Circle of the Host

Druids of the Circle of the Host hold plants in the highest regard. As a result they’ve turned their minds and magic towards giving their beloved plants a leg up against the more mobile and dominating fauna of the world.

Born from the machinations of an Eladrin of the Feywild, Druids of this Circle learned to use his unique magics to infest corpses, or even living beings, with the spores of magically created parasitic plants. 

Not all Circle of the Host druids despise living creatures, but most have a general disdain or indifference towards the non-plant based life around them.

 

Circle Spells

Your symbiotic link to plants and dealings in death grants you access to certain spells. At 2nd level, you learn the chill touch cantrip. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to the spells listed for that level in the Circle of the Host 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 the Host Spells

Druid Level	Spells
3rd	blindness/deafness, ray of enfeeblement
5th	infest dead, life transference
7th	private sanctum, sickening radiance
9th	cloudkill, enervation

Leeching Roots

Starting at 2nd level, you become the host to an infestation of parasitic plant life. These plants are harmless, though unsettling to onlookers, unless their host is attacked. When a creature makes a melee weapon attack against you or starts its turn within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to deal 1d6 necrotic damage to that creature. You take half of any necrotic damage dealt to creatures this way.

The damage increases to 1d8 at 6th level, 1d10 at 10th level, and 1d12 at 14th level.

Parasitic Host

At 2nd level, you gain a degree of control of the parasitic plant that nests within you. As an action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to awaken the plant, rather than transforming into a beast form. While this feature is active you gain the following benefits:

1. When you deal your Leeching Roots damage, you add an additional 4 necrotic damage to the attack.
   • The damage increases to 6 at 6th level,  8 at 10th level, and 10 at 14th level.
2. Your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to any target they hit. You gain temporary hit points equal to the extra necrotic damage dealt this way.
3. You gain resistance to poison damage.

RULE TIP: TEMPORARY HIT POINTS DON'T STACK

If you have temporary hit points and receive more of them, you don’t add them together, unless a rule says you can. Instead, you decide which temporary hit points to keep. For more information on temporary hit points, see chapter 9 of the Player’s Handbook.

Parasitic Infestation

Corpse Vine

At 6th level, the bond between yourself and your parasitic plant matures. Whenever you are below half of your maximum hit points, the parasite will begin to actively defend you. Immediately following each of your turns, you may have the parasite make a melee weapon attack at the nearest enemy within range, with the following characteristics:

Corpse Vine. Melee weapon attack: +3 to hit, reach 5ft., one creature, Hit 1d6+1 damage.

The Corpse Vine’s bonuses to hit and damage are increased by +1 at 9th, 13th, and 17th levels. Beginning at 9th level, you are healed for half of any damage the Corpse Vine inflicts.

Parasitic Infestation

At 6th level, your parasitic roots gain the ability to infest a corpse and animate it. If a beast or a humanoid that is Small or Medium dies within 10 feet of you, you can use your reaction to animate it, causing it to stand up immediately with 1 hit point. The creature uses the Infested Dead stat block. It remains animate for 1 hour, after which time it collapses and the plant withers.

In combat, the infested dead’s turn comes immediately after yours. It obeys your mental commands, and the only action it can take is the Attack action, making one melee attack.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.

Call of the Host

At 10th level, your Infested Dead gain the ability to seed an area with deadly spores. As a bonus action, while you have at least one Infested Dead active, you can have one Infested Dead burst, killing the zombie and releasing a cloud of spores and Corpse Vines in a 10 foot cube.

Any creature within the cube when the zombie bursts takes damage from your infectious spores and must make a dexterity saving throw (DC {{savedc:dex}}) or become restrained and infested.

Infested: Creatures who have been infested by Corpse Root Spores carry the spores inside them until death. One round after an infested creature dies the Spores take root and grow, raising the corpse as an Infested Dead. 

An infested creature can have the spores removed via a cure disease or wish spell.

*Corpses from a zombie killed using this ability cannot be risen again.*

Pure Symbiosis

At 14th level, the Corpse Vine in your body alters you: you can’t be frightened, or poisoned, and any critical hit against you counts as a normal hit instead, unless you’re incapacitated, and any Infested Dead you raise persist indefinitely.