Circle Of The Woad

The darker side of nature. The Circle of the Woad believes that humanoids cause suffering, and they claim the Circle of the Moon doesn’t go far enough in casting off the shackles of humanoid life. Druids of the Woad abandon all traces of flesh, embracing the forms of powerful plant creatures like the mighty treant. Civilization has grown too fast and too far; you will keep it in check. You will level cities with nature’s fury.

Druids who join the Circle of the Woad learn an ancient ritual of self-inscription. By crushing the petals of particular flowers and forming them into a thick paste, you are able to bring yourself closer to nature. You draw sustenance from the light and air around you, and you can adopt the tenacity of a mighty oak as you refine your Wild Shape ability to transform into a powerful plant.




Circle Of The Woad Features

Druid Level Feature
2nd Plant Metabolism, Plant Shape
6th Strength of the Forest
10th Sacrifice of Flesh
14th Might of the Woad



Plant Metabolism

At 2nd level, you cover your body in tattoos of blue floral ink as part of taking a long rest. Your body can gain sustenance from fresh air, sunlight, and water, just as a plant does. If you spend at least one hour in direct sunlight and drink one gallon of water in a day, you can sustain your body’s nutritional needs. These changes are permanent, even if the tattoos are removed, but you feel compelled to maintain them.




Plant Shape

At 2nd level, you gain the ability to transform yourself into a mighty plant creature. You can expend two uses of Wild Shape at the same time to transform into a plant with a challenge rating as high as 2 (you ignore the “Max. CR” column of the Beast Shape table but must abide by the other limitations there).

Starting at 6th level, you can transform into a plant with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 2, rounded down. The Monster Manual has few plant creatures to choose from, and you may need to consult other books to get the most out of this feature. At 6th level and every 2 levels after that, you add another plant tattoo to your body. The tattoo you choose has no impact on your abilities, but it symbolizes your commitment to the path and earns you greater respect or fear from other druids.




Strength of the Forest

Starting at 6th level, your attacks in plant form count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks.




Sacrifice of Flesh

At 10th level you may sacrifice your life force to continue your existence as a plant. When you are reduced to 0 hit points in plant form but not killed outright, you can choose to expend 5 of your hit dice, recovering no hit points from these dice, to drop to 1 hit point instead. Each time you use this ability, a small portion of your true form is replaced with a plantlike feature, such as a patch of bark instead of scar tissue, or flowering vines growing among your hair.




Might of the Woad

At 14th level, you can cast a druid spell while in plant form, provided the spell has no material components. You can use this ability twice per short rest, after which you regain all expended uses.

When you reach 18th level, you can instead use this ability to provide material components for a spell you cast using your Beast Spells feature, as long as those components don’t have a listed cost in gp. You still have two uses of this ability and recover them upon finishing a short rest.




Ref: T&H p388-389