Druid - Circle of the Fossil (Rev:2)

[RickAsWritten]

I wanted to create a defensive Druid, akin to the Abjuration Wizard and thought that a prehistoric theme would be a good way to accomplish it.

Spoiler: Circle of the Fossil

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Circle of the Fossil Rev:2

Bone Ward

When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain the ability to call upon ancient nature spirits to ward you from danger. As a bonus action, you can expend one use of your Wild Shape to cause ancient, fossilized bones to erupt from the earth and encircle you. The bones are magically animated, float around your person, and do not affect your outgoing spells. Any part of the ward that passes through non-moving solid material turns incorporeal as it moves through the object, but still provides its benefit. They provide you with a +2 bonus to AC, and last for one minute or until you are incapacitated.
Once while your Bone Ward is active, and you are attacked or forced to make a Dexterity saving throw by a creature that you can see, you can use your reaction to cause the fossilized bones to interlock; forming a floating shield that gives you an additional +3 to AC and a +5 to Dexterity saving throws. This wall of bone lasts until the beginning of your next turn and moves with you.

The Swallowing Earth

Starting at 6th level, the earth opens itself to you, welcoming the creation of new remains to fossilize. As an action you can cause an area of terrain within 30 feet of you to transform into a bubbling tar pit. The area within a 15-foot radius of a chosen point is considered difficult terrain. Any creature that is in the area when it is created or ends its turn there must succeed on a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC or be restrained by the viscous tar. At the end of the creature’s next turn, they can repeat the save, ending the effect on a success. When a creature is reduced to 0 hit points while in the tar pits, you gain temporary hit points equal to five plus your Druid level. The tar pit lasts for one minute and then sinks back into the depths of the earth, and you may only have one tar pit active at a time.

Shaper of Fossil

Starting at 10th level, you have become so attuned to the fossilized remains embedded in the earth, that it has begun to affect you magic. When you use an ability or cast a spell that causes a creature to change form into a beast, you can choose for the beast to instead be transformed into a skeletal version of that creature. The beast’s creature type is changed to a construct, it gains a +2 bonus to its AC, Strength and Constitution scores, and its attacks are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Steadfast Fossil

When you reach 14th level the earthen spirits that aid you in battle become more easily accessed. Your Bone Ward feature no longer costs a use of your Wild Shape. It can be used a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier per short rest. In addition, you can use the shielding feature of the Bone Ward twice per duration.

I went back and forth on the Bone Ward ability between half-cover and a straight AC boost. I'm still not sure that it's where it needs to be, as there's probably something I'm not thinking of. So thanks for taking a look.

Rev. Change:

• Combined Level 2 abilities to one ability and only allowed for one use of shielding.
• Level 14 feature now grants additional use of shielding per Bone Ward

[Composer99]

It seems to me that adding another resource to track in the form of uses of Fossil Shield might be a little too fiddly when you already have wild shape uses and spell slots - especially once you decouple Bone Ward from wild shape.

IMO it might be smoother to be able to use Fossil Shield once per active Bone Ward. Granted, you're still tracking whether you've used it or not, but at least it's a binary/Boolean variable tacked on to Bone Ward instead of being its own separate resource.

[RickAsWritten]

It seems to me that adding another resource to track in the form of uses of Fossil Shield might be a little too fiddly when you already have wild shape uses and spell slots - especially once you decouple Bone Ward from wild shape.

IMO it might be smoother to be able to use Fossil Shield once per active Bone Ward. Granted, you're still tracking whether you've used it or not, but at least it's a binary/Boolean variable tacked on to Bone Ward instead of being its own separate resource.

Thanks for the input.

Yeah, the Fossil Shield was initially just the second paragraph of Bone Ward, but I needed a name for it for the upgrade at 14. I like your solution. And then at 14, you could just get a few more uses.

[RickAsWritten]

Updated to Rev:2. See first post.