Bard

Source:
Grim Hollow, Pg 42
(3rd Party)

Bards from the College of Adventurers learn from heroes of old and stories of legend. Bards are jacks of all trades, and for the College of Adventurers this statement rings ever true. They combine all the useful skills of their companions into one, allowing them to be versatile and supportive. While not having a direct goal, many adventurer-studying bards live to tell tales of other heroes or seek to create their own. Stories of heroic deeds, tales of cunning, magical anomalies, or godly might fuel the life-blood of these bards.

Source:
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Pg 32
(Supplement)

Bards believe the cosmos is a work of art. the creation of the first dragons and gods. That creative work included harmonies that continue to resound through existence today, a power known as the Song of Creation. The bards of the College of Creation draw on that primeval song through dance, music, and poetry, and their teachers share this lesson:
“Before the sun and the moon, there was the Song, and its music awoke the first dawn. Its melodies so delighted the stones and trees that some of them gained a voice of their own. And now they sing too. Learn the Song, students, and you too can teach the mountains to sing and dance.”
Dwarves and gnomes often encourage their bards to become students of the Song of Creation. And among dragonborn, the Song of Creation is revered, for legends portray Bahamut and Tiamat-the greatest of dragons -as two of the song's first singers.

Source:
2024 Player's Handbook
(Core)

Move in Harmony with the Cosmos
Bards of the College of Dance know that the Words of Creation can't be contained within speech or song; the words are uttered by the movements of celestial bodies and flow through the motions of the smallest creatures. These Bards practice a way of being in harmony with the whirling cosmos that emphasizes agility, speed, and grace.

What to Expect Unarmed Attacking Bard with lots of movement

What would DM Darwin Change? Tandem footwork is a bit niche, i am not a fan of abelites that only work at the start of combat. Perhaps as a bonus action using a use of the bardic inspiration the bard and all party members can move half their movement speed without provoking attack of opportunity.

Source:
Guide to Drakenhime, Pg 153
(3rd Party)

Bards of this college revel in the fear and despair of others. They have foreseen the end of times, and use their gifts of prophecy to in-still terror in those who hear their words.
These bards command an audience like any other, but their craft is that of a mad prophet, and their poems and songs echo dissonant rattling's of hopelessness and suffering. Those who hear the mad ramblings are stricken with fear, lose their wills, and fall into madness.

Source:
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Pg 29
(Supplement)

Adherents of the College of Eloquence master the art of oratory. Persuasion is regarded as a high art, and a well-reasoned, well-spoken argument often proves more powerful than objective truth. These bards wield a blend of logic and theatrical wordplay, winning over sceptics and detractors with logical arguments, and plucking at heartstrings to appeal to the emotions of entire audiences.

Source:
Xanatha's Guide to Everything, Pg 14
(Supplement)

The College of Glamour is the home of bards who mastered their craft in the vibrant realm of the Feywild or under the tutelage of someone who dwelled there. Tutored by satyrs, Fairys, and other fey, these bards learn to use their magic to delight and captivate others.
The bards of this college are regarded with a mixture of awe and fear. Their performances are the stuff of legend. These bards are so eloquent that a speech or song that one of them performs can cause captors to release the bard unharmed and can lull a furious dragon into complacency. The same magic that allows them to quell beasts can also bend minds. Villainous bards of this college can leech off a community for weeks, abusing their magic to turn their hosts into thralls. Heroic bards of this college instead use this power to gladden the downtrodden and undermine oppressors.

2024 Revision Available

Source:
MCDM Arcadia, Vol 8
(3rd Party)

There are few evils so frightening as a Grandmother Hag. Living in the woods, a swamp, or the top of a tower, she imprisons, robs, maims, or murders all who come near. Bards know the power of a good story, and those following the College of Grandmother’s Tales use the horror of the Grandmother Hag to their advantage. They draw upon the fears of growing old, mortality, the loss of agency, and the inability to trust those closest to you to terrify their foes.

Source:
Dragon's Stew, Pg 42
(3rd Party)

Bards of the College of Hosting are called Hosts. A Host’s talents do not lie in music, singing, or dancing but in the purest, rawest form of charisma: conversation.
thanks to the powerful aura of Amiability, Kindness, and Social Magnetism that constantly envelops them. They can lead any conversation, masterfully adapting their tone to speak with crews of sailors with just as much ease as with members of the highest of courts.
Hosts can use their influence and their social gifts to stop wars before the soldiers even hit the ground, or convince the most tyrannical of rulers to take better care of their subjects. They can just as easily start that same war with a twist of a conversation, gain influence and power for themselves masterminding their way to more and more success, all without drawing a blade. The Bardic College of Hosting shines the brightest when political intrigue is involved in an adventure. Instead of skulking in the shadows, trading in rumors and secrets to bring people down, the Host operates right in the open, dealing in diplomacy rather than in subterfuge.

Source:
Hexbound, Pg 10
(3rd Party)

Bards of the College of Witchcraft are called Intoners. They specialize in calling spirits through the use of songs. Intoners do not use musical instruments other than their own voices to cast their magic. The Intoners of the College of Witchcraft keep the secrets of their arcane songs to themselves. These songs are charged with magical energy so that their sounds can pierce through the veil between the planes, reaching the astral home of spirits where the living cannot tread.
The songs are then used as invitations; or lures, for specific spirits to cross the veil and manifest themselves in a specific location. With these spirits, the Intoner dominates the flow of battle, invoking specific spirits to change the tempo of the battlefield to their whim.

Source:
Player's Handbook
(Core)

Bards of the College of Lore know something about most things, collecting bits of knowledge from sources as diverse as scholarly tomes and peasant tales. Whether singing folk ballads in taverns or elaborate compositions in royal courts, these bards use their gifts to hold audiences spellbound. When the applause dies down, the audience members might find themselves questioning everything they held to be true, from their faith in the priesthood of the local temple to their loyalty to the king.
The loyalty of these bards lies in the pursuit of beauty and truth, not in fealty to a monarch or following the tenets of a deity. A noble who keeps such a bard as a herald or advisor knows that the bard would rather be honest than politic.
The college's members gather in libraries and sometimes in actual colleges, complete with classrooms and dormitories, to share their lore with one another. They also meet at festivals or affairs of state, where they can expose corruption, unravel lies, and poke fun at self-important figures of authority.

2024 Revision Available

Source:
Grim Hollow, Pg 44
(3rd Party)

Performing a macabre melody filled with grief-stricken chords with a mournful refrain, the funerary songs of the College of Requiems stir the very bones of the dead. The Requiem bard weaves necromantic magic into their repertoire to control and empower a host of undead minions.

Source:
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
(Setting)

Bards of the College of Spirits seek tales with inherent power-be they legends, histories, or fictions-and bring their subjects to life. Using occult trappings, these bards conjure spiritual embodiments of powerful forces to change the world once more. Such spirits are capricious, though, and what a bard summons isn't always entirely under their control.

Source:
MCDM Arcadia, Vol 2
(3rd Party)

From the desolation of winter comes the rebirth of spring. The smell of rain and earth hanging in the air, the first bloom of green after the silent pale of winter, and the rushing waters of snowmelt. These tides of change teach bards to inspire and refresh their allies like rain, and wield power that crashes upon their foes like a sudden squall. Like the spring from which they blossom, Bards of the College of Springtide learn of endings and renewal, for no growth can come from a dead and overgrown place. But as their powers of rejuvenation swell, so too does their talent for overwhelming force, like unstoppable floods brought by spring storms.

Source:
Xanatha's Guide to Everything, Pg 15
(Supplement)

Bards of the College of Swords are called blades, and they entertain through daring feats of weapon prowess. Blades perform stunts such as sword swallowing, knife throwing and juggling, and mock combats. Though they use their weapons to entertain, they are also highly trained and skilled warriors in their own right.
Their talent with weapons inspires many blades to lead double lives. One blade might use a circus troupe as cover for nefarious deeds such as assassination, robbery, and blackmail. Other blades strike at the wicked, bringing justice to bear against the cruel and powerful. Most troupes are happy to accept a blade’s talent for the excitement it adds to a performance, but few entertainers fully trust a blade in their ranks.
Blades who abandon their lives as entertainers have often run into trouble that makes maintaining their secret activities impossible. A blade caught stealing or engaging in vigilante justice is too great a liability for most troupes. With their weapon skills and magic, these blades either take up work as enforcers for thieves’ guilds or strike out on their own as adventurers.

Source:
Player's Handbook
(Core)

Bards of the College of Valor are daring skalds whose tales keep alive the memory of the great heroes of the past, and thereby inspire a new generation of heroes. These bards gather in mead halls or around great bonfires to sing the deeds of the mighty, both past and present. They travel the land to witness great events first-hand and to ensure that the memory of those events doesn't pass from the world. With their songs, they inspire others to reach the same heights of accomplishment as the heroes of old.

2024 Revision Available

Source:
Xanatha's Guide to Everything, Pg 16
(Supplement)

Most folk are happy to welcome a bard into their midst. Bards of the College of Whispers use this to their advantage. They appear to be like any other bard, sharing news, singing songs, and telling tales to the audiences they gather. In truth, the College of Whispers teaches its students that they are wolves among sheep. These bards use their knowledge and magic to uncover secrets and turn them against others through extortion and threats.
Many other bards hate the College of Whispers, viewing it as a parasite that uses the bards’ reputation to acquire wealth and power. For this reason, these bards rarely reveal their true nature unless they must. They typically claim to follow some other college, or keep their true nature secret in order to better infiltrate and exploit royal courts and other settings of power.