Circle of Death

The Circle of Death is dedicated to the study and manipulation of the energy of death. These druids see death as a necessary and natural part of the cycle of life and believe that by understanding  and accelerating this process, they can better serve the world around them.

These druids are drawn to the Circle of Death due to a life-altering event that brought them face-to-face with death. The Death Origin table provides examples: 

d6	Origin
1	You witnessed a deadly natural disaster
2	A close friend or loved one died of an incurable illness
3	You survived a near-death experience
4	Discovering an ancient burial site, you were inspired by the reverence shown to the dead
5	Undead left your hometown in ruins
6	You helped a lost spirit move to the afterlife

Accelerated Demise

At 2nd level you know the chill touch cantrip and have the inflict wounds spell prepared. These count as druid spells for you, and don't count against the number of cantrips you know or number of spells you can prepare. 

Form of Death

At 3rd level, as a bonus action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to take on a death form, rather than transforming into a beast. 

While in your death form, you retain your game statistics, but your body becomes wreathed in shadow; your eyes become pitch black and your skin becomes pale. The form lasts for 10 minutes, it ends early if you dismiss it (no action required), are incapacitated, die, or use this feature again.

While in your death form you gain the following benefits:

• When you deal damage, you ignore resistance to necrotic damage.
• When you hit a creature with an attack, you can use your own endurance to wound your foe. Expend a number of hit dice up to half your level. Roll these dice, you deal necrotic damage equal to the result.
• When a creature within 60 ft of you is reduced to 0 hp, you can use your reaction to draw on the remaining vitality to fortify an ally. Choose a creature within 60 ft of you (you can choose yourself) to gain temporary hit points equal to 1d6 plus half your druid level.

Ceremony of Death

At 6th level, you and up to eight creatures can take part in a 10-minute ceremony of death to harness the energy of the fallen. You lead each creature in focused meditation for the duration. At the end of the ceremony, each creature gains of a short rest.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest. 

Deathless Slumber

At 10th level, as an action, you can use your magical energy of death to place a creature you can see within 120 ft into a death-like slumber. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or fall unconscious for 1 minute, appearing as if they are dead. 

The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns and each time it is dealt damage.

Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Drain Life

At 14th level, you draw in the very nature of death to restore your own life. You have the harm spell prepared. It counts as a druid spell for you, and doesn't count against the number of spells you can have prepared. 

Additionally, when you deal damage with the harm spell, you can choose to gain hit points equal to the amount of damage dealt. Once you use this feature you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest. You gain an additional use of this feature at 17th level.