Circle of Titans (v2)

 The previous Unearthed Arcana gave us several "villainous" subclasses and character options. They've now come back with a revision to a few of these.

We'll start with the Druid's Circle of Titans. In the "One D&D" playtest, they briefly experimented with the idea of having the Circle of the Moon use three broad templates (similar to the stat blocks for the Beast Master Ranger's pets) rather than having you search through beast stat blocks. I actually far preferred this as a design idea, because it made the subclass more consistent, but the problem was that the templates sucked. A lot of people also didn't like the lack of versatility. But I think they abandoned the idea too quickly. Thankfully, the Circle of Titans revisits this concept. And while the previous UA version of it replicated some of the same mistakes (the Insectoid form more or less capped its AC at 13) the new one seems poised to fix these problems and then some.

Indeed, on first glance, I'm excited for this version of the subclass, but is it too powerful?

Let's do a full preview.

Circle Spells:

Cantrip: Thaumaturgy

1st: Thunderwave

2nd: Enlarge/Reduce

3rd: Fear

4th: Fire Shield

5th: Destructive Wave

    Notably, you can cast these spells while in your Titan Form. I think these are pretty solid spell options - Fear is a great crowd control spell, and while you can buff your own attacks with Enlarge/Reduce, you might start getting absurdly big.

Level 3:

Titan Form:

When you use Wild Shape, you can adopt a Titan Form, choosing from Behemoth, Leviathan, or Insectoid stat blocks. You can only stay in a Titan Form for up to 10 minutes.

Each Titan Form gains new abilities and features as you gain Druid levels. Broadly, each one uses your spell attack modifier for its attack rolls, gets Extra Attack at level 5, has Strength and Dexterity equal to your Wisdom scores (other stats remain the same,) has a 40 foot speed and a 40-foot alternate speed depending on the form. Each has an AC equal to 13+ your Wisdom modifier, Darkvision out to 60 feet, and grants Temp HP equal to 4 times your Druid level. Also, each form is a Siege Monster, dealing double damage to objects and structures.

    Notably, that's now more temp HP than Moon Druids get, but the form is also, of course, much more limited in duration. Basically, it'll be like a Barbarian's Rage, certainly usable in a whole combat, but maybe not two fights.

Lastly, each form's Rend attack (its primary melee attack) deals 1d8+Wisdom damage - slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage for the Behemoth, Leviathan, and Insectoid respectively. This damage scales up as you level up, going to 2d8 at level 6 and 3d8 at level 12. (Also, Rend has a 10-foot reach.)

    That's actually a pretty big deal - you effectively have a somewhat better Vicious weapon (adding 2d8 rather than 2d6) automatically by level 12, and you can still benefit from magic items that boost your spell attack modifier.

Here are specific things each form gets:

Behemoth:

This one gets a climb speed. Incandescent Breath lets you, as an action, expend a spell slot to do a big 60-foot line breath weapon attack. This deals 2d10 radiant damage per spell level, with a Dex save for half. As a bonus action, Rampager (which requires level 10) lets you expend a spell slot to move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks. When you enter the space of an enemy at least two sizes smaller than you for the first time on a turn, that creature has to make a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone, and if they're already prone, they take 1d10 bludgeoning per spell level expended.

    Compared to, say, a Lightning Bolt, a 3rd level Incandescent Breath would deal 6d10, or about 33 damage, which is more than the 28 you get on average for Lightning Bolt (though a shorter line). And it scales better with upcasting. Rampager is one I suspect I'd rarely upcast, as I'd mainly want it to knock targets prone.

Leviathan:

This one has a swim speed and Amphibious, to let you breathe underwater. Toxic Deluge (requires level 10) lets you expend a spell slot as a bonus action, forcing each creature of your choice in a 10-foot emanation to make a Con save, taking 2d4 poison damage per spell level and becoming Poisoned until the start of your next turn on a failure.

    The emanation does get bigger the bigger you get, but I'm less excited by this - 5 average damage per spell level and save for none. Still, in a crowd it could do a lot, and given how big we get, we can often occupy the same spaces as other creatures. Once again, though, I think that the aquatic form is probably only going to be used when you're fighting underwater.

Insectoid:

This one has a fly speed. At level 10, it get Flyby. Energizing Pollen lets you, as an action, expend a spell slot to move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks, and when you move within 5 feet of a creature during this movement, you can restore HP to them equal to 2d6 per spell slot expended. (They can only receive this once per use of this feature).

    So, Flyby is going to be pretty helpful given that you can still only attack in melee. Energizing Pollen isn't going to keep pace with a Cure Wounds, but it can potentially hit a few of your allies, so the better point of comparison is something like Mass Cure Wounds. At 5th level, Mass Cure Wounds heals for 5d8+Wisdom (we'd guess 4 if you're 9th level) so around 27.5. This would do 10d6 when used at 5th level, so 35 average - but it'd be harder to hit your entire party with it.

Level 6:

Oh right, there are more features.

Dire Impact:

You gain the following benefits:

Elemental Rend: When you hit with your Titan Form's Rend, you can cause it to deal Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage rather than its normal damage type.

    This is a standard level 6 feature for any subclass that has special/built-in weapons. Less important with the reduction in resistance/immunity to physical damage, but not a bad thing to have.

Shock Wave: Once per turn, immediately after you move at least half your speed, youc an create a shockwave in a 10 foot emanation around you. Each creature in the emanation makes a Con save, falling prone on a failure.

    My first thought was that this was redundant with a Behemoth's Rampager, but it's actually more synergistic with it. Indeed, this is actually kind of crazy, because this just happens if you happen to move on your turn, requiring nothing like a bonus action or anything like that.

Level 10:

Primal Havoc:

You gain the following benefits:

Huge Size: You can choose to become Huge when assuming your Titan Form if there's enough space.

    The reasons to do this (other than because it's freaking awesome) are that it can increase the size of your emanations, and also you can potentially grapple Gargantuan monsters.

Toughened Hide: Immediately after you assume a Huge or larger Titan Form, you can expend a spell slot. While in the form, you gain a bonus to your AC equal to half the expended spell slot's level (rounded up).

    Ok, so this is interesting. By 10 I figure you either have a +4 or +5 to Wisdom, meaning you're at a 17 or 18 AC. If you want to go whole-hog, you could expend a 5th level spell slot to add 3 to that. I'm not sure what, exactly, the ideal expenditure here is, but certainly when you hit a point where you're barely ever using your lower-level spell slots, getting a +1 bonus from a 1st level slot or a +2 bonus from a 3rd level slot is... decent, I guess? Depends a bit on what you're expecting to fight. Probably always want to use an odd-numbered slot for this, thanks to the way it rounds.

Above It All: When you are Huge or larger in your Titan form, difficult terrain caused by heavy snow, ice, rubble, or undergrowth doesn't cost you extra movement.

    Weirdly specific, but there's a logic to it.

Level 14:

Monstrous Appetite:

You gain the following:

Gargantuan Size: You can choose to become Gargantuan when you assume your Titan form if there's space.

    Mainly this is just very cool, fulfilling the promise of the subclass.

Grappling Rend: Once per turn, when you are Huge or larger and hit a creature with your Rend attack, you can grapple the target (escape DC is your spell save DC). You can only have one creature grappled this way at a time.

    Notably, this is a way for a player to get a no-save Grapple on a target. Lots of monsters do this, but typically if a PC wants to do this, the target gets a saving throw even when the grapple is initiated.

Swallow: As a bonus action when you are Gargantuan, you can choose a Large or smaller creature you are grappling. The target makes a Strength saving throw. On a failure, the creature is no longer Grappled but is instead Restrained and Blinded, has total cover against attacks outside your stomach, and takes Acid damage at the start of each of your turns - the damage is a number of d12s equal to your Wisdom modifier.

You can have a number of creatures swallowed up to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) at a time. You must maintain concentration to hold a swallowed creature in your stomach. If you lose concentration, you regurgitate all swallowed creatures in a space within 10 feet of you, and each has the prone condition.

    Ok, so let's consider this: While there are two d20 tests that need to go your way for this to work, this is pretty powerful crowd control and damage over time. At this level, it's probably 5d12 damage per turn (or around 33.5) to up to 5 creatures. Sure, you'll really need to protect your concentration somehow. But there's no resource expenditure (other than Wild Shape,) and just takes a bonus action.

Overall Thoughts:

    I want to play this subclass. This fulfills such a great fantasy. Is it too powerful? It might be. I think some of the scaling on the spell-like effects the forms get might be too high. But I think this could just be insanely cool to play.

I think that this is something people would eagerly pick as their subclass, and so the only real problem I could see arising is that people might not want to do Circle of the Moon anymore. That is a problem - power creep isn't good for modular games.

But broadly, I think that the design here has the right idea, and now it's just a matter of trimming things back without breaking the thing. Truly, the Druid subclass I'd be most eager to play.