#circle of the shepherd

[zephyrbug]

An evil aligned dhampir druid because sometimes you get sealed away for centuries and still don’t learn your lesson!! 🏮🍂

I was really inspired by the dhampir interpretation  “ A parasite lives inside you. You indulge its hunger.” So her and all of her lanterns are filled with this sentient evil sickness that makes her previously normal druidic powers a lil ✨ spicy ✨

Thematically I know spore druid is an option and it would fit her well, but I love taking a subclass and absolutely changing all of its flavor text so she’s actually a circle of the shepherd druid!

[hearthdraws]

Malyn got a new design after hitting lvl 10! My brain was huge when it came to that armour design

[worldsokayestmagicalgirl]

It’s wild thinking about how we’ve been playing this campaign for over 3 years but this is the first time we’re cosplaying our characters. But honestly I can’t express how happy getting to be Amoré for a night made me.

And we may not have had Diana this time but we did find Ziteng!

[raeynbowboi]

What Is the Best Party for a Necromancer

With enough time and preparation, a Necromancy Wizard can create a small army of powerful undead, but I got to wondering: what party formation does the best job at supporting the Necromancer's undead horde to reach its maximum potential? So, that's what I'm seeking to do. To create a party of 4-5 characters that best empowers and emboldens the Necromancer's army.

WIZARD SCHOOL OF NECROMANCY

The star and most likely the official team leader of the party, the Necromancy Wizard is the focal point of this team composition. With their 6th level feature: Undead Thralls, the Necromancy Wizard adds their Wizard level (6-20) to each undead's hit points, and their proficiency bonus (3-6) to each undead's weapon attack damage. This means that the Necromancy Wizard makes the strongest possible undead thralls in the game. At 14th level, the Necromancer can place any undead under their control with Command Undead. This gives the Wizard the ability to gain a free Wight, a high CR undead like a Nightwalker, or even notable villains like Acerack, Vecna, Strahd Von Zarovich, or Sylas Briarwood. Intelligent Undead can make saving throws, but a simple Feeblemind can take care of that pesky detail.

PALADIN OATHBREAKER

The Oathbreaker Paladin was chosen because of their 7th level feature: Aura of Hate. Any undead within 10 feet of the Paladin adds the Paladin's Charisma modifier (1-5) to all weapon attack damage. At 15th level, that Aura expands to 30 feet. Not only can this stack with the Necromancy Wizard's Undead Thralls feature, making undead near the paladin stronger, but the Paladin does not need to be the one who created the undead. So the Oathbreaker can lead the undead into battle on the front lines, while the Wizard stands further back sniping enemies with cantrips and low level spells. Unfortunately, only one Aura of Hate can effect a single undead, but in theory, one Necromancy Wizard with 3-4 spaced out oathbreakers each with a 10 or 30 ft aura can effectively organize your undead army into tight formation battalions. But there are other good allies to have in the game.

CLERIC GRAVE DOMAIN

We want the Grave Cleric for many reasons. Firstly, they get a lot of necromancy spells, so while their horde won't be as strong as the Wizard's they too can create a horde of undead, making an even bigger army. Their Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave makes it so that an enemy is vulnerable to the damage of the next attack that hits them, which sets up nicely for the Oathbreaker to lay down a devastating smite, or the Necromancy Wizard to ensure a fresh thrall from their Finger of Death. Sentinel at Death's Door can be used to nullify critical hits, which can keep not only party members, but even undead minions from being obliterated. The wizard's Wight that controls 12 zombies is probably an asset you don't want to risk losing, so having a way to save that valuable asset is useful. And, should the Necromancer forget to reassert control over their horde in time, the Cleric's Destroy Undead feature can help the party mow through the bodies.

DRUID CIRCLE OF THE SHEPHERD

I know, I know. A Shepherd Druid and a Necromancy Wizard in one party is a DM's nightmare, but there's a reason we're choosing this subclass. It's not the animal summoning, it's the Totem Spirit. See, the Totem Spirit radiates an aura in a 30 ft radius. And that aura bolsters as many creatures as you want within that aura. Meaning that not only can the shepherd provide aerial support with swarms of ravens and buzzards, but that aura also applies to the Wizard's undead horde. The Bear totem grants the undead Temporary Hit Points, and the Unicorn Spirit makes it so that when the Druid heals anyone outside the aura, they're also healing every creature inside the aura. While they can't target undead creatures with their healing spells, the aura's healing factor does not exclude undead, allowing the Druid to heal a party member, and in doing so, heal every undead within 30 feet of the totem spirit. The fact that the Druid can summon a stronger horde of animals is just a nice little cherry on top. There's also nothing saying you can't reflavor your animal army as being undead animal corpses with DM approval to fit in with the necromantic themes.

WARLOCK FATHOMLESS PATRON

This is the least useful of the five, but it does have its uses, so while it is the most expendable of the options, there are reasons to use it if you have a five man party. At 6th level, the Fathomless Warlock gains the ability Guardian Coil. Their summoned tentacle can defend a single ally creature, reducing damage the creature takes by 1d8, or 2d8 at level 10. At 14th level, Fathomless Plunge can be used to teleport the Warlock and up to five other creatures to any source of water within 1 mile. The Fathomless Warlock, The Shepherd Druid, and the Grave Cleric can cast Create or Destroy Water, and a puddle is a source of water, letting the warlock teleport fresh undead to the front lines, or move injured undead to the backlines. If the Druid has their Unicorn Totem, this can be a useful way to teleport party members or important undead like Wights to the Totem's aura, and giving the party ways to move important creatures. The teleported creatures also do not need to be near the Warlock, they simply need to be able to see them within 30 feet, allowing the warlock to give the undead horde greater mobility. Make your patron Davy Jones, The Captain of the Flying Dutchman, or the Eldritch Lord of Shipwrecks to keep on brand with the themes of undeath and necromancy within the party, tying yourself to those lost to watery graves.

SPELLS AND SYNERGY

The core spells of Animate Dead, Create Undead, Danse Macabre, and Finger of Death can be used to create undead thralls. Wizards get all four spells, while the Cleric only gets Animate Dead and Create Undead. Oathbreakers also get Animate Dead, but only get up to 5th level spell slots. Warlocks can learn Animate Dead through an Eldritch Invocation, but only once per long rest, and only at 3rd level. Warlocks also learn Danse Macabre and Finger of Death. They also get Create Undead, but can only cast it at 6th level.

Both the Warlock and the Wizard get access to Negative Energy Flood, which can be used to heal an undead, or to damage a living target. Like Finger of Death, a creature killed by Negative Energy Flood rises as a zombie.

Aura of Vitality is a spell for Clerics, Druids, and Paladins that creates a healing aura within 30 ft of the caster. The spell's text does not exclude undead from benefitting from this aura, however only one creature can be healed with a bonus action. While this isn't super useful given it only heals one creature, the Druid using this spell to trigger their Unicorn Totem every turn with a bonus action does make this more useful, as you're able to heal the undead army multiple turns in a row while only using one spell slot. And unlike Healing Spirit, the initial healing can also be applied to an undead. The only caveat is that the healing needs to go a creature outside of the unicorn totem's aura in order to trigger the healing. Luckily, the Totem does not have to be within any given distance of the Druid, which gives the Druid more flexibility in their positioning.

Every creature that can be created with Animate Dead and Create Undead (Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls, Ghasts, Wights, and Mummies) are immune to Poison damage. As such, AoE spells that deal Poison damage, such as Cloudkill can be dropped on top of your undead horde without harming them, but harming any living enemy near them. Your undead can also attempt to grapple foes, holding them in the Cloudkill, preventing them from leaving as they suffocate. The Necromancy Wizard is the only member of the party that can learn Cloudkill.

Both the Grave Cleric and the Druid can learn Antilife Shell, which pushes living creatures away from the caster, while allowing undead creatures to move through the shell harmlessly. This can be a great way to keep Strength-based enemies at a distance. Unfortunately the shell is not a proper force field, as weapon and spell attacks can still pass through, so this is not a way to protect the Wizard. It only keeps melee-ranged threats at bay.

BALDUR'S GATE III

While we can't recreate this team set-up perfectly in Baldur's Gate III, we can still do a weaker version with four party members: TAV as a Necromancy Wizard, Astarion or Karlach as an Oathbreaker, Shadowheart as really any Cleric subclass, and Wyll as a Fiend Warlock with a Pact of the Tome. The Tome will allow Wyll to cast Animate Dead and Create Undead, Tav and Shadowheart will also be able to create undead, and Astarion or Karlach will be able to use their aura of hate to strengthen those undead thralls. It's not as good as what we built above, but short of mods, it's the best we can do. It doesn't really matter who's what, this is just an example of a party composition. Astarion could just as easily be the necromancer and TAV the Oathbreaker, you could have Gale as the Necromancer, or Lae'zel as the Oathbreaker. What really matters are the classes. The Cleric can still clear any undead that turn on the party, the paladin still bolsters the already stronger undead, and every member of the party is pretty much able to make equally strong undead, the Wizards undead are just juiced up to the max.

[galilelgalileo]

I come back to the art scene via DND have a brightmaid/tiefling shepherd 🦄🌱

[dragonbackvoyager]

The curved bones nestled between his fingers snap and click with a satisfying rhythm as he flicks his wrists, cheerfully singing their own song beside the bright crackling of the fire.

What kind of instrument would a Druid play amongst friends? I really like the rhythm bones for Taurosso. Their construction helps keep part of a necessary hunt from being wasted, and their role as percussion means that he can heartily support any musical endeavors that happen upon him during his travels!

[catsidhesilvie]

The "before" time, when Zilvra was a druid who guarded a fey crossing, until she was kidnapped and ended up having to create a pact with an archfey to escape the feywilds :D

Notice that she has all kinds of flowers around that are NOT wilting, hahaha. I figured, for her to have been so annoyed by the wilting curse without memory, being around flowers must have been a sacred and regular occurance for her.

[bugpysforge]

Most of the time, Quagsire is an idler who doesn't want to accomplish anything. He lets others do all the work and just lounges about. He is extremely accepting of all creatures, monsters and people.

Race: Grung Class: Druid Subclass: Circle of the Shepherd Location: Harbor Inns Alignment: Neutral Good

View the pokedex of all dungeon pokemon by following the link in the menu.

[peachmimosaart]

Iris, Circle of the Shepard Druid and Peace Domain Cleric. A character of mine in an upcoming campaign.

She's the child of an arch fey and a human bard (technically making her an eladrin stat-wise). I love her rainbow hair.

[ashleyrowan]

Our polls have chosen Druid as a class! And now its time for our final poll: What kind of druid will our Scourge Aasimar be?

[werepaladin]

I know I don’t really share my art here too often, but I’m extremely proud of how this came out.

Introducing Dizzie, they/them, a Satyr Circle of the Shepherd druid. However, unlike your average druid of their circle, they raise their animal summons as undead rather than simply summoning them. They’re for an evil-parody west marches game I joined recently, and I’m super excited to play them!

[plinplinplonk]

Updated reference for Thyme!

[dragomerepyrrhart]

Lesbian Pride art of my Kalashtar Circle of the Shepherd Druid, Novakri of the Blue Flock. She would unironically wear the wings as a reflection of her favorite wildshapes.

[worldsokayestmagicalgirl]

When Amoré sees a group of low tier noble girls picking on Sylphi at this party and her first reaction is,

“Where is the PASSION, where is the VISION…you’re all a disgrace.”

*casts Ray of Frost & makes them all eat shit*

“If you’re going to make fun of her Fluttershy looking ass, then at least put some effort into it. You’re making the rest of us look bad.”

Honestly in retrospect Amoré probably killed at least one of these NPCs with their 3 hit points. At least one of these girls had to have fallen on these ice spikes & those fluffy dresses only cushion them so much.

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[batwingtensei]

[D&D] Lilas the Circle of the Shepherd Druid

[hearthdraws]

Tried experimenting with new brushes, and decided to challenge myself to not use colour for once while doing so!