Circle of Guardians

While all Druids forge a relationship with the natural world, those who join the Circle of Guardians dedicate their lives to protecting the elder forests and sacred groves that serve as sources of druidic magic. Known simply as Guardians, these Druids are as stalwart and resilient as the trees they defend.

Circle Spells

Your link with your primal grove grants you access to certain spells. When you reach certain Druid levels, you gain access to the spells in the table below. They count as Druid spells for you, and you always have them prepared, but they don't count against the total number of spells you prepare each day.

Circle of Guardians

Druid Level	Spells
2nd	absorb elements, shield
3rd	enlarge/reduce, warding bond
5th	erupting earth, plant growth
7th	conjure minor elementals, freedom of movement
9th	tree stride, wall of stone

Elder Limbs

2nd level Circle of Guardians feature

The magic of the elder forest you guard empowers your body with primeval power. Your unarmed strikes deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength modifier on hit. Moreover, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can expend a spell slot to cast ensnaring strike on your target as part of your unarmed strike attack.

Guardian Form

2nd level Circle of Guardians feature

The primordial forests you protect can lend you their elder powers. As a bonus action, you can expend a use of Wild Shape and transform into a treelike Guardian Form, which grants you the following benefits for 10 minutes:

• Your flesh is covered in bark. Your Armor Class equals 10 + your Constitution modifier + your Wisdom modifier.
• As a bonus action, you can grant yourself temporary hit points equal to your Proficiency Bonus + Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1).
• The reach of your unarmed strikes increases by 5 feet.
• You can use your Wisdom, in place of Strength, for the attack and damage rolls for your unarmed strikes.

Your Guardian Form transformation ends early if you are reduced to 0 hit points, or you use a bonus action on your turn to revert to your normal form.

Arboreal Strikes

6th level Circle of Guardians feature

The elder grove you defend enhances your combat abilities. You can attack twice, instead of once, whenever 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 magic for the sake of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks.

Grasp of the Forest

10th level Circle of Guardians feature

Your elder magic stimulates wild growth. As an action, you can expend a use of Wild Shape to cast plant growth. When you do, you can choose a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1) that can ignore the difficult terrain created, as the plant move and allow them to pass by.

Verdant Mastery

14th level Circle of Guardians feature

Your body is completely suffused with elder druidic magic. When you transform into Guardian Form, you grow by one size category, for example from Medium to Large, and you resemble an ancient treant. You also gain resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, poison, and slashing damage.

Finally, the duration of your Guardian Form transformation increases to 1 hour, and while you are in Guardian Form, you can speak to plants as if you were under the effects of the speak with plants spell, so long as you speak in Druidic.