Circle of Branches

The Circle of Branches is made up of an ancient sect who revere the trees of the natural world above all else. These druids have worshipped and listened to the whispers of the trees s since time immemorial, learning their ways and wisdom and living harmoniously among them. They pass these secrets down through a distinct and primeval oral tradition, and are often secretive, and hard to find, and rarely share their wisdom outside of their own order, except on rare occasions.

They can be found in sacred groves, communing with the oldest and wisest trees in the land, some of which predate civilization itself. Or, if not in these more well-known sacred groves, they can be found wandering the land, nourishing plant life wherever they find it, patiently tending to the land, or among younger trees, guiding them as they grow. Through their devotion, they wield great power and an undisputed connection to the natural world.

Arboreal Bond

2nd-level Circle of Branches feature

You learn to commune with and hear the subtle whispering of the trees around you, and to bond with those of them strong enough and willing enough to bear you, granting them a measure of awareness and sentience and freedom of motion in exchange for their partnership and assistance.

Whenever you finish a short or long rest, you can expend one use of your wild shape call forth and bond with one such tree. You bond with one freestanding tree that is large or huge within 10 feet of you that you can see to serve as your arboreal companion. See this creature’s game statistics in the Arboreal Companion stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places.

The arboreal companion is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. In combat, the companion shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the companion can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.

As an action, you can touch the arboreal companion and expend one use of your wild shape. The arboreal companion gains a number of temporary hit points equal to your Druid level + your Wisdom modifier.

As an action, you can meld into your arboreal companion, your forms becoming one. You occupy the same space, and you are considered mounted on the arboreal companion, and have half cover. You cannot be dismounted from the companion against your will, and can end the melding as a bonus action on your turn, being expelled from the arboreal companion and shunted to the nearest unoccupied space that you can see.

The companion perishes when it drops to 0 hit points. The companion returns to being a normal tree when you bond with a new arboreal companion at the end of a short or long rest, or when you die, or when you release the bond at any time (no action required). When the companion perishes, or the companion returns to being a normal tree, if you are melded with it, you are expelled from the arboreal companion and shunted to the nearest unoccupied space that you can see.

 

Whispers of the Woods

2nd-level Circle of Branches  feature

You learn to speak, read, and write Sylvan. In addition, you can communicate with plant creatures as if you shared a common language, but you gain no magical ability to influence them. Most plants lack the intelligence to convey or understand sophisticated concepts, but a friendly plant could relay what it has seen or heard in the recent past. This ability doesn’t grant you friendship with plants, though you can combine this ability with gifts to curry favor with them as you would with any nonplayer character. Plants are often more concerned with the weather, the quality of the soil, potential dangers such as fires, and are very unlike flesh-and-blood creatures, so are naturally more difficult to understand and communicate with.

Enhanced Bond

6th-level Circle of Branches feature

The bond with your arboreal companion deepens greatly. You and your arboreal companion can communicate telepathically with one another as long as you are within a number of miles of each other equal to half your druid level (rounded down), and your companion's attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

In addition, while melded with your arboreal companion, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target your companion.

Arboreal Armor

10th-level Circle of Branches feature

Your bond with your Arboreal Companion harmonizes the both of you even more, while you are merged with your Arboreal Companion, you and your companion both gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.

In addition, while melded with your Arboreal Companion, the ground within 30 feet of you is difficult terrain for your enemies, as roots and vines twist and grasp at your foes.

Nature's Protector

14th-level Circle of Branches feature

You can use your action to cause a seed to emerge from your palm and toss it to an unoccupied space within 60 feet. The seed immediately grows into a Great Treefolk creature with the statistics of a Treant (Basic Rules , pg. 351), except that it has a Charisma and Intelligence score of 1, can't speak, and lacks the Animate Trees action. It turns into a nonmagical tree and roots itself into the earth or rock after 1 hour, when it drops to 0 hit points, or when you dismiss it as a bonus action. While the Treant is summoned, you are concentrating as if concentrating on a spell. If you lose concentration for any reason, the Treant returns to being an inanimate tree. 

It is friendly to you and your companions. In combat, it acts on its own initiative. When you summon it and on each of your turns, you can issue a verbal command for its next turn (no action required). If you issue no command, it defends itself and any plants or beasts near it. It is friendly to you and your companions.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a spell slot of 5th-level or higher to use it again.