College of Composition
The College of Composition is often confused with improvisation-- after all, these bards often create new and interesting spells in real time. But Composition is not chaos, not random, but rather formulaic. There's a theory, a rhythm behind the creation that fuels the power.
Arcane Composition
At third level, you gain the ability to alter your spells in real time. You gain two of Metamagic options of your choice. You gain another one at 10th and 17th level.
When you cast a spell of level 2 or higher, you gain a number of Sorcery Points equal to half the spell slot level spent (rounded down). These can be expended to fuel your metamagic. The Maximum number of Sorcery points you can have at the end of your turn equals half the Spell Level of the highest level spell you've cast in the previous round.
Example in use: Suppose a bard casts a Level 4 spell on the first round. Until the end of their next turn, they have 2 Sorcery points (with a max of 2). On their second turn, they cast a Level 2 spell, giving them a total of 3 Sorcery points and setting their maximum to 1. If they do not use at least 2 Sorcery points on this second turn, those expire (because the maximum is 1), leaving 1 remaining.
Inspired Power
At 6th level, you may use your Bardic Inspiration to empower your spells. When you use metamagic on a spell that deals damage or heals at least one creature, you may expend & roll a Bardic Inspiration die to damage or heal one of the affected creatures by the amount rolled. You may use this ability once per turn.
Inspired Power: Since this subclass is very spellcasty, I wanted to give a way to utilize the bardic inspiration dice. Originally, I was going to have it give you more Sorcery Points, but that gave far too many (as you can get Bardic Inspiration dice back on a short rest). This allows you to boost your spells in a different way-- adding a little bit more health to that healing word, or making that fireball hit the boss a little harder! The limitation of only being able to do this when you've used a metamagic helps cut down on that short-rest problem, since Spell Slots (and thus, Sorcery points) only come back on long rests.
Masterful Harmonization
Starting at 14th level, when a willing creature that you can see within 30ft of you casts a spell, you may use your reaction to alter the spell with a Metamagic, expending your Sorcery Points as usual.
Masterful Harmonization: A concept "borrowed" from my Weavehacker subclass-- I've always enjoyed the idea of being able to manipulate another's spells. Cleric healing someone? Twin it onto yourself! Wizard doesn't have the range to hit that flying dragon? You can boost it! Sorcerer miss their shot? Seeking Spell!
Loads of fun to be had working with your allies, and Bard is the perfect place for that.
Bard Math!
Wait, that's a lot of Sorcery Points!
Yup. If you compare the total number of Sorcery points this subclass gets compared to the number that a Sorcerer gets, they have the same amount starting at level 6, and from there the Bard slowly gains a greater and greater number of them, eventually having nearly double at level 20.
So how is this balanced?
- The Bard has to cast a spell to gain these Sorcery Points. This means they'll never have Sorcery Points on Round 1.
- The Sorcery Point maximum is deliberately throttled, meaning they're likely to waste quite a few of these every turn that you were unable to find a use for. As well, you're guaranteed to waste whatever sorcery points were left at the end of combat.
- The most Sorcery Points that this subclass can have at any point is equal to half the highest spell slot they can cast. This means they can never do some of the Sorcerer's most powerful moves-- such as Twinning their highest level spells. Instead, low-cost metamagics that can be combined with each other (such as Empowered Spell and Seeking Spell) will be optimal for consistent use.
Note, the below numbers assume the Sorcerer never expends a spell slot to gain more Sorcery Points, so the gap between them is not quite as dramatic as below.
Thank you for checking out this subclass!
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