Homebrew Druid Circle: Circle of the Barrow
It’s been a while since I did a homebrew subclass. This one is inspired about half and half by my idealised gothic spell list and by my homebrew deity Doram, the Red Spectre, a deity of War, Grave and Nature who lays to rest the dead of war. I wanted a druid subclass that is about healing and rest and reclamation. And rain. Heh.
DRUID CIRCLE: CIRCLE OF THE BARROW
Sooner or later, given enough time, nature heals all wounds. Even war, even death, even catastrophe. Seeds drift on the wind. Rains water scorched earth. Ruins and graves, slowly but surely, are covered over. Life filters back across the gap, not erasing, but merging with, the pain that has gone before. Druids of the Circle of the Barrow believe that it is their solemn and gentle duty to aid this process along, to be the point where life and death meet and are gently encouraged to entwine. To plant flowers over graves, and fields over ancient battlefields, and bring gentle rains to lands scorched and tainted by dark forces. They ignore neither the living nor the dead, offering peace and healing and restoration to all, where it is within their power to give.
Called gravewalkers or barrow weeds, druids of this circle often walk the world, tied less to a single grove or territory, and asked instead to roam, to journey to where they are needed most.
You walk across the healing scars of the world, the places where life and death intermingle, and like mist and rain, the influence of these places has seeped into your magic, granting you access to some spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as seen in the table below.
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.
Druid level Circle of the Barrow spells
3rd Gentle Repose, Healing Spirit
5th Plant Growth, Spirit Shroud
7th Greater Invisibility, Mordenkainen’s Faithful Hound
9th Greater Restoration, Hallow
Rains come to wash away the scars, the scorching and the blood, and you have learned to call them. Starting at 2nd level, as an action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to reach out your magic and summon a mystical fall of rain from thin air, rather than transforming into a beast. The rain falls in a cylinder that is 10ft tall with a 30ft radius centered on you, and is not impeded by ceilings, walls or other obstacles. These rains restore a number of hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier to all creatures of your choice within the area, before dissipating once more.
You walk where the world has been scarred, where malice and desperation have wrought their work, and so your magic seeks to defend you from these forces. Beginning at 6th level, every time you finish a long rest, you can choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or necrotic. You gain resistance to that damage type until you choose a different type with this feature.
Beginning at 10th level, your ability to summon Soft Rains becomes more powerful and pervasive. Once summoned, the rains last for 1 minute or until you die or are incapacitated. While the rains are present, creatures of your choice regain hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier every time they start their turn within the rains, and they have advantage on Constitution and Wisdom saving throws as long as they remain within the radius.
Starting at 14th level, your rains create an echo of the future, temporarily transforming the land around you as well as washing away wounds. When you summon Soft Rains, where those rains touch the ground, phantom plants and vines sprout and reach upwards, a spectral echo of future reclamation. These plants vanish when the rains end. While these plants exist, creatures of your choice within the radius of the rains must spend 4ft of movement for every 1ft they move. As bonus action on each of your turns, you can choose 1 creature within the radius and force them to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, they are restrained by the spectral vines until the start of your next turn.
