Circle of Ivy

Driven by an obsessive love that borders on madness, Druids of the Circle of Ivy believe that nature itself is sovereign above all other forces. Any action that harms the natural world is worthy of their wrath. Their deep empathy for plant life allows them to call forth powerful animated vines to aid them in battle. They hold sacred the circle of life that all creatures succumb to, and can create an ally of death itself when needed.

Members of this Circle are often driven to work within the walls of cities, despite their hatred for the hubris of progress - choosing to be in the thick of the fight rather than to hide away in solace. Here they use their powers to manipulate and control others into doing their bidding. In battle, Circle of Ivy Druids unleash their allies and use the earth itself to crush their enemies. Becoming an adventurer is a common choice, as these Druids are driven to the brink of mania by their conviction that nature is to be protected and exalted at all costs.

Circle Spells

2nd-level Circle of Ivy feature

You have formed a bond with nature, plants in particular. Your link with plants and the natural world grants you access to some spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Circle of Ivy 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 Ivy Spells

DRUID LEVEL	SPELLS
2nd	entangle, charm person
3rd	barkskin, suggestion
5th	plant growth, speak with plants
7th	compulsion, hallucinatory terrain
9th	commune with nature, tree stride

Vine Control

2nd-level Circle of Ivy feature

You tap into your connection to plants. As an action, you can expend one use of your Wild Shape feature to command vines, branches or roots to take control a corpse, rather than assuming a beast form. 

You animate a vine, branch, root, or other similar parts of plants within 30 feet of you. 

Each creature within 10 feet of the vine (other than you) when it appears must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC or take 2d6 poison damage.

The vine is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. See this creature’s game statistics in the Animated Vine stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places.

 

In combat, the vine shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. 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 vine can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.

The vine obeys you for 1 hour, until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to control a vine again, or until you die.

Master of Poison

3rd-level Circle of Ivy feature

You gain proficiency with the poisoner's kit and herbalist kit.

Nature's Bond

6th-level Circle of Ivy feature

The bond between you and nature enhances your spells. Whenever you cast a spell that deals poison or acid damage while you control your animated vine, roll a d8, and you gain a bonus equal to the number rolled to one damage roll of the spell.

In addition, when you cast a spell with a range other than self, the spell can originate from you or your animated vine. 

Deadly Toxin

10th-level Circle of Ivy feature

Your knowledge of nature and botany have become so advanced that you can overcome a creatures resistance or immunity to poison and acid damage. When you attack a creature that has resistance to poison or acid damage they take full damage instead of half. If they have immunity to poison and acid damage they now take half damage. 

Nature's Puppeteer

14th-level Circle of Ivy feature

You gain the ability to turn death into an ally that can fight for you. When a Large or smaller creature dies within 30 feet of you or your animated vine, you can use your action to cause the dead creature to reanimate and fight for you. The corpse animates into a husk that obeys your commands for up to 1 hour. The husk obeys your commands as best as it can. It takes its turn on your initiative. On your turn, you can verbally command the husk where to move (no action required by you). You can use your bonus action to verbally command it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, or Help action. If you don't issue a command, the husk takes the Dodge action. It's attack uses your spell casting modifier and deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage. It has 10 HP. Similar to your vine, you can cast spells through the husk. You can animate up to 3 corpses at one time. 

 You can use this ability twice per long rest.