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Lysander
2009-06-15, 01:33 PM
Titanwood trees were named for their immense size, usually growing to hundreds of feet over thousands of years. They grow in vast forests with deep interconnected roots, supporting complex ecosystems of life. But the most unusual creature in a Titanwood forest are the trees' own seeds.

Titanwood trees will rarely (once every few decades) grow a large white flower, which will turn into a giant pinecone-like pod, which will fall to the floor and open to reveal a Coneling.

Conelings appear very much like half-elves, but with brown barklike skin and green hair made up of thin blade-like leaves. They wear clothes among other races to fit in, but have no need for garments amongst themselves. They forage for food to survive, usually consuming nuts and fruit. A Coneling's purpose is to protect the forest from outside threats, explore the outside world and bring new knowledge to the forest, and sometimes to travel great distances and begin a new forest elsewhere. After about 150 years of life a Coneling must burrow into the ground and grow into a new Titanwood tree. Titanwood trees are not sentient individually, but together all the trees in the forest form a slow thinking hive mind.

Coneling
* +2 Wisdom, -2 Int
* Medium humanoid plant creature.
* Unlike most plant creatures Conelings can become proficient with weapons and armor, are not immune to mind-affecting effects, poisons, stunning, and are subject to critical hits.
*Low-light vision.
*Immunity to sleep effects, paralysis, and polymorph. If the Coneling gains the power to change to an animal form it becomes a plant version of that creature with the same abilities.
*Conelings do not need to sleep.
*+10 to climb checks when climbing up or down trees
*Genderless - Conelings have no gender or sexual organs.
*Racial Memory - Conelings are born with a general memory of the life of all of their ancestors, as well as the memories of other trees in the same forest and those trees' ancestors. This provides the benefit of +2 to knowledge checks in history, nature, and geography.
*Goodberry Hair - Goodberries naturally grow from a Coneling's head amidst their hair. One will grow in a Coneling's hair for each character level they have. If plucked, 1d4 berries will regrow each week.
*Regeneration - Conelings will fully regrow a missing body part within 2d6 weeks.
*Forest Telepathy - They can telepathically communicate with the Titanwood hivemind when within its forest. However such communication is very slow, and the forest takes about a day to formulate each sentence. Despite being slow the forest mind is sharp, and has 20 INT, 20 WIS, 20 CHA, and high ranks in several knowledge skills. When outside the forest a Coneling can cast Sending once a week to communicate with the forestmind. The forestmind can cast sending to any of its Conelings at will, but still takes about a day to send each sentence it wishes to relay. The forestmind is capable of holding many separate conversations, and simultaneously casting sending to different Conelings.
*Hivemind - When a Coneling ceases to exist, either by becoming a Titanwood tree or dying, its spirit becomes part of the forest hivemind and the forest learns everything it knows. A dead Coneling will not exist as a ghost or any independent spiritual creature without the interference of powerful magic. Dead Conelings can still be resurrected, but only if the forestmind permits that fragment of its spirit to be removed.
*Speak with Plants - Conelings can speak with plants, as the spell, at will. They can also use this ability to speak with other Conelings.
*Automatic languages - Common, plus Elven or Sylvan.
*Favored class: Druid or Ranger

DracoDei
2009-06-15, 03:00 PM
VERY interesting race... the whole "growing into part of a hive-mind" thing is really unique and interesting. Turning into plant versions of animals nerfs some of the more daring and interesting uses of Wild Shape (spying) but I think it is very much worth it for flavor. It needs bonus languages... I suggest "Any".

Having an INT penality seems odd for something that is a walking data gathering device... like putting really good sensors connected to a slightly glitchy storage medium... a charisma penalty would make sense given how alien they are... also they end up with a net +1 to the knowledge skills in question so it isn't as good as it looks. Consider giving them the ability to make any knowledge check un-trained, regardless of DC, but with an additional -2 penalty???

Lysander
2009-06-15, 05:38 PM
VERY interesting race... the whole "growing into part of a hive-mind" thing is really unique and interesting. Turning into plant versions of animals nerfs some of the more daring and interesting uses of Wild Shape (spying) but I think it is very much worth it for flavor. It needs bonus languages... I suggest "Any".

Having an INT penality seems odd for something that is a walking data gathering device... like putting really good sensors connected to a slightly glitchy storage medium... a charisma penalty would make sense given how alien they are... also they end up with a net +1 to the knowledge skills in question so it isn't as good as it looks. Consider giving them the ability to make any knowledge check un-trained, regardless of DC, but with an additional -2 penalty???

I suppose it does nerf wild shape spying, but they could still try it in some cases. It would take a high spot check to notice that a green mossy rat with a vine tail skulking in shadows is not a regular rat.

I've added that Conelings can take either Elven or Sylvan as their bonus language.

My reasoning at the time for the INT penalty is that while they aren't stupid, they're just a little slower because of their plant brains. So they are very good at noticing things, and discerning truth from lies, but complicated machines and puzzles are difficult for them. That's a good suggestion though. Really they should just have a small bonus to any knowledge check that the hivemind has ranks in, because when they're born they have a vague version of the hivemind's memory.