Best spells for adding to Hallow on a druid grove

[Hiro Quester]

My druid PC is establishing his own grove, using a Hallow spell to consecrate a small hillock with a few oak trees on it.

What would be a good spell to add to the Hallow effect?

Hallow spell says:


Spell effects that may be tied to a hallowed site include aid, bane, bless, cause fear, darkness, daylight, death ward, deeper darkness, detect evil, detect magic, dimensional anchor, discern lies, dispel magic, endure elements, freedom of movement, invisibility purge, protection from energy, remove fear, resist energy, silence, tongues, and zone of truth.

"Include" indicates that it is possible to tie other spells to a Hallowed area. It doesn't give any rules or requirements, other than the price of 1000 gold/spell level.

What other druidic spells might be good ones to consider? Speak with Animals, perhaps?

[Inevitability]

Plant Growth, perhaps?

[Bronk]

I guess it depends on what you want to do, or be protected from. Death Ward can be a good choice.

[Hiro Quester]

I don't anticipate it being invaded, or needing to be defended. It's near a small village that my party uses as a base. Deathward has already been placed on the hallowed town cemetery, and a zone of truth on the party cleric's temple in town.

For a modicum of defense, I will place plant growth around it, so that it can only be approached from the one direction (plus a couple of sector passages only I know about). And I'll cast live oak on one of the larger trees to guard it, especially while I'm away.

But I'd like to make it a pleasant natural retreat for my druid and his AC, and for any villagers or party members who want to consult with the Druid.

But for the spell tied to it, I am thinking about adding some "natural" utility.

My druid has the "uncivilized" trait. He is shy and awkward around people, but better with animals (effectively 8 CHA with people but 12 CHA with animals). So something that helps the animals or plants in the area. Something that attracts too many people he would probably find annoying.

I thought about placing "Calm Animals" on it but my DM would probably make that backfire. "Animals remain where they are and do not attack or flee" could entail than every animal that arrives there cannot leave.

So Speak with Animals, would enable my druid and any other good character to speak with animals when in the grove. But my druid is a Forest Gnome, so he already speaks a language that enables simple communication with all forest creatures. And that spell might attract every villager who wants to more easily train his dog or horse, or who wants to know why the cat has started peeing on his favorite rug. That could get annoying to a shy gnome druid like him.

So I'm sure there must be a perfect non-core druid spell out there somewhere I don't know about that would be an even better/cooler/more useful option than these. Suggestions welcome.

[Bronk]

My druid has the "uncivilized" trait. He is shy and awkward around people, but better with animals (effectively 8 CHA with people but 12 CHA with animals). So something that helps the animals or plants in the area. Something that attracts too many people he would probably find annoying.

I thought about placing "Calm Animals" on it but my DM would probably make that backfire. "Animals remain where they are and do not attack or flee" could entail than every animal that arrives there cannot leave.


I think your druid would feel more comfortable in his little area there if he chose the 'calm emotions' spell. Hallow just says you 'fix' a spell effect to the area, not cast it, so although you could probably swing a scroll casting, you could also use a wand (it's a second level spell).

Either way, it would make your druid and any other creature in the area calm, and prevent (or help prevent, since there's a save) violent actions. Your druid could relax there! People could still bring in their animals for your forest gnome to talk to, but everyone would be chill about it, including the animals.

[Hiro Quester]

Calm Emotions is a very good idea. It's a cleric spell, but our party cleric might cast it for me.

My druid has one level of monk, so a grove in which calm meditation in solitude is easier, as well as feeling like a good place to chilling out by the fireside with friends, sounds perfect.

And a bonus of having the place be naturally a "chill" place, where all fear and agitation and confusion is removed. The barbarian could not rage there, and the bard's inspire courage would not function there. But that should be a benefit, not a feature for a peaceful good druid/monk.

Duration of concentration might make it difficult to place permanently (for a year) on a Hallowed area. But then Detect magic also has a Concentration duration and it can be placed on a hallow.

This clause "Any aggressive action against or damage dealt to a calmed creature immediately breaks the spell on all calmed creatures." troubles me, though. I'd have to run that by the DM to see how he thinks we should handle that.