I see that the Circle of Spores is part of the select UA material we now have. It seems to be popular in online communities. Has anyone previously used it?
I can see a villainous druid using this, making undead armies through a combo of animate dead, halo of spores, and fungal infestation. First they enter a town and use halo of spores to take out the entire populace, with them rising as zombies to then attack, etc. They then use all of their spell slots to raise the zombies permanently, tasking them with defending the nearby forest.
Given that Mike Mearls--at least, I think it was Mearls--said that there's going to be more communication between D&D R&D and MtG R&D, I'm cautiously hopeful for a return to Ravnica sometime soon.
Confused? Very confused? Certain that I've lost what wits I once had? I'll explain. Ravnica, the City of Guilds, is one of the most popular planes in the Magic: the Gathering Multiverse. It has ten so-called "guilds," each associated with two of the five colors of mana. The black-green guild, the Golgari Swarm, is heavily associated with . . . pretty much everything the Circle of Spores is associated with. And the blue-red guild, the Izzet League, bears a pretty remarkable similarity to the School of Invention.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I'm not really familiar with Magic content. I did see that the next Dragon+ is going to have some MtG campaign setting content for the latest plane.
I like the idea of "undeath" being a part of the natural world rather than undeath being a method of control. Lore-wise, it makes the Circle of Spores much more interesting to me than any old Necromancy domain wizard or another villainous lich. Though I do agree, an evil druid, were someone to write one, could definitely take advantage of Spores. It could conflict with their lore if they refuse to allow the undead to pass on to death, if lore is your thing.
I'm actually really excited for this class. I look forward to getting to play it as a player.
I actually had been thinking of something similar, if I don't know you read the graphic novel Rat Queens (I recommend it) but Vol 4 has a Fungus Druid in it.
I don't think it has (it can, but doesn't HAVE) to be an "evil" Druid, as much as A-moralistic... which I personally think fits well with the Druid concept.
I know in the Youtube video that showed this a lot of people complained that the Druid centered around Poison damage, which is the most common resistance/immunity. They commented it needs to be a different damage type, but the Dev have already said they do not balance spells or abilities against certain damage types (psychic/force being the exception).
I'm also really excited for the idea of Coopting WildShape into different abilities!
I think a lot of darksiders will really enjoy this subclass, both for the mechanics and for the lore, but personally, this subclass seems more like a pure neutral alignment. Also, the core lore of this class revolves around the circle of life, meaning death give birth to life, and life leads to death, and it keeps repeating this way. So a Circle of Spore druid raising an undead army doesn't make sense, unless this army is being transported elsewhere where the nutrients of the bodies would be of better use, or if the army is going to be used to destroy a den of necromncers, who normally don't care for the circle of life, or to go up against a lich, who normally has an army of undead in his (or her) thrall.
I think it has some real potential, though I'd like a few tweaks. The spore zombie concept is neat, though getting it to trigger seems like a pain. You only get one upon your halo of spores killing something, and only if that something happens to be a medium sized humanoid. Would a spore zombie wolf with 1HP be that bad? Little things like that.
To be honest though I still very much want to play one, almost entirely for the flavor of it and the roleplay opportunity. Like at what point are you playing your character or the spores in their head? At what level might your character go full body horror and sprout a crown of white caps, cordyceps style?
I remade an old necromancer of mine as a spores druid. I'm hoping sooner or later I'll find him a game.
I did it because he is heavily inspired by Sucy from Little Witch Academia. ^^;
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I'm not - nor was I ever - your "obstacle" until you've deemed me as such, nor am I your wallet, my hard earnt money is not yours by deault.
Je suis Consumer - We are the foundation, the floor beneath your rug. our support is the fate of every retail product, business, and franchise. for success you need support.
I will always miss what you were, but I will never miss what you've become.
You are such a smartie! Sorry to necro (pun intended) but this was very insightful of you.
Quote from Matthias_von_Schwarzwald >>
Given that Mike Mearls--at least, I think it was Mearls--said that there's going to be more communication between D&D R&D and MtG R&D, I'm cautiously hopeful for a return to Ravnica sometime soon.
Confused? Very confused? Certain that I've lost what wits I once had? I'll explain. Ravnica, the City of Guilds, is one of the most popular planes in the Magic: the Gathering Multiverse. It has ten so-called "guilds," each associated with two of the five colors of mana. The black-green guild, the Golgari Swarm, is heavily associated with . . . pretty much everything the Circle of Spores is associated with. And the blue-red guild, the Izzet League, bears a pretty remarkable similarity to the School of Invention.
I currently play a CoS Druid with a small group of friends. The class is a fun spin on the druid and is currently one of my favorite ways to tank for a group. The temp hp on wildshape and the ability to cast spells to heal myself and the group is quite strong. I focus on utility spells that alter the terrain making enemies want to deal with me. I have solid melee damage output with Shillelagh and automatic spores damage every turn. I don't find the common resistance/immunity to poison to be that big of a deal since I still have access to other druid things.
RP/flavor wise it is probably my favorite character atm. The character is a Firbolg that loves fungus and mold. All of my spells are restyled to fit that theme. Instead of summoning thorns and spikes on the ground he grows mushrooms and molds that release damaging spores. Instead of a spirit animal healing my friends a spectral mushroom grows. All-in-all he's a FUNGI!
Used one in a one off. Did get to grind some high ac guys down with the auto hit ability and snuck into a house and got intel as a rat. Managed to survive some stuff I had no businesses surving because of the temp hp.
For an upcoming game, we all agreed in my group to do an all druids run. So I claimed the circle of spores and finally got my chance to build it. I ended up going moon elf (just uses high elf kit), and grabbed green flame blade as my one wizard cantrip, to double up on nickle&diming foes to death. And I realized wherein lies the cheese with this subclass.
If you can get the booming blade or green flame blade cantrip at level one via high elf or variant human, only go two levels, then pick a cleric domain that gets a divine smite die at level 8. Now when you're level 10, and have your symbiotic mode active, step up with your scimitar. On a successful hit, dole out 1d6+dex slashing, 1d8 fire/thunder, 1d8 radiant/etc dependent on domain, and 1d6+6 poison damage.
Fair, it's really not all that bad. I figured it was pretty beefy for something performable every round or one resource spend, which'll just come back on a short rest. So in terms of cheese, I suppose it's more of a soft provolone, less a sharp cheddar?
Halo of Spores' damage appears to be based on character level, rather than class level, so you would be doing 2d8+2d6+Dex (average 16+Dex) at +(4+Dex) to hit with your action, possibly doing 1d8+Int automatically to a second creature, and then using your reaction to do 18 automatically to whichever target is still standing. With +5 Dex, +1 Int, and two targets in range, that's 2d6+3d8+24 (average 44.5) per turn with fairly low loss of versatility or resources. The main drawbacks are as follows:
First, it takes an action to set up, though you can still do 18 that turn. It lasts 10 minutes, though, so using it slightly in advance should work out okay.
Second, you're a full caster, but your access to higher-level spells is delayed two levels and you only have a 16 in your casting stat. On the other hand, you know 7 or more cantrips other than green-flame blade, depending on your domain, which is something.
Third, you're a front-line brawler with a d8 Hit Die and +1 Con. On second thought, you have AC 17, get 6 temporary HP each time you activate Slaughter Mode, and have access to healing spells, so you should live.
It's even better than I thought. Wondering how I got those stats? I'll show you.
Use point buy. 15 (9 points), 15 (9), 12 (4), 11 (3), 10 (2), 8 (0). Total of 27.
Str 8, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 15, Cha 10. You can swap Str and Cha if you want.
High elf racial boosts make that Str 8 (-1), Dex 17 (+3), Con 12 (+1), Int 12 (+1), Wis 15 (+2), Cha 10 (+0).
At 6th level (druid 2/cleric 4), increase Dex and Wis by 1 each. This gives you Str 8 (-1), Dex 18 (+4), Con 12 (+1), Int 12 (+1), Wis 16 (+3), Cha 10 (+0).
At 10th level, increase Dex by 2 to get your current scores: Str 8 (-1), Dex 20 (+5), Con 12 (+1), Int 12 (+1), Wis 16 (+3), Cha 10 (+0).
If you wanted to focus on this combo even more, you could use standard array to get 16 Int at the cost of only having 13 Wis (the multiclass requirement for both your classes), but I strongly advise against it.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I see that the Circle of Spores is part of the select UA material we now have. It seems to be popular in online communities. Has anyone previously used it?
I can see a villainous druid using this, making undead armies through a combo of animate dead, halo of spores, and fungal infestation. First they enter a town and use halo of spores to take out the entire populace, with them rising as zombies to then attack, etc. They then use all of their spell slots to raise the zombies permanently, tasking them with defending the nearby forest.
Given that Mike Mearls--at least, I think it was Mearls--said that there's going to be more communication between D&D R&D and MtG R&D, I'm cautiously hopeful for a return to Ravnica sometime soon.
Confused? Very confused? Certain that I've lost what wits I once had? I'll explain. Ravnica, the City of Guilds, is one of the most popular planes in the Magic: the Gathering Multiverse. It has ten so-called "guilds," each associated with two of the five colors of mana. The black-green guild, the Golgari Swarm, is heavily associated with . . . pretty much everything the Circle of Spores is associated with. And the blue-red guild, the Izzet League, bears a pretty remarkable similarity to the School of Invention.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I'm not really familiar with Magic content. I did see that the next Dragon+ is going to have some MtG campaign setting content for the latest plane.
I like the idea of "undeath" being a part of the natural world rather than undeath being a method of control. Lore-wise, it makes the Circle of Spores much more interesting to me than any old Necromancy domain wizard or another villainous lich. Though I do agree, an evil druid, were someone to write one, could definitely take advantage of Spores. It could conflict with their lore if they refuse to allow the undead to pass on to death, if lore is your thing.
I'm actually really excited for this class. I look forward to getting to play it as a player.
I actually had been thinking of something similar, if I don't know you read the graphic novel Rat Queens (I recommend it) but Vol 4 has a Fungus Druid in it.
I don't think it has (it can, but doesn't HAVE) to be an "evil" Druid, as much as A-moralistic... which I personally think fits well with the Druid concept.
I know in the Youtube video that showed this a lot of people complained that the Druid centered around Poison damage, which is the most common resistance/immunity. They commented it needs to be a different damage type, but the Dev have already said they do not balance spells or abilities against certain damage types (psychic/force being the exception).
I'm also really excited for the idea of Coopting WildShape into different abilities!
I think a lot of darksiders will really enjoy this subclass, both for the mechanics and for the lore, but personally, this subclass seems more like a pure neutral alignment. Also, the core lore of this class revolves around the circle of life, meaning death give birth to life, and life leads to death, and it keeps repeating this way. So a Circle of Spore druid raising an undead army doesn't make sense, unless this army is being transported elsewhere where the nutrients of the bodies would be of better use, or if the army is going to be used to destroy a den of necromncers, who normally don't care for the circle of life, or to go up against a lich, who normally has an army of undead in his (or her) thrall.
I think it has some real potential, though I'd like a few tweaks. The spore zombie concept is neat, though getting it to trigger seems like a pain. You only get one upon your halo of spores killing something, and only if that something happens to be a medium sized humanoid. Would a spore zombie wolf with 1HP be that bad? Little things like that.
To be honest though I still very much want to play one, almost entirely for the flavor of it and the roleplay opportunity. Like at what point are you playing your character or the spores in their head? At what level might your character go full body horror and sprout a crown of white caps, cordyceps style?
It's a gross, weird idea, and I like it.
I remade an old necromancer of mine as a spores druid. I'm hoping sooner or later I'll find him a game.
I did it because he is heavily inspired by Sucy from Little Witch Academia. ^^;
I'm not - nor was I ever - your "obstacle" until you've deemed me as such, nor am I your wallet, my hard earnt money is not yours by deault.
Je suis Consumer - We are the foundation, the floor beneath your rug. our support is the fate of every retail product, business, and franchise. for success you need support.
I will always miss what you were, but I will never miss what you've become.
#OpenDnD #CanceltheSub #DnDBegone.#NeverForgive #NeverForget
You are such a smartie! Sorry to necro (pun intended) but this was very insightful of you.
Quote from Matthias_von_Schwarzwald >>
Given that Mike Mearls--at least, I think it was Mearls--said that there's going to be more communication between D&D R&D and MtG R&D, I'm cautiously hopeful for a return to Ravnica sometime soon.
Confused? Very confused? Certain that I've lost what wits I once had? I'll explain. Ravnica, the City of Guilds, is one of the most popular planes in the Magic: the Gathering Multiverse. It has ten so-called "guilds," each associated with two of the five colors of mana. The black-green guild, the Golgari Swarm, is heavily associated with . . . pretty much everything the Circle of Spores is associated with. And the blue-red guild, the Izzet League, bears a pretty remarkable similarity to the School of Invention.
I currently play a CoS Druid with a small group of friends. The class is a fun spin on the druid and is currently one of my favorite ways to tank for a group. The temp hp on wildshape and the ability to cast spells to heal myself and the group is quite strong. I focus on utility spells that alter the terrain making enemies want to deal with me. I have solid melee damage output with Shillelagh and automatic spores damage every turn. I don't find the common resistance/immunity to poison to be that big of a deal since I still have access to other druid things.
RP/flavor wise it is probably my favorite character atm. The character is a Firbolg that loves fungus and mold. All of my spells are restyled to fit that theme. Instead of summoning thorns and spikes on the ground he grows mushrooms and molds that release damaging spores. Instead of a spirit animal healing my friends a spectral mushroom grows. All-in-all he's a FUNGI!
edit: also I said also too many times...
I thought that this class was awesome! I'm really exited to play a Hill Dwarf Spore Druid.
I'm really enjoying the circle of spores, it's my favorite druid subclass!
It is also really nice that you get an alternative to wild shape.
Used one in a one off. Did get to grind some high ac guys down with the auto hit ability and snuck into a house and got intel as a rat. Managed to survive some stuff I had no businesses surving because of the temp hp.
Good news, everyone!
https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1030143963024347137
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
For an upcoming game, we all agreed in my group to do an all druids run. So I claimed the circle of spores and finally got my chance to build it. I ended up going moon elf (just uses high elf kit), and grabbed green flame blade as my one wizard cantrip, to double up on nickle&diming foes to death. And I realized wherein lies the cheese with this subclass.
If you can get the booming blade or green flame blade cantrip at level one via high elf or variant human, only go two levels, then pick a cleric domain that gets a divine smite die at level 8. Now when you're level 10, and have your symbiotic mode active, step up with your scimitar. On a successful hit, dole out 1d6+dex slashing, 1d8 fire/thunder, 1d8 radiant/etc dependent on domain, and 1d6+6 poison damage.
That's not exactly game breaking at level 10.
Fair, it's really not all that bad. I figured it was pretty beefy for something performable every round or one resource spend, which'll just come back on a short rest. So in terms of cheese, I suppose it's more of a soft provolone, less a sharp cheddar?
Halo of Spores' damage appears to be based on character level, rather than class level, so you would be doing 2d8+2d6+Dex (average 16+Dex) at +(4+Dex) to hit with your action, possibly doing 1d8+Int automatically to a second creature, and then using your reaction to do 18 automatically to whichever target is still standing. With +5 Dex, +1 Int, and two targets in range, that's 2d6+3d8+24 (average 44.5) per turn with fairly low loss of versatility or resources. The main drawbacks are as follows:
It's even better than I thought. Wondering how I got those stats? I'll show you.
If you wanted to focus on this combo even more, you could use standard array to get 16 Int at the cost of only having 13 Wis (the multiclass requirement for both your classes), but I strongly advise against it.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)