Base Class: Druid
Those who follow the Circle of the Elements attempt to gain greater control of the raw power of the elements. Druids of this circle make a connection with a particular type of element and use their mystic energy to master it. They understand the importance of the elements in the world, as well as the necessity of balance between the elements and the other forces of the world. Unlike other druids who live in parts of the wilderness to improve their connection to nature, these druids often form communities where the elements are in their most present and violent form–scorching volcanos, arctic tundras, and mountain peaks.
Members of this circle often act as guardians to the elemental planes or a protectors against elementals force on the material plane. However, some see their connection as a way to reenforce balance across the world, becoming adventures.
Bouns Cantrip
When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you make a connection to a type of element: cold, fire, lightning, or thunder. This element type is used in later features. You learn one additional druid cantrip of your choice that is connected to that type of element. If there is a cantrip that deals your type elemental damage, you may select it, even if it is not on the druid spell list Examples of these are shocking grasp for lightning, or control flames for fire.
Elemental Connection
When you choose this subclass, your connection to the elements give you a greater understanding of the elemental planes and their residents. You learn primordial if you don't already, as well as being able to understand different primordial dialects: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, and Terran. In addition, you have advantage on any Charisma ability check against an elemental creature.
Circle Spells
Your mystical connection to the elements grants you with the ability to cast certain spells. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells connected to the element you have bonded yourself to. Choose that element — Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder — and consult the associated list of spells.
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.
Connection to Cold
You have an elemental connection to the cold. You gain access to the following spells:
DRUID LEVEL | SPELLS |
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3rd |
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5th |
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7th |
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9th |
Connection to Fire
You have an elemental connection to fire. You gain access to the following spells:
DRUID LEVEL | SPELLS |
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3rd |
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5th |
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7th |
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9th |
Connection to Lightning
You have an elemental connection to lightning. You gain access to the following spells:
DRUID LEVEL | SPELLS |
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3rd |
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5th |
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7th |
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9th |
Connection to Thunder
You have an elemental connection to thunder. You gain access to the following spells:
DRUID LEVEL | SPELLS |
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3rd |
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5th |
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7th |
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9th |
Natural Acclimation
By 6th level, your elemental connection has grown to the point where you body has natural adapted to it. You gain resistance in your chosen element type.
Cold Resistance
You have resistance to cold damage.
Fire Resistance
You have resistance to fire damage.
Lightning Resistance
You have resistance to lightning damage.
Thunder Resistance
You have resistance to thunder damage.
Elemental Wild Shape
At 10th level, You can surround yourself in raw elemental energy, transforming you. You can expend two uses of Wild Shape at the same time to transform into an air elemental, an earth elemental, a fire elemental, or a water elemental.
Primordial Control
At 14th level, you have gained enough control over you elemental powers to redirect elemental magic casted by your foes. If a spellcaster within 60 feet of you casts a spell that deals the same type of damage as your element, you can use your reaction to attempt to gain control of it. Make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a success, You can force the creature’s spell to fail and have no effect. Alternatively, if the spell has an area of effect, you may chose which creatures this spell does and does not effect. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
I went with a more Tasha vibe and added 2 free uses of Absorb Elements equal to your proficiency bonus at level 2
The druid at my Curse of Strahd game got the WoW Style Shaman he so dearly wanted
I am very pleased with this subclass. Everything you put into it actually shows up in the character sheet like it should with only one exception.
The Primordial Control ability only shows up under Features and Class abilities on the character sheet. Would it be possible for you to go in and create an action for it instead? So that it shows up under the action tracker?
All of the spells show up as always prepared correctly and the resistance goes in too. So really my only issue is with Primordial Control not showing up as an action.
You do play into my point: there's plenty of infrastructure for spells that deal with the four standard elements. Maelstrom, control winds, and earth tremor all spring to mind.
If you're worried about damage types, I think that's a result of you thinking very logically about each element. However, D&D has a history of not thinking logically. Water genasi get acid resistance, air elementals get lightning resistance; there's no reason those can't be associated. For earth, I suggest resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage.
On a more general note, I fear that the bonus cantrip really depends on players not choosing green-flame blade, because logically, they can. I would suggest limiting it to control flames, shape water, gust, and mold earth.
Thanks for the comment.
The primary reason I didn't go with earth/water/air/fire is because I felt it would be too similar and it would result in fire being the only logical choice. First, any damage dealt by the options would have been bludgeoning or fire, which felt weird for a spellcaster's primary mode of damage can be replicated with a hammer or through punching. I also didn't want a player to feel limited by the subclass which allows them to specialize in a type of damage of their choice and their 3 of their 4 options are the same damage. At one point, I did think about using the damage types I ended up using but calling it earth/water/air/fire, however the more I worked on it, the harder it became to justify why I linked one damage type to an element and, in the end, I thought it would be too convoluted. In addition, a good number of monsters are resistant to bludgeoning in an attempt to increase their visuality against melee fighters and I didn't want the player to be limited by that as well (this also goes of DMs who want to use an anti-caster monster who wouldn't have resistance to bludgeoning but does have it for other damage types).
Second, the extra spell list would have been pretty difficult to make if I based it off of keeping a specific theme. Earth probably would have been the easiest, as it could focus on using granting defenses (such as with stoneskin) or manipulating the battlefield (such as with wall of stone). However, the others would have been more difficult. The only thing I could think of for water was some kind of movement spells, which would be ultimately irrelevant since freedom of movement covers that pretty well. Air was also hard because that would have been movement based as well, and there's no difference between flight granted from fly or flight granted from another spell. What did have opportunity however was fire which I knew would have been most popular option if I went with earth/water/air/fire.
Third, the other features I was considering (the extra cantrip and the resistance) would have been rather limited for the options other than fire. These reasons are why I went with the elemental types present in the spell elemental weapon (minus acid which I'm still working on...)
As for your question about thunder and divination, I focused on divination as my best attempt to work around the small number of thunder-based spells. One of my biggest concern while making this was trying to avoid the problem dragon-sorcerers have where fire is the only real option. I tried to avoid this by making the other options here interesting. To do this, I decided to base the spell list off both damaging spells with the same element and feeling the element gives off. Cold was meant to restrict enemies’ ability to move and act, slowing them down. Fire was meant to harm enemies for attacking/acting predictably by focusing on traps/debuffs. Lightning was meant to allow the player to move around and enhance their mobility, giving the feeling of traveling at lighting speed.
When I got to thunder, I was kinda at a loss though. Then I thought about the idea that even if you're indoors and aren't looking out a window, you can still tell there's a storm because you can hear thunder from basically anywhere. Thus, it made me base the spell list on giving the player as many tools as I could that would let them be alert and aware of incoming threats. Clairvoyance and Faithful Hound are meant to protect and act as alarms, while Arcane Eye and Telepathic Bond allows the player to be alerted whenever they can as convey that information to their team. That's the best I could come up with to be honest.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I would love to hear any constructive criticism.
I'm confused by why you choose lightning, thunder, and cold instead water, air and earth. Yes, they are actual damage types and that's useful when it comes to nature Acclimation, but there's nothing stopping you from naming each option after the element.
Also, why does Thunder get divination spells?