Circle of the Swarm (Playtest)

(Disclaimer: This subclass is not finished, and I need help finishing it. If you would like to help out, please playtest this subclass and tell me how I might improve it, I want this to look like official content too, so please correct any, even minor, grammar mistakes you might see. Feel free to PM me on DnDBeyond and I will try to get back to you. This subclass is based on a combination between the Circle of Spores and the Circle of the Moon druid Circles mechanically, and I hope you enjoy.)

Druids of the Circle of the Swarm find strength in numbers. They see the courage it requires to stand against the mighty predatory beasts of nature, and that it's easier to stand that ground in a pack rather than by one's lonesome.

These druids believe that the united pack is stronger than the mighty alpha, and knows that the strong are not held back by the weak, but that the weak will grow from the strong and surpass them. In this sense they value their allies regardless of how capable they might be.

Druids of this circle have a complex relationship with the circle of life, they would rather stand with the weak and rally their numbers than respect the lone mighty predator that sits above them in the food chain, and seeks to feast on their carcasses.

Circle of the Swarm Features

Circle Spells

2nd-level Circle of the Swarm feature

Your symbiotic link to fungi 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 the Swarm 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 the Swarm Spells

Druid Level	Spells
2nd	chill touch
3rd	blindness/deafness, gentle repose
5th	animate dead, gaseous form
7th	blight, arcane eye
9th	insect plague, contagion

Swarming Wild Shape

2nd-level Circle of the Swarm feature

When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain the ability to use Wild Shape on your turn as a bonus action, rather than as an action.

Additionally, while you are transformed by Wild Shape, you can use a bonus action to expend one spell slot to regain 1d8 hit points per level of the spell slot expended.

Swarm Forms

2nd-level Circle of the Swarm feature

The rites of your circle grant you the ability to transform into swarms of smaller creatures. Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Wild Shape to transform into a swarm of beasts with a challenge rating as high as 1 (you ignore the Max. CR column of the Beast Shapes table, but must abide by the other limitations there).

Starting at 6th level, you can transform into a beast with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 3, rounded down.

Fury of the Pack

2th-level Circle of the Swarm feature

Starting at 6th level, the damage you deal while in any wild shape form counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Revenant of Many

10th-level Circle of the Swarm feature

You begin taking on properties of a swarm, even in your natural form, as a result you have learned to dodge normal weaponry by splitting your body apart. As a reaction, when you are hit by a nonmagical attack, you may expend a spell slot of level 3 or above, when you do you become immune against all nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage (including from the triggering attack) until the end of your next turn.

In addition, you can regenerate your entire body in an instant, however this takes a great toll. As an action (instead of one minute), you may cast the spell regenerate on yourself at will, ignoring verbal, somantic, and material components. When this action is used you receive three points of exhaustion. This detriment reduces to one exhaustion point at level 14.

Pestilentia

14th-level Circle of the Swarm feature

The spirits of the swarm alter you: you can’t be frightened, or poisoned, and any critical hit against you counts as a normal hit instead, unless you’re incapacitated.
In addition, you become permanently immune to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing nonmagical damage.

Placeholder Feature

This feature is to be ignored. DnDBeyond does not allow me to publish this class without adding a 3rd level feature for whatever reason, this feature is here for the sole purpose of getting around that bug in the website's homebrew system.