Girlfriend and I invited her friend to our game. She was a lvl 7 Drow Moon druid. Didn't know how to use her character (Not her fault, she only played once before and not as a Druid. I've never played Moon Druid either.) and ended up dying at the last possible moment to the boss. It was a tough fight and she still had alot of fun. They brought her body to a bunch of myconids so that she could be recycled. However I then realized that myconids can reanimate the dead! So there the idea was spawned. Her character will now come back as a kind of Plant/Humanoid hybrid. She is now a Spore Drow and a lvl 8 Spore Druid, instead of a Moon druid.
Told her she could keep some of her higher CR wild shapes, but she must still abide by the standard Wild Shape rules from now on.
Anyway I was looking at the Spore Druid from the UA and from the Ravnica guide, felt like neither one really worked all that well. So I kind of kitbashed some stuff and changed some things. Figured it to be a DPS druid. This is all theoretical and untested so please criticize fully.
Halo of Spores Starting at 2nd level, you can launch toxic spores at other creatures. Use a bonus action on your turn, pick a creature within 10' of you, they must make a CON save, on a failed save deal 1d4 necrotic damage. This damage increases to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8+1 at 10th level, and 1d10+2 at 14th.
[Kept the CON save and necrotic damage from Ravnica, added some modifiers in later levels to keep the damage slightly more consistent with the UA. Made it a bonus action because the damage is negligible and they get a save. Also gives a Druid some bonus action usage.]
Symbiotic Entity At 2nd level, you gain the ability to channel magic into the spores that infuse you. As an action, use your Wild Shape feature to awaken those spores, rather than transforming. When you do so, you gain 3 temporary hit points per level you have in this class. When you hit with your Halo of Spores attack, roll a second damage die. Any melee attacks deal extra poison damage, equal to your druid level, to any target they hit. These benefits last for 10 minutes or until you use your Wild Shape again.
[Figured 3 THP was fine for health, Druid tanks are Moon Druids. Spores damage adds the modifier after the second damage roll, like on a critical hit. Made the poison damage apply to ANY melee attacks. Meaning Wild Shape attacks, fists, Primal Savagery, or Thorn Whip can also get some extra poison damage. Thought damaging based on level gave a simple scaling to the ability.]
Fungal Infestation At 6th level, your spores gain the ability to infest a humanoid corpse and animate it. As a reaction you can reanimate a Small or Medium sized humanoid or beast within 10', the creature rises as a zombie at the end of your turn. It has hit points equal to half your druid level. In combat, its 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. It remains animate for 1 hour, after which time it collapses and dies. You can only have a certain number of spore zombies at one time, equal to your WIS modifier (minimum of 1).
[Upgraded the hit points so they might survive a round, especially with undead fortitude. I like scaling by level. I'm tempted to change them from zombies to Myconid Spore Servants, but sounds like it could be more complicated to handle. Added the cap on zombies so you can have a posse, but not an army.]
Definitely more powerful then the standard subclass given, but I thought it needed something to make it more useful. Had to make it scale better as well. Haven't looked at the future abilities of the class much, just up to 8th level. Again, please pick this apart. I would love to hear what you all think about this modification. It's for a friend, I don't want her to feel screwed, so I may not change things for her character.
I fear there may be some unexpected fallout to changing the Halo feature to a bonus action. Many druid concentration spells end up messing with action economy and using the halo vs a spell feature is probably going to make it so the halo feature ends up not getting used. Also I don't think the damage increase is necessary. If you want to boost damage for the feature make it a save for half rather than all of nothing.
I also think that the static melee damage from Symbiotic entity might end up biting you. A Druid with 20 wisdom, shillelagh, and magic initiate booming blade and a static +level to damage. 2d8+13 and an extra 2d8 if the target moves...on a character that can summon a small army of beasts, an additional army of Zombies, have significant AC (medium armor + shield) and some of the best spell efficiency in the game is going to be...rough... to manage.
I personally changed a lot more on the subclass with my homebrew but yours is a nice middle ground. Especially because the THP requirement for staying in symbiotic entity is gone. Which was the most crippling addition IMO.
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Girlfriend and I invited her friend to our game. She was a lvl 7 Drow Moon druid. Didn't know how to use her character (Not her fault, she only played once before and not as a Druid. I've never played Moon Druid either.) and ended up dying at the last possible moment to the boss. It was a tough fight and she still had alot of fun. They brought her body to a bunch of myconids so that she could be recycled. However I then realized that myconids can reanimate the dead! So there the idea was spawned. Her character will now come back as a kind of Plant/Humanoid hybrid. She is now a Spore Drow and a lvl 8 Spore Druid, instead of a Moon druid.
Told her she could keep some of her higher CR wild shapes, but she must still abide by the standard Wild Shape rules from now on.
Anyway I was looking at the Spore Druid from the UA and from the Ravnica guide, felt like neither one really worked all that well. So I kind of kitbashed some stuff and changed some things. Figured it to be a DPS druid. This is all theoretical and untested so please criticize fully.
Halo of Spores
Starting at 2nd level, you can launch toxic spores at other creatures. Use a bonus action on your turn, pick a creature within 10' of you, they must make a CON save, on a failed save deal 1d4 necrotic damage. This damage increases to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8+1 at 10th level, and 1d10+2 at 14th.
[Kept the CON save and necrotic damage from Ravnica, added some modifiers in later levels to keep the damage slightly more consistent with the UA. Made it a bonus action because the damage is negligible and they get a save. Also gives a Druid some bonus action usage.]
Symbiotic Entity
At 2nd level, you gain the ability to channel magic into the spores that infuse you. As an action, use your Wild Shape feature to awaken those spores, rather than transforming. When you do so, you gain 3 temporary hit points per level you have in this class.
When you hit with your Halo of Spores attack, roll a second damage die.
Any melee attacks deal extra poison damage, equal to your druid level, to any target they hit.
These benefits last for 10 minutes or until you use your Wild Shape again.
[Figured 3 THP was fine for health, Druid tanks are Moon Druids. Spores damage adds the modifier after the second damage roll, like on a critical hit. Made the poison damage apply to ANY melee attacks. Meaning Wild Shape attacks, fists, Primal Savagery, or Thorn Whip can also get some extra poison damage. Thought damaging based on level gave a simple scaling to the ability.]
Fungal Infestation
At 6th level, your spores gain the ability to infest a humanoid corpse and animate it. As a reaction you can reanimate a Small or Medium sized humanoid or beast within 10', the creature rises as a zombie at the end of your turn. It has hit points equal to half your druid level. In combat, its 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. It remains animate for 1 hour, after which time it collapses and dies.
You can only have a certain number of spore zombies at one time, equal to your WIS modifier (minimum of 1).
[Upgraded the hit points so they might survive a round, especially with undead fortitude. I like scaling by level. I'm tempted to change them from zombies to Myconid Spore Servants, but sounds like it could be more complicated to handle. Added the cap on zombies so you can have a posse, but not an army.]
Definitely more powerful then the standard subclass given, but I thought it needed something to make it more useful. Had to make it scale better as well. Haven't looked at the future abilities of the class much, just up to 8th level. Again, please pick this apart. I would love to hear what you all think about this modification. It's for a friend, I don't want her to feel screwed, so I may not change things for her character.
Thanks for any input you have.
I fear there may be some unexpected fallout to changing the Halo feature to a bonus action. Many druid concentration spells end up messing with action economy and using the halo vs a spell feature is probably going to make it so the halo feature ends up not getting used. Also I don't think the damage increase is necessary. If you want to boost damage for the feature make it a save for half rather than all of nothing.
I also think that the static melee damage from Symbiotic entity might end up biting you. A Druid with 20 wisdom, shillelagh, and magic initiate booming blade and a static +level to damage. 2d8+13 and an extra 2d8 if the target moves...on a character that can summon a small army of beasts, an additional army of Zombies, have significant AC (medium armor + shield) and some of the best spell efficiency in the game is going to be...rough... to manage.
I like it.
I personally changed a lot more on the subclass with my homebrew but yours is a nice middle ground. Especially because the THP requirement for staying in symbiotic entity is gone. Which was the most crippling addition IMO.