Circle of the Shifter

A new circle for the druid class

by MARK STOUT

Original Concept by CURTIS PRESTON & MARK STOUT

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This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for
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All other original material in this work is copyright 2017 by Mark Stout and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.

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Circle of the Shifter
A human man leaps towards the goblin band, his arms swelling
as they grow into the viciously clawed arms of a grizzly bear.
His powerful blows scatter the band, sending them screaming
away in disarray.
The bandits threatening the elf woman back away as her
head changes into that of a growling wolf. Behind her a scorpion
tail, stinger dripping with venom, rises up to threaten all in
front of her.
The halfling man runs towards the cliff as the ogres behind
him draw near. Without hesitation, he leaps off the cliff. As the
ogres come to a halt, gawking in astonishment, he rises back into
view, carried on the winds by a pair of magnificent eagle wings.
The druids who join the Circle of the Shifter are not unlike
their brethren in the Circle of the Moon. They too defend
wild places against any who seek to despoil them. The
difference is these druids master tapping into the primal
spirit of an animal, and drawing an aspect of it into
themselves, as a partial transformation.
The shifter druid may call on the bear to transform his
arms into natural weapons, the eagle to gain remarkable
sight, the spider to gain extra legs to climb with, or the hawk
to sprout wings. This grants the shifter druid remarkable
versatility, at the expense of being less capable of full wild
shaping compared to a moon druid.
The transformation grants the druid the ability of the
creature as shown in the stat block. A druid gaining the arms
of a brown bear also gains the bear's Strength score of 19, but
only for the purposes of calculating attack and damage rolls
- not carrying capacity, ability checks, or saving throws. The
druid uses her own proficiency bonus when needed. If she
gains a movement ability, the speed is that of the beast
emulated.
The shifter druid's ability to cast spells is limited by the
type of shifting she chooses. Any animal change to the
druid's head makes her incapable of casting spells with a
verbal (V) component. Any animal change to her arms
likewise makes casting spells with a somatic (S) component
impossible.
Combat Shaping
When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain the ability
to use Wild Shape to transform one part of your body to gain
an aspect of any beast you wish to emulate. This could be the
arms of a bear, the head of a wolf, the fins and gills of a fish,
or the wings of an eagle. However, you must still adhere to
the limitations in the Beast Shapes table (PH pg. 66) under
Wild shape. You may not choose an ability score as an aspect
until you gain Primal Aspect at 14th level.
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When you change in this manner, you gain the half the
hit points of the beast you take the aspect from as temporary
hit points. Depletion of these hit points does not end the
Combat Shape.
Additionally, you gain the ability to use your Wild Shape
in this manner as a bonus action.
Circle Shaping
The rites learned from your circle grant you the ability to
transform aspects from more dangerous beasts. Starting at
2nd level, you can use your Wild Shape to transform a part
of your body from a beast with a Challenge Rating as high as
1 (you ignore the Max. CR column of the Beast Shapes table,
but abide by other limitations.
Starting at 6th level, you can use aspects from a beast
with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by
3, rounded down.
Circle Shaping does not benefit you when you use Wild
Shape to assume a full animal form.
Primal Strike
Starting at 6th level, your Wild Shaped attacks count as
magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and
immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Multi Shaping
Starting at 6th level, you can shape up to two different parts
of your body, drawing aspects from two different beasts, as
one use of your Wild Shape. You could have the arms and
legs (speed) of a lion, or the wings of a hawk and stinger of a
giant scorpion, or any other combination permitted by your
level and Max. CR on the Beast Shapes table.
If you have two aspects that allow attacks, you are
considered to have Multiattack, allowing you to make one
attack with each aspect as an action.
Improved Shaping
Starting at 10th level, you can shape up to three different
parts of your body, drawing aspects from three different
beasts, as one use of your Wild Shape. If you have two
aspects that allow attacks, you have Multiattack, allowing
two attacks with the least damaging aspect, and one attack
with the highest damaging aspect.
Additionally, you gain another use of Wild Shape that
can only be used for a partial transformation.
Primal Aspect
Starting at 14th level, you can use your Wild Shape to gain
the Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution score of a beast you
are able to emulate. This does not count as an aspect. You
raise that ability, immediately gaining all benefits of the
improved score.
You can raise only one ability score at a time. Selecting a
new ability score immediately drops the previously selected
score back to its normal value.
CIRCLE OF THE SHIFTER 2
Example Aspects
The following is a sampling of the aspects a shifter druid can
emulate, based on level and Max. CR as normal. Each subset
is considered a separate aspect.
• Animal Head: Bite attack (including poison), Gore
attack, one sense (darkvision, etc), Keen sight, Keen
hearing (and/or smell), Breathe underwater,
Amphibious.
• Animal Arms/Legs: Claw attack, Talon attack,
Stomp attack, Land speed, Swim speed, Burrow
speed, Standing leap, Sure footed, Spider climb,
Web walker.
• Animal Hide: Armor class.
• Wings: Fly speed, Flyby.

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