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tonberrian
2010-04-26, 08:36 AM
So that other players can share in it.

Last night I had a dream. It was about some kind of plant-infesting ... stuff that was, quite frankly, terrifying*.

Anyways. Upon infection, a plant would begin to grow these sharp scaly things, like a flat spiky trefoil shape, growing out of every surface. The scales were all generally the same shape, like leaves, for easy identification. Once the scales were fully grown over a few days, the plant became semi-mobile like the Whomping Willow, attacking any creature within range. Infected plants also began to grow at an incredible rate, and were incredibly resistant to damage. Even worse, severing something didn't kill either piece; the smaller piece simply went dormant.

A severed piece could grow into a new plant of the same species if it was planted in an environment where the host plant could grow (thankfully, infection didn't change the habitat of the host species). The infection spread through contact - even severed pieces were able to spread the infecion. Luckily, it could only be spread to live plants; animals and dead plant matter were safe.

An infected plant became incredibly flammable, and fire was one of the few things that could kill it (but only alongside the host plant). Also, pine trees were very resistant, turning their infection into a weeks long affair. Furthermore, smoke from burning pines killed the infection instantly while saving the host plant - the scales instantly calcified and could be easily removed, with no chance of infecting anything else.

*In retrospect. Actually, aside from the part where a vine tried to strangle me until I set it on fire, the dream wasn't so scary - I managed to figure out the pine weakness and kept my house safe. I was upset when my parents blew the top two stories off my house, though.

DracoDei
2010-04-26, 09:24 AM
This sounds like something with the flexiablity of the "Animated Objects" entry in the monster manual... IE size based, and then with specifics to be intellegently applied by the GM.

To messily quote from Animated Objects:

An animated object can have one or more of the following special abilities, depending on its form.

Blind (Ex)
A sheetlike animated object such as a carpet or tapestry can grapple an opponent up to three sizes larger than itself. The object makes a normal grapple check. If it wins, it wraps itself around the opponent’s head, causing that creature to be blinded until removed.

Constrict (Ex)
A flexible animated object such as a rope, vine, or rug deals damage equal to its slam damage value plus 1½ times its Strength bonus with a successful grapple check against a creature up to one size larger than itself.

An object of at least Large size can make constriction attacks against multiple creatures at once, if they all are at least two sizes smaller than the object and can fit under it.

Hardness (Ex)
An animated object has the same hardness it had before it was animated.

Improved Speed (Ex)
The base land speed given in the statistics block assume that an animated object lurches, rocks, or slithers along.

Objects with two legs (statues, ladders) or a similar shape that allows faster movement have a +10 foot bonus to speed. Objects with multiple legs (tables, chairs) have a +20 foot bonus to speed. Wheeled objects have a +40 foot bonus to speed.

Objects might have additional modes of movement. A wooden object can float and has a swim speed equal to half its land speed. A rope or similar sinuous object has a climb speed equal to half its land speed. A sheetlike object can fly (clumsy maneuverability) at half its normal speed.

Trample (Ex)
An animated object of at least Large size and with a hardness of at least 10 can trample creatures two or more sizes smaller than itself, dealing damage equal to the object’s slam damage + 1½ times its Strength bonus. Opponents who do not make attacks of opportunity against the object can attempt Reflex saves (DC 10 + ½ object’s HD + object’s Str modifier) to halve the damage.

Rules for the pine-smoke vulnerability would also have to be done of course.

Note also that this will almost never pose a significant danger to adventurers once they figure out it is a disease... As soon as you de-foliate an area, you can camp out safely indefinitely. Even if "get back to civilization" is a goal, then slow and careful progress is certainly possible, taking 20 on checks to plan the route of avoid large infected plants, and massing attacks against one threat at a time. It IS a nation-threatening thing, since farmers have to go out into their fields, or everybody starves (unless this is the Tippy-verse, in which case there is very little farm-land in the first place). My advice to any ruler who has this going on: Hire dragons to strafe the infected area(and a generous safety margin around it) bare. Firebreathers prefered, but anything that can kill the plants will slow the spread (right?), and you can get pine bonfires set up by your military as the second stage.

Jack of Spades
2010-04-26, 05:02 PM
Hm... Well writing it all off as Animated Objects really seems like a bit of a cop-out. To throw out a few things that I can pick up...

I'd say this would be best made into a template that can only be applied to plants via the plague:
-Huge
-DR 30/Fire
-If placed in the vicinity of pine smoke, it instantly loses this template
-Good natural armor (scaly)
-Threatening reach of at least 20 feet (vines).
-Gains attacks
-Upon interaction with a plant, spreads a disease which ultimately results in the victim gaining this template
-Chaotic evil? Chaotic neutral? True neutral, even?

DracoDei
2010-04-26, 06:18 PM
Hm... Well writing it all off as Animated Objects really seems like a bit of a cop-out.
It would be, if that is what I had done. What I said was that the abilities of the creature should probably be derived from the pre-infection properties of the plant in the same SORT of way as an animated object's abilities are derived from the pre-enchantment properties of the object.

Jack of Spades
2010-04-26, 06:22 PM
It would be, if that is what I had done. What I said was that the abilities of the creature should probably be derived from the pre-infection properties of the plant in the same SORT of way as an animated object's abilities are derived from the pre-enchantment properties of the object.

Hm... After rereading, I see that. My apologies for the comment on your work ethic :smallbiggrin: