Circle of Cordyceps

As one who has become infected with a particularly nasty type of fungus, a Circle of Cordyceps druid has not only the ability to raise fungal zombies, but can have a much higher level of control over them than their Circle of Spores counterparts.

Halo of Spores

Halo of Spores: Starting at 2nd level, you are surrounded by invisible, necrotic spores that are harmless until you unleash them on a creature nearby. When a creature you can see moves into a space within 10 feet of you or starts its turn there, you can use your reaction to deal 1d4 necrotic damage to that creature unless it succeeds on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. The necrotic damage increases to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8 at 10th level, and 1d10 at 14th level.

Sporic Effects

Starting at 2nd level, you gain the ability to enhance your Halo of Spores through the effects granted by different strains of fungus. Every short or long rest, you can choose one of the abilities listed below in the Sporic Effects table to be your chosen fungal affectation. When you use your halo of spores ability on a creature, your Sporic Effect also takes affect. The amount of Sporic Effects that can be prepared per rest increases to 2 at 6th level, 3 at 11th level, and 4 at 14th level, though only one Sporic Effect may be used on any given Halo of Spores attack.

Sporic Effects:

• Sweet Scent: The affected creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, repeating once at the end of every turn until they succeed. If it fails, the creature becomes pacified, not wanting to attack anything. This effect ends when the creature makes a successful Wisdom saving throw or when the creature is either attacked again or sees one of its allies being attacked.
• Blinding Hostility: The affected creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, repeating once at the end of every turn until they succeed. If it fails, the creature becomes enraged and must use their action to attempt a melee attack on the closest creature, including its allies. This effect ends when the creature makes a successful Wisdom saving throw or when the creature is either attacked again or sees one of its allies being attacked.
• Soporific Spores: The affected creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. If it fails, the creature is lulled to sleep. This effect ends after 10 minutes or when the creature is either woken up by a loud noise or when the creature is either attacked again.
• Toxic Spores: When this affect is used, the creature takes poison damage instead of necrotic damage. The affected creature must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC, repeating once at the end of every turn until they succeed. If it fails, the creature is under the poisoned condition. This effect ends when the creature makes a successful Constitution saving throw.

Circle Spells

Your symbiotic link to fungus and your ability to tap into the cycle of life and death grants you access to certain spells. At 2nd level, you learn the Chill Touch cantrip. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to the spells listed for that level in the Circle of Spores 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 Spores Spells

Druid Level	Spells
3rd	Blindness/Deafness, Gentle Repose
5th	Animate Dead, Gaseous Form
7th	Blight, Confusion
9th	Cloudkill, Contagion

 

Fungal Infestation

At 6th level, your spores gain the ability to infest a humanoid corpse and animate it.

If a beast or humanoid that is Small or Medium dies within 10 feet of you, you can use your reaction to animate it, causing it to stand up immediately with 1 hit point. The creature uses the zombie statistics. It remains animate for 1 hour, after which time it collapses and dies.

In combat, the zombie's turn is immediately after yours. It obeys your mental commands, and the only action it can take is the Attack action, making one melee attack.

Rapport Spores

At 6th level, your spores have strengthened and can now infect living creatures with certain effects. Through contact with your sporic ecosystem, your adventuring party has become infected with your personal strain of spores, allowing you to telepathically communicate with a select group of people that you chose. This group must have spent a good amount of time with you for them to have been infected with your Rapport Spores, and must be willing creatures. The creatures infected with your Rapport Spores also get resistance to any Sporic Effects you have.

Infested Sentries

Through your strengthened fungal network at level 10, with which you create fungal zombies, you can now use that fungal network to send your Halo of Spores through stronger zombies. When you have created a zombie through the Fungal Infestation ability, not only do they now have hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier, you can use your reaction to send your halo of spores through your zombified sentry. When calculating the range of your spores, you may include the 10 foot radius surrounding your zombie. Your Sporic Effects also apply to the zombie’s spores. You can also use this ability to infest deceased creatures of a Large size.

Sporic Summons

At 10th level, because of your experience with giving life back to recently deceased creatures, you now have the ability to give a higher form of life to mushrooms through similar means. As an action, you can expend a spell slot of any level to summon myconid sprouts from the ground. The number of myconid sprouts you summon is determined by halving the level of the spell slot expended and rounding up. These myconid sprouts are counted as fungal zombies for the purposes of the subclass mechanics.

Enhanced Rapport Spores

At 14th level, your personal ecosystem of spores have improved and strengthened, allowing you to grant immunity to your party from all of your Sporic Effects.

Death Grip

At level 14, your fungal infections have now grown to give your zombies a new ability, to help usher their enemies into a similar fate they've befallen themselves. When a fungal zombie/myconid sprout is killed, it will involuntarily use its final reaction to grapple a creature within melee range, unless the body is destroyed upon death. The grapple is only ended if the body is destroyed or if the grappled creature makes a Strength check on its turn to escape (DC 10 for Small size, DC 15 for Medium size, DC 20 Large size; the same DC is used for the initial grapple check).