[Mod Request] College of Whispers Bard (and maybe a non-concentration Shadow Blade)

[maplemaeng]

Hey y'all.

 

While browing through the wonderful list of mods around here, I noticed that there was no mod for the College of Whispers Bard subclass.

 

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/bard:whispers

 

Which, honestly, isn't that surprising considering how many subclasses there are even for just a single class, and that CoW Bard is considered rather weak and kinda bland compared to other Bard subclasses.

 

The thing is, it does come with a rather unique abilty: 'Psychic Blades'.

(By the way, a Rogue Subclass, Soulknife, has an ability with identical name but different effect, which might pose a potential mod collision if used with mods which add the subclass-Rogues Extra FullGameReady)

 

Basically, it's a Psychic damage Divine Smite-Sneak Attack hybrid which:

1. Uses Bardic Inspiration

2. Scales with CoW level (lvl 3: 2d6, lvl 5: 3d6, lvl 10: 5d6, lvl 15: 8d6)

 

So, it scales in pretty much the same way as Sneak Attack does, except the progressiion happens at certain levels, not every 2 levels.

 

Anyways, the main point I wanted to make about Psychic Blades, is that:

1. It can be used along with Sneak Attack

2. It can be used when Sneak Attack is not applicable

3. It comes with bard levels = spell slots = SMITES

4. It allows you to do a Psychic damage based nova round (which can also be done with Shadow Blade+Sneak Attack, but I'll get to that later).

 

While I agree that rest of the subclass' features are rather dull, I think that with all the Psychic damage riders available in game (gith-gears, illithid power, etc), it'd be fun to have a build that is heavily focused on dealing Psychic damage with weapon attacks.

 

 

Of course, the Psychic nova thing can be achieved by using Shadow Blade (with the ring which gives the spell or with mods) for Sneak Attacks, but Shadow Blade:

1. Is a concentration spell = can be broken
2. Gives you only 1 weapon to wield, meaning an offhand Sneak Attack would not be Psychic damage, if the main hand Shadow Blade attack were to miss

 

I know there is a mod which gives non-concentration variant of Shadow Blade ring (Gear Unleashed - Sussur Weapons - Vision of the Absolute - Shadow Blade), but unfortunately, this does not work with the mod which gives spell version (5e spells) of Shadow Blade.

 

So, if anyone is willing to go through the trouble of making the CoW subclass mod, I was wondering it if'd be possible to make a version of Shadow Blade that is:

1. Compatible with 5e spells, but does not require concentration

2. Gives you 2 blades for dual wielding

 

I suppose dual wielding (2~5d)8 Psychic damage weapons could be rather OP, especially if they do not require concentration, so maybe the pair of Shadow Blades spell could be (1~2)d8 each, scaling up at 5th spell slot or above.

 

Or, rather than a pair of Shadow Blades, perhaps there could be a version which is 2-handed but still retains the finesse property (like Dancing Breeze glaive), with the same (2~5)d8 damage die or (2~5)d10 damage die since its a 2-hander?

 

 

OR

 

Ditch the whole psychic theme, and go for a full-on radiant theme damage-the Sun Blade! (Sun Blade)

 

I guess it'd be something like the Unseen Menace, with invisible blade out of combat, and in combat gets the Light effect to make the blade shine?

 

 

Anyways, if anyone was patient enough to read through this and found either the CoW subclass or the 5e spells Shadow Blade revision interesting enough to work on, I'd be immensely grateful.

 

Hope you have a nice day. :happy:

Edited September 20, 2023 by maplemaeng