Circle of Rotting Rebirth

This is a variant of the Circle of Spores subclass, for use in this setting. It is as follows:

Among the various Olyphian Mystics there is a strange and secretive mystery cult obsessed with the natural processes of decay and decomposition which, though small and largely hidden, has tenaciously survived against all odds for many centuries. Though the initiated have no formal name for themselves, the pejorative term Rotters has emerged as their defacto identity. Members of this cult venerate Olyph, and indeed some of its members have even studied with him in person, but they revere him less as a god and more as an inspiring and intriguing fellow traveler. Despite the grotesque nature of their obsession and general weirdness, most Rotters are basically harmless. However some are not content to wait for life and death to take their natural course and occasionally hurry things along a bit; the foul acts of such Rotters over the centuries are edge cases but their horrific and sensational nature cast the entire cult in a bad light.

This is a path for those obsessed with decomposition, breaking things down, recycling the old to make way for the new. When you would take a level in this subclass, including if you want to join this tradition at 2nd level, you may only take that level if your alignment is chaotic.

Druids of this circle do not gain the Archdruid, Beast Spells, or Wild Shape features or the Wild Companion optional feature of the base druid class, but they do gain the Cantrip Versatility optional feature.

When you choose this circle, you gain access to the following additional circle spells at 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level. Once you gain access to one of these spells you always have it prepared, and it doesn't count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn't appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.

Starting at 2nd level, your body begins slowly transforming into a fungal hybrid. This is easily concealable at first, but becomes increasingly difficult to disguise. As you gain additional levels in this class, your appearance becomes ever more bizarre and an increasingly putrescent miasma of spore laden air follows you around at all times. This can cause situational complications for you, at the DM's discretion. This hybrid existence grants the following benefits and drawbacks:

Starting at 2nd level, as a bonus action during your turn you may sprout fungal armor and surround yourself with a cloud of fungal spores. When you activate this feature you may immediately clear up to one level of exhaustion, and you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your druid level plus your Wisdom bonus.

While you have these hit points, when a creature that is not a construct or undead takes slashing or piercing damage while within a 5-foot radius of you they take an additional 1d4 necrotic damage as your spores get into their wounds. The radius of the affected area increases by 5 feet and the damage increases by 1d4 when you take your 6th level, 10th level, and 14th level in this class.

You can initially use this feature once, and you gain an additional use when you take your 6th level, 10th level, and 14th level in this class. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

This replaces Wild Shape.

At 6th level, your spores gain the ability to infest a corpse and animate it. As a bonus action or a reaction you may animate the corpse of any beast or humanoid creature that is Small or Medium within 15 feet of you that has both died and taken necrotic damage since the beginning of your last turn, causing the corpse to become a Rotting Shambler (use the Zombie stat block in the Monster Manual, but its type is plant (fungus) instead of undead) and it has 6d4 + 9 hit points. You may either roll for the Rotting Shambler's hit points or take the average of 24 hit points now; the Rotting Shambler stands up immediately, with that many hit points and fully under your control.

A Rotting Shambler you've created with this feature obeys all of your mental commands to the best of its ability while on the same plane of existence as you, and will follow you around unless you command it not to. A Rotting Shambler that joins combat with you will take a turn immediately before or after yours (as you prefer), and can either Move or make a single Attack action.

Rotting Shamblers rapidly decompose, automatically losing 1 hit point and 1 maximum hit point per minute unless you use your concentration to prevent it. Additionally, as an action, bonus action, or reaction you may cease animating a Rotting Shambler, which causes it to immediately drop to 0 hit points. A Rotting Shambler with 0 hit points collapses and dies in a fungal heap of disgusting putrescence, releasing an effect identical to Stinking Cloud centered on itself, with a duration of 1 minute.

All spell-like effects released or caused by your Rotting Shamblers use your spell save DC. For instance, the Constitution saving throw against poison that creatures must make to resist the Stinking Cloud effect created when a Rotting Shambler drops to 0 hit points is made against DC 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your Proficiency bonus.

Initially you can only animate one Rotting Shambler at a time, but you might gain the ability to animate more of them as you gain levels in this class. If you have more than one Rotting Shamblers currently animated and you are using your concentration to prevent rapid decomposition, the benefit applies to all of your Rotting Shamblers.

At 10th level and again at 14th level and 18th level, you must choose one of the following options (you may not select the same option twice):

At 14th level, both selected options combine with each other, and apply to all Rotting Shamblers you make. For instance, if you choose Flailing at 10th level and Multiple at 14th level (or the other way around), you can control up to three Rotting Shamblers at the same time and they all have the Flailing ability. Similarly, if you choose both Burly and Competent, you can only control one Rotting Shambler at a time but they are stronger, tougher, harder to hit, have more movement, and are more accurate.

When you get a third choice at 18th level, all three selected options combine with each other in various ways, offering further opportunities for differentiation. This third choice replaces Beast Spells.

This subclass rewards commitment, offering many progressive improvements across its various features as you take more levels in it. The following chart summarizes the most notable scaling benefits for your convenience.

* - having more than one Rotting Shambler active at a time requires taking the Multiple upgrade at 10th, 14th, or 18th level.