#TheGriffonsSaddlebag_BookOne

From all walks of life come new ecosystems. Nature is limitless, and over time will successfully conquer any challenge set before it. So too are the druids dedicated to protecting it.

Through foggy glens, icy crags, or molten wastelands, druids across the world will always seek to defend nature and destroy the forces that seek to oppress it. As diverse as the land, druids develop their own methodology, traditions, and druidic circles over generations.

The Unbroken Circle is an order of druids who have abandoned the patient teachings of their predecessors, deciding instead to take up arms in defense of the wilderness. These combative druids form militias and harness the fury of nature itself to forcefully remove any encroaching evil that threatens their sacred lands.

While the chaotic bend of nature is found within these druids, their bodies and impulses are tamed through training and discipline. Originally from the unforgiving Festerwood, this circle’s teachings are as rigorous as the forest, blending a mixture of offense and defense to stand up to all of the world’s challenges.

2nd-level Unbroken Circle Feature
When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons. In addition, you learn the shillelagh cantrip. If you already know this cantrip, you learn a different druid cantrip of your choice. The cantrip doesn’t count against your number of cantrips known.

When you cast shillelagh, you can use it to imbue any melee weapon you’re holding with nature’s power. If you’re holding a weapon under the effects of shillelagh, you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your druid spells.

2nd-level Unbroken Circle Feature
At 2nd level, you gain the ability to recover using the wild, bestial magic that courses through you. As a bonus action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape to regain a number of hit points equal to 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1). When you reach 10th level in this class, you regain 2d10 + your Wisdom modifier instead.

6th-level Unbroken Circle Feature
Starting at 6th level, when you cast shillelagh, the weapon’s damage die becomes a d10, instead of a d8. When you reach 14th level in this class, the damage die becomes a d12.
In addition, while you’re wielding a weapon under the effects of shillelagh, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn using  that weapon.

10th-level Unbroken Circle Feature
At 10th level, when you use your action to cast a druid cantrip, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

14th-level Unbroken Circle Feature
By 14th level, your connection to nature helps to shield  you from harm. At the start of each of your turns, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to half your druid level.

#TheGriffonsSaddlebag_BookTwo

Channeling their inner connection to the earth in order to control powerful spells and magic abilities, druids are the wardens of the natural world. Valuing the needs of all living things against their own, these primal mages are likely to feel out of place when joining the rest of civilization. However, when the balance of the natural world is at stake, nothing can quell a druid’s determination and ferocity, rushing to thwart the efforts of evil and the unnatural—especially aberrations and undead.

The Circle of Dragons is an old order of druids steeped in rigid tradition. These honor-bound wardens of nature and draconic heritage are members of a secret society that have influenced governance, war, and culture across the world. High-standing members of this Circle have ties to royal bloodlines that date back generations, a connection that’s subtly showcased in royal family crests and insignia.

2nd-level Circle of Dragons feature
Starting at 2nd level, you can speak, read, and write Draconic. Additionally, whenever you make an
Intelligence (History) check related to draconic history or lore, you can add your proficiency bonus to the check. If you are already proficient in the History skill, you can add double your proficiency bonus to the check instead.

2nd-level Circle of Dragons feature

At 2nd level, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature as a bonus action to transform into a unique form: your dragon shape. You become a Medium dragon while in this form, standing on all fours, but retain your normal character statistics and senses. Your dragon shape’s AC is equal to 13 + your Dexterity modifier (maximum 2) and has a walking speed and climbing speed of 30 feet. In addition, when you take this form, you gain temporary hit points equal to your hit point maximum.

When you return to your normal form, you lose any remaining temporary hit points. You can remain in this form for a number of hours equal to half your druid level, rounded down. You can
revert to your normal form earlier by using a bonus action on your turn. You automatically revert if you fall unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die.

When you use your dragon shape, you determine what type of dragon to transform into. The type of dragon determines your scale color and breath weapon’s damage type, as shown in the table below, but your appearance is otherwise up to you. Your wings aren’t yet fully formed at 2nd level, but grow stronger as you gain levels in this class.

You can’t cast spells while in this form, but gain a different set of actions you can use on each of your turns:

Your breath weapon improves at certain levels. At 6th level, your breath weapon deals 3d6 damage and extends in a 20-foot cone. At 10th level, it deals 4d6 damage and extends in a 25-foot cone, and at 14th level it deals 5d6 damage and extends in a 30-foot cone.

6th-level Circle of Dragons feature
By 6th level, your control over your dragon shape has improved, granting you the following benefits while in that form:

10th-level Circle of Dragons feature
Starting at 10th level, you’re able to cast certain druid spells while in your dragon shape. To cast a spell while in this form, it must use a druid spell slot level of 3rd or lower, and it can’t require any material components.

In addition, your scales continue to toughen and your wings have become strong enough to carry you. You gain the following benefits while in your dragon shape:

14th-level Circle of Dragons feature
At 14th level, you can use your breath weapon even while you’re not in your dragon shape.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest. In addition, you gain the following benefits while in your dragon shape:

Finally, when you take on your dragon shape, you can choose to become a Large dragon, instead of Medium. If you do, your bite has a reach of 10 feet, instead of 5.

#RyokosGuideToTheYokaiRealms

Druids belonging to the Circle of the Yokai seek a connection to nature beyond the physical, aligning themselves with the mysterious yokai spirits that embody and inhabit the natural world. This connection allows such druids to assume yokai forms, becoming entities of nature while retaining their own mind and voice. Moreover, such druids can encourage roaming yokai spirits to settle in plants, flames, pebbles, and streams, turning these facets of nature into grasping weeds, furious wildfires, stalwart bastions of rock, or living wyrms of water.

2nd-Level Circle of the Yokai Feature
You have formed a bond with the yokai, mysterious spirits that populate the land. Your connection to the Circle of the Yokai grants you access to some spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Circle of the Yokai Spells table. Once you gain access to one of these spells, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.

Circle of the Yokai Spells

*See hapter 13 - Spells

2nd-Level Circle of the Yokai Feature
Your circle’s connection to the realms allows you to assume more powerful, yokai forms. In addition to mundane Beasts, you can use your Wild Shape to transform into any Beast, Celestial, Construct, Fey, Fiend, or Plant yokai with a CR up to the value in the Circle of the Yokai Wild Shapes table for your druid level.

Circle of the Yokai Wild Shapes

*Yokai found in Chapter 14 unless otherwise stated. **Found in Wrath of the Kaiju.

In addition, while in any form using your Wild Shape, you retain more of your druidic power, granting the following benefits:

6th-Level Circle of the Yokai Feature
Your connection to the yokai allows you to channel their power when you draw upon your druidic spellcasting. Immediately after you cast a spell of 1st level or higher, you can use your Wild Shape feature as a reaction. Once you use this reaction, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

In addition, while you are concentrating on a spell and transformed by your Wild Shape, your weapon attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

10th-Level Circle of the Yokai Feature
You have the power to call upon the Fey yokai that inhabit objects. You can cast the animate objects spell as an action without using a spell slot or material components. When you cast the spell in this way, the effect lasts for the next 10 minutes, after which time the magic ends and the target returns to normal. Once you do so, you must finish a long rest before you can cast it in this way again.

14th-Level Circle of the Yokai Feature
Your yokai forms overflow with magic, fortifying your connection to the spirit realm. If you drop to 0 hit points while transformed into a yokai with your Wild Shape, you can use your reaction to instantly use Wild Shape again (expending a use as normal), and any remaining damage carries over to your new form. Once you use this reaction, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

In addition, while transformed by your Wild Shape, if you use an action to cast a spell, you can use your bonus action on that turn to make one attack.

#HelianasGuideToMonsterHunting

Druids of the Circle of the Hive share their body with a plethora of tiny arthropods—insects, arachnids, or even crustaceans. These symbiotes call such druids home, living within their skin, clothes, and hair. This habitation might manifest as a honeycomb-like hive, a silky subcutaneous trapdoor (below which lurks a spider), or butterfly chrysalids hanging from their hair. Druids of this circle relish creating a moving biosphere that sustains a variety of organisms, often seeking out new and exotic species as symbiotic lodgers. These creatures are a part of the druid, nourishing and protecting the druid as the druid nourishes and protects its tenants.

2nd-level Circle of the Hive feature
Your symbiotic link to arthropods and their versatility grants you access to certain spells. At 2nd level, you learn the swarm cantrip (see page 512).
At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level, you gain access to the spells listed for that level in the Circle of the Hive Spells table. Once you gain access to one of these spells, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.
All these spells use arthropods in their manifestation; for example, arcane eye or mislead could be a swarm of flies you conjure and imbue with different properties.

2nd-level Circle of the Hive feature
When you use your Wild Shape feature, you can turn into a swarm of creatures, adhering to the normal limitations on CR and speed.

2nd-level Circle of the Hive feature
The symbiotes that inhabit your body flit in and around you, harmless until threatened. As a bonus action, you can release pheromones, stimulating hyper-aggression in your symbiotes for the next minute. The first time you are hit by a melee attack from a creature within 15 feet of you on its turn, the swarm retaliates, forcing the attacker to make a Constitution saving throw against your druid spell save DC. On a failure, the attacker takes 1d4 poison damage. The poison damage increases to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8 at 10th level, and 1d10 at 14th level.
After you activate this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
In addition, you can communicate with arthropods using pheromones, conveying basic emotions and ideas.

6th-level Circle of the Hive feature
Your connection to the arthropods you host becomes deeper; they regard you as a worker bee would its queen, and they gladly sacrifice themselves to protect you. As a reaction when you take damage from a source you can see, you can command your insect symbiotes to swarm in front of you, deflecting some of the incoming energy. You gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your druid level, which take as much of the triggering damage as possible.
You lose any remaining temporary hit points at the end of the current turn. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum once), regaining all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

10th-level Circle of the Hive feature
You have attracted a species of flying arthropod that produces a mixture of sugar and adrenaline with amazing, stimulating properties. As a bonus action, you can send these creatures to invigorate a willing creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The creature regains hit points equal to your druid level and can immediately use its reaction to move up to its speed. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

14th-level Circle of the Hive feature
Hosting such a variety of tiny beings has permanently altered your personal biosphere. You gain the following benefits: