WotC's Nathan Stewart Reveals Ravnica's Druid Circle of Spores

A quick Ravnica update! During a live streamed show this week, WoC's Nathan Stewart showed off the Circle of Spores druid from the upcoming Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. Thanks to the folks over at sageadvice.eu for grabbing screenshots!

 

[Charlaquin]

Haha the changes to how Halo of Spores and Fungal Infestation are activated are exactly how I house ruled them for my player who played a Circle of Spores Druid! Changing the damage from 3 to a scaling damage die is a nice change. Not sure I understand the reason for changing it from Poison to Necrotic though, especially when the extra melee damage from the Symbiotic Entity is still Poison. Still, excellent revision of the subclass overall!

 

[TwoSix]

I'll play it. As I said when the UA article came out, I love the fact they're pushing the envelope mechanically.

 

[AmerginLiath]

He also seems to reveal the Order Domain from the glance at the paragraph beforehand...

 

[GrissTheGnome]

Not sure I understand the reason for changing it from Poison to Necrotic though, especially when the extra melee damage from the Symbiotic Entity is still Poison.

im pretty sure it’s an Easter egg for the MtG players. The fungus Druid is very flavored around Golgari, who in Magic are green and black mana. Poison is green, and Necrotic is Black in this case.

 

[Nick Hatfield]

I mentioned this on reddit, but I'll repeat it here.

This feels like a subclass that is going to feel very bad to play at an actual table.

Con saves are not a good thing to target, especially when the effect does nothing on a save. This is not a feature that is going to succeed very often.

The melee attack adding poison damage is sad, because poison is the most resisted damage type in the game. In addition to that, there is no scaling since Druids never get extra attacks. It's like the Moon Druid level 2 boost without benefits later in the game.

Lastly, the zombie feature is going to clash with Halo of Spores because both are competing for your reaction. In fights where you are fighting beasts or humanoids, you are going to have to forgo using Halo of Spores in order to have a chance to raise a zombie. Competing action economies like this make for messy gameplay.

It looks like it will be very strong early game, but fall off heavily with levels to the point where you probably won't even want to be a melee fighter once you get Spreading Spores. Maybe that's ok, maybe it will be cool to have a character that starts as a melee fighter and transitions into a mage. However, I always read about how people only play up until level 10 or so. If that is the case then you will probably really like your first few levels and feel pretty weak by the end of the campaign.

 

[Charlaquin]

im pretty sure it’s an Easter egg for the MtG players. The fungus Druid is very flavored around Golgari, who in Magic are green and black mana. Poison is green, and Necrotic is Black in this case.

I guess that kinda makes sense.

 

[Zilong]

To be fair a lot of the poison immune/resistant things are undead, fiends, and constructs. Those don't necessarily show up in every campaign. Most humanoids take full damage and considering this is supposed to be a fairly urban-centric setting I'd guess humanoid foes will be common. Though if you like using constructs in cities, as I do, then that might be more of a problem since they are also immune. However, the occasional challenge to your character's fantastic archetype also provides some potentially interesting interactions with the world.

 

[UnknownDyson]

I mentioned this on reddit, but I'll repeat it here.

This feels like a subclass that is going to feel very bad to play at an actual table.

Con saves are not a good thing to target, especially when the effect does nothing on a save. This is not a feature that is going to succeed very often.

The melee attack adding poison damage is sad, because poison is the most resisted damage type in the game. In addition to that, there is no scaling since Druids never get extra attacks. It's like the Moon Druid level 2 boost without benefits later in the game.

Lastly, the zombie feature is going to clash with Halo of Spores because both are competing for your reaction. In fights where you are fighting beasts or humanoids, you are going to have to forgo using Halo of Spores in order to have a chance to raise a zombie. Competing action economies like this make for messy gameplay.

It looks like it will be very strong early game, but fall off heavily with levels to the point where you probably won't even want to be a melee fighter once you get Spreading Spores. Maybe that's ok, maybe it will be cool to have a character that starts as a melee fighter and transitions into a mage. However, I always read about how people only play up until level 10 or so. If that is the case then you will probably really like your first few levels and feel pretty weak by the end of the campaign.

I like it, it's thematic and is a very unique iteration of the druid. I don't think WOTC goes into making subclasses thinking how can we make this the most overpowered choice?

 

[Nick Hatfield]

I like it, it's thematic and is a very unique iteration of the druid. I don't think WOTC goes into making subclasses thinking how can we make this the most overpowered choice?

Of course they don't, but they should think about whether the player is going to have fun or not. I simply see a lot of unfun turns that go like this:

DM: The enemy moves up next to you

Player: I use Halo of Spores

DM: It saves (because it's a CON save)

Player: Oh... OK. Well it's my turn now, I attack and hit so it takes this much plus 1d6 poison

DM: You strike it upside the head, but you notice the poison has little/no effect on it

This has nothing to do with power levels. It's about making the player feel like they are doing something. If the main features of the class are unlikely to work (CON saves, poison damage) or you can only do one them (zombie or spores, you only get one reaction) then it will often result in one character constantly failing the thing they are built to do. I love the theme of it, but there are better ways to balance things while letting the player feel accomplished. Half damage on a save, necrotic instead of poison damage, etc. You can tune the damage numbers to be lower while allowing more successes and less failures.