Shield of the Landscape

Level: 1
Duration: 1 minute
Area: 20-ft.-radius spread, centered on you
You cause the ground to alter its basic form, creating cover for your allies, or removing it for your foes.
You can temporarily create or remove natural obstacles that provide cover. An object that provides total cover in the affected area now provides only cover, and any object that provides cover no longer does so. Any small outcroppings of rock, clumps of shrubberies, and even the trunks of trees in the affected area wither and shrink from in front of your foes. Alternatively, you can create small outcroppings of cover behind which you and your allies can hide. You must be standing on a natural surface, such as earth or unworked stone, to use this effect. Each creature of Medium size or smaller in the area gains the benefit of cover from the outcroppings, which are not substantial enough to hinder movement through these squares. These outcroppings do not provide cover against adjacent foes (although they do help against reach attacks). After the utterance’s duration expires, the affected natural obstacles resume their normal shape and position, growing back to their original forms in a second or two.