Add Volume and Variety When You Enhance Style with Beardomancy for 5E D&D

December 15, 2021

Over at Nerdarchy Live we’re about to wrap up our current campaign playing Ashes of Ardor with fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. For this one our group decided we’d all play subclasses from our own collection of content. For me there was no question I’d play something related to Beardomancy. Among the 12 options we’ve got (one for each of the core 5E D&D classes) the decision was tough. I settled on the Shaggy Soul Sorcerous Origin. Commanding beardomantic magic is every bit as fun and thrilling as I imagined but I do have a few ideas to tweak things, especially one particular spell I use very often. Let’s get into it.

Adding extensions to 5E D&D beardomantic magic

If you’re curious to learn more about Ashes of Ardor including the amazing campaign setting and the characters we’re all playing in the game we all contributed to a post about our experience you’ll find right here.

One of my takeaways from playing a Shaggy Soul sorcerer who only casts beardomantic spells is how much fun and unbelievable flavor we’ve woven into the ever-growing power from the Beard Dimension. Because I love playing support style characters (right up there with tanks!) my go to spell throughout the campaign has been enhance style. This 1st level beardomancy spell comes from Hairable Ideas and much like enhance ability it provides a variety of related benefits you can choose when you cast the spell.

Here’s the spell as it appears in its original form. I also created it using D&D Beyond’s homebrew tools so if you’d like to add it to your collection you can find it right here.

Enhance Style

1st Level Beardomancy

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Components: V,S,M (a tin of hair grease)

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 Hour

You touch a willing creature and style it’s hair. Depending on what hairstyle you go with, that creature gains the following benefits:

Pompadour. You have advantage on Persuasion checks.
Dreadlocks. You have advantage on Survival checks.
Mohawk. You have advantage on Intimidation checks.
Fauxhawk. You have advantage on Deception checks.
Ringlet Curls. You have advantage on Medicine checks.
Shaved Head. You have advantage on Stealth checks.
Topknot. You have advantage on Athletics checks.
Mullet. You have advantage on Performance checks.
Pigtails. You have advantage on Acrobatics checks.

At the end of the spell’s duration, the target’s hair returns to its former state, even if the hairstyle in question has caused it to be cut for the spell.

As you can see the spell alters the target’s hairstyle to provide advantage on a particular skill. Over the course of our campaign I’ve used every single option and it’s been really cool and exhilarating to get so much juice from this spell. But I want more! Don’t tell Steven but I slipped one of the changes I’ve got in mind into our game already. Our party participated in several important rituals throughout our journey and in one instance I didn’t feel like my character had much to contribute. The group’s arcane expert handled the big stuff and to support his efforts I added a new option on the fly for a little bump in the Arcana department.

Why stop there? A number of skills didn’t make the cut in the original version of enhance style so I wanted to include all of those. In addition I feel this spell could really use options for casting at a higher level. With all the skill challenges and group checks during our campaign I think these two changes are well deserved and punch up this spell without making it unduly powerful by any stretch. Here’s the rest of the 5E D&D skills and the hairstyles providing advantage on those checks plus the upcasting option:

Feathered. You have advantage on Animal Handling checks
Bowl. You have advantage on Arcana checks
Bun. You have advantage on History checks
Undercut. You have advantage on Insight checks
Flattop. You have advantage on Investigation checks
Pixie. You have advantage on Nature checks
Blowout. You have advantage on Perception checks
Bob. You have advantage on Religion checks
Spiked. You have advantage on Sleight of Hand checks

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st.

You’ll find quite a bit of info and ideas related to Beardomancy here on the website if you poke around. Personally it’s my favorite things we’ve created over the years and I love adding to it whenever we can. Nerdarchist Ted recently took the Untraditionally Arcane party into the Beard Dimension itself where they discovered the bizarre Mustachio Swarm. If you’re not ready to fully entangle yourself just yet consider dabbling in beardomancy with a special feat we created to give characters a taste. And of course above all else, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — This composite image shows some of the results from the strange energies of the Beard Dimension seeping out into the multiverse. Fur flies when a Path of the Barbhairian barbarian draws on beardomantic power to fuzz out, weaponizing their hair color, cut and style to give enemies the most permanent kind of perm. More of a discovery, the mystical energy of beardomancy exists in its own dimension. Unlocking the secrets of beardomantic power first manifests as a luxurious beard for the practitioner. A hirsute horror is a large creature made entirely of a collection of hair and braids. The square-shaped central mass of hair has no visible head or face. School of Beardomancy wizards are often scoffed at by more traditional practitioners of the magical arts. But beardomancers understand the amazing potential. [Find all these things and more in the Beardomancy Bundle!]