Druid Circles
At 2nd level, you choose to identify with a circle of druids. Your choice grants you features at 2nd, 6th, 10th, and 14th level. One of the options available is the Circle of Spores.
While I've always liked the necrotic and fungal flavor of this subclass, I found some of the abilities and boons in granted rather simple and lackluster. This revision intends to revise those features.
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 new life. These druids believe that life and death are part of a grand cycle, with one leading to the other and back again. Death is not the end of life, but instead a change of state that sees life shift into a new form.
Connected to plants and fungi alike, these druids draw on nature for their power, blurring the lines between plant and humanoid, and between life and death.
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 and Poison Spray cantrips. 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 | Spells |
|---|---|
| 2nd | Chill Touch, Poison Spray |
| 3rd | Rotting Curse [ASW], Heartripper [ASW] |
| 5th | Tiny Hut, Speak with Plants |
| 7th | Aura of Purity, Venomburst Mine (appears as a spore pod bomb) [ASW] |
| 9th | Contagion, Devouring Darkness [ASW] |
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 a reaction to infect the creature with these spores. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failure, the spores infect the creature, dealing 1 necrotic damage each round and poisoning the creature for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom modifier.
The damage per round increases to 2 at 6th level, 3 at 9th level, and 4 at 14th level.
Fungal Form
At 2nd level, you gain the ability to take on a special fungal form with your Wild Shape feature. When you use your Wild Shape feature, you transform into a fungal-infested plantlike version of yourself instead, and gain the following benefits.
- Your type is plant, instead of humanoid.
- You gain 3 temporary hit points for each level you have in this class.
- When you use your Halo of Spores feature while in your fungal form, the creature takes twice as much damage per round for the duration of their infection.
- Your arms are covered in vines, spores and thorns. Your unarmed strikes are magical and use a d6 damage die, and you can use Wisdom instead of Strength for attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes.
- Your melee weapon attacks and unarmed strikes deal an additional 1d6 poison damage to any target they hit.
- You are resistant to poison damage.
- You are immune to disease.
- When in Fungal Form, your type is plant. As a plant type, you are vulnerable to fire damage.
These benefits last for 30 minutes, until you drop to 0 hit points, or until you use your Wild Shape again.
Fungal Germination
At 6th level, your spores gain the ability to infest a humanoid or beast corpse and animate it.
When a humanoid or beast dies within 10 feet of you, you can use your reaction to imbue it with your spores, which germinate and feed on the corpse. A Violet Fungus (Monster Manual p. 138) sprouts out of the corpse. It will remain in the area for 1 hour, after which it goes its own way and no longer responds to you.
In combat, the fungus takes its turn immediately after yours. It obeys your mental commands, though its actions are limited. If it takes the Attack action, it will only perform 1 Rotting Touch attack per turn.
At level 15, the servant will instead make 1d4 Rotting Touch attacks per turn.
Spore Cloud
At 10th level, you gain the ability to seed an area with deadly spores. As a bonus action while using your Fungal Form feature, 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 Fungal Form is no longer active.
Whenever a creature moves into the cube or starts its turn there, that creature takes damage from your Halo of Spores for each turn it remains within the cube. A creature can take this damage no more than once per turn.
When a creature dies within the cube, you can use your Fungal Germination feature to grow a fungus, even if it is farther than 10 feet away from you.
While the Spore Cloud persists, you can't use your Halo of Spores reaction. At level 17 you can instead create up to three Spore Clouds at once.
Symbiotic Body
At 14th level, the fungus in your body alters you, making you more plant than humanoid. You can't be blinded, deafened, frightened, poisoned, or petrified. You are immune to poison damage and necrotic damage, and any critical hit against you counts as a normal hit instead, unless you are incapacitated. You become immune to disease outside your Fungal Form.
Lastly, you get the ability to move through overgrown areas without being seen or heard, automatically succeeding any Dexterity (Stealth) checks while in overgrown areas like forests, swamps or similar terrain. If you hold still for at least 1 minute, you are indistinguishable from an inanimate plant.
Violet Fungus
Medium Plant, Unaligned
- Armor Class 5
- Hit Points 18 (4d8)
- Speed 5ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 3 (-4) 1 (-5) 10 (+0) 1 (-5) 3 (-4) 1 (-5)
- Damage Immunities Blinded, Deafened, Frightened
- Senses Blindsight 30ft. (Blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 6
- Challenge 1/4 (50XP)
False Appearance. While the violet fungus remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary fungus.
Actions
Multiattack. The fungus makes 1d4 Rotting Touch attacks.
Rotting Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: (1d8) necrotic damage.
