Circle of the Dying

Those who know how, can faintly hear the sound of souls passing between worlds. Innocent creatures and totemic spirits seeking solace: these beings speak to us and we give them a voice, while our body takes on the ghostly appearance of those children of creation whose steps no longer walk the world.

The Druids of this circle have learned to perceive the darkest and most dreary face of nature, and consequently to tap into it. They are the descendants of ancient pagan cults, and as such they pass on the spirituality of those ancestors who first studied the esoteric arts that bind mortals and creation in order to shape the primeval energies according to their will.

Necrotic Caress

When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you learn the poison spray cantrip.

Dark Wild Shape

At 2nd level, when using the wild shape feature, you can accept a reduction to your Maximum and Current Hit Points equal to your character level. In doing so, the chosen wild shape will become a dark wild shape. The loss of Maximum Hit Points is recovered after a long rest.

A dark wild form gains the following features in addition to (or in place of, where specified) those of the beast you transform into:

• The type of creature changes from beast to undead
• You gain resistance to necrotic damage, poison, and cold damage, and also resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage when inflicted by nonmagical weapons.
• You have vulnerability to radiant damage.
• You gain darkvision (60 feet).
• Your Maximum Hit Points increased to 15, unless the chosen beast already has a higher amount; for each of your druid levels above the 2nd, increase said Maximum Hit Points amount by your Wisdom modifier.
• Each attack of the dark wild shape deals 1d6 additional damage, cold or necrotic, depending on type chosen during transformation; this additional damage increases at 6th level (1d8), 10th level (1d10) and 14th level (1d12).
• Shadow Stealth: As long as you are in dim light or darkness, you can use Hide as a bonus action.

Unholy Bond

At 6th level, you have advantage on saving throws against effects that cause the frightened condition. You also have access to additional spells related to the netherworld, as shown in the following table:

Druid Level

Unholy Bond	Spells
6th	speak with dead
9th	animate dead
12th	circle of death
15th	finger of death

Dread Necromorphosis

At 10th level, you can spend two uses of wild shape simultaneously to transform into a dread shambler.

Lord of Bones

At 14th level, your connection to nature’s corruption and knowledge of death allows you to command undead.

When an undead creature attacks you, you can use your Reaction to spend a spell slot and attempt to take control of it. If the target’s Challenge Rating is equal to or below the level of the spell slot spent, the creature must make a successful Wisdom saving throw against your spell DC or fall under your control; otherwise, the feature has no effect. Targets with Intelligence 10 or higher have advantage on the saving throw to resist this ability.

As long as it stays within 60 feet of you, you can give it simple telepathic commands, of one or two words, which it will obey to the best of its abilities. Some commands, for example, can be: “protect me“, “attack“, “patrol“, “wait here“, “drag this“. In the absence of a specific command or if unable to carry out the assigned task, the Undead will only defend itself (using the Dodge action in combat), remaining within a 60 feet of you, if possible .

The creature will stay under your control until it is destroyed, until the next Full Moon rises, or until you use this feature against another undead creature. If the effect ends without the undead creature being destroyed, it remains incapacitated for a round, only to become hostile afterwards.