Circle of the Hexbinder

Druids of the Hexbind are ones that at first sight might not seem to fit the usual thoughts of such a nature-keeper, yet their druidism lies in their deep connection to life and the concept of animation itself, giving movement to beings whose bodies would be inert otherwise. Usually these folk are coated in a mask of dramatic flair and a desire to broaden their craft, turning the very world to their stage. Of course, another important part of these is that their penchant for dabbling in life also comes with the ability to alterate its nature, usually with magic that binds the very soul with powerful curses.

The first Hexbinder's appeared on the realm of Noctaris, originally wizards who researched the homes of horrid Hags before the Lord Ruler's ascent, learning through observation and various attempts to recreate the animations these witches, eventually leading to the creation of Hex Dolls and this sub-type of the arcane itself. Now, they are a fragmented sect, hiding in seclusion and isolation from the ruthless persecution of the Steel Inquisition.

The World is my Stage

Starting from 3rd level, you’ve really developed your skill of acting. You gain Proficiency in the Performance skill. If you already possess Proficiency, you instead gain Expertise, and you may, as a free action, throw your voice so instead of sound coming off from you, it comes off from any spot within 30-ft of you, as long as you can speak.

Level 3: Silkbound Puppetry

When you choose this subclass at 3rd level, your Wildshape functions differently. You cannot make use of the Wildshape feature to transform yourself, instead gaining the Silkbind and Summon Hexdoll features, both of which cost an action and a Wildshape use to be performed:

Silkbind. When you take the Silkbind action, you choose one creature of Large size or smaller and attempt to entrap them in your strings, forcing them to pass a Dexterity Saving Throw against your Druid Spell Save DC or be Silkbound. On a success, the creature gains advantage on future Saving Throws against being Silkbound until the end of your next turn, but you do not spend your use of Wildshape. A Silkbound creature may be controlled by you by spending your action, bonus action or reaction during your turn to command them to use one of theirs. If the Silkbound creature has the multiattack feature, you may still only attack once when you use your action to do so. Additionally, you may spend your bonus action to move them up to their movement speed in any direction around you. You may also spend your reaction when a Silkbound creature makes an attack roll against another creature or performs a Strength or Dexterity Skill Check or Saving Throw, imposing a negative or positive modifier to their roll equal to your Wisdom modifier.

If you attempt to force a Silkbound creature to cast a spell, they may spend their reaction to fight against your puppetry, making a Dexterity Saving Throw against your Spell Save DC, not casting the spell on a success. Silkbind ends when you dismiss the strings, Silkbind another creature or if the Silkbound creature leaves a 60-feet radius around you, as the strings snap. You may, as a reaction to when a creature would leave that area, force them to make a Strength Saving Throw, having their movement halted at the last moment on a failure.

Summon Hexdoll. You spend your action to create a Hex Doll in any unnocupied space within 10-feet of you, which inherits the stat block of a creature you would be able to Wildshape into, with the following changes:

• They cannot move outside a radius centered around you equal to their movement speed, as it determines the length of their strings.
• You may cast your spells through your Hex Doll as if they were a familiar from the Find Familiar spell.
• Their maximum hit points are halved.
• They gain vulnerability to fire damage.
• They are considered a Construct in addition to any other creature types, also becoming immune to Psychic and Poison damage, also becoming immune to the Poisoned, Frightened and Charmed conditions.

Your Hex Doll has no place in Initiative, instead acting during your turn, where you may spend your action to command them to use any of their own action, bonus action or reaction. You may command them to move as a free action, and you may dismiss your Hex Doll at any time.

You may only have one Silkbound creature or one Hex Doll summoned at any given time, if you’d gain control of a new target your control over the last one ends immediately.

Stagefright

As you develop your knowledge in the arcane arts, you can now not only infuse your magic into your Hex Dolls, but to use it to conjure fear inducing hexes. Starting at 6th level, you gain a pool of Hex Points equal to your Druid level, you may expend a number of them to cast a Hex from the table below. All these Hexes count as spells.

Encore, Encore!. By spending 1 Hex Point and a bonus action, you conjure thin nails to sew and heal your Hexdoll for half its maximum hit points, rounded up. You may only do it once per combat targeting the same Hexdoll.

Solid Posing. Summoning many rusty nails, you may spend 2 Hex Points to, as an action, skewer one target creature within 60-feet of yourself, causing a horrible curse to spread and shred through their veins. The target must pass a Charisma saving throw or suffer 3 stacks of ㅤCurse. A creature inflicted with the ㅤCurse condition feels their very veins constantly being pulled, twisted and nearly torn, making movement exceedingly painful. They suffer one Stack of ㅤBleed per time one of the following happens: The first time they are forcefully moved by another creature or use their movement speed during a round in initiative, every time they attempt to hit a creature, and whenever they make a Dexterity Saving Throw. The accursed creature loses one Stack of ㅤCurse at the end of their turn, or all stacks if the Remove Curse spell is cast on them.

Waning Control. You let yourself go for a moment, tasting from your own Hexes to remind yourself on how to work them the best. By spending 3 Hex Points and both your action and bonus action, you fully let your magic take control of your movements until the end of your turn. Red string wraps itself around your wrists and ankles as the ghastly visage of your Hex Doll lurks above you, pulling on your strings. For the remainder of your turn, you are considered to have the Flyby trait and you may perform up to three of the attack shown next, suffering one stack of ㅤCurse per attack performed in this way.

Hex Nail. The spectral hands of your Hex Doll materialize over yours or your nails extend to become claws that you may use to rake others with. This unarmed attack has a reach of 5-feet, you may use your Wisdom to hit and for damage rolls. When you use this attack, the rampant Hexes wrack your body with traces of a lacerating curse, yet the pain only fuels your power. You deal 2d8 slashing damage on a hit with this unarmed attack, and an additional 1d8 necrotic damage per Stack of ㅤBleed on yourself.

Bleed Condition:

A bleeding creature is well, bleeding. You take 1d4 damage when you perform any action (Each attack is considered a different action, this also includes Bonus Actions and Reactions, but not Free Actions), and then is reduced by one stack. The condition is removed if you or another creature passes a successful medicine check on you, utilizing their Action. The DC for this is 10 + the number of Bleed stacks you currently have. If you have only one stack of Bleed, it will not be removed upon dealing damage and must be removed through a medicine check.

Show's Encore

Starting at 10th level, your control of your strings has become simply masterful. You gain the ability to Silkbind two creatures at once with one use of the Wildshape feature, or when you summon a Hex Doll, you may choose between summoning your Hex Doll with its original maximum hit points as temporary hit points or summoning two Hex Dolls at once, but the maximum CR of the creature you can summon is that of three levels below in the Druid Class.

Additionally, when you would spend your action to give an order for your Silkbound creature or your Hex Doll to attack, they may attack up to two times if they have the Multiattack feature. You may also choose to divide it so if you’re controlling multiple creatures each of them performs one attack.

You may control one Silkbound creature while puppeteering a Hex Doll, yet your number of total controlled creatures cannot exceed two, with the first creature to be controlled being set free in place of a new one, in the case you Silkbind or Summon another creature.

Iron Stage Touches The Heart

Anathema is what one would call you, yet you’ve grown unbothered by such words, for iron is only nature refined.

Starting at 14th level, you may make full use of a Silkbound creatures multiattack feature, or if there are multiple Silkbound creatures you may make both attack twice with that feature, or have both perform an action while only consuming your one action. When you summon a sole Hex Doll, you may choose to spend 2 Hex Points to inflict a ravaging curse unto them as a bonus action. When you do so, they suffer two stacks of ㅤ Curse and gain a +2 modifier to hit and to their damage rolls. You also may choose for their attacks to deal necrotic damage instead of their normal damage type.

In addition, you may spend 4 Hex Points and an action to make your Hex Doll happily dance around a creature within its melee attack reach, letting the putrid energy gather in its movements, forming a giant rusted iron nail above its heart. When you do this, you sever your connection to the Hex Doll, which now acts after its original target creature, taking the Dodge action and using their movement to chase the target in their prances, attempting to stay within 5-feet of them.

While your Hex Doll is severed like this, you may then spend another action to drive the iron nail through its heart in a grand finale, causing all the pent-up energy to explode in a ㅤCursed miasma. All creatures within a 10-feet radius of the Doll must pass a Charisma Saving Throw against your Druid Spell Save DC or suffer the Hex Doll’s original amount of Hit Die in necrotic damage and 4 Stacks of ㅤCurse, or take half the damage and stacks on a success. If there were no attempts to reduce or otherwise limit the Doll’s moving speed before it explodes, the creature it was following gains disadvantage and suffers the effects of the Bestow Curse spell, chosen by you.