Circle of the Genius Loci (City Variation)

Living Landscape

A Genius Loci is a piece of landscape that when left undisturbed for an untold amount of time, it can, on occasion, animate itself into a singular living creature. A Genius Loci, or “spirit of the land,” is such a place. They are incredibly difficult to spot, since they look like any other section of a landscape. Despite the fact that it is a creature, its form almost exactly duplicated all the textures and qualities of the natural world, so much so that plants and animals often live and grow atop the Genius Loci as if it were part of the regular environment. The Genius Loci itself has little to no intelligence, but rather it emulates the sentience of any creature it enthralls, if any. 

The Genius Loci will actively seek out a sentient creature that it can form a permanent telepathic bond with in order to use that creature as both its mouthpiece and guardian. Each Genius Loci has only one thrall at a time, however, other creatures may also inhabit its surface. While a person is charmed in this way the thrall has a telepathic link with the Genius Loci which is always aware of where the target is, and what they’re doing.  Note, the method and frequency in which the Genius Loci communicates with its thrall is up to the discretion of the DM and player.

Enthralled Druid

When a druid becomes the thrall of a Genius Loci or an individual becomes a druid by virtue of becoming the thrall of a Genius Loci. However, unlike other druids, their magic does not come from an aspect of nature or nature itself. Rather, they receive their magical power from the Genius Loci that has enthralled them as part of being its mouthpiece and guardian. However, like other types of druids, their magical abilities are influenced by the biome that the Genius Loci inhabits and embodies from which their magic is sourced. Because of this, no single Circle of the Genius Loci druid have the same exact abilities, although they do share common elements such as favoring spells that manipulate the landscape

City Variant

It's not uncommon for people to assume that druids scorn civilization and adore unsettled nature. Many druids view cities at best as a necessary evil for sentient life or at worst a blight upon the natural beauty of the world. That is, except for druids of the City Variant of the Circle of the Genius Loci. By nature of their connection to the Genius Loci, they are aware of and experience the city as a living thing. Cities are alive. Literally. Great cities are like any other living things, they are born, they mature, and they die. Its physical infrastructure and the collective wills and feelings of its people have ontological weight. While the city exists, it lives in harmony with its people, a delicate balance can be mediated by urban druids. These urban druids work and live alongside laborers, merchants, urchins, and aristocrats. They embrace the lifestyle of cityfolk with a gleeful attitude, seeking to experience as much of it as possible. As to them, a city is a natural environment unlike any other in the world. They are not a blight or necessary evil but simply a new development in the everchanging ecosystem of the world. 

Because of this, in the case of the druidic thralls under the control of a Genius Loci located within a city, their magic is adapted to shape and manipulate the infrastructure, refined materials, and the domesticated creatures that make up an urban Genius Loci’ anatomy. Druidic thralls of this variety tend to have a strong attachment to and identification with the village or city that their Genius Loci is a part of, feeling a duty to act as its guardian and mouthpiece. While their abilities may have originated in their hometown, the familiarity with an urban landscape that a druidic thrall of a city-based Genius Loci gains by nature of their connection to it allows them to by extension apply said connection, knowledge and skills to urban landscapes as a whole.

True Urbanite

Starting at 2nd level, your connection to the city makes it such that your druidic spells affect natural materials in the same way- worked stone as rock, carved wood as trees, etc. This connection to the city also allows you to navigate its innards and influence its denizens in much the same way that you can manipulate the infrastructure itself. Thus, you receive advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks to gather rumors, or find a creature or location within an urban environment.

Circle Spells

Your magical connection to the Genius Loci infuses you with the ability to cast certain spells. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells connected to the biome, in this case, a city, where you became a druidic thrall to a Genius Loci. 

Once you gain access to a circle spell, 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.

Druid Level	Spells
3rd	kinetic jaunt, spider climb
5th	galder's tower, tongues
7th	evard's black tentacles, find the path
9th	legend lore, animate objects

 

 

 

Maverick Architect

Starting at 6th level, you can cast the Commune with City spell once per long rest. In addition, you gain the ability to cast City Shape ability. Starting at 6th level, as an action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to warp the fabric of the city around you. Choose one of the following effects:

Blurring Boundaries

A wall that you can see within 30 feet magically shifts, grows, shrinks, or rotates. This wall must be a contiguous surface without corners, at most 1 foot thick, and must be either made out of wood, plaster, or stone, or not be naturally occurring. The wall must remain vertical, but you can move it into any position you choose within a 60-foot radius of its previous position. Its new position can’t include spaces occupied by creatures or objects. If you cause the wall to grow or shrink, you can only change its dimensions vertically. These changes to the wall create no instability in their structures. After 1 minute, the wall reverts to its original size and position.

Mind the Potholes

You magically manipulate the components of a constructed floor—bricks, cobblestones, planks, carved stone, and similar objects—within 60 feet. Each component can move up to 1 foot and doesn’t cause instabilities in their structures. When you use this effect, you can cause any sections of floor that you choose within the area to become difficult terrain, and can cause any creature standing in one of those sections to make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC or fall prone. You are unaffected by this difficult terrain. Additionally, you can use your action on each of your turns to raise up to three low walls from the floor, each 2 and 1/2 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 1 foot thick. Such a wall can generally provide half cover for a Medium creature. These walls provide no instability in surrounding structures. This ability lasts for 1 minute. After this time, all components and walls magically revert to their original positions.

Opening Doors

You cast the spell Passwall without expending a spell slot or material components. *Note, this does not affect external locks. Like if a door is locked that's fine but let's say a door/gate is like padlocked or something along those lines it wouldn't open and if you tried, you would then know there's an external lock on it.

Oppidan Kinesthesia

Beginning at 10th level, the walls and the ground itself speaks to you in a quiet tremor. You can use your action to touch a constructed part of a building, such as a wall, pillar, ceiling, or floor. You learn how many humanoid creatures are within that building and how many are within each room. If there are more than 10 humanoids in a building, you only detect the closest 10, although you will know if there are more than 10 humanoids, but not the exact amount.

Avatar of the City

By 14th level, you have mastery of the city’s architecture, warping it to any shape you might imagine. You can expend two uses of your Wild Shape feature to activate any and all effects of your City Shape ability at one time. Additionally, when you use your City Shape feature, you can warp the gravity along any surfaces you choose within a 60-foot radius. For the next minute or until dismissed, creatures and objects within 15 feet of one of these surfaces fall toward it as if it were the ground. A creature can walk on this surface as if it were level ground, even if the surface is perpendicular to the ground or upside down. At the end of this duration, all creatures and objects fall from the affected surfaces.