Circle of the Autumn

There are a few individuals who grow up in druidic traditions who are like vagrant souls which tour the countryside in traveling acts, attuned with nature and its cycles, living off the land and the gains of their touring "shows." These druids often flavor themselves after one of the ever turning seasons, and each of these seasons has its own followers. Most of those persons live lives of relative peacefulness and mirth, touring and being lawful in the lands they travel to. Yet the Autumn is a strange season, a season of transition and change, where the warm becomes the cold and the harvest comes in. The followers of this seasonal path are often more chaotic in their bearing, bending the rules where they can to get by, and they believe that once a year, on a special night, everything living in the world needs a good scare. This act of terrorizing the neighborhood, so to speak, is said to stir all life into a reminder of motion just before the cold winter sets in and the sleeps become long. This is believed to be vital to these druids, and they insist it's required, yet the aftermath of such a night of terror can be far more destructive than one might expect in some communities! For these reasons, the druids of the Autumn stay as hidden as they can to avoid repercussions as their family moves on it's tour, only revealing themselves once a year by regionally gathering to scare the world.

Bonus Proficiencies
2nd-level Circle of the Autumn feature

When you choose this Circle at 2nd level, you gain proficiency in the Disguise Kit, and your choice of the Deception or Performance skills. 

Circle Spells

2nd level Circle of Autumn feature

You have formed bonds with powerful Autumnal nature spirits. Your link with these spirits grants you access to some spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Circle of Autumn 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 Autumn Spells

Druid Level	Spells
2nd	entangle, unseen servant
3rd	darkness, invisibility
5th	fear, plant growth
7th	grasping vine, resilient sphere
9th	seeming, tree stride

 

Summon Autumnal Terror

2nd-level Circle of Autumn feature

You can summon one of the most useful spirits among your spiritual allies, the Autumnal Terror. As an action, you can expend one use of your Wild Shape feature to summon your Autumnal Terror, rather than assuming a beast form.

The spirit appears in an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of you. When you summon this spirit, in the first round it appears, it appears as a large pumpkin on the vine rapidly growing in the space you chose. Goodberries appear in the square you summoned it in, growing from the vines it sprouts from, as if you had cast the Goodberry spell without expending a spell slot. At the beginning of your next turn, the spirit stands fully up as a magically animated, medium-sized vine-strewn wooden body with a jack o' lantern head.

The spirit is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. See this creature’s game statistics in the Autumnal Terror stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. You determine the other aspects of the spirit's appearance. Some Autumnal Terrors look more like scarecrows that farmers might use in their fields, others resemble shambling plant horrors, dripping with slime.

 

In combat, the spirit shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. The only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the spirit can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.

The spirit manifests for 1 hour, until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the spirit again, or until you die.

 

Season of Change

6th-level Circle of the Autumn feature

At 6th level, you learn to utilize the powers of change your Autumnal spirits are so fond of, which grants several new benefits. Firstly, you add the Summon Lesser Demon spell to the Druid spell list and always have it prepared. When you cast this spell, you can ignore the material component requirement, as you summon spirits who bear these attributes, instead. Also, you may cast Create and Food and Water once without expending a spell slot, as you cause a small harvest of food gourds and water-bearing gourds to suddenly appear and grow. All the food grown is sweet, instead of bland, and if any creature eats this meal after spending hit dice to restore hit points during a rest, that creature may regain one spent hit die. You may cast this spell this way once before you must finish a long rest to cast it this way again.

Additionally, you can cast the Fear spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a short or long rest before you can cast this spell this way again.

Lastly, whenever you or your Autumnal Spirit cause a creature to become shaken or frightened, you and your Autumnal Spirit have advantage on spell attack rolls against that creature until the end of your turn.

Apparitions of Autumn

10th-level Circle of Autumn feature

At 10th level, you learn to cause powerful change, and form apparitions of autumn's power. You can perform a ritual in which you wear a disguise as a terrifying monster, which you perform over 10 minutes. After which, you gain the following benefits:

- You can cast Resilient Sphere without expending a spell slot, and when you cast it this way, physical objects, energy, or other spell effects can pass through the barrier outward, but not inward. In this way you may damage objects outside the sphere. This typically takes the shape of a pumpkin or gourd-shaped apparition of force as the radius of the bubble, yet it rolls the same at half speed. You may cast this spell this way once before you must finish a long rest to cast it this way again.

- You can cast Sickening Radiance without expending a spell slot, and when you cast it this way, you cast it without the concentration requirement in the duration. This sickening glow is often sickly purple, brown, or green as you cast it. You may cast this spell once this way before you must finish a long rest to cast it this way again.

- You can cast Seeming without expending a spell slot. You may cast this spell this way once before you must finish a long rest to cast it this way again.

You gain these benefits for a number of hours equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Lastly, you add the Summon Greater Demon spell to the Druid spell list and you always have it prepared. When you cast this spell, you ignore the material component requirement, as you conjure spirits who take the forms of these fiends.

Harvest Horrors

At 14th level, you summon an apparition of absolute terror, a spirit that takes the form of a fiend, and your most potent magic always inspires a harvest bounty in any fertile land you tread upon. You add Summon Fiend to the Druid Spell list and always have it prepared. Whenever you cast this spell, it has "at higher levels. When you cast this spell using a Spell Slot of 7th level or higher, you may transform your Autumnal Terror into your choice of fiend this spell could summon. The Autumnal Terror polymorphs and transforms into the chosen fiend for the duration of the spell."

Additionally, whenever you cast a spell using a spell slot of seventh level or higher, your magic automatically causes food-bearing vines to appear in your environs if you are outdoors in a non-desert environment, and you cast Create food and Water without expending a spell slot in a space you designate in your environment nearby as part of the action of casting that spell. The food and water appears as the gourds and fruit that spawn forth from the magical vines.

Lastly, whenever you cast a cantrip, if your opponent is in contact with plant matter, such as standing on grass, in the radius of an Entangle or Plant Growth spell, or otherwise standing on or touching living plant matter, you cause sharp thorns to assault such foes, adding 1d8 magical piercing damage to the target of cantrips you cast on such creatures.