Druid archetype: Circle of Flames

[rahimka]

I'm working on a homebrew archtype for one of my players; she's a relative newbie to the game who discovered (through roleplaying) that her Shepherd Druid is a total pyro. Now the party just reached 5th level and she's literally never once used a single Shepherd class feature, so I suggested that I could put together a Circle of Flames for her to use instead.

I'm looking for feedback on what I've got so far, and for suggestions for a 6th level ability:

Circle of Flames
Bonus Cantrip
When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you learn the Fire Bolt cantrip or a druid cantrip of your choice.
Natural Recovery
Starting at 2nd level, during a short rest, you choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your druid level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
Circle Spells
At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells connected to the land where you became a druid. Once you gain access to a circle spell, 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.
Druid Level Circle Spells
3rd Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray
5th Fireball, Protection from Energy
7th Wall of Fire, Fire Shield
9th Flame Strike, Immolation
6th Level Feature
Starting at 6th level, you can do something fire related and handy, but not too powerful ***HELP ME HERE***
Fiery Spirit
At 10th level, you gain resistance to fire damage. In addition, you can choose for spells you cast to ignore resistance to fire damage.
Fire in the Flesh
At 14th level, you gain immunity to fire damage. Additionally, you can expend two uses of Wild Shape at the same time to transform into a fire elemental

---
I've thought about the shifting both Fiery Spirit and Fire in the Flesh to 6th and 10th respectively, but then I still need a good 14th level ability.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

[Vogie]

A great quick option to make those elemental-esque druid circles is by reskinning a Spore Druid. In this case, replacing "Spores" with ash or motes of fire, and poison damage with fire damage, and Chill Touch with either sacred flame or fire bolt. I'd use the UA version, because it is slightly more powerful, which is important because fire is so often resisted. That would replace the Definitely-Not-Arcane-Recovery ability, and allow the player to act like a mini-Fire Elemental as early as level 2. And the zombie at 6 can be refluffed as another mini-elemental, or something like manipulating the smoke inside a body. The 10th level ability would be a no-concentration Flaming Sphere, which is quite cool


From what you posted, I'd definitely move the 10 & 14 abilities to 6 and 10.
For the 14 level ability, I'd do something like the Fiery Soul from the Planeshift Pyromancer subclass or:

Firewalker
At 14th level, you gain immunity to fire damage. When you are in an area that is on fire, as a bonus action, you can magically teleport up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that has been aflame for more than 1 round. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a short or long rest.

This gives the Flame druid both a creepy castery ability that is better than the Dream Druid's version, while also giving lots of power to the Create Bonfire cantrip, as you can place it, maintain concentration for 2 rounds, then teleport.

[Icecaster]

Ideas for the sixth level feature (based on various choices from a homebrew class I made, so feel free to balance as needed):

Use your reaction when dealing fire damage to burn a creature and cause them to have disadvantage on all ability checks until the end of its next turn
Explode upon reaching 0 hit points
Deal a small amount of fire damage (maybe Wis mod) to creatures that come within 5 or 10 feet of you or end their turn there
Melding into flame kind of like meld into stone
Summon a magma mephit
Cause creatures that rest near you to regain bonus hit points due to your ambient warmth
No ill effects due to nonmagical climate effects (stays fine in normal hot areas, kept warm in normal cold areas)

[TheBrewerZ]

Perhaps at 6th he can turn the type of damage of a evocation school spell to fire. Do this a number of times equal to his Wis?

[rahimka]

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody.

After brainstorming with the player herself, this is what I ended up going with for the 6th level ability:
Vision in the Flames
Starting at 6th level, your vision is no longer obscured by fire or smoke within 60ft.

Further, you can perform a special ritual by gazing into an open flame and mediating upon the visions it grants you. You have two ways to use this ritual.

Firstly, by spending 1 minute in this way, you can gain the benefit of the Augury spell, but must complete a short or long rest before you can gain this benefit again.
Secondly, you can spend 10 minutes performing the ritual to gain the benefit of the Clairvoyance spell, but must complete a long rest before you can gain this benefit again.

[Grod_The_Giant]

That's very cool, I like it. Looks like a generally solid subclass that does a good job of filling a niche the Druid is weak at (direct damage) without overshadowing classes like the Sorcerer.

Vogie's Firewalker ability might go better than the elemental wild shape; you are a caster, after all. If you want to keep the thematic, maybe burn a Wild Shape use to get assorted fire-y benefits?