Bard time and can speak, they are magically compelled to

utter darkly poetic final words before succumbing to

You are a charming performer whose wit and their injuries.
words can inspire heroism in your allies and a Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again
rising sense of dread in your foes. When your bard until you finish a short or long rest.
character chooses a bard college at 3rd level, the
College of Tragedy is a new option available in a Tale of Hubris
Tal’Dorei campaign. At 6th level, you learn to weave a magical narrative
that draws out the fatal arrogance of your foes. When
College of Tragedy a creature scores a critical hit against you or an ally
within 60 feet of you that you can see, you can use
Not all grand stories conclude in triumphant victory.
your reaction and expend one use of your Bardic
Many tales end with death and despair, and bards of
Inspiration to target the attacking creature and evoke
the College of Tragedy know that sorrow and pathos
the story of their downfall. For 1 minute or until the
are emotions just as potent as joy and delight. These
target suffers a critical hit, any weapon attack against
bards specialize in the power of tragic storytelling,
the target scores a critical hit on a roll of 18–20.
weaving words and spells together to dramatic and
At 14th level, the critical hit range of this feature
devastating effect.
increases to 17–20.
Poetry in Misery Impending Misfortune
When you join the College of Tragedy at 3rd level,
Also at 6th level, your words can twist the power
you learn to harness the beauty in failure, finding
of fate to create triumph from the promise of future
inspiration in even the direst twists of fate. Whenever
despair. When you make an attack roll or a saving
you or an ally within 30 feet of you rolls a 1 on the
throw, you can gain a +10 bonus to the roll, but the
d20 for an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving
next attack roll or saving throw you make takes a −10
throw, you can use your reaction to soliloquize and
penalty. If not used, this penalty disappears when
regain one expended use of your Bardic Inspira-
you finish a short or long rest.
tion feature.
You can’t use this feature again until you finish
Sorrowful Fate a short or long rest, or until you are reduced to 0
hit points.
Starting at 3rd level, you exploit a foe’s peril to
instill deep feelings of sorrow and doom. When you Balthasar
or an ally you can see forces a creature to make a
saving throw, you can expend one use of your Bardic Bleakskull
Inspiration to change the type of saving throw to a
Charisma save instead.
If the target fails this save, roll a Bardic Inspira-
tion die. The target takes psychic damage equal to
the result, and is plagued with regret for 1 minute.
If the target is reduced to 0 hit points during this

Balthasar Bleakskull
Male half-giant College of Tragedy bard
Born in Westruun and raised by two loving goliath
parents—a towering warrior and an equally massive
astronomer of the Yuminor Observatory—Balthasar
Bleakskull was exposed to the adventuring lifestyle
and academia from an early age. He tumbled into
the art of theater when he was but a child, and fol-
lowed his passion for drama into adulthood—when
he was entangled in a bloodcurdling academic con-
spiracy that left eight dead, including his dramatic
mentor and his lover. Since then, he has devoted
his dramatic skill to the art of tragedy, to grant his
audiences the catharsis that he one day hopes to
give himself.

Chapter 4: Character Options 167

 Nimbus of Pathos
Upon reaching 14th level, you can touch a willing
Cleric
You are a wise disciple of one or more of Exandria’s
creature as an action and empower it with tragic
gods, whose divine hands can no longer shape the
heroism. For 1 minute, the creature is surrounded by
world on their own. When your cleric character
mournful music and ghostly singing, granting it the
chooses a divine domain at 1st level, you can consult
following benefits and drawbacks:
your god’s entry in chapter 2 for suggestions on
• The creature has a +4 bonus to AC. which domains they might grant. The Blood Domain
• It has advantage on attack rolls and saving throws. and Moon Domain are new options available in a
• When the creature hits a target with a weapon Tal’Dorei campaign.
attack or spell attack, that target takes an extra
1d10 radiant damage.
• Any weapon attack against the creature scores a
Blood Domain
critical hit on a roll of 18–20. Developed in Wildemount by the Claret Orders, the
Blood Domain centers around the understanding of
When this effect ends, the creature immediately
the natural life force as it exists within the body, and
drops to 0 hit points and is dying. Once you use
the divine conduit it can become. Those who take up
this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a
this domain understand that the power of blood is
long rest.
the power of sacrifice, the balance of life and death,
and the spirit’s anchor within the mortal shell.
Gods who grant the power of the Blood Domain,
including the Ruiner and the Matron of Ravens,
direct their followers to tap into the connection
between body and soul, exploit the hidden reserves
of will within one’s own vitality, and corrupt the
bodies of others through the secret rites of hemo-
craft. Clerics of good gods use hemocraft to fill their
self-sacrifice with purpose and power, while clerics
with fewer morals use the blood of others to achieve
their own malevolent ends.

Domain Spells
You gain domain spells at the cleric levels listed in
the Blood Domain Spells table.
Alasterre de Blood Domain Spells
Vitrevos Cleric Level Spells
1st false life, sleep
3rd hold person, ray of enfeeblement
5th haste, slow
7th blight, stoneskin
9th dominate person, hold monster

Alasterre de Vitrevos
Male human Blood Domain cleric
The director of Tal’Dorei’s Claret Order is a metic-
ulous, orderly man. He believes that he deserves
all the good that comes to him in the world—and,
in fairness, all the bad as well. He wields the unset-
tling magic of hemocraft created by his order in
service of both his organization’s interests, and the
divine interests of the Matron of Ravens. His goals
are simple: purge the world of undead, particularly
vampires, and make his name one sung across
Exandria in the process.

168 Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting: Reborn