College of the Frontier
A Bard College of road-singers with standing in frontier settlements, a travel map, a frightening tale and advantage on initiative for allies.
Identity
The College of the Frontier is the Bard College of the long road. Frontier Bards sit at the campfire of a homestead one month, in the wardroom of an independent freighter the next, and in the chapel of a Halcyion missionary outpost the month after, and their songs and reputations travel ahead of them by comm-net and by retelling. The College draws its channeling from the hospitality codes that make the long road survivable.
Features
- L3 Frontier Standing
Frontier worlds recognize you as a member of a loose mutual-aid kinship of road-singers. In any settlement of fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, any frontier outpost, any independent freighter with fewer than five crew, and any small chapel or homestead in the spinward sectors, you can expect basic hospitality from at least one local: shelter for the night, a meal, the chance to perform for room and board, and one piece of local gossip or rumor. In a qualifying location, you can attempt a Charisma (Performance or Persuasion) check at DC 12 once per day to invoke Frontier Standing. On a success, you receive the hospitality above and can ask one targeted question about the local situation. The standing is reciprocal. If you refuse aid to another Frontier Bard in genuine need, your standing drops for the next 30 days, and the GM can rule that your checks to invoke it are made at disadvantage during that period. You also gain proficiency in Survival if you do not already have it.
- L7 Travel Map
You carry an annotated map: a chart, a folded star-plot, a personal travel journal or a digital atlas linked to the Frontier Bards' shared knowledge base. Consulting and updating the Map takes 10 minutes. The Map grants you the following abilities: When you arrive in a new settlement, outpost or notable terrain feature, you can make a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) or Intelligence (Investigation) check to recall whether a Frontier Bard has been there in the last year and what they noted. If one has, the GM gives you a useful clue or warning. Once per long rest, before setting out on a journey, you can spend 10 minutes with the Map to learn the rough hazards of the planned route: one significant terrain hazard, one likely encounter type and one notable landmark. You and any allies traveling with you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to navigate the route, and you cannot become lost on the route by nonmagical means. When you finish a long rest, you can transcribe new observations from the day into the Map. One Frontier Bard NPC, anywhere in the spinward sectors, will read these notes within 1d6 weeks, and the GM can use this as a narrative hook.
- L11 Frightening Tale
As an action, you begin to tell a Tale of the Black, sustaining the performance for up to 1 minute (a bonus action each round sustains it). Each hostile creature within 30 feet of you that can hear and understand you must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC at the start of each of its turns during the performance, or be Frightened of you until the start of its next turn. A creature that succeeds on the save is immune to this use of Frightening Tale for the next 24 hours. Creatures immune to the Frightened condition, Deafened creatures and creatures that cannot understand any language you speak are unaffected. The performance ends early if you are Incapacitated, silenced, or end it as a free action. You can use this feature once per short or long rest.
- L15 Frontier Hero
When you and your allies enter combat, each ally within 60 feet who can see or hear you (and who knows you are present) has advantage on their initiative roll. You also have advantage on your own initiative roll. On the first round of any combat, allies who benefited from the initiative bonus also gain a Bardic Inspiration die from you at no cost. The die works as normal Bardic Inspiration and does not count against your uses per rest. The bonus applies once per combat, on the first round only.
- L18 Living Legend Capstone
The effects below always apply once you have this feature. You have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion, Deception, Intimidation and Performance) checks made against any creature that has heard of you. The GM decides who has heard of you. By default, creatures have heard of you in any frontier setting, on any independent freighter, in any roadside outpost, and in any community of fewer than 50,000 inhabitants where you have spent at least one night in the last year. Once per long rest, when an attack would hit you, you would be killed outright, or you would fail a saving throw that would reduce you to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to invoke Living Legend. The attack misses, or the failed save instead succeeds at the minimum DC. Within 24 hours, an onlooker (a witnessing ally, a frontier bystander or the GM) supplies a story to explain it: a song fragment, a rumor or a sworn account. The incident also grows your reputation in a way the GM can make mechanically meaningful later. You can compose, broadcast or perform a Living Legend ballad, a 1-hour performance that needs a basic recording or a live audience of at least one. Within 1d6 weeks, as the GM decides, the ballad reaches a community of your choice in the spinward sectors. That community gives you Frontier Standing without a check: the hospitality is enthusiastic, and the community can give dangerous aid if asked.
