Druid - Archetypes
Duncehack Edition
Part 2
Skipping the preamble because this is Part 2 of the Druid redesign.
See Part 1 if any of the introductory stuff matters to you.
Obligatory Natural Crit Plug
Someone else made a thing that lets me make homebrews without having to post them on pastebin or something. They deserve a lot of credit for that.
Obligatory /tg/ Plug
The feedback I got from various Anons on this helped me build it into something that wasn't bad and stupid.
I love you all in a way only abused spouse can possibly understand.
What if I think these are too much?
It's druid. You really don't have to do much.
- Land gets potent cantrip at 6th level.
- Dreams gets some version of the Bard's Song of Rest as part of their 6th level feature.
- Spore gets to use Symbiotic Entity on bonus action. Symbiotic Entity also lasts Wisdom Modifier number of turns after loss of Temp HP.
What if I think Moon Druids are way too strong?
I have good news for you, because I actually agree, but not for the reasons you might think.
I'm a firm believer that all entities in a game should at least try to play by the same rulebook. Shapeshifters are knocked out of moonbeam right? Shapeshifters are vulnerable to silvered weaponry?
Yeah, sage advice stipulated druids aren't shapeshifters under the rules, and neither is the use of polymorph.
Which means there's a extremely powerful features in the game with no real counters - and that's a problem to me.
Optional Anti-Wild Shape Rules:
Silver Vulnerability. All HP provided by a polymorph effect, such as the polymorph spell or the Druid Wild Shape feature, is vulnerable to silvered weaponry.
Moonbeam. Moonbeam applies to polymorph effects such as Wild Shape.
Dispel Magic. Wild Shape can be dispelled. The DC of Dispel Magic, is 10 + half the druid's level. If the creature is a monstrous being that does not translate to character levels, the DC is 10 + half the creature's CR.
If half the Druid's level, or half the creature's CR, is below the spell slot level used for Dispel Magic, then the Wild Shape effect ends without requiring a roll.
Counterspell. Works as well as per the dispel magic rule above.
Antimagic Field. Wild Shape counts as a spell for the purposes of being suppressed by this spell.
What about Shepherd Druids?
This is a rules interpretation thing as counterspell and dispel magic doesn't specify whether it removes one conjured creature or the spell entirely.
If Shepherd is an issue, rule that these spells end conjuration spells entirely.
Circle of the Land
The Circle of the Land is made up of mystics and sages who safeguard ancient knowledge and rites through a vast oral tradition. These druids meet within sacred circles of trees or standing stones to whisper primal secrets in Druidic. The circle's wisest members preside as the chief priests of communities that hold to the Old Faith and serve as advisors to the rulers of those folk. As a member of this circle, your magic is influenced by the land where you were initiated into the circle's mysterious rites.
Bonus Cantrip
You learn one additional druid cantrip of your choice.
Natural Recovery
Starting at 2nd level, you can regain some of your magical energy by sitting in meditation and communing with nature. During a short rest, you choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your druid level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest
For example, when you are a 4th-level druid, you can recover up to two levels worth of spell slots. You can recover either a 2nd-level slot or two 1st-level slots.
Circle Spells
Your mystical connection to the land 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 land where you became a druid. Choose that land - arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or Underdark - and consult the associated list of spells.
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.
Controlled Spells
At 6th level, if a druid spell of yours would force a creature to make a saving throw, you can spend your reaction to let it automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save.
Potent Cantrip
At 10th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage of your cantrips.
Voice of the Land
At 14th level, your circle spells become effortless to cast. When you use a circle spell, you restore a spell slot of a lower level than the one used for the spell.
Controlled Spells
So you can cast entangle without screwing over your Rogue.
Yeah, it's whenever a roll is made, not just when you cast the spell, but it costs reaction and can only effect one creature at a time.
Potent Cantrip
Because why doesn't the spell reliant Druid get it?
Aren't these just the Evocation Wizard features?
Yes, but sometimes the simplest answer is the best. These look a lot different in the hands of a Druid to be honest, given the different spell list.
Voice of the Land
Needed a better capstone, the old one was just not worth the effort.
Isn't this the Divination Wizard feature?
Sorta. Tying it to the Circle Spells means that the DM can almost guarantee they're utility spells (with some exceptions, cloudkill comes to mind). Unlike Divination where they decided mind spike was a good idea (and thus Diviners, while not being the best blasters in the game, are probably the most enduring, and it's on a damage type that's almost as good as Force).
Arctic
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | hold person, spike growth |
| 5th | sleet storm, slow |
| 7th | freedom of movement, ice storm |
| 9th | commune with nature, cone of cold |
Coast
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | mirror image, misty step |
| 5th | water breathing, water walk |
| 7th | control water, freedom of movement |
| 9th | conjure elemental, scrying |
Desert
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | blur, silence |
| 5th | create food and water, protection from energy |
| 7th | blight, hallucinatory terrain |
| 9th | insect plague, wall of stone |
Forest
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | barkskin, spider climb |
| 5th | call lightning, plant growth |
| 7th | divination, freedom of movement |
| 9th | commune with nature, insect plague |
Grassland
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | invisibility, pass without trace |
| 5th | daylight, haste |
| 7th | divination, freedom of movement |
| 9th | dream, insect plague |
Mountain
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | spider climb, spike growth |
| 5th | lightning bolt, meld into stone |
| 7th | stone shape, stoneskin |
| 9th | passwall, wall of stone |
Swamp
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | darkness, Melf's acid arrow |
| 5th | water walk, stinking cloud |
| 7th | freedom of movement, locate creature |
| 9th | insect plague, scrying |
Underdark
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | spider climb, web |
| 5th | gaseous form, stinking cloud |
| 7th | greater invisibility, stone shape |
| 9th | cloudkill, insect plague |
Circle of the Moon
Druids of the Circle of the Moon are fierce guardians of the wilds. Their order gathers under the full moon to share news and trade warnings. They haunt the deepest parts of the wilderness, where they might go for weeks on end before crossing paths with another humanoid creature, let alone another druid.
Changeable as the moon, a druid of this circle might prowl as a great cat one night, soar over the treetops as an eagle the next day, and crash through the undergrowth in bear form to drive off a trespassing monster. The wild is in the druid's blood.
Combat Wild Shape
You gain the ability to use Wild Shape on your turn as a bonus action, rather than as an action.
Additionally, while you are transformed by Wild Shape, you can use a bonus action to expend one spell slot to regain 1d8 hit points per level of the spell slot expended.
Circle Forms
The rites of your circle grant you the ability to transform into more dangerous animal forms. Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Wild Shape to transform into a beast with a challenge rating as high as 1 (you ignore the Max. CR column of the Beast Shapes table, but must abide by the other limitations there).
Starting at 6th level, you can transform into a beast with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 3, rounded down.
With your DM's permission, you may use the same form with increasing CR instead of a new shape.
Elemental Wild Shape
You can expend two uses of Wild Shape at the same time to transform into an elemental instead of a beast.
Using your Wild Shape in this way follows the restrictions laid out in the Beast Shape table.
Circle of the Moon Beast Shapes
| Level | Max. CR | Max Elemental CR. | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | 1 | 2 | No flying or swimming speed |
| 4th | 1 | 2 | No flying speed |
| 6th | 2 | 3 | No flying speed |
| 8th | 2 | 3 | — |
| 9th | 3 | 4 | — |
| 12th | 4 | 5 | — |
| 15th | 5 | 6 | — |
| 18th | 6 | 7 | — |
Primal Strike
Starting at 6th level, your attacks in beast form count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Thousand Forms
By 10th level, you have learned to use magic to alter your physical form in more subtle ways. You can cast the alter self spell at will.
Mutable Flesh
At 14th level, when you roll initiative, if you do not have a Wild Shape charge remaining, you gain one charge.
Elemental Wild Shape Changes?
I get that it's technically a nerf at 10th level (takes 2 more levels to get access to the CR 5 elementals), but it'll mean that there's viable tactics other than 'keep shapeshifting for extra HP'.
Well, I did make that better with the base class, but I also have the optional rules above allowing people to make it easier to knock a druid out of their shape, so there's that.
Thousand Forms
Moved to 10th... where it should always have been.
Mutable Flesh
In the interests of keeping the class relevent, as this is the point where Moon Druids fall off hard until 20th.
Circle of Dreams
Druids who are members of the Circle of Dreams hail from regions that have strong ties to the Feywild and its dreamlike realms. The druids' guardianship of the natural world makes for a natural alliance between them and good-aligned fey. These druids seek to fill the world with dreamy wonder. Their magic mends wounds and brings joy to downcast hearts, and the realms they protect are gleaming, fruitful places, where dream and reality blur together and where the weary can find rest.
Balm of the Summer Court
At 2nd level, you become imbued with the blessings of the Summer Court. You are a font of energy that offers respite from injuries. You have a pool of fey energy represented by a number of d6s equal to your druid level.
As a bonus action, you can choose one creature you can see within 120 feet of you and spend a number of those dice equal to half your druid level or less. Roll the spent dice and add them together. The target regains a number of hit points equal to the total. The target also gains 1 temporary hit point per die spent.
You regain all expended dice when you finish a long rest.
Passion of the Spring Court
At 2nd level, whenever you cast a spell that uses spell slots to restore hit points that creature also restores 2 + the Spell slot's level.
Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow
At 6th level, home can be wherever you are. During a short or long rest, you can invoke the shadowy power of the Gloaming Court to help guard your respite. At the start of the rest, you touch a point in space, and an invisible, 30-foot-radius sphere of magic appears, centered on that point. Total cover blocks the sphere.
While within the sphere, you and your allies gain a +5 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) and Wisdom (Perception) checks, and any light from open flames in the sphere (a campfire, torches, or the like) isn't visible outside it.
The sphere vanishes at the end of the rest or when you leave the sphere.
While inside the sphere, creatures who use a hit die to restore hp add your Wisdom Modifier (minimum 1) to the healing.
Hidden Paths
Starting at 10th level, you can use the hidden, magical pathways that some fey use to traverse space in the blink of an eye. As a bonus action on your turn, you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. Alternatively, you can use your action to teleport one willing creature you touch up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.
Walker in Dreams
At 14th level, the magic of the Feywild grants you the ability to travel mentally or physically through dreamlands.
When you finish a short rest, you can cast one of the following spells, without expending a spell slot or requiring material components: dream (with you as the messenger), scrying, or teleportation circle.
This use of teleportation circle is special. Rather than opening a portal to a permanent teleportation circle, it opens a portal to the last location where you finished a long rest on your current plane of existence. If you haven't taken a long rest on your current plane, the spell fails but isn't wasted.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Dreamer's Wellspring
At 14th level, when you take a short rest, you recover up to your Wisdom Modifier in Balm of the Summer Court dice. You may only restore Balm of the Summer Court dice this way once per long rest.
Notes:
Passion of the Spring Court: Worth noting this feature isn't on any druid archetype because it makes goodberry broken.
There is a possible rules interpretation that prevents that interaction, that eating a goodberry is like quaffing a potion, not like recieving a cure wounds (as such, not considered a healing spell for the purposes of the feature).
Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow: Dreams seems to have a theme of rest manipulations and healing. It doesn't do enough in either direction.
So instead I thought to take a mild leaf out of the Bard's book. Dreams has a focus on the importance of rests and getting more milage out of them. Bards are the only class in the game that make rests more efficient.
If you're concerned about parity with my changes, Bard's Song of rest is about equal in terms of average healing at d8, better at d10.
So... why don't Dream Druids get a similar feature?
Walker in Dreams: simply removes the opportunity cost of features already available to you. (I.e. you already have these spells in all likelihood, this means you can cast them without burning spell slots).
Dreamer's Wellspring. Makes you a better healer at higher levels.
Circle of Spores
Druids of the Circle of Spores find beauty in decay. They see within mold and other fungi the ability to transform lifeless material into abundant, albeit somewhat strange, life.
These druids believe that life and death are parts of a grand cycle, with one leading to the other and then back again. Death isn't the end of life, but instead a change of state that sees life shift into a new form.
Druids of this circle have a complex relationship with the undead. Unlike most other druids, they see nothing inherently wrong with undeath, which they consider to be a companion to life and death. But these druids believe that the natural cycle is healthiest when each segment of it is vibrant and changing. Undead that seek to replace all life with undeath, or that try to avoid passing to a final rest, violate the cycle and must be thwarted.
Circle Spells
Your symbiotic link to fungus and your ability to tap into the cycle of life and death grants you access to certain spells. At 2nd level, you learn the chill touch cantrip. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to the spells listed for that level in the Circle of Spores Spells table.
Once you gain access to one of these spells, 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 Spores Spells
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | blindness/deafness, gentle repose |
| 5th | animate dead, gaseous form |
| 7th | blight, confusion |
| 9th | cloudkill, contagion |
Halo of Spores
Starting at 2nd level, you are surrounded by invisible, necrotic spores that are harmless until you unleash them on a creature nearby. When a creature you can see moves into a space within 10 feet of you or starts its turn there, you can use your reaction to deal 1d4 necrotic damage to that creature unless it succeeds on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. The necrotic damage increases to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8 at 10th level, 1d10 at 14th level and 1d12 at 17th level.
Symbiotic Entity
At 2nd level, you gain the ability to channel magic into your spores. As a bonus action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to awaken those spores, rather than transforming into a beast form, and you gain 4 temporary hit points for each level you have in this class. While this feature is active, you gain the following benefits:
When you deal your Halo of Spores damage, roll the damage die a second time and add it to the total.
Your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 1d6 poison damage to any target they hit. This becomes a 1d8 at 6th level, 1d10 at 10th level, 1d12 at 14th level.
These benefits last for 10 minutes, or until you use your Wild Shape again.
If you lose all these temporary hit points, you have a number of turns equal to your Wisdom Modifier (minimum 0) before these benefits wear off.
Fungal Infestation
At 6th level, your spores gain the ability to infest a corpse and animate it. If a beast or a humanoid that is Small or Medium dies within 10 feet of you, you can use your reaction to animate it, causing it to stand up immediately with 1 + Your Wisdom Modifier hit points. The creature uses the zombie stat block in the Monster Manual. It remains animate for 1 hour, after which time it collapses and dies.
In combat, the zombie's turn comes immediately after yours. It obeys your mental commands, and the only action it can take is the Attack action, making one melee attack. It may use this attack to make a Shove or a Grapple attempt.
At 10th level, the zombie may make two attacks.
At 14th level, the zombie may make three attacks.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.
Spreading Spores
At 10th level, you gain the ability to seed an area with deadly spores. As a bonus action while your Symbiotic Entity feature is active, you can hurl spores up to 30 feet away, where they swirl in a 10-foot cube for 1 minute. The spores disappear early if you use this feature again, if you dismiss them as a bonus action, or if your Symbiotic Entity feature is no longer active.
Whenever a creature moves into the cube or starts its turn there, that creature takes your Halo of Spores damage, unless the creature succeeds on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. A creature can take this damage no more than once per turn.
While the cube of spores persists, you can't use your Halo of Spores reaction.
Fungal Body
At 14th level, the fungal spores in your body alter you: you can't be blinded, deafened, frightened, or poisoned, and any critical hit against you counts as a normal hit instead, unless you're incapacitated.
Notes
Halo of Spores: Scaled the damage up to d12 at 17th level to cover the late game.
Symbiotic Entity: Changing it to bonus action makes it smoother to use. Scaling was an issue as well. The bigger change is the couple of turns it lasts after the temp HP goes down. This feature wants to be within 10 feet of enemies. Problem is, the moment it does, its temp hp is going to get knocked off and the form will insta-drop.
Fungal Infestation: Depending on your rule interpretation, the grapple/shove thing isn't a change, but a clarification. The rest is buffs though to help its scaling.
Circle of the Shepherd
Druids of the Circle of the Shepherd commune with the spirits of nature, especially the spirits of beasts and the fey, and call to those spirits for aid. These druids recognize that all living things play a role in the natural world, yet they focus on protecting animals and fey creatures that have difficulty defending themselves. Shepherds, as they are known, see such creatures as their charges. They ward off monsters that threaten them, rebuke hunters who kill more prey than necessary, and prevent civilization from encroaching on rare animal habitats and on sites sacred to the fey. Many of these druids are happiest far from cities and towns, content to spend their days in the company of animals and the fey creatures of the wilds.
Members of this circle become adventurers to oppose forces that threaten their charges or to seek knowledge and power that will help them safeguard their charges better. Wherever these druids go, the spirits of the wilderness are with them.
Speech of the Woods
At 2nd level, you gain the ability to converse with beasts and many fey.
You learn to speak, read, and write Sylvan. In addition, beasts can understand your speech, and you gain the ability to decipher their noises and motions. Most beasts lack the intelligence to convey or understand sophisticated concepts, but a friendly beast could relay what it has seen or heard in the recent past. This ability doesn't grant you friendship with beasts, though you can combine this ability with gifts to curry favor with them as you would with any nonplayer character.
Spirit Totem
Starting at 2nd level, you can call forth nature spirits to influence the world around you. As a bonus action, you can magically summon an incorporeal spirit to a point you can see within 60 feet of you. The spirit creates an aura in a 30-foot radius around that point. It counts as neither a creature nor an object, though it has the spectral appearance of the creature it represents.
As a bonus action, you can move the spirit up to 60 feet to a point you can see.
The spirit persists for 1 minute or until you're incapacitated. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
The effect of the spirit's aura depends on the type of spirit you summon from the options below.
- Bear Spirit. The bear spirit grants you and your allies its might and endurance. Each creature of your choice in the aura when the spirit appears gains temporary hit points equal to 5 + your druid level. In addition, you and your allies gain advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws while in the aura.
- Hawk Spirit. The hawk spirit is a consummate hunter, aiding you and your allies with its keen sight. When a creature makes an attack roll against a target in the spirit's aura, you can use your reaction to grant advantage to that attack roll. In addition, you and your allies have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks while in the aura.
- Unicorn Spirit. The unicorn spirit lends its protection to those nearby. You and your allies gain advantage on all ability checks made to detect creatures in the spirit's aura. In addition, if you cast a spell using a spell slot that restores hit points to any creature inside or outside the aura, each creature of your choice in the aura also regains hit points equal to your druid level.
Mighty Summoner
Starting at 6th level, beasts and fey that you conjure are more resilient than normal. Any beast or fey summoned or created by a spell that you cast gains the following benefits:
The creature appears with more hit points than normal, gaining your Wisdom Modifier (Minimum 2) in extra hit points per Hit Die it has. The damage from its natural weapons is considered magical for the purpose of overcoming immunity and resistance to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Guardian Spirit
Beginning at 10th level, your Spirit Totem safeguards the beasts and fey that you call forth with your magic. When a beast or fey that you summoned or created with a spell ends its turn in your Spirit Totem aura, that creature regains a number of hit points equal to half your druid level.
Faithful Summons
Starting at 14th level, the nature spirits you commune with protect you when you are the most defenseless. If you are reduced to 0 hit points or are incapacitated against your will, you can immediately gain the benefits of conjure animals as if it were cast using a 9th-level spell slot. It summons four beasts of your choice that are challenge rating 2 or lower. The conjured beasts appear within 20 feet of you. If they receive no commands from you, they protect you from harm and attack your foes. The spell lasts for 1 hour, requiring no concentration, or until you dismiss it (no action required).
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
In Addition, while your Spirit Totem is active, and your summoned beasts or fey are within the Spirit Totem's aura, you add your Wisdom modifier to concentration checks to maintain the summoned creatures.
Notes
Mighty Summoner. This change makes it scale into the later game significantly better.
Faithful Summons. Adding the conditional Concentration resistance means that the 14th level feature is more than just planning for failure.