Athas is a land steeped in intrigue and betrayal, where covert dealings and clandestine groups thrive—truly a haven for rogues. Within the fortified city-states, many traditionally rogue-like professions have evolved into established institutions. Assassins, bards, and thieves now serve as tools of the elite, entangled in the deadly web of deception spun by nobles and officals.

The Athasian Bard

The people of the Tyr Region have grown wary of placing blind trust in you or your kind. Whether you appear as a humble minstrel, an elegant dancer, or a singer with a voice like honey, you could just as easily be an assassin sent by a vengeful foe. Tradition dictates, however, that entertainers must not be turned away. Every household is expected to offer you hospitality, even if suspicion lingers. Still, some nobles—gripped by paranoia—may deny you entry, fearing poison in their goblet or a dagger in the dark.

Athasian Bard Features

Bonus Proficiencies

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the poisoner’s kit and one instrument of your choice. You also gain proficiency with the Performance skill if you don’t already have it. Additionally, you can select poisoner’s kit as a skill for Expertise once you reach 6th level.

Distracting Performance

Starting at 3rd level, you can sing, recite a poem, or dance with the intent of distracting an opponent. As a bonus action, you can make a Charisma (Performance) check against a contested creature’s Wisdom (Insight) check. The creature must be able to see and hear you. If you succeed, you can use your Sneak Attack against that target even if you don’t have advantage on the attack roll, but not if you have disadvantage on it. This benefit lasts for 1 minute or until you successfully use this feature against a different target.

Bardic Inspiration

At 3rd level, you can spark inspiration through powerful words or moving music, This ability is identical to the Bard class feature of the same name. Your Bardic Inspiration die changes when you reach certain levels in this class. The die becomes a d8 at 8th level, a d10 at 13th level, and a d12 at 18th level.

Master of Poisons

At 9th level, you become an expert at poisons and their application. You have advantage on saving throws against poison and gain resistance to poison damage. Additionally, you can apply poison to a weapon already in hand as a bonus action.

Keeper of Secrets

Beginning at 13th level, your mind becomes a labyrinth of misdirection. When a creature attempts to read your thoughts, memories, or emotions through a spell or similar effect, you may use your reaction to trigger a trained mental reflex. The intruder must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or suffer one of the following effects of your choice:

• You implant a false memory or misleading thought.
• You learn one surface-level intention or emotional state of the intruder.
• The intruder becomes disoriented, suffering disadvantage on Insight and Perception checks for 1 minute.

Once you have used this ability, you can’t use it again until you have completed a short or long rest. Additionally, you cannot be forced to reveal information through mundane interrogation unless you choose to.

Venomous Strike

Beginning at 17th level, when you deal sneak attack damage with a poisoned weapon the creature’s saving throw suffers disadvantage versus the poison’s effects. Additionally, add three more die damage of the poison’s die damage type.

Crafting Posion

Foraging

A character may spend time during rest, travel, or downtime between adventures foraging for plants, animals, or minerals from which remedies or toxins may be derived. To forage ingredients, a character must make an Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) check. The result of this check should be compared to the foraging DC table appropriate to the region in which the character is foraging to determine what, if any, ingredient materials they were able to source. A character must spend 1 hour foraging to obtain enough material to create one full dose of its antidote or poisonous product. This time encompasses searching, harvesting, and safely storing the materials, as well as travel time to and from the material’s location. For every hour spent foraging, the character may harvest a different ingredient from the environment, as long as its foraging DC falls under their original Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) ability check total.

Each listing of the tables provides; material names; a brief description of its appearance; the useful parts of the material and the forms the poison might take; the specific effect that might be crafted from the material; and it’s foraging DC. A single material might have multiple possible products, but only one may be produced at a time. An easy shorthand is that a semi-colon means “or”.

Crafting

The brewing of poison requires access to a poisoner’s kit and proficiency to use one. The poisoner’s kit contains 5 vials in which to properly store and preserve poisons for use. Additional containers must be purchased and secured if a character wishes to craft and carry more products than this kit can hold.

Proficiency with a poisoner’s kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks made to brew, harvest, or identify poisons using this kit.

Brewing Poison

To brew poisons from raw materials using a poisoner’s kit, a character must use a full dose’s worth of ingredients, spend 1 full hour, and make an Intelligence check using the material’s foraging DC as the craft DC. A successful check provides a poison of the desired effect (of which the ingredients are capable). An unsuccessful check expends the time and materials with the outcome often an unfortunate case of unintentional self-affliction (self-afflication occurs if a character fails the check by 8 or more).

For every additional hour spent preparing a single dose of poison, the DC is lowered by 1. Additional ingredients may be added to a concoction if they share an effect outcome with the primary ingredient. For every additional full dose’s worth of an ingredient contributing to the preparation of a single dose of poison, the saving throw DC is increased by 1.

A creature subjected to a crafted poison must succeed on a Constitution saving throw equal to DC 15 + 1 for every additional dose’s worth of ingredient used in it’s preparation. If a poison would cause immediate damage to the target, that target takes half damage on a success and shrugs off all other effects. Ongoing damage does not affect a target that makes a successful saving throw.

Harvesting Poison

A character can also attempt to harvest poison from a poisonous creature, such as a large snake, wyvern, or silk wyrm. The creature must be incapacitated or dead, and the harvesting requires 1d6 minutes followed by a DC 20 Intelligence (Nature) check. (Proficiency with the poisoner’s kit applies to this check if the character doesn’t have proficiency in Nature.) On a successful check, the character harvests enough poison for a single dose. On a failed check, the character is unable to extract any poison. If the character fails the check by 5 or more, the character is subjected to the creature’s poison.

(see the attached pdf file for a list of associated poisons)