Protect nature and your allies with this surprisingly tanky and druidic subclass for the 3rd party magus class.
The Sylvan Circle are a subclass of the Magus class from 3rd party creator, Sterling Vermin. They possess druidic powers as protectors of the natural world. In this role, they are often found to be the sword and shield of nature, with lots of capabilities in combat to protect against encroaching civilisation.
While they don’t possess wild shape, the Sylvan Circle do have an enhanced polymorph that acts as an even better version of wild shape. This makes them quite tanky (or they can give this tankiness to others). They can be protective in other ways too with enhanced saving throws for allies, a healing emanation and some easy disengaging away from enemies.
The magus released on D&D Beyond on the 29th September 2026 and is also available as a PDF from Sterling Vermin’s website. It includes the full class, 6 subclasses and 31 spells. This article focuses on the Sylvan Circle subclass for which I’ve evaluated every feature, given some advice on using them and reviewed the subclass.
At a glance
- Half caster with more spellcasting acumen than rangers and paladins
- Can use polymorph adeptly to become very durable (or give that durability to others)
- Are great at helping the party with saving throws.
5/5 – The Sylvan Circle has some strong buffs to polymorph, which is already a very strong spell. This makes them a very tanky option (or can produce tanks from allies). Some excellent buffs to saving throws, great spells and higher level emanation healing make for an excellent magus subclass.
Sylvan Circle features
Agrestal spirit (Lv3) – 4/5
Disengage as a bonus action is really handy for a class that might favour hit and run tactics. The extra speed will give you a bit more distance from enemies too.
Proficiency/expertise in nature is alright, but nothing overly exciting. 2 more cantrips is really handy for expanding your repertoire. I’d consider grabbing some cantrips for more varied use cases. From the druid spell list, you might consider guidance for help with skill checks and thunderclap for some AoE cantrips damage.
Emerald mark (Lv3) – 5/5
Aegis is very obviously useful. That’s a potentially big buff to saving throws too and you should really be investing in intelligence as a magus. The difficult terrain on a hit is helpful too, but less obviously and less profoundly so. It’s great against highly melee enemies who you want to keep away from yourself and allies. There’s no save either so unless the creature can teleport or ignore difficult terrain, then this could frustrate a bit, especially if you’re using hit and run tactics against them.
I’d generally favour aegis though. That saving throw boost is just really strong.
Sylvan Circle spells (Lv3) – 4/5
| Magus Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3 | Entangle, speak with animals, thornwhip, thornhold |
| 5 | Lesser restoration, moonbeam |
| 9 | Conjure animals, speak with plants |
| 13 | Conjure woodland beings, polymorph |
| 17 | Greater restoration, reincarnate |
You’ve got some really good spells on this list. Entangle is great for some battlefield control, the restoration spells can help with conditions in the party, polymorph is a really flexible utility spell/debuff and the 2 conjure spells make great, regular damage against a few different creatures.
Speak with plants is situationally useful but perhaps not regularly so. Moonbeam is a great way to preserve spell slots and continuously deal decent spell damage. It works with sword and sorcery to allow a bonus action attack too as that is triggered by using the magic actions, which moonbeam uses for subsequent turns anyway. Reincarnate is also a great raise dead alternative if your allies don’t mind changing species.
There’s only 1 new spells on the list in thornhold. Unfortunately, I didn’t really rate this in terms of power compared to other cantrips in my Magus pack spell analysis.
Nature’s mark (Lv7) – 5/5
Concentration-less polymorph that lasts longer is great and you have access to it at the same time as the full spellcasters. Casting it every short rest is quite a lot too.
Beasts don’t have a higher CR than 8 anyway, but this gives you access to something like a t-rex at your next level for 136 temporary hit points and some serious attack damage. A giant ape will give you a ranged option and a giant squid can be used in water. This is a massive buff if you cast it on yourself or an ally.
It can also be a debuff for enemies if you turn them into something inconsequential. You can even cast this and still concentrate on another spell making this a really powerful feature!
Font of life (Lv14) – 5/5
This is some solid healing and advantage on all saving throws is great! If nothing else, you should be able to catch yourself and an ally in this emanation. This will be best on the frontlines where characters will be taking a beating, but you’ll need to make sure you can survive while you help allies. Nature’s mark and a hefty polymorph transformation should help here.
Sylvan savant (Lv20) – 5/5
Conjure fey is a poor conjure spell and is considerably worse than conjure animals and conjure woodland beings at lower levels. Wall of thorns is great though and can separate enemies off nicely in the battlefield while also dealing some damage. Just be aware that using spell surge in this way won’t replenish a spell slot.
An extra use of font of life each long rest is great and will help you and the party stay more durable in more encounters.
How good is the Sylvan Circle?
The Sylvan Circle do better wild shape than most druids by tying this to free uses of polymorph that don’t require concentration. This means you have access to some seriously meaty beasts as well as having an option for debuffing enemies into a harmless creature. This makes for a surprisingly tanky magi that can also produce a healing emanation, has strong spells and is great at helping with saving throws.
You end up with a surprisingly strong frontline magi who can also duck in and out of combat fairly easily. This all makes for quite a strong subclass. I do think that the polymorph is a bit too strong. It means you can have a couple of fairly huge concentration effects ongoing simultaneously, but this doesn’t feel game-breaking and some of the huge temporary hit points polymorph grants is mitigated by some pretty atrocious AC. This is still a top subclass though.
5/5
Optimising a Sylvan Circle magus build
The Sylvan Circle subclass changes very little about how you build a magus. You might favour a melee magus a little more with this subclass, but much of your build will differ very little as a result. If you want some advice on how to build a magus, you can check out my magus class guide below.
