Circle of Monsters

Hidden within the shelter of the woods, deep beneath the earth, or even high in the mountains, certain creatures subvert the natural order of things in the world's eyes, no longer capable of simply being called a "beast". When a species trancends in this way, people instead call them monstrosities.

You don't happen to see them this way, however. You recognize the beauty in life itself within these often misunderstood creatures, and you have learned to channel your druidic energy to the tune of these monstrosities. Perhaps you found yourself a small hatchling and nursed it back to health, giving you a deeper understanding of their kind? Were you parents cult leaders, and you often found yourself surrounded by these beasts? Or are you simply a druid looking to expand your knowledge, seeking out the secrets of these beings for the sake of research?

However you came to acknowledge these monstrosities as actualized beings, you are now a druid with a particular affinity for creatures beyond society's usual blanket of the word "beast", letting you channel your druidic magic to harness the power of these misunderstood inhabitants of the world.

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Monstrous Wild Shape

At 2nd level, you gain the ability to use Wild Shape on your turn as a bonus action, rather than as an action.

Additionally, when you hit a creature with a melee attack while in your Wild Shape form, you can expend one spell slot to deal additional damage of the associated type to the target, in addition to the attack’s damage. The extra damage is 1d6 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d6 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 4d6. You can add this bonus only once per turn, regardless of how many attacks a form can make each turn.

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Monster Within

The rites of your circle grant you the ability to transform into more dangerous animal forms. Starting at 3rd level, you can use your Wild Shape to transform into a beast or monstrosity 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).

At 6th level and later, the CR of creatures you can Wild Shape into increases.

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Unnatural Might

The rites of your circle grant you the ability to transform into more dangerous animal forms. Starting at 6th level, you can transform into a beast or monstrosity with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 3, rounded down.

You can Wild Shape into a monstrosity that is a shapechanger, but in order to use that ability, you must expend another usage of your Wild Shape while in that form to do so. If a monstrosity is able to cast spells, you can cast only those spells, none of your own, but must expend your own spells slots to cast them, including any spells listed as "at will". If a monstrosity is usually able to speak, you can only speak in that form if you and the monstrosity share a language.

Additionally, your attacks in beast or monstrosity form count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

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Soul Split

You have found a way to unnaturally split your mind and soul when Wild Shaping, in some cases even making it possible to teleport yourself between two spaces. At 10th level, you can expend two uses of Wild Shape at the same time to transform into any two beasts or monstrosities that have a CR equal to or less than half your proficiency bonus.

You control both of these creatures, one being a creature that you physically transform into, and the other appearing in a space that you designate within 20 feet of yourself. You and the second Wild Shape form share the same roll in the initiative order. The length of your Wild Shape feature is halved when you Wild Shape in this way.

As long as you and your other form are within 100 feet of one another, you can perceive fully through both beings' senses simultaneously. If separated further than 100 feet away, one of these forms will disappear. When this ends, you can choose to make either form disappear, meaning that when your Wild Shape form ends, you will revert to your original form in the space of the remaining Split Soul form.

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Call of the Hunt

By 14th level, you have learned to use magic to hone your senses for the hunt. You can cast the hunter's mark spell at will, even while in your Wild Shape forms.

You cast this spell in a special way, still requiring concentration, but still allowing you to cast other concentration spells normally. For example, if you are concentrating on this spell and one other, then lose your concentration, you will lose concentration on both spells.

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