College of Mixology

Subclass of: Bard

The College of Mixology subclass offers a unique twist to traditional Bard subclasses, where bards consider themselves artists, comparing their mixological skills to graceful movements and vibrant canvases. Through flair bartending, they captivate audiences with their showmanship and dexterous manipulation of mixology tools, while their Pick Your Poison ability allows them to create magical cocktails with a variety of beneficial effects. With Barside Therapy, they excel at social interaction with poisoned creatures and can create cocktails overloaded with potent alcohol to intoxicate the sober. Quick Fix enables them to rush their creative process and share cocktails on the spot using Bardic Inspiration. Adding magical garnishes, such as creature parts, enhances their cocktails with additional effects. The College of Mixology showcases the artistry and creativity of bards, elevating their performances to new heights through the delightful world of mixology.

A bard of the College of Mixology considers themselves every bit an artist as any painter or musician. After all, does the playful glint of a glass bottle pirouetting through the air in a perfect arc not compare to a graceful arabesque? Does the exquisite blend of carefully curated flavors not bring to mind the mixing of colors on a canvas? And does the feeling of a gentle buzz not relax the soul like the delicately plucked strings of a harp? Adventurous experimenters and eccentric visionaries at heart, mixologists often clash in matters of palate and presentation with bards of the College of Cuisine. These sister colleges maintain a heated rivalry, periodically holding grand competitions that result in meals so sublime, they have been known to make seasoned connoisseurs cry at first taste.

Flair Bartending

With impeccable showmanship and nary a spilled drop, you’ve learned to dazzle audiences by dexterously manipulating your mixology tools. You gain proficiency with brewer’s supplies and can use them as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.

As an action, you can make a Dexterity (brewer’s supplies) check to put on a mixological show for 1 minute. You must use your action at the start of each of your turns to continue this performance; if you don’t, it ends immediately. Creatures of your choice within 30 feet of you that can see you whose passive Insight score is lower than the result of your check are distracted by your performance, gaining disadvantage on Perception checks for the duration of the show.

If you roll a 1 on the d20, you drop some of your tools and the effect fails to occur. The threshold to drop your tools subsequently increases by 1 each time you make a Dexterity (brewer’s supplies) check using this feature, resetting to 1 when you finish a short or long rest.

Pick Your Poison

Expertly combining only the finest ingredients, you’ve learned to make delicious beverages that delight even the dourest dwarf. You can use a set of brewer’s supplies to prepare a special cocktail over the course of 1 minute. When you do, select up to two different ingredients from the table below, which you magically conjure to mix the cocktail. A creature can drink a cocktail as an action, gaining the effects of the chosen ingredients, which last for 10 minutes or until the creature drinks another cocktail. A cocktail that isn’t consumed loses its potency when you finish a long rest.

You can use this feature to create a cocktail a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Barside Therapy

You are a seasoned expert at dealing with the inebriated and have a few tricks up your sleeve to make the sober become intoxicated. You have advantage on ability checks made to interact socially with poisoned creatures and, when you make a cocktail with your Pick Your Poison feature, you can overload it with magically potent alcohol instead of choosing ingredients. A creature that drinks this cocktail must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your bard spell save DC or be poisoned for 10 minutes.

Quick Fix

Pain you as it might, you can rush your creative process to prepare one of your cocktails on the spot. As a bonus action, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to prepare a cocktail with your Pick Your Poison feature, and either drink it or toss it to a willing creature you can see within 30 feet of you, who can immediately use its reaction to drink it.

Garnish

Presentation matters, and you’ve learned to take your drinks to the next level with some tasteful embellishments, magical replicas of creature parts that you conjure out of thin air. Whenever you make a cocktail with your Pick Your Poison feature, you can select one of the ingredients from the table below as garnish, which provides an additional effect for the cocktail’s duration.