Bard College: Ratspeaker
Most bards hone their skills at manipulating, befriending, and influencing people. The Ratspeakers have a different approach, They befriend the numerous sand everpresent vermin that exist everywhere around us. By influencing and becoming one with the complex machinations of thier subterranian world, ratspeakers can be an odd and powerful threat, or kind friend, to those they encounter.
Squeak & Scurry
Upon selecting this college at 3rd Level, you gain the most fundamental ability; the ability to speak to rats. You gain the ability to to comprehend and verbally communicate with rats & similar creatures. (Mice, Squirrel, and other rodents determined by your DM). You also gain advantage on charisma checks to influence them.
Additionally, you may expend a bardic inspiration die to gain one of the following benefits;
Art Credit: Tanyapodolskaia
- The rats around you work to inform you of everything nearby, for the next minute you have tremorsense with a distance of 10*(the number rolled on your bardic inspiration die).
- Summon a number of rat swarms (MM Swarm of Rats) equal to half the number rolled on your bardic inspiration die, rounded up.
- You surround a touched creature with rats for 1 minute. this acts as something of a shield, each time an enemy attacks an enveloped creature they take poison damage equal to your bardic inspiration die. (The die is expended once, but an equivilent sized die is rolled for each time they are hit)
Murine Companion
Finally at 3rd level, you gain a loyal friend and companion rat. You learn the find familiar spell, and can cast it as a ritual without material components. The spell doesn’t count against your number of spells known, and is changed in the following ways;
- You can only use it to summon a rat, or other vermin as determined by your DM.
- Your Rat uses your spellcasting modifier in place of dexterity for attacks & damage.
- Your Rat adds your proficiency bonus to it's AC, Saving Throws, and attacks.
- Your Rat uses Three times your Bard level instead of it's normal Max HP
- You may choose to ressurect your rat instead of summoning a new one if your previous rat is killed
By Tooth & Claw
At 6th level you have more fine grained control of your vermin allies, as an action you can make a melee spell attack against a creature within range, a vermin from nearby appears and bites the target, on a hit they take 2d6 poison damage.
At 11th level this damage can be acid or poison, and increases to 3d6. and at 17th level it increases again to 4d6, and can be necrotic as well as the other options.
Guide to the world below
At 14th level, the rats fully trust you and can guide you around their subterranean world. By either entering a preexisting rat tunnel, or by having your rat allies dig a new one, you gain a burrow speed equal to your walk speed. This burrow speed can move through any non-magic, non-metal material (Rocks, stone, dirt, sand, silt, drywall, etc). This burrowing does not leave a tunnel that is visible to any non-rats or ratspeakers, however rats & ratspeakers can see the small cracks and differences that this leaves.
