Circle of Guardian

While all druids forge a relationship with the natural world, those who join the Circle of the Guardian dedicate their lives to protecting the elder and sacred places of the wild. Known as Guardians, these druids draw their magic from the ancient forests they protect. These elder groves are places of sources of great druidic power, often with links to the plane of Fey.

Circle Spells

Your link with your primal grove grants you access to certain spells. At 2nd level, and again when you reach certain Druid levels, you gain access to the spells listed in the table below. These spells count as druid spells for you and you always have them prepared, but they don't count against the total number of druid spells you prepare each day.

Druid Level	Spells
2nd	compelled duel, ensnaring strike
3rd	earthbind, warding bond
5th	erupting earth, plant growth
7th	aura of life, grasping vine
9th	tree stride, wrath of nature

Elder Limbs

When you adopt this Circle at 2nd level, your limbs become tough and knotted like the eldest trees of the wood. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, they take bludgeoning damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength modifier.

Also, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can expend a spell slot as part of that attack to cast ensnaring strike on your target, in addition to the damage of the attack.

Guardian's Form

The primordial forests you protect can lend you their power. Beginning at 3rd level, you can use an action to expend a use of your Wild Shape and take the form of a druidic Guardian. When you assume this Guardian form, you retain your game statistics, but you take on tree-like appearance. While in your Guardian form you gain the following benefits:

Arboreal Strikes

At 6th level, the primordial grove you guard enhances your abilities. You can attack twice, instead of once, when you take the Attack action on your turn. Moreover, you can cast one of your druid cantrips in place of one of those attacks.

Also, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the sake of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks.

Grasp of the Forest

Your very presence stimulates wild plant growth. Starting at 10th level, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape as an action to cast plant growth. When cast in this way, you can choose a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1) who can ignore the difficult terrain effects of the spell as the plants move aside to avoid hindering them.

Verdant Mastery

Your body is suffused with the druidic magic of the ageless trees that you defend. Beginning at 14th level, during each long rest, you automatically cast the 8 hour version of plant growth, unless you choose not to. When cast in this way, the spell does not consume a spell slot or a use of Wild Shape.

In addition, while you are in your Guardian form you are resistant to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.