Circle of the Wilds
A Druid Circle of land biomes that grants always-prepared spells by biome, recovers spell slots on a short rest, guards against poison, and shields allies on its ground.
Identity
The Circle of the Wilds is the Druid Circle of dirt underfoot: temperate forest, deep-grass plain, alpine ridge, mangrove tideline. It is the oldest Circle in living memory and the most decentralized. Each grove keeps its own records, and the groves confer by smoke, by signal-pollen and by Druidic messages carried on migratory birds. A Wilds Druid's features work best on ground claimed as an Inner Grove.
Features
- L3 Biome Spells
Your Inner Grove biome gives you a small list of bonus spells specific to that terrain. They are always prepared and do not count against your prepared limit. The list changes when you change your Inner Grove biome on a long rest. Examples: forest (entangle, barkskin, plant growth), grassland (faerie fire, longstrider, haste), mountain (spike growth, stone shape, wall of stone), coast (fog cloud, water walk, control water), arctic (ice knife, sleet storm, cone of cold), swamp (entangle, stinking cloud, insect plague). The full list for each biome is in the Druid spell catalog. While you are within your Inner Grove biome, you also gain proficiency in Survival if you do not already have it, and your movement leaves no trail that can be detected except by Druidic or comparable means.
- L7 Natural Recovery
Once per long rest, during a short rest of at least 10 minutes spent within your Inner Grove biome (or within 30 feet of a body of natural soil, fresh water or living vegetation in any biome), you can recover expended spell slots. The slots you recover have a combined level of up to half your Druid level, rounded up. For example, at 7th level you can recover one 4th-level slot, two 2nd-level slots, or four 1st-level slots. None of the slots can be 6th level or higher.
- L11 Natural Immunity
You are immune to poison damage, to the Poisoned condition, and to diseases of natural origin. You also cannot be Charmed or Frightened by elementals or fey, and spells of the Sun, Earth, Water and Ether Channels deal one die less of damage to you (minimum 1 die).
- L15 Sentinel of the Wild
While you are within your Inner Grove biome, you and any allies within 30 feet gain a +2 bonus to AC and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from non-magical, non-Rift sources. Additionally, once per long rest, when a hostile creature within 60 feet of you in the biome casts a spell, you can use your reaction to try to counter it: make a spellcasting ability check (1d20 + your spell attack modifier) against a DC of 10 + the level of the spell being cast. On a success, the spell fails and its slot is expended.
- L18 Land Avatar Capstone
Once per long rest, as an action, you become the avatar of your Inner Grove biome for 1 minute, your body sheathed in the materials of the place: bark and lichen, dust and rust, salt crust, fungal armor, ice rime, or whatever else the biome offers. While in Land Avatar form: You can increase your size category by one step. Your walking speed increases by 10 feet. Within your Inner Grove biome, you ignore difficult terrain entirely, and spells you cast that produce terrain effects have their area doubled. You gain temporary hit points equal to 5 × your Druid level when the form begins. Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack or a spell, you can add 2d10 damage of a type suited to your biome: bludgeoning for earth, cold for ice, fire for desert, slashing for forest, or poison for swamp. You can speak with and roughly direct any non-sapient biome-native creature within 60 feet, as if using Biome Speech without the time cost. The form ends early if you are reduced to 0 hit points or you end it as a free action.
