One of two reprints from Van Richten's, I always loved the idea of the College of Spirits Bard, but I also know that some felt that the subclass missed the mark a bit because of how costly the central Spirits from Beyond feature was.
I think (I think) that they fixed it.
Let's get into it:
Level 3:
Channeler:
Ok, first things first, you get Guidance, which gains a range of 60 feet when you cast it.
Good cantrip, more flexible. No complaints.
You gain a set of Playing Cards, and gain proficiency with them, and you can use it or various other objecs as a spell focus (crystals, orbs, candles, ink pens).
Pure flavor. Well, ok, if your campaign has a lot of gambling, sure, this technically gives you a benefit.
Spirits from Beyond:
When you take a bonus action to grant a creature Bardic Inspiration, you also call forth a random spirit, determined by rolling a BI die and referring to the Spirits from Beyond table. Thereafter, the spirit lingers with you until you unleash it or finish a short or long rest.
You can also use Controlled Channeling - expending a BI die as a bonus action to choose a specific spirit from the table, though only from those on the table your current BI die can roll.
As a Magic action, youc an unleash one of your channeled spirits, picking a target within 30 feet for the spirit's effect. If a save is involved, you use your Bard spell save DC.
So: the big difference here is that you can now both grant Bardic Inspiration to allies and get a random spirit. The old version was an either/or, but now you'll be getting these spirits automatically while you're doing what Bards usually do. That is a big improvement. And, if you really need the specific functionality of a particular spirit, you can grab that at the cost of giving your ally Bardic Inspiration.
Now, buckle up: here are the spirits:
1: Beloved: Heals the target for a roll of your BI die plus your Charisma modifier.
2: Sharpshooter: The target takes Force damage equal to your BI die plus Cha (should we just call it 1dB?)
3: Avenger: Until your next turn, any creature that hits the target with a melee attack takes 1dB Force damage.
4: Renegade: The target can immediately take a reaction to teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.
5: Fortune Teller: the target has advantage on D20 Tests until the start of your next turn.
6: Wayfarer: The target gains Temp HP equal to 1dB plus your Bad level, and while it has these Temp HP, their speed is increased by 10 feet.
7: Trickster: The target makes a Wis save, taking 2dB psychic damage and becoming Charmed until the start of your next turn. On a successful save, they take half damage only.
8: Shade: The target becomes invisible until the start of its next turn or until they make an attack roll, deal damage, or cast a spell. When the invisibility ends, each creature in a 5-foot emanation originating from the target must make a Con save or take necrotic damage equal to 2dB.
9: Arsonist: The target makes a Dex save, taking fire damage equal to 4dB on a failure or half as much on a success.
10: Coward: The target and each creature of your choice in a 30-foot emanation from the target must make a Wis save or beocme frightened until the start of your next turn. While frightened, their speed is halved (round down) and they can take either an action or bonus action, not both.
11: Brute: Each creature of your choice in a 30-foot emanation from the target makes a Strength save. On a failure, they take 3dB thunder damage and are prone. On a success, half damage only.
12: Priest: The target rgains HP equal to 2dB and one of the following conditions on them ends: Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Paralyzed, Poisoned, or Stunned.
I decided not to go one-by-one with the old list, but again, I think it's pretty huge that these are going to be available any time you're using the conventional use of Bardic Inspiration, which means this feature is going to see tons of use all the time.
Level 6:
Empowered Channeling gives you two benefits:
Power from Beyond lets you gain a bonus once per turn to the damage or healing of a Bard spell when you expend a spell slot. You roll 1d6 and add it to one of the spell's damage rolls or the total healing done.
I think the best value you'll get for this is going to be an AoE damage spell. If it's the total healing done, then I don't think it will replicate across something like Mass Healing Word. It's not nothing, but it's not a lot either.
Spiritual Manifestation gives you Spirit Guardians, and lets you cast it once for free per long rest (that free casting of course not benefiting from Power from Beyond, but subsequent casts should do fine).
Furthermore, once per short or long rest, you can modify Spirit Guardians to now grant you and your allies Half Cover while within the emanation.
So, Spirit Guardians is among the best Cleric damage spells, and this is both on-theme and also quite good. Naturally, we could pick this up at higher levels with Magical Secrets, but getting it for free means we can focus on picking up other powerful spells. (I was never really into Bards, but 5.5 has made me think maybe I should be?)
Level 14:
Mystical Connection:
When you roll on the Spirits from Beyond table, you can roll the die twice and choose which of the effects to bestow. If both dice roll the same number, you can just choose any effect on the table.
Subtle thing here: I think that this technically gives you access to the Brute and Priest options one level early, if you get the 10% chance of rolling the same on two d10s. Interestingly, this actually gets slightly nerfed when we upgrade to a d12 die. This is far from a mind-blowing feature, and arguably a little underwhelming as a subclass capstone, but it's still good to have.
Overall Thoughts:
Really I think that the one little change to Spirits from Beyond has done a lot to make this subclass work better. Again, it's probably not the best Bard subclass, but I don't think the thing's broken, and I think it could be a very fun and flavorful choice.
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