove, Blind-Your-Eye, Sea Poison Tree | A tangled root system lifts the tree half out of the water while its heavy leaves dangle into the water's edge | Sap (Contact) |  (Blinded) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Blue Ringed Octopus,<br>Reef Killer | A small brown octopus usually hiding amongst a reef's rocks and coral will suddenly flare iridescent blue rings | Venom (Injury) |  (Paralyzed, suffocating) | <div style="color:limegreen">**19** </div>|

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### Desert Waste (Rocky badlands, Salt flats, Sandy wastes, Stony barrens)

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| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Dune Weed, Fluxweed, Windroot | Small insects hover around the orange and yellow blossoms and long pointed leaves | Nectar (Injury) | Poison (1d6/round, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**13** </div>|
| Spitting Fat-Tail,<br>Thick-Tail Scorpion | A dark, wide armoured body gives<br>way to small pale pincers at the head | Venom (Contact) | Poison (Blinded) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Mastylings, Gold Scorpion | A flattened tan body blends in easily to the sand and stone of a desert | Venom (Injury) | Poison (6d6) | <div style="color:limegreen">**17** </div>|
| Desert Rose, Kudu, Sand Star | White star-shaped flowers with bold pink borders droop from succulent stems along with leathery, dark green leaves | Sap (Injury) | Poison (2d6, 1L Exhaustion/round) | <div style="color:limegreen">**17** </div>|
| Sand Slug | A heavy, slow moving worm covered in orange and black markings, sluggishly drags itself between places of shade | Venom (Injury) | Poison (6d6, 1d6/round, poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**18** </div>|
| Redback Spider, Grey Widow | A sharp and threatening looking black spider with a striking red hourglass mark on the abdomen | Venom (Injury) | Poison (3d6, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**18** </div>|
| Fire Scorpion | A waxy, red scorpion hunts at night holding its stinger high, ready to strike any pray that strays into its path |  Venom (Injury) |  Poison (3d6, Attack disadvantage) | <div style="color:limegreen">**22** </div>|

### Grassland (Verdant belt, Scrub plains)

</a>

| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Blackroot, Bowman's Plant,<br>Culversphysic | Like spears raised high the lilac flowers<br>taper to a point above sharp leaves | Root (Ingested) | Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**13** </div>|
| Rasclinngloves, Dead Men's Bells,<br>Bloody Fingers, Fairy Thimbles | Vibrantly coloured and patterned<br>bell shaped flowers bloom by the<br>dozens from a single tall spike | Whole plant (Ingested) | Poison (2d6,<br>Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Bush Adder | A thick bodied snake in bands of black,<br>brown, and orange, shockingly adept<br>at disappearing into the undergrowth | Venom (Injury) | Poison (1d6/round, Paralyzed) | <div style="color:limegreen">**17** </div>|
| King Snake, Hamadryad | A characteristic dramatic hood stretches over the snake's head and part way down its striped body | Venom (Injury) |  (2d6, Blinded, Sleep in 1min) | <div style="color:limegreen">**18** </div>|
| Strychnine Tree, Snakewood, Humble Button | A short, thick, crooked, pale tree trunk<br>topped with a full dome of leaves and hard orange fruit | Fruit seeds (Inhaled) | Poison (4d6/round, Paralyzed) | <div style="color:limegreen">**20** </div>|
| Burnflower Seeds, Burn Nut, Gas Pip | Small oilly seeds  begining to root in a shady spot  | Seeds (Contact) | Ignites in sunlight | <div style="color:limegreen">**20** </div>|

### Jungle (Forests)

</a>

| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Deathbloom, Blood Root| Vibrantly coloured and patterned bell shaped flowers bloom by the dozens from a single tall spike | Whole plant (Ingested) | Poison (2d6, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**12** </div>|
| Passion Vine | A leafy climber bears exotic purple and yellow flowers to match its strange bulbous, purple fruit | Flowers (Ingested) |  Draught (Sleep) | <div style="color:limegreen">**13** </div>|
| Oleander, Nerium | Pink pinwheel flowers stand out from dark heavy leaves on a small tree | Sap (Contact); Wood (Inhaled) |Poison (Blinded);<br>Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>|
| Velvetleaf, Moonseed | Long woody vines stretching between trees, bearing heart-shaped leaves and small dark seed pods | Seeds (Injury) | Poison (Stunned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>|
| Blight Angel,<br> Deadly Amonita | A city of sweet-smelling mushrooms growing at the base of hardwood trees, some heads rounded, some flat, all stained brown in the centre and paling at the fringes | Poison (Inhaled); Whole fungus (Ingested) | Poison (2d6/round); Poison (1L Exh./12hrs) | <div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>

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### Jungle  (Cont.)

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| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Needlemouth, Gaper | A mottled brown and black snake with a habit<br>of baring its fangs and exposing the bright white interior of its mouth when threatened | Venom (Injury) |  Poison (5d6/round) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Milky Mangrove, Blind-Your-Eye, River Poison Tree | A tangled root system lifts the tree half out of the water while its heavy leaves dangle into the water's edge | Sap (Contact) | Poison (Blinded) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Angel's Trumpet, Feingold, Devil's Breath Plant | Fragrant, pale-yellow blooms edged in red hang like pendants from an elegant, winding tree | Seeds (Inhaled) | Poison (As Suggestion spell) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Lantern Stinkhorn, Lizard's Claw | A slimy pink rocket stinking of rotting flesh and excrement gets even worse when it splits into several reaching tentacles | Whole fungus (Inhaled) | Poison (Target spends turn retching) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Sulphur Tuft, Clustered Woodlover | Clumps of clustered yellow toadstools clamber to consume the dead matter of stumps and branches | Whole fungus (Ingested) | Poison (Blinded, Paralyzed) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Golden Frog, Poison Arrow Frog, Yellow Blackfoot | A bright yellow amphibian with a black underside, so small that it can still be easily missed in the rainforest | Skin (Injury) | Poison (Paralyzed, death<br>in 3min) | <div style="color:limegreen">**18** </div>|
| Miner's Moonlight, Moonshine Mushroom | Climbing in steps up the tree trunk like a natural ladder are orange gilled fungal bodies | Whole fungus (Ingested) | Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**18** </div>|
| Bush Adder | A thick bodied snake in bands of black, brown, and orange, shockingly adept at disappearing into the undergrowth | Venom (Injury) | Poison (1d6/round, Paralyzed) | <div style="color:limegreen">**19** </div>|

### Mountain (Jagged Cliffs, Ringing Mountains)

</a>

| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
|Tembosbane, Monkshood, Devil's Helmet, Love's Chariot, Aconite | Dark purple flowers burst and curl, foxglove like, from all sides of a tall central stalk | Whole Plant (Contact); Roots (Ingested) | Poison (2d6/round); Poison (Death in 4hrs) |<div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>|
| Rasclinngloves, Dead Men's Bells, Bloody Fingers, Fairy Thimbles | Vibrantly coloured and patterned bell shaped flowers bloom by the dozens from a single tall spike | Whole plant (Ingested) | Poison (2d6, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Funnel-Web Spider, Atrax | Strong, shining legs branch off a fat black body, the spider squeezes itself into a small ground burrow to hide | Venom (Injury) | Poison (2d6, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Hooded Shrike,<br>Black-Headed Pitohui | A striking combination of black and orange plumage flutters between trees | Skin, feathers (Contact) | Poison (1d6/round) | <div style="color:limegreen">**17** </div>|
| Rattletail, Spikeback | Brown, vicious looking viper with a hideous rattle for a tail, which it shakes before striking with deadly speed | Venom (Injury) | Poison (Blinded, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**17** </div>|
| Mastylings, Black scorpions | A flattened onyx body blends in easily to the sand and stone of a desert| Venom (Injury) | Poison (6d6, 1d6/round, poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**18** </div>|
| King Snake, Hamadryad | A characteristic dramatic hood stretches over the snake's head and part way down its striped body | Venom (Injury) | Poison (2d6, Blinded, Sleep in 1min) | <div style="color:limegreen">**18** </div>|

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### Subterranean (Caves, Caverns)

</a>

| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Miner's Moonlight, Moonshine Mushroom | Climbing in steps up the cave wall in the dark are faintly green glowing half-cup fungal bodies | Whole fungus (Ingested) | Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Devil's Fingers, Octopus Stinkhorn, Illithid Egg | A round white bulb erupts into pale meaty tentacles which attract insects to absorb in their stinking slime | Whole fungus (Inhaled) | Poison (Target spends turn retching) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Ghost Fungus | A funnel shaped mushroom shining brightly enough in the dark to read by | Whole fungus (Ingested) | Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**17** </div>|
| Defiler's Heart, Red Cage, Lattice Stinkhorn | A supposedly carnivorous hollow cage of pink, fleshy fungus riddled with holes that resemble bloody wounds | Whole fungus (Contact); Whole fungus (Ingested) | Poison (2d6/round); Poison (3d6, Stunned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**17** </div>|
| Arsenic Ore, Mispickel | Flaking silver crystalline rock which releases a garlic smell when struck | Mineral (Inhaled) | Poison (Poisoned, sleep in 10min, death in 3days) | <div style="color:limegreen">**19** </div>|
| Blue Vitriol, Chalcanthite | Brilliant blue gems growing in tight knit threads from copper deposits, dissolves quickly in liquid | Mineral (Ingested) | Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**20** </div>|
| Cinnabar, Dragon's Blood | Nuggets of gleaming red crystal stick out from<br>the other gem clusters in chunks | Mineral (Contact) | Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**22** </div>|

### Sea of Silt

</a>

| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Silt Horror Eggs, Spawn Eggs | A mucus like sack containing a cluster of small <br> eggs lying in a shallow silt pool | Sap (Contact) | Poison (Blinded) | <div style="color:limegreen">**12** </div>| 
|Baby Silt Serpent, Dust Viper | A writhing mass of tiny mottled white and gray snakes  | Venom (Injury) |  Poison <br> (5d6/round, ) | <div style="color:limegreen">**13** </div>|
| Grayleaf,Ashseed | Long woody vines stretching out from the silt, <br> bearing dagger-shaped leaves and small ashen seed pods | Seeds (Injury) | Poison (Stunned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>|

### Swamp

</a>

| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Milky Mangrove,<br>Blind-Your-Eye, River Poison Tree | A tangled root system lifts the tree half out of the water while<br>its heavy leaves dangle into the water's edge | Sap (Contact) | Poison (Blinded) | <div style="color:limegreen">**12** </div>|
| Needlemouth, Gaper | A mottled brown and black snake with a habit of baring its<br>fangs and exposing the bright white interior of its mouth when threatened | Venom (Injury) |  Poison (5d6/round) | <div style="color:limegreen">**13** </div>|
| Velvetleaf, Moonseed | Long woody vines stretching between trees, bearing heart-shaped leaves and small dark seed pods | Seeds (Injury) | Poison (Stunned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>|
|Sulphur Tuft, Clustered Woodlover|Clumps of clustered yellow toadstools clamber to consume the dead matter of stumps and branches| Whole fungus (Ingested) | Poison (Blinded, Paralyzed) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Water Hemlock, Muskrat Weed | A spindly knee-high plant with distinct tufts of tiny white flowers growing by the waterside | Whole plant (Injury) | Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**18** </div>|

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### Tundra (Snowy Terrains)

</a>

| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---:|
| Blackroot, Bowman's Plant, Culversphysic | Like spears raised high the lilac flowers taper to a point above sharp leaves | Root (Ingested) | Poison (Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>|
| Wormwood, Sagewort, Absinthe | A stunted flowering weed low to the ground with round yellow buds not quite open enough to be regarded flowers |  Oil (Ingested) |  Poison (2d6) | <div style="color:limegreen">**14** </div>|
| Pasque Flower, Wind Flower | Stars of pink and purple bowed in the frost open to the sunlight to soak up what they can, fuzzy fruit like something from Dr Seuss | Juice (Draught) | Poison (Sleep in 1min) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Bearberry Bush | Growing low to the ground to keep out of the wind, bright green leaves and shiny, red berries attract critters | Berries (Ingested) | Poison (Deafened, poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Tembosbane, Monkshood, Devil's Helmet, Love's Chariot, Aconite | Dark purple flowers burst and curl, foxglove like, from all sides of a tall central stalk | Whole Plant (Contact); Roots (Ingested) | Poison (2d6/round); Poison (Death in 4hrs) |<div style="color:limegreen">**20** </div>|

### Urban (Cities, Towns)

</a>

| Names | Appearance | Forms | Effect | DC |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---: |
| Thornapple, Moonflower, Jimsonweed, Devil's Trumpet, Hell's Bells, Stinkweed | Ghostly pinwheel blooms of white distracts from the jagged, threatening leaves and large, dangerously spiny fruit pods | Fruit seeds, roots (Ingested) | Poison (Blinded, Stunned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**13** </div>|
| Rasclinngloves, Dead Men's Bells, Bloody Fingers, Fairy Thimbles | Vibrantly coloured and patterned bell shaped flowers bloom by the dozens from a single tall spike | Whole plant (Ingested) | Poison (2d6, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**15** </div>|
| Redback Spider, Grey Widow | A sharp and threatening looking black spider with a striking red hourglass mark on the abdomen | Venom (Injury) | Poison (3d6, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**16** </div>|
| Dung Bettle, Filth Bug | Brown unbecoming insect crawling around piles of feces  | Venom (Injury) | Poison (Blinded, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**17** </div>|
| Alley  Viper, Bard Snake | Black and brown markings are defined into tessellating diamonds by bright white borders and dark spots | Venom (Injured) | Poison (4d6, Poisoned) | <div style="color:limegreen">**20** </div>|

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