Circle of Vermin
When the three barons agreed to chop down the forest, they didn't notice the rat under the table. When one of the barons was found dead in his room with the door and windows locked that same day, nobody thought that a spider could've slipped under the doorframe. When a corpse covered in tiny bites was fished out of the river the day after, nobody recognized the second baron. When the third baron abandoned their plan, no one was the wiser, except for the whistling figure that left the city that day.
A Druidic Circle
The druids of the circle of vermin share two things: an affection for the small and ignored creatures of the world, and a deep knowledge of the diseases and poisons they carry.
Circle Spells
When you join this circle at 2nd level, you have studied in depth ways to summon small creatures and inflict disease. This grants you access to some spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Circle of Vermin 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 Vermin Spells
| Druid Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 2nd | find Familiar, ray of sickness |
| 3rd | flock of familiars, ray of enfeeblement |
| 5th | gaseous form, stinking cloud |
| 7th | giant insect, vitriolic sphere |
| 9th | contagion, insect plague |
Vermin's Shape
Starting at 2nd level, you've mastered the forms of tiny creatures. You can use your Wildshape feature to transform into a swarm of tiny beasts instead of into a single beast, and you can wildshape into swarms of tiny beasts or individual tiny beasts as a bonus action instead of as an action. This transformation must abide by all other wildshape limitations.
Additionally, whenever you wildshape into a tiny beast or a swarm of tiny beasts, you gain the following benefits for the duration of your transformation:
- You have advantage on Dexterity ability checks and Dexterity saving throws you make.
- You add your proficiency bonus to your AC and natural weapon attacks.
- You can take the Dash, Disengage or Hide actions as a bonus action.
Rodent's Instincts
Starting at 2nd level, you learn how to use surprise and speed to your advantage. You gain the following benefits:
Spreading Plague, by Alex Alexandrov
- You can add your Wisdom modifier to initiative rolls.
- Whenever you deal damage with a weapon or spell attack to a creature which hasn't acted yet in combat, that creature takes an additional 1d8 poison damage from that attack. This damage increases to 2d8 when you reach 6th level in this class, to 3d8 at 10th level and to 4d8 at 14th level.
Small Friends
At 6th level, you learn how to summon a horde of small creatures to your aid. As an action you can summon a CR of 1 or lower medium swarm of tiny beasts to an unoccupied space withing 30 feet of you. The swarm adds your proficiency bonus to its AC, attack rolls and to the damage it deals, and it can hide as a bonus action. The swarm is friendly to you and acts on its own initiative count. The swarm obeys any commands that you issue to it (no action required by you) and while in your wildshape you can issue telepathic commands to your swarm. If you don’t issue any commands, the swarm defends itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The swarm disappears if it is reduced to 0 hitpoints or if you use this feature to summon another one.
Once you've summoned a swarm this way, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest unless you expend a 2nd level or higher spell slot to do so.
Endless Swarm
At 10th level, whenever you summon a swarm using your Small Friends feature or transform into a swarm using your wildshape feature, the hitpoint maximum of the swarm you summon or transform into increases by an amount equal to two times your druid level.
Survival Instinct
At 14th level you've learnt vermin's most important ability: to react quickly to danger in order to survive. You cannot be surprised, and, after you've rolled initiative at the beginning of combat, you can choose to take one additional turn during the first round of combat before all other creatures. Once you've used this feature, you cannot use it again until you've finished a long rest.
