Dark Sun is a dismal, apocalyptic world—but the Circle of Preservation Druid might be a step towards a brighter future for Athas.
In the world of Dark Sun, magic is almost universally reviled because of how it devastated the world. Under the tyrannical reign of the Sorcerer-Kings, Defilers have drained the life out of once verdant-lands and withered away the world of Athas into a crucible in which only the most brutal can survive. But, some have chosen to fight for the world. To try to undo the damage that greed and corruption have caused.
And that’s where the Circle of Preservation Druid comes in. It’s the first subclass in the recent Apocalyptic Subclasses Unearthed Arcana. And I love the tone it sets for a return to Dark Sun—it’s a burning wasteland, sure, but there’s still a kernel of hope to be found. And we all could use a kernel of hope these days.
Circle of Preservation Druid
Also it’s a deep lore cut, too. Druids have always been a part of Athas. They and the Elemental Clerics have been two very small—but concerted—forces working to restore the natural world. And restoration magic, like they seem to command, was once discovered and protected by ancient halflings—before they became the feral creatures many think of when they think of Dark Sun’s world. So, with that in mind, the Circle of Preservation makes for an interesting choice.
“Druids of the Circle of Preservation work tirelessly to conserve natural resources and restore places once ruined by greed and exploitation. Through a combination of conservation and restorative magic, Druids of this order shield and spread lifea cross the land. The most powerful members of this order can return vitality to barren fields, transforming wastelands into thriving wildernesses once more.”
That last part is interesting, because I don’t know that it’s represented mechanically. Although it seems that with just a few tweaks, it could be. It all comes down to the Circle of Preservation’s main bread and butter ability, Preserved Land. With Preserved Land, you can spend a use of the Wild Shape to conjure forth a magical zone of revitalizing energies. In game terms, this is a 15 foot cube that you can conjure anywhere within 120 feet. Within this zone, nonmagical vegetation native to the region sprouts (temporarily), and you can give two different benefits to creatures (including yourself) whenever they end their turn in the zone.
They can either gain 1d4 temporary hit points per Druid level you have, or they can end one effect causing the Frightened or Poisoned condition. So, mostly a zone of magical temporary hit points—which is a pretty solid bastion to fight from. I do wish that the vegetation didn’t explicitly disappear at the end of it, maybe that could be a more permanent feature of higher level Druids.
There are two other level 3 features. The first is Circle of Preservation Spells, a list of bonus spells that are thematically appropriate to someone focusing on green magic. This includes plant growth. Protection from poison is on there. Lesser and greater restoration, even powerful spells like hallow join the list. Solid bonus spells all around. You also gain Frugal Casting, which lets you cast spells without material components (except for costly ones), and you gain a ten percent chance to not spend costly material components.
Higher Level Preservation
At higher levels, you can upgrade your Preserved Land, thanks to Improved Preservation. This grants you two boons: Fortify Protectors, which grants your allies a bonus to Constitution saves equal to your Wisdom modifier. But more importantly you gain Reject Desecrators, which turns your Preserved Land into an offensive zone—whenever an enemy enters your cube’s space, or vice versa, creatures have to make a Wisdom save or take 2d10 radiant damage and have their speeds halved.
At level 10, you gain Facilitated Restoration. This is a nice little flourish that gives the aility to cast Lesser Restoration OR Greater Restoration without needing a spell slot (up to your Wisdom modifier times per day), which is not a bad ability, flavorwise for the subclass. Though it does feel like it pigeonholes the out-of-Preserved Land parts of the class a little. Sure, there are still all the bonus spells, but you really don’t gain much that isn’t connected to the Preserved Land. I think for a subclass meant to help restore an apocalyptic world, it’d be nice to see more.
Speaking of, at level 14, your Preserved Land goes up even more. With Sacrosanct Land, you gain another significant upgrade to your special feature. Now it grows into a 30 foot cube, and whenever someone gets hit by an attack roll while within it, you can use your Reaction to halve all the damage from that attack.
Which again, is not bad. The Circle of Preservation is a fantastic defensive/healer/support option. But I think it needs a little bit more in terms of flexibility. Maybe if you could move your Preserved Land? Or if it had one other restorative ability that wasn’t tied to Wild Shape. Eitherway, the subclass feels a lot more solid than some of the Wizard options we saw in the last brush of Arcane Subclasses. I’m excited to see where this goes. Especially after the feedback survey opens August 28th.
Save Athas if you can—just as long as there’s no Defiler subclasses or anything also in the test!
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