Circle of the Swarm

Druids of the Swarm are those who have chosen to learn from smallest creatures of the natural world; insects and arachnids. These druids are fascinated by the inner workings of ant colonies, the efficiency of bee hives, or the beauty of spider webs. 

Druids of this circle believe that just because people find the subjects of their interest unpleasant or ugly does not mean they are worth less to the natural order, and that they to contribute as much or more than the most noble of beasts found in the wild. This belief often extends to anything that society finds disgusting or an eyesore regardless of the part they play, including the downtrodden, sick and exploited. These druids are often times more comfortable in cities than other druids, fond of any place that is hospitable to their swarms. 

When a new druid is inducted into this Circle, their bodies are magically molded to be hospitable for a species of insect or arachnid, which is chosen by each individual at the time of the ceremony. They become a living hive, a refuge to their chosen friends and able to magically communicate and work with its members.

Circle Spells

Your link to your hive and experience with the crawling things of the world grants you access to certain spells. At 2nd level, you learn the poison spray cantrip. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to the spells listed for that level in the Circle of the Swarm Spells table.

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	spider climb, web
5th	fear, stinking cloud
7th	giant insect, freedom of movement
9th	contagion, insect plague

Living Hive

As part of the ritual to join your Circle your body is modified to house a species of insect or arachnid. Choose a species of tiny insects or arachnids (such as spiders, scorpions, bees, wasps, ants, etc.). That species now lives in your body, and cannot be wiped out or forcibly separated from you while you still live, and adapts to your new form when using a Wild Shape. You can use a bonus action to rouse your swarm for 1 minute, gaining the following benefits, including while using your Wild Shape:

• As an action you can have your swarm attack a target within 30 feet of you, your swarm flying or crawling towards your target. Make a ranged spell attack roll. On a hit, deal 2d6 piercing damage. This damage increases to 3d6 at 5th level, 4d6 at 10th level, 5d6 at 14th level, and 6d6 at 19th level. This attack counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
• When a creature within 10 feet of you that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to interpose your swarm between you and the attacker, reducing the damage taken by a number of d6 equal to your Wisdom modifier minus 1 (minimum 1d6).
• You gain advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks and disadvantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks.

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

Swarmlord

Due to your natural affinity with creatures that congregate en masse you have a natural understanding of the swarming behavior exhibited by some animals. Whenever you use your Wild Shape class feature you can turn into a swarm in addition to any of your other options. The swarm must still fulfill all other requirements of your Wild Shape feature. 

Specialized Scouts

By 6th level, some of the individual creatures in your hive have adapted to move about independently of your body as scouts, being intelligent enough to listen to simple requests and strong enough to survive on their own. You can use a bonus action to telepathically release one of your scout bugs from your body, giving it simple instructions with the same action, which can be up to two sentences long. The creature will attempt to fulfill the instructions to the best of its abilities, with the following rules: 

• The scout cannot take the attack action or deal damage in any way. 
• It has an AC of 12, a 30 foot movement speed (flying, climbing and/or walking as appropriate),  +6 to Dexterity (Stealth) ability checks, darkvision to 30 ft., passive perception 12, and 1 hit point. 
• The scout can survive away from your hive for an hour, before needing to immediately return or die. 
• You can have a number of your scouts away from your hive at one time equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of one).
• You cannot give each individual new instructions until it returns to you, at which point you can use another bonus action to send it away again. 

When your scout returns it can telepathically provide information about what it saw and heard while away from you, although anything it experienced other than what you gave it orders to focus on is conveyed to you in general, indistinct images and sounds. For example, it could tell you that it encountered a room full of guards, but unless told to focus on it it would not be able to identify individual guards.

In addition, you can use this bonus action to plant one of your scouts onto a creature within 30 feet of you that you can see. While your scout is on a creature you know where that creature is as long as it is within 60 feet of you, even through walls or in complete darkness, and if the creature becomes invisible while your scout is on it your attack rolls against it do not suffer disadvantage and its attack rolls against you do not have advantage. An unwilling creature that has one of your scouts on it can make a Wisdom (Perception) check against your scouts Dexterity (Stealth) to spot the scout, and can remove it with a bonus action. Otherwise the scout still has to return within the hour and is unable to gather any other information during this time.

Swarming Storm

Your hive is able to be awoken to greater heights of activity and independence from your body. At 10th level, as an action while your Living Hive feature is active, you can call upon your hive to swarm in a 20-foot radius aura around you. You can use your Living Hive damage mitigation reaction whenever another creature you can see within your swarms area takes damage instead of just yourself. The area of the swam is lightly obscured and is difficult terrain for creatures other than you. 

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

One with the Hive

When you reach 14th level, your bond with your hive reaches its apex. You gain the following benefits:

• Your hive helps you maneuver, granting you a climbing and burrowing speed of 30 ft., and you no longer take damage or land prone from falling long distances, as a thin membrane slows your fall. With your climbing speed you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings. You can use your burrowing speed to move through sand, loose earth, mud, or ice, not solid rock. 
• Your hive builds up your immunity to toxins, granting immunity to poison.