Bardic College: College of the Woods
Not an organised college per se, the College of the Woods signifies a collection of performers and poets who all share one defining characteristic: an encounter with the fey.
Glamour bards study the enthralling properties of fey magic to become performers at the centre of attention. This is not the same. Bards of the College of the Woods tell tales of their wandering too close to the wilder places of the world; these might be cautionary, or they might be a yearning to return to places lost and hidden. Their magic compels listeners by touching a more primal part of their soul, and calls even to the beasts and the plants to aid them.
Fey Touched
When you join this college at 3rd level, the magic of the fey has left its mark on you, for good or ill. You learn the druidcraft cantrip, as well as the entangle spell. Additionally, you learn new spells when you reach certain levels in this class as shown by the table below. These spells count as bard spells for you, but they do not count against the number of bard spells and cantrips you know.
| Bard Level | Spell |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Druidcraft, Entangle |
| 5th | Conjure Animals |
| 7th | Guardian of Nature |
| 9th | Commune with Nature |
Ethereal Compulsion
Also at 3rd level, you gain a new use for your Bardic Inspiration feature. Once per turn when you target a creature with a spell of 1st level or higher, you may expend a use of Bardic Inspiration to beguile it with whispered tales of the enchanting fey; the target must use its reaction to walk up to 10 feet in any direction you choose.
The target will not walk into areas that will harm it as a result of moving. For instance, you can force it to surround itself in your waiting allies, but not to step into a roaring bonfire or off a cliff.
Call to the Primal
Starting at 6th level, you learn to speak Sylvan if you do not already know how, and you can use this language to communicate with Tiny or smaller beasts at will, as though through the speak with animals spell.
Watchers of the Woods
Additionally at 6th level, you may use your action to magically summon a Swarm of Ravens, Rats, or Bats in an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet of you. The swarm lasts for 1 hour or until it is reduced to 0 hit points, is friendly to you and your allies, and obeys your verbal commands (no action required by you). In combat, it rolls for its own initiative, and acts only to defend itself from hostile creatures if you have given it no other commands. As an action on each of your turns, you may perceive through the swarm’s many senses, going deaf and blind to your own, until the start of your next turn. You may summon the swarm once, and you regain the ability to do so again when you finish a short or long rest.
Child of the Wild Places
At 14th level, you are able to step partially between this realm and the Feywild to ease your movement. You are unaffected by difficult terrain created by plants, magical or otherwise. You may also cast the tree stride and transport via plants spells once each as bard spells, without using a spell slot. You regain the ability to cast these spells when you finish a long rest.
Local Cryptid
Also from 14th level, you begin to age at 1/10th the rate of your species. As the decades pass by, you might begin to develop harmless physical manifestations of your fey magic, such as small antlers or moss for hair.