Circle of the Elements (5A)

Starfox's 5th Edition Fan Page

This is a Druid circle for 5A.

“I defy you interlopers to enter my domain!” roared the Lady of Flame, her pale face burning with hatred. “Your legionnaires cut down our master at Ynys Mon, but the great red wyrm still lives. And she speaks through me!” The twin vipers in her hands twisted at her words and a gout of fire billowed down the hill.

Druids of the Circle of Elements delight in the raw power of nature. Their magic harnesses the elements to their will, manipulating the environment, permitting them new forms of movement, conjuring elementals or enabling them to assume elemental forms.

Like other druids, members of this circle has power over all the elements, but they have a particular affinity for one element, gaining some specialized spells and powers. The circle sees cold as a separate element, so there are five elemental options. They tend to take on characteristics of their chosen element, so most fire druids are hot tempered, cold druids are cold-tempered, air druids are changeable and fickle, earth druids are stolid, and water druids wax and wane with the tides. Most compete fiercely with other druids and any of their allies. The Circle’s leaders are drawn from those rare individuals who have achieved a degree of balance and subtlety from mastery of all five elements.

Source: En5ider 9. Extensive edits.

Elemental Affinity

At 2nd level when you join the Circle of the Elements, you must select one element, air, cold, earth, fire, or water. This choice affects the powers you gain as you advance in the circle.

Circle Spells

At 2nd level and above, your character’s connection to the elements grants them access to certain spells. Add the spells in the universal column of the Elemental Spells table as well as the spells listed for your Elemental Affinity to your list of spells. These become druid spells to you, but they must be prepared and cast like any other druid spell.

Elemental Spells

Druid Level	Spells
	Universal	Air	Cold	Earth	Fire	Water
2	Chromatic Orb	Thunderclap	Frostbite	Mold Earth	Create Bonfire	Shape Water
2	Absorb Elements	Witch Bolt	Frost Fingers	Catapult	Burning Hands	Tasha's Caustic Brew
3	Dragon's Breath	Kinetic Jaunt	Rime's Binding Ice	Maximillian's Earthen Grasp	Pyrotechnics	Melf's Acid Arrow
5	Fear	Lightning Bolt	Vampiric Touch	Pulse Wave	Fireball	Hunger of Hadar
7	Banishment	Storm Sphere	Otiluke's Resilient Sphere	Gravity Sinkhole	Widogast's Web of Fire	Vitriolic Sphere
9	Animate Objects	Cloudkill	Dawn	Passwall	Immolation	Bigby's Hand

Elemental Energy Recovery

From 2nd level onwards, you can recover used spell slots during a short rest, of a combined value up to half your druid level, rounded up. You can use this ability once, regaining it at the end of a long rest.

Element Walker

Beginning at 6th level, you can travel freely through the element corresponding to your Elemental Affinity for a number of rounds equal to half your druid level, rounded up.

Air. While walking through air, you have a fly speed equal to twice your walking speed.

Cold. While walking through cold, you are immune to cold damage. If you are in contact with ice or snow, or take cold damage at any point of your move, your land speed doubles.

Earth. While walking through earth, you have a burrow speed equal to your walking speed. You do not leave any tunnel behind but cannot burrow through stone.

Fire. While walking through fire, you are immune to fire damage. If you would normally take fire damage at any point of your movement, your land speed doubles.

Water. While waling through water, you have a swim speed equal to twice your walking speed and can breathe water.

Your equipment and clothing travels with you and is also protected. At 6th level you cannot take companions or allies with you. At level 10 you can take a number of allies you touch equal to your proficiency bonus along when you walk the elements. Each of these allies must start their turn within 50 feet of you or the effect ends for that ally. This feature cannot be used again until you finish a short or long rest.

Elemental Wild Shape

At 10th level and beyond, you can use Wild Shape to transform into a type of elemental depending on your Elemental Affinity: Air or Cold: air, Earth: earth, Fire: fire, Water: water. The elemental you change into must have an Intelligence of 6 or less but can have a challenge rating as high as half your druid level, rounded down. Ignore the Beast Shapes table when using Elemental Wild Shape.

Blend the Elements

At 14th level, you can use all elements, as if you had Elemental Affinity in each of the five elements. When using Element Walker, you simultaneously gain all the benefits.

Editor's Notes

The spells were a mess and had to be re-done from scratch. As the basic frame of this is decently strong, I only added the spells to the spell list without making them automatically prepared. Druids have no standard for how additional spells work, so this should be ok.

Using cold as a druid element was a whim given by available spells at low levels, but became somewhat tricky at higher levels.