Bardic College
College of the Canvas
The College of the Canvas is for bards who channel their magic through art, painting reality to match their vision. A canvas bard sees the world not as it is, but as they wish it to be — and then makes that happen. Their artistic training and natural talent is able to tap into something fundamental about the world, and allow them to reshape it.
Canvas bards usually come from some degree of comfort — artistic skill rarely comes cheaply. They can sit anywhere on the normal axes of alignment, since imposing one's will on the world can be done in a chaotic or lawful fashion, and may be altruistic or profoundly selfish.
College of Canvas Features
| Bard Level | Features |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Artistic Genius, Potent Paints, Representational Rituals |
| 6th | Life Imitates Art |
| 14th | Painter of Worlds |
Artistic Genius
When you join the College of the Canvas at 3rd level, you hone your skill with brush and ink. You gain proficiency with painter's supplies, or another tool of your choice if you're already proficient. Anytime you make a check to use your painter's supplies, you can add your Charisma modifier to the result.
Potent Paints
Also at 3rd level, you can paint a spell you know in a way that makes it usable by others. As an action, you can quickly begin to paint a change into the world. Select one creature that can see you within 60 feet and then expend a number of your Bardic Inspiration dice to select one of the effects below:
- 1+ dice: The target gains or loses a number of hit points equal to one roll of all the Bardic Inspiration dice expended.
- 2 dice: The target gains or loses one level of exhaustion.
- 3 dice: The target gains or loses the blinded, grappled, or poisoned condition.
- 4 dice: The target is charmed by you or frightened of you.
- 5 dice: The target falls asleep, and can be awoken as an action or when it takes any damage.
The effect occurs at the start of your next turn, and you must concentrate on the painting (as if you were concentrating on a spell). The target can attempt a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC, preventing the effect on a success. For ongoing effects, an unwilling creature can reattempt the Charisma saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end the effect.
Representational Rituals
Also at 3rd level, you gain the ability to paint your ideas into reality. You can cast a ritual by painting the spell onto a canvas or other flat surface. You can cast a bard spell you don't know in this way if you expend a number of Bardic Inspiration uses equal to the spell's level.
Life Imitates Art
Starting at 6th level, you can paint entire creatures into existence. When you finish a long rest, you can prepare a special set of pigments, suitable for casting one of the following spells: summon animal spiritSDS, summon fell machineS, summon grave spiritSDS, summon monstrosityK, summon oozeK, and summon plantK.
You can spend 10 minutes painting to cast the chosen spell, which does not expend a spell slot. The spell casts at the highest level you're able to cast up to a maximum of 5th level. If you use your Potent Paints while concentrating on this spell, you are able to maintain concentration on both simultaneously, but when you lose concentration, both the spell and Potent Paints end.
You can only have one set of special pigments prepared at a time, and they are consumed when you use them.
If you'd rather not look up a whole pile of new spells for this feature, you can instead allow any concentration spell of 3rd level or lower that summons one creature with a scaling stat block.
Art Imitates Life
Also at 6th level, you can spend 1 minute to paint a nonmagical object into existence. The object must cost 10 gp or less, weigh 5 pounds or less, and be a nonmagical object you have previously seen. It disappears after 10 minutes or when it takes or deals any damage.
Painter of Worlds
Starting at 14th level, your art is able to fully reshape reality. You learn the spell wish, which you can only cast by painting. You must spend 1 hour painting to cast the spell, which doesn't expend a spell slot. Once you cast it, you must finish a long rest before you can cast it again.
Initially, you can only use wish to duplicate the effects of a spell of 7th level or lower. When you reach 15th level, you can use it to duplicate the effects of a spell of 8th level or lower. When you reach 17th level, there are no restrictions on how you can use it. If you cast wish through this feature in a way that would cause you to permanently lose the ability to do so, you instead recover after 1 week.
College of Canvas quirks
The following are some optional quirks for a player of this subclass to choose from.
| d6 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | All of your clothes are stained and paint-spattered. |
| 2 | Even your mundane paintings sometimes move, winking or growling at onlookers. |
| 3 | You have a bad habit of accidentally drawing a paintbrush instead of a weapon. |
| 4 | You insist on wearing a lopsided floppy hat. |
| 5 | You hate musicians. |
| 6 | You sometimes paint your companions without their permission. |
New Spells
Spells used are available in these collections, all of which are free to use and reference for any purpose.
- Spells That Don't Suck is a set of spells by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots, creating replacements for problematic spells contained in first-party WotC materials. These are marked with SDS.
- So Many Spells is a set of wholly original spells written by somanyrobots. These are marked with S.
- Kibbles' Casting Compendium is the complete set of spells written by KibblesTasty. These are marked with K.
Change Log
v0.3
- Fixed a small big with Life Imitates Art
- Removed Summon Golem from Life Imitates Art (it's 4th level)
v0.2
- Added Art Imitates Life
- Added some level-scaling to Life Imitates Art
- Added a clause for Painter of Worlds so you can't permanently lose your feature
- Added waking conditions to Potent Paints sleep
v0.1
- Rough Draft
Credits & References:
- College of Canvas created by somanyrobots Discord | Patreon
Art
Kalain, Reclusive Painter, by Justine Cruz © Wizards of the Coast LLC
Background Image Stains
License
© 2025 somanyrobots, CC BY-NC 4.0
Includes spells from Kibbles' Casting Compendium 2.0 by KibblesTasty Homebrew LLC, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.
Includes spells from Spells That Don't Suck by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.
Fan Content Policy
This work is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
5E SRD Content
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available here.
The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available here.