D&D 5E: New Bard Colleges (UA)

Last week I linked to WOTC's new Barbarian Primal Paths.

This week's Unearthed Arcana article is all about new Bard Colleges. between the PHB, the options in UA - Kits of Old, and this new article, that's a lot of bard options. Maybe it's high time I tried playing one (I never have in 30 years of gaming).

I've played two bards. In one of them the campaign didn't go far, but otherwise my only experience is my bard getting eaten alive by a Behir. I really love the class, though. The College of Whispers looks pretty interesting, out of this new batch of archetypes!

I played a bard in Pathfinder up to level 12. I also played one in first edition D&D, when you'd have to start as a level 1 fighter, go to level 5-7, then go thief and do the same, then go to bard. One of my favorite characters ever.

I've played lots of bards. The crowning achievement was a dwarven bard that played on the bag pipes. During the campaign he somehow managed to get a camel as a mount making it the weirdest visual I have ever seen.

One of the players in my face to face group have modeled after the cover of Voltaire's album: "Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children"

I had a friend that played a Bard in a game 4-5 years ago who would grossly exaggerate all of our encounters. We were in this dungeon in some homebrew country of Denholme. We walked into the first room, found 4 goblins and killed them pretty quick and easy. For the next few sessions he'd regale everyone of the time we bravely faced down The Four Pillars of Denholme. He did this with every fight.

Bards are liars an adventuring party's PR department, yours seems to be in working order.