Circle of the Veil

Druids of the Circle of the Veil commune with the spirits of the departed and the echoes of the world beyond. They are not necromancers, but guides - stewards of memory and passage. To them, death is not the end of life but a return to the pattern, the Veil that separates the known world from the greater whole. Through their connection to the Astral Plane and the natural cycle of life and death, they speak with forgotten souls, sense spiritual disturbances, and interpret the will of the natural order itself.

Druids of this circle are more than wardens of the wild; they are speakers for the unseen and forgotten. Many Veilkeepers carry pouches filled with small tokens of the dead - feathers, rings, bones, or letters --- collected not out of morbidity, but to call upon lingering spirits when needed. Each item is a promise: that no voice will be forgotten, and no soul will fade alone.

Circle of the Veil Features

Druid Level	Feature
2nd	Veil Sense, Spiritual Intuition
3rd	Spirit Echo
6th	Ethereal Step
10th	Ancestral Memory
14th	Threshold Guide

 

Spiritual Intuition

2nd-level druid feature

Your attunement to the boundary between life and death allows you to tap into the spiritual residue that lays, unseen around everyone. You gain proficiency in Wisdom (Insight) and Intelligence (Arcana). You also learn the guidance cantrip if you don't already know it.

Veil Sense

2nd-level druid feature

You can sense significant spiritual energy from both creatures and places. As an action, you can expend a 1st level spell slot to detect celestials, undead, and fiends. You can also sense spiritually significant locations --- places that would have a history of extreme emotions, such as holy or hallowed ground, battlefields, mass graves, sites of great tragedy, and desecrated ruins. You are able to detect all spiritually tied points in a 30-foot radius for 10 minutes or until you end the effect early. You may choose to expend a spell slot of higher levels to enhance the range of this effect, increasing its radius by 30 feet per level of the spell slot expended beyond 1st (e.g. 60 feet at 2nd level, 90 feet at 3rd level, and so on). You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier per long rest. Your DM has final discretion on what information is available to you and whether a specific object, place, or creature is spiritually significant enough.

Spirit Echo

3rd-level druid feature

At 3rd level, you can reach across the Veil to commune with spirits --- not only the dead, but lingering echoes of emotion, memory, and natural purpose drawn from the Astral Plane. These spirits offer guidance, warnings, or fragments of insight, though their clarity and cooperation depend on the strength of your connection and the nature of their lingering presence.

As a ritual, you can spend 10 minutes and expend a use of your Wild Shape feature attempting to summon a Spirit Echo in a place of emotional, natural, or spiritual significance. Alternatively, you may call on a nonspecific spirit for general information about the world, events, or locations.

You may ask the spirit up to three questions, depending on the age and clarity of the spirit:

Type of Spirit	Questions Allowed
Recently deceased individual (within 1 Day)	3 questions
Known spirit tied to the location (1 Day - 10 years)	2 questions
Ancient or ambient spirit (over 10 years or nonspecific)	1 question

The spirit is visible only to you, and its responses are filtered through its personality and limitations – a fallen soldier might speak in urgency and flashes of fear, a wolf in raw instinct, a druid in slow, poetic metaphors.

When you attempt to summon a Spirit Echo, make a DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) skill roll. The result of your roll determines the willingness and demeanor of the Spirit Echo. The environment in which you attempt this skill roll can also influence the spirit’s demeanor and willingness to cooperate. Emotionally charged sites may grant +2 to the result of the roll, whereas desecrated or spiritually negative sites may impose a -2 result or even disadvantage to the roll. At the DM’s discretion, this check may be skipped entirely if they have a strong narrative sense of the spirit’s attitude or clarity, in which case the number of questions allowed, and the tone of the interaction are determined directly by the DM.

Result	Spirit's Response
22+	The spirit is clear, forthcoming, and emotional. The DM may allow one additional question.
17 - 21	The spirit is present and cooperative, offering the full allowed number of questions.
10 - 16	The spirit is confused or resistant. You receive one fewer question than allowed (minimum of 1).
Below 10	The spirit does not respond, or manifests briefly in a fractured form before fading. The attempt fails and the use is expended.

If you possess an item of personal significance to the spirit – a keepsake, heirloom, or symbolic object – you gain advantage on your Wisdom (Insight) skill roll when attempting to summon the Spirit Echo. If the item is particularly powerful or emotional, the DM may also increase the number of questions allowed by 1. When you use an item in this way, it becomes overwhelmed with astral energy and cannot be used in this way again for 7 days.

Ethereal Step

6th-level druid feature

You’re able to envelop your body in the energies of the Astral Plane, temporarily turning yourself into a spirit. As a bonus action, you can become semi-incorporeal until the end of your next turn. While in this state you’re able to move through objects or creatures as if they were difficult terrain and you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) skill rolls, leaving no physical trace of your movements. If you end your turn inside of an object or creature, you take 1d10 force damage and are moved to the nearest empty space within 5 feet. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses after a long rest.

Ancestral Memory

10th-level druid feature

You can call on the wisdom and knowledge of ancient spirits to guide your insight. You can cast legend lore once per day without expending a spell slot and without material components. Additionally, once per day when you fail an Intelligence-based skill roll, you may reroll the check with advantage as ancestral whispers correct your course. You regain the uses of both of these features after a long rest.

Threshold Guide

14th-level druid feature

You learn to intentionally radiate or suppress your spiritual presence. As an action, you may manifest or suppress your spiritual presence for 10 minutes. You may only choose one state --- manifested or suppressed --- per use of this feature, and cannot switch between them during the same duration. You can use this feature once per long rest. While your presence is manifested, you may use both Soothing Presence and Turn the Unnatural once each during that time.

Soothing Presence. While manifest, you may force one undead, fiend, or celestial within 30 feet to make a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature becomes non-hostile for 1 minute or until harmed by you or your allies. A non-hostile creature does not take aggressive actions against you or your allies and will not assist in combat. It avoids conflict but is not considered friendly and does not follow commands or fight on your behalf. It may still move, act, and speak freely, as long as its actions are not directly harmful to you or your allies.

Turn the Unnatural. While manifested, as an action, you force all undead, fiends, and celestials within 30 feet that can see or hear you to make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature is turned for 1 minute or until it takes damage. A turned creature must spend its turns moving as far away from you as possible, cannot willingly end its turn within 30 feet of you, cannot take reactions, and may only Dash or escape movement effects. If it cannot move, it may Dodge.

Suppress Presence. You dim your spiritual signature, shielding it from extraplanar awareness. While suppressed, you and allies within 10 feet are hidden from undead, fiends, and celestials that rely on magical senses. You and affected allies also gain advantage on Stealth checks and saving throws against charm, fright, or possession effects from those creature types.