Wrath of Nature: Death by Natural Causes
Spell Level: 5
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S
You call out to the spirits of nature to rouse them against your enemies. Choose a point you can see within range. The spirits cause trees, rocks, and grasses in a 60-foot cube centered on that point to become animated until the spell ends.
Grasses and Undergrowth. Any area of ground in the cube that is covered by grass or undergrowth is difficult terrain for your enemies.
Trees. At the start of each of your turns, each of your enemies within 10 feet of any tree in the cube must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d6 slashing damage from whipping branches.
Roots and Vines. At the end of each of your turns, one creature of your choice that is on the ground in the cube must succeed on a Strength saving throw or become restrained until the spell ends. A restrained creature can use an action to make a Strength (Athletics) check against your spell save DC, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Rocks. As a bonus action on your turn, you can cause a loose rock in the cube to launch at a creature you can see in the cube. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 3d8 nonmagical bludgeoning damage, and it must succeed on a Strength saving throw or fall prone.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
A moss-coated, worn traveler's cloak lies next to the forest hermit meditating beneath the flourishing willow, unphased by the advancing troupe of goblins gleefully giggling at the destruction they plan to unleash. Without lifting a finger, the hermit begins to float, and green wisps swirl from his form into the earth; puzzled, the goblins look at each other, swords in hand. Then all hell breaks loose; the roots below burst out of the dirt, smashing one goblin to the ground. Still boulders lift skyward, crashing down seconds later atop a mortified pair. A whirlwind of willow branches whip around the tree as it bends and creaks, shredding their flesh and nearly killing them. They try to turn tail to flee, but even the undergrowth has turned against them, grabbing at their ankles and keeping them from escaping the Wrath of Nature.
Wrath of Nature, to me, is THE woodland druid fantasy all neatly tied in a 5th level bundle. It's got difficult terrain in a massive area, vines and roots restraining people, animated trees lacerating them, and finite telekinetic control over the natural rocks around you to toss about and beat people with.
All of the effects here are somewhat obtainable at lower levels, but combining them all together here with the damage it's putting out is just flat out excellent. In heavily wooded environments, this spell on its own can decimate a 9th level encounter. There will be some encounters where creatures have nowhere else to go, and just take 4d6 damage each turn. Tree roots being able to also restrain creatures inside the damage means sometimes even if they do have places they’d look to run to, they can’t. Pile on top of this the difficult terrain halving movement and the bonus action flying rocks doing a hefty 3d8 bludgeoning damage (basically a free Spiritual Weapon) and we’re looking at an encounter warping spell.
However, it does come with the major restraint of only being valuable in wooded environments. If the 4d6 slashing damage is missing, the spell gets quite a bit worse. The rocks will be the most common environmental constant you’ll be able to get with Wrath of Nature, but that on its own is just worse than any of the conjuration effects like Summon Beast or Conjure Animals. Wrath of Nature will clearly have moments where it is ludicrous, and others where it’s almost uncastable.
If you’re ever getting a few trees that can actively threaten some enemies, a good amount of difficult terrain, and some additional areas where restraints are available, this spell is great. Any more than that, it's insane. Any less and you’re probably better off going for a lower level version of some effect this spell includes.
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