Bard College of Arcana, redux [5e]

 Original version

I made the original way too fuckin' complex. Like, holy cow, that was way too much work for a simple idea.

College of Arcana
The college of Arcana are different from the other Bards, and broke off from the College of Lore about three score years ago. While the College of Lore focuses on a breadth of knowledge, the College of Arcana focuses exclusively on the study of magic. In that study, they learn the basic secrets of wizardly magic; not the indepth secrets of the wizard schools, but enough that they begin to keep a spellbook and prepare spells like a wizard, in addition to some access to bard magic.

3rd: Additional Skill
At 3rd level, College of Arcana bards receive proficiency in Arcana, or in another skill of choice if they are already proficient. They may apply their 3rd level Bard expertise to Arcana, even if they just learned it.

3rd: Wizard Magic
At 3rd level, Bards of the College of Arcana begin to learn spells as wizards do, in addition to their bardic magic. As Wizards, they maintain spellbooks of known Wizard spells, and may prepare their level plus Intelligence bonus in spells from their wizard spellbook, just as wizards do. Their casting attribute for wizard spells is Intelligence, so their attack bonus with wizard spells is their Intelligence Bonus + Proficiency Bonus, and the saving throw against wizard spells is 8 + Intelligence Modifier + Proficiency Bonus. They may use Wizard spellcasting focuses, and may cast wizard ritual magic (from their allowed schools) just as wizards do. They do not gain any wizard cantrips, but as they acquire more cantrips (at 4th and 10th levels), they may choose a wizard cantrip or a bard cantrip, as they wish. Wizard cantrips do not need to conform to their allowed schools.

3rd Level: School Selection

At levels 3, the bard selects two wizard schools from among Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation. They may learn and cast spells from this school, and gain the 2nd level features of this school. Thus, one bard may learn Evocation, and thus gain Evocation Savant and Sculpt Spells, while another may learn Necromancy, and gain Necromancy Savant and Grim Harvest. At levels 6 and 14, an additional school is chosen, gaining the 2nd level benefits of those schools, as well. They may not learn or cast Wizard magic from any other school, save if they are Bard spells learned as a Bard, or through their Magical Secrets class feature.

Additional Note: Magical Secrets

At levels 10, 14, and 18, bards may select 2 spells, of a level they can cast, and learn them as Bard spells. In the hands of an Arcana Bard, these spells are learned as both Bard and Wizard spells, and recorded in their spellbook. These spells cannot be learned by other Bards or Wizards, unless they are normally Bard or Wizard spells; otherwise, they are simply too esoteric for those casters to unravel. Wizard spells acquired through Magical Secrets do not need to be from one of the Bard's chosen schools.

Of Blogs and Broken Links

 Just a heads up: I've moved all of my writing stuff from GoogleDocs to Zoho Workdrive, which means that many of my links are broken on here. As I reference those in other places, I intend to update the links, but many links to my own work (like supplemental tables) will be broken.

Savage Lance: The actual, ya know, Dragonlances

Footman's Lance (Lesser)
Str+d8, min d6 Str. 8 pounds, AP 2, Reach 2
Against Dragons: AP +2 (4 total), +d8 damage

Footman's Lance (Greater)
Str+d8, min d6 Str. 8 pounds, AP 2, Reach 2
Against Dragons: AP +4 (6 total), double damage, Removes Hardy and Resilient

Mounted Lance (Lesser)
Str+d8, min d6 Str. 3 pounds, AP 2, Reach 2
Against Dragons: AP +2 (4 total), +d8 damage

Mounted Lance (Greater)
Str+d8, min d6 Str. 3 pounds, AP 2, Reach 2
Against Dragons: AP +4 (6 total), add dragon's Strength to damage, Removes Hardy and Resilient

So, I made these more or less regular lances, with bonuses against dragons. Lesser Dragonlances, made with only the Hammer of Kharas or the Silver Arm, get bonus damage. Greater Dragonlances get more bonus damage, more AP, AND remove Hardy and Resilient from the dragons they strike. Dragonlance has enough dragons that some simply aren't going to be Wild Cards; this is a bit of a bonus when you're fighting the mooks of dragonkind.