Druid Options

Druids of the Hive Circle

Druids are magically tied to the land and the creatures that inhabit it. They study these creatures and their role in the circle of life. Survival of the fittest. Some druids believe that the epitome of the concept of 'survival of the fittest' is when a species comes together for a common goal. Insects, in particular, are an excellent example of this and some druids strive to retain the balance of nature by following the example of insects. The more, the merrier. Druids of the Hive Circle are given a small, hand-crafted insect hive where they can maintain their own personal colony.

Circle of the Hive

Swarm Shape

When you choose this circle at 2nd level, your Wild Shape ability allows you to transform only into a Swarm of Insects. You may choose what form your insects take, but they cannot fly. Your proficiency bonus replaces the bonus on the Swarm of Insects and is applied to HP, AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws while in your swarm form. Unlike other druids, you cannot transform into beasts with a higher CR as your level increases. Instead, your swarm form gains new abilities as you level.

At 6th level, attacks made by your swarm are considered magical for the purpose of bypassing resistances.

At 8th level, you can transform into a swarm of flying insects, such as: bees, wasps, locusts, carpenter ants, etc. Regardless of the type of insect chosen, your swarm form gains a flying speed of 30 feet. Allies within your swarm gain 3/4 concealment

At 10th level, attacks made by your swarm form become poisonous. On a successful hit, the target of the attack must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the target takes additional poison damage equal to your wisdom modifier and is subjected to the poisoned condition until the end of their next turn. At the end of their subsequent turns, they must repeat the saving throw. If the target fails three saving throws in a row, they become poisoned for the next 24 hours. On a successful save, the targIf you do so, you canet is immune to the poisonous effects of attacks from your swarm form or your colony swarm for the next 24 hours.

Circle Spells

Your mystical connection to the insect world infuses you with the ability to cast certain spells. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells connected to the hive you were charged with when you became a druid.

Once you gain access to a circle spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.

Circle of the Hive

Swarm Shape

Medium swarm of Tiny beasts, unaligned

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• Armor Class 10 + Proficiency (natural armor)
• Hit Points 22 + Proficiency
• Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

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STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
3 (-4)	13 (+1)	10 (0)	1 (-5)	7 (-2)	1 (-5)

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• Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
• Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned
• Senses blindsight 10 ft., passive Perception 8
• Languages ---
• Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

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Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny insect. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

A swarm can occupy the same space as any number of other swarms and one other non-swarm creature.

Actions

Bites. Melee Weapon Attack: +(Wisdom modifier + proficiency) to hit, reach 0 ft., one target in the swarm's space. Hit: 4d4 + proficiency piercing damage, or 2d4 + proficiency piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.

Walking Hive

At 4th level, you consume or absorb the small hive that has been serving as your druidic focus. The colony that has been cultivated within that hive becomes a part of you and lives within your body. From this point on, you are always considered to have a druidic focus in your possession but must have at least one hand free to cast spells, as normal. Your magic accelerates the growth of your colony to create a powerful bond with those creatures.

With 8 hours of work and the expenditure of 50 gp worth of rare herbs and fine fibrous materials, you magically attune your colony to your mind.

At the end of the 8 hours, your colony has grown into a Swarm of Insects and gains all the benefits of your Hive Mind ability. You can have only one companion swarm at a time.

Your colony swarm can expend an Action on its turn to retreat within your body. While inside your body, your colony cannot be targeted or affected by attacks or spells and you gain resistance to poison damage. Additionally, it regains 1d4 hit points for every hour it remains within your body. You can use a bonus action to expel your colony into a space within 5 ft of you. If that space is occupied by an enemy, your colony can use its reaction to make a bite attack against it. If you activate your Swarm Shape ability while your colony is within your body, it is removed from your body and appears in the space where you performed the transformation.

If your colony is ever slain, the magical bond you share allows you to return it to life. With 8 hours of work and the expenditure of 25 gp worth of rare herbs, you magically accelerate the growth of the larvae living within you to create a new Swarm of Insects as a companion swarm. You cannot use this ability to replenish your colony while you have an active companion swarm outside your body.

Hive Mind

Your companion swarm gains a variety of benefits while it is linked to you.

The colony obeys your commands as best it can. It rolls for initiative like any other creature, whether it is within your body or otherwise, but you determine its actions, decisions, attitudes, and so on. If you are incapacitated or absent, your companion acts on its own.

Your colony has abilities and game statistics determined in part by your level. Your companion uses 1/2 of your proficiency bonus rather than its own, unless its own would be higher than 1/2 of yours. In addition to the areas where it normally uses its proficiency bonus, your companion colony also adds this proficiency bonus to its AC and to its damage rolls. Your colony gains proficiency in two skills of your choice. It also becomes proficient with all mental saving throws: Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

For each even-numbered level you gain after 4th, your animal companion gains an additional hit die and increases its hit points accordingly. Whenever you gain the Ability Score Improvement class feature, your companion’s abilities also improve. Your companion can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or it can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, your companion can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature unless its description specifies otherwise.

Your companion colony's alignment is always unaligned, but has no personality trait, flaw, or ideal. Its bond is always, "the druid host keeps the colony safe and we will defend our home with our lives."

Vital Swarm Shape

Beginning at 4th level, when you use your Swarm Shape ability, you can expend a Druid spell slot to increase the maximum hit points of your swarm form by 5 (1d8) per level of the spell slot expended for the duration of that transformation. If you choose to expend another use of your Swarm Shape ability to refresh the transformation, you retain this bonus.

Scatter

Starting at 5th level, when you are subject to a melee attack from an enemy that you are aware of, you may spend your reaction to immediately use your Swarm Shape ability and engulf the attacker. If you do, you can choose to use your Vital Swarm Shape ability as normal. You gain a bonus to your AC for the triggering attack equal to your Wisdom modifier and you enter the attacker’s space. That attacker must immediately make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or become frightened of you for 1 minute. This ability cannot be used again until you take a long rest, but does not count against the number of times you can use Swarm Shape between rests.

Chittering Tide

At 8th level, when you expend a spell slot of 3rd level or higher as part of your Vital Swarm Shape ability, your swarm's size category increases to Large. While Large-sized, your Bite damage die increases to d6. When you expend a spell slot of 6th level or higher, your swarm’s size category increases to Huge. While Huge-sized, the damage die of your Bite attack increases to d8.

Quicken Swarm

At 12th level, your swarm form's walking speed increases to 30 ft. and you can use your Scatter ability once per short or long rest. In addition, your Swarm Shape can be used as either a bonus action or an action.

Infestation

At 14th level, add your full Proficiency bonus to Attack, Damage, AC, and Saving Throws of your colony. As an action when your colony shares a space with an enemy, you can force your colony can spend its reaction to attempt to enter that enemy's body. The enemy must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, your colony enters their body. On your colony or that creature's next initiative, whichever comes first, your colony violently bursts out of its body and deals 10d10 piercing damage. If your colony's initiative comes before the infested creature's, it cannot make any actions or reactions. You cannot attempt to infest another target again until you complete a long rest. This feature has no effect on undead, constructs, or oozes.

Voice of Many

Starting at 14th level, while in the form of a Large-sized swarm, you can spend a bonus action to split into two Medium-sized swarms. While you are a Huge-sized swarm, you can spend a bonus action to split into two Large-sized swarms, one Large and two Medium, or four Medium-sized swarms. The hit points of the swarms are divided evenly (rounded down). Your swarms must remain within 60 ft. of any of the other swarms generated by this ability. Each swarm acts independently on your initiative. If your swarm shape time runs out or if you revert to normal while you embody multiple swarms, you appear in the space occupied by the swarm of your choice. While not transformed, when you speak, it sounds as though there are many voices speaking simultaneously.

While Large-sized or larger, as a bonus action, you can expend a Druid spell slot. If you do, you can increase the number of targets that can be affected by your bite attack. The number of additional targets is equal to the level of the spell slot expended in this way.

Additionally, while Large-or-Huge-sized, you can reshape your swarm to be a contiguous line up to 20 feet long (Large) or 50 feet long (Huge) that is 5 feet wide and 5 feet high.

Enlarged Colony

At 20th level, your companion swarm’s size increases to Large. Its bite damage die increases to d6. As a bonus action, you can command your colony to make a bite attack against a creature that shares a space with it.