Circle of Horrors Druid
Alright, y’all! Time to jump on the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves hype train! Who doesn’t love that scene in the trailer of the horse turning into an owlbear turning into a druid? It’s great! Obviously, that’s not mechanically possible with any of the published subclasses (yet anyway) and we could, of course, just handwave it too.
However, you know I love to build these subclasses and I have to give it a bit more meat than just “You can turn into an owlbear!” So with the Circle of Horrors, we’ve focused on turning into Monstrosities and Aberrations, and how scary that would be for those around you. I wanted to leave plenty of wiggle room for things to get SUPER WEIRD. I’ve also included some junior owlbear stat blocks so you can just play as an owlbear the whole time.
I think it’s fair to call this a cousin of the Moon druid, but not a sister. We’re putting a lot of power into these Wild Shape forms and some of the aberrations in particular can get some really gnarly features, but we’re sticking to the baseline CR table and retaining the full action cost. Both subclasses focus on Wild Shape, yes, but in very different ways.
I’m really happy with how this turned out. I’d love to hear what you think in a review or over on our Discord. Thanks for taking a peek!
It’s available now in the shop and is free for everyone to download!
Overview
Druids who join the Circle of Horrors embrace the unnatural. Using monstrous and aberrant powers, these individuals understand the usefulness of fear when pursuing their goals. Ranging from the cuddly and iconic Owlbears to terrifying and insidious intellect devourers, the horrific shapes utilized by the Circle of Horrors are not always welcome in more civilized areas. Regardless of their perception, no one questions their weird power or indomitable endurance on the battlefield.
While anyone is able to adopt the Circle of Horrors, extraplanar races and creatures with unusual magical connections are typically found amongst their numbers.
Feature Preview
Horrific Shape
2nd-level Circle of Horrors feature
You’ve attuned yourself with the strange creatures of the world. When you use your Wild Shape feature, instead of assuming the shape of a beast, you assume the shape of a monstrosity or aberration that you’ve seen before and is not a shapechanger.
Also, when you transform into a monstrosity or aberration using this feature, creatures of your choice within 10 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for 1 minute. Each frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
