Druid Circle

Circle of Vermin

The Circle of Vermin—named with spite by other druid circles, and adopted as a form of indignance—understands that nature is its own protector. For every beautiful meadow, there is a poisonous bog; for every doe, there is a predator; for every peaceful death, there is a virulent plague. To accept otherwise is an insult to the natural world. Vermin druids use primordial nature magic to punish such transgressions and rebuke attempts at taming the untameable.

The Meek, The Many

At 2nd level, you are a master of transforming into small, underestimated creatures. You no longer have to expend Wild Shape uses to transform into Small or smaller Beasts of CR 0.

Wretched Touch

Starting when you adopt this circle at 2nd level, you can afflict creatures with powerful curses. As a bonus action, you can touch a creature and expend one use of Wild Shape to force the creature to make a Charisma saving throw. On a failure, you inflict one of the following curses.

Curse of Antlers. The creature's face becomes disfigured and animal-like, and their grasp on language becomes stilted. They suffer disadvantage on all Charisma checks.

Curse of Bees. Small insects buzz at the corner of the creature's vision, producing an unbearable droning sound. Each time they attempt to cast a spell of 1st level or higher, they must make a concentration check (DC 10) to successfully cast it, or else the spell slot is wasted. Additionally, if concentrating on a spell, they must make a concentration check at the start of each turn to maintain it.

Curse of Drought. The creature's skin becomes dry and cracked. They cannot regain hit points until the curse expires, and they gain no benefit from consuming food or drinks, magical or otherwise.

Curse of Nettles. Every minor wound festers and foams. Each time the creature suffers bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, they take additional poison damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Curse of Shadows. The creature's eyes cloud over with wispy black smoke. They are considered blinded beyond 20 feet.

Curse of Weariness. The creature becomes very tired. They suffer 1 point of exhaustion, which lasts until the curse expires.

Curses do not stack; applying a curse to a creature that is already affected by one of the above effects results in the latter curse's failure. Curses last until the target finishes a long rest or until it is removed by remove curse or similar magic.

Plague of Hexes

At 6th level, when a creature dies while afflicted by one of your curses, all creatures within 30 feet of them must make a Charisma saving throw or be cursed by the same effect. You can choose to exclude creatures that are allied to you.

Repulsive Resurrection

At 10th level, when you reach 0 hit points, you can transform into a swarm of bats, insects, quippers, or rats (your choice) (MM pg 337-339). This lasts for 1 hour. This form follows all the rules of Wild Shape; if your swarm form is reduced to 0 hit points, you return to your humanoid form, unconscious, and must start making death saving throws.

Each time you deal damage with a weapon attack as a swarm, record how much damage you deal. At the end of the duration, you return to humanoid form with hit points remaining equal to the total damage you dealt as a swarm. Alternatively, if you deal a total amount of damage equal to half your maximum hit points or greater, you can return to humanoid form with this many hit points as a bonus action.

Once this feature is used, it cannot be used again until you finish a long rest.

Ritualmaster

At 14th level, you can inflict more powerful curses via a ritual.

If you have a piece of a creature's flesh—1 cubic inch of flesh or bone, or a vial of their blood—you can enact a 10-minute ritual and expend one use of Wild Shape, choosing one curse effect.

The target becomes afflicted by the curse for 24 hours. The curse cannot be prematurely ended by any magic short of wish or divine intervention.

If Plague of Hexes is triggered when a creature afflicted by this curse dies, all creatures that fail the saving throw are afflicted for 24 hours, and the curse cannot be removed from them by magic short of wish or divine intervention.