Clonal Colonies and "Awaken"

['Neath the Moon]

For this scenario, I will use the aspen tree. There are three main reasons for this. Firstly, it is a tree, and therefore qualifies for the awaken spell. Secondly, it is found almost entirely in clonal colonies. Thirdly, it can be found in many northern-hemisphere temperate regions, of the sort that most fantasy settings exist within.

In essence, clonal colonies of trees are a number of genetically identical trunks connected by a shared root system. Since they are biologically the same plant, I would suggest that a single casting of awaken would be sufficient to animate all members of the organism. If this is a viable usage of the rules, then I would strongly advise all druids of sufficient level to do this, since they could effectively animate an entire forest.

The possibilities are many, but a few perks and additions to this that I could think of include:
1. Through several castings of wood shape, one could create an underground base in the root system which moves with the animated trees, has breathing tubes in hollow trunks, fresh water harvested humanely from the taproots, and is sentient.
2. Wood shape could merge weaponry into the branches, and each one would have a massive damage bonus due to the effective size of the animated aspens.
3. Aspens, because of their shared root system and relatively fast growth, recover quickly after a forest fire. That's right, the one weakness of awakened trees is now just a minor setback!
4. Given the potential size and sheer acreage covered by the aspens, you could easily uproot many of the smaller trees in a mixed wood, thus taking not only the aspens, but the whole forest with you. Maybe even some of the wildlife, if you find a big enough bunch.
5. This might also work with redwoods, but not to the same extent. They're taller though. By a lot.

So, thoughts on this? DMs who would never allow this? Players who'll unexpectedly drop this on their DMs? DMs who'll unexpectedly drop this on their players? Fact-checking? I admit, most of my knowledge on clonal colonies and the aspen is pure Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen). (Most botanists could probably find a dozen or so holes in this idea.)

[Slipperychicken]

Aspen trees are (AFAIK), not in the rules system. Involving them in the game is a houserule.

Be sure to Maximize/Empower the Awaken spell. Your trees now have absurdly-high mental stats and speak almost every language you know. Also has okay Strength, depending on how big the tree is.

Get the tree to take advantage of its mental stats (23 Int 23 Wis 27 Cha on average), like taking the feat Faerie Mysteries Initiate so it can add its (absurdly large) Int modifier to hp. Those stats have lots of potential for a party face -max the social skills and apply that big honking Charisma mod to it.

[Mugulord]

I've been working on just this idea myself. The campaign is sort of a kingdom builder campaign, but the main story arc is going to be about re-awakening an ancient aspen forest from it's slumber. I had intended for it to be a mystic theurge witch/druid using the pathfinder system, but i'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how to make this addition to the campaign. I want it to be god-like, as it will eventually ascend, possibly with the party, as a god at the end of the campaign, but for now I'm just trying to get an idea of how best to make this monstrosity. The rules for awaken say to consider it a construct but with mental stats (int/wis/cha). I should mention that I'm not an experienced DM in pathfinder, although I make my own game systems and have DMed them and older verisons of D&D. Anyhow, any suggestions on how to make this thing?

I'm looking at the largest construct possible, the colossal, and thinking it's not big enough, but then I could just make one tree and clone it, as the Aspen clones itself. I would make the special ruling that the forest as a whole draws from the same spell lists and casting limits, so you don't have hundreds of spells being thrown about in a round. Besides, I want it to be there more for flavour, tossing out a heal here and a summon nature's ally there, not take the reigns of combat away from the party. Possibly the best way would be to make a single tree for stats, but draw from the same list of spells, and any one tree being killed isn't a huge deal for the forest. Multiple trees could work together as larger forms of construct, all the way up to the colossal sized beast. Maybe a heart of the forest that contains the actual hitdice for the class levels? A single tree in the whole forest that carries the extra hitpoints, and if lost... bah I'm just thinking on the keyboard at this point. I find this idea really exciting anyhow and plan to run with it in some form. If I come up with a finished NPC forest rule set I will post it here eventually.

[VoxRationis]

The stats for all trees, save magical things like the blackwood marauder, are omitted from the rules. That does not prevent you from casting awaken on them, since trees are clearly stated as possible subjects.
I think this is a wonderful idea, though terrifying.
Did you see the thread about using awakened swifts with Warlock levels as aerial attackers?

[Mootsmcboots]

There are clonal colonies of fungi that in size rival the Aspen. It'd be a good counter point. A giant, aggressive, awakened, mobilish decomposition machine.

[Chronos]

If you treat the entire colony as a single target, then it's going to have an absurdly huge number of hit dice, and so it's going to be absurdly difficult to affect it with a casting of Awaken. But that's irrelevant, because Awaken doesn't target "one organism", it targets "one tree". An aspen colony is one organism which consists of many trees, so an Awaken spell will only work on one small portion of the colony (what happens to its roots would be up to the DM).

[VoxRationis]

Specifically, the DC will be 44. How good would you have to be to do that?
Druid 20 has a +12 base bonus to Will saves. We could probably assume a Wisdom score of 27 (16+6 from a stat-boosting item+maybe 5 from wish stacking or the like), for +8, which still leaves us a ways down from the goal. Ideas?
Alternatively, you find a single aspen in conditions that favor it becoming a clonal colony and cast awaken on it then, and just wait for it to grow, guarding it as it does.