Bard College of Whispers 5e
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
I’m on the record not being the biggest fan of the psychic powered mind blades you stab people with, and that is exactly what College of Whispers offers. My personal preferences aside, College of Whispers takes that fantasy and runs with it, delivering a rogue-like option that turns inspiration into damage and mixes fear into your regular routine. It’s not going to be the most consistent, nor most powerful bard college, but it’ll deliver well enough on its fantasy you can make excellent characters with it that function well enough in and out of combat.
See Also: Best Feats for Whispers Bard
3rd Level: Psychic Blades and Words of Terror
Psychic Blades foundationally changes how you’re bard functions. You take your bardic inspiration dice and can convert them into damage once per round; 2d6 at 3rd level, 3d6 at 5th, 5d6 at 10th, and 8d6 at 15th. Unlike rogues, bards don’t need to meet any requirements to enable this bonus damage beyond expending an inspiration. The damage scales with bard like sneak attack does with rogue; it won’t offer consistent damage for three or four consecutive fights (especially when you get it), but down the road hits like a truck round after round. Psychic Blades turns your weapon attacks into powerful actions, which makes it great to have alongside high level slots with splash effects.
Words of Terror is the other 3rd level feature that gives you tools of paranoia in a rich, flavorful fashion. If you can speak to a creature for a minute, it makes a save, becoming frightened of you or any other creature for an hour, or until it takes damage, is attacked, or witnesses its allies being attacked or damaged. Conceptually this ability is deeply interesting, but the all or nothing nature of the save paired with the myriad of ways for it to turn off makes this feature incredibly unreliable. Even when used for its intended out of combat utility, sometimes a creature will start a fight with it or one of its allies, trip down some stairs in a hurry to escape, or otherwise break the fear effect without the influence of you or your party members.
6th Level: Mantle of Whispers
Mantle of Whispers speaks to my brand of edgelord nonsense: death and shadow. It is beautifully crafted; you steal somebody’s image in total after death, and get to use your Expertise in Deception to pull of the charade with otherworldly accuracy. Paired then with the acquisition of information and you’re left with a stellar, richly flavorful feature I regularly consider this option for on its own.
14th Level: Shadow Lore
Shadow Lore caps off College of Whispers with an interesting pseudo Dominate Person, giving you a once per long rest mind control style effect on something that can understand you. The limitations on what actions it’ll take are odd, and will vary wildly table to table. The inability for it to fight for you positions this as a tool for out of combat and social engagement, but what falls within the category of “favors and gifts it would offer to a close friend” might range from huge amounts of resources to small favors.
Even with the limitations, Shadow Lore can be a blast to play with. It once again deeply satisfies the fantasy the option is selling; you’re probing into the minds of people and warping their perception of you and reality for your benefit.
All Together
College of Whispers is largely built on two pillars: Psychic Blades and spooky exploration tools. It doesn’t act so much as a party support like many bard archetypes tend to lean towards, but more an infiltrator and spy with Mantle of Whispers being an excellent disguise, Shadow Lore giving you a means of potential mind control-light, and Words of Terror being a flimsy, but occasionally potent, targeted fear.
If you want to be a rogue, but want better magical tools to engage the world with, look no further than College of Whispers. It’ll deliver on its promise.
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