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roadkiller
2007-05-26, 09:10 PM
Another attempt at homebrew by me. I apologise if some things are somewhat strange. I'm building this off of the SRD, the 3.0 books I have, and a little inspiration from the Geomancer as to how to make this work.
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There are places in the world where civilized creatures do not go. There are forests where magic is uncontrolled and intertwines with nature. These places draw forest fey and beasts that live off of the magic. Occasionally, though, someone roams into these places. Whether by their own choices, or through inability, some never leave. Instead they live there, isolated from all others except the fey and monsters. The magics of the forest begin to adapt and begin a symbiotic relationship with the Overgrown. Out of this symbiosis an Overgrown is born. The Overgrown begins a process of becoming more and more entwined with the forest which takes years and never truly ends. Most voluntary Overgrown are druids who wished to protect an area of such untouched natural magic. More often, they are explorers or children who wandered too far and became lost.

Overgrown

Overgrown is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid, hereafter referred to as the base creature. An Overgrown uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here. They gain the augmented (humanoid) subtype.

Size and Type: Overgrown type is initially unchanged (see below). Size is unchanged.
Speed: An Overgrown's speed is unchanged.
Special Qualities: An Overgrown retains all qualities of the base creature plus the following qualities.

Nature’s Drift (Su): The longer an Overgrown spends in its home forest, the more aspects of the forest it takes on. For every year the Overgrown spends in its forest, the Overgrown roll one attribute from this chart until. If an attribute has been rolled twice, ignore the roll.
{TABLE]Roll|Attribute|Effect
1-5|Small vines replace the Overgrown's hair|---|
6-15|The Overgrown's skin turns pale green and begins photosynthesis|Affected Overgrown does not need to eat if it is in sunlight for at least six hours a day|
16-25|Small buds sprout off of the Overgrown's limbs and bloom once in spring|3d20 blossoms act as goodberries once per year|
26-30|Tiny roots grow on the bottoms of the Overgrown's feet which root and retract at will|+1 circumstance bonus on balance, climb, and other checks to stay standing|
31-40|The Overgrown's skin gains a bark-like texture|---|
41-55|Plants move subtly out of the Overgrown's path|The Overgrown takes no penalties for overland movement through forests, plains or jungles |
56-60|The Overgrown can hear plants whispering about the surroundings|+1 circumstance bonus to survival checks |
61-75|Any clothing or armor worn by the Overgrown quickly grows a harmless moss|---|
76-85|The ends of the Overgrowns fingers secrete a sticky sap at will|+1 circumstance bonus to prevent being disarmed|
86-95|The Overgrown knows when forest fey are near|The Overgrown is aware of the type and general direction of any forest fey within 100 feet|
96-99|The Overgrown's changes are unusually rapid|Roll twice more on this chart|
100|The Overgrown's changes are unusually extreme|Roll on the five year drift chart|
[/TABLE]
For every five years, roll on the following chart. If an attribute has been rolled twice, ignore the roll.
{TABLE]Roll|Attribute|Effect
1-15|The Overgrown's body stops aging|The Overgrown gains the Timeless Body ability|
16-25|The Overgrown gains the ability to speak with the animals of the forest|The Overgrown can perminantly Speak with Animals as per the spell|
26-35|The Overgrown gains the ability to speak with the plants of the forest|The Overgrown can perminantly Speak with Plants as per the spell|
36-45|The forest protects the Overgrown from disease|The Overgrown gains immunity to non-magical diseases|
46-55|Poisons no longer harm the Overgrown|The Overgrown becomes immune to poison|
56-70|The Overgrown's skin can secrete an irritating poison at will|-1 to hit, damage and AC for 1d4 days to a creature on a successful touch attack. Fortitude negates (DC 14)|
71-80|The Overgrown's skin grows retractable thorns|Acts as spiked armor of the appropriate size while grappling|
81-95|The Overgrown's sight in low lights vastly improves|Overgrowns without lowlight vision gain it out to 120 ft. Those with lowlight vision add 120 ft. to their range|
96-99|The Overgrown's changes are unusually rapid|Roll twice more on this chart|
100|The Overgrown's changes are unusually extreme|Roll on the ten year drift chart|
[/TABLE]
Every ten years, roll on the following chart. If an attribute had been rolled twice, ignore the roll.
{TABLE]Roll|Attribute|Effect
1-15|The Overgrown never dies of age|The Overgrown never dies of age and cannot be aged magically (This does not prevent penalties from accruing)|
16-20|The Overgrown's anatomy become almost plant-like|The Overgrown becomes immune to critical hits|
21-30|The Overgrown's mind grows distant and abstract|The Overgrown becomes immune to mind affecting spells|
31-40|The Overgrown's anatomy become strangely plant-like|The Overgrown becomes immune to paralysis, polymorph and stunning effects|
41-55|The Overgrown finds that it can go without sleep|The Overgrown no longer needs to sleep and becomes immune to sleep effects|
56-70|The Overgrown's skin becomes hard and thick like bark|+3 natural armor|
71-80|The Overgrown can transport itself through trees|The Overgrown can use Tree Stride as a spell-like ability at will|
81-95|The plants of the forest awaken to follow the commands of the Overgrown|The Overgrown can use Animate Plants as a 12th level caster once per week|
96-99|The Overgrown's changes are unusually rapid|Roll twice more on this chart|
100|The Overgrown's senses extend through its entire home forest|The Overgrown knows when any living creature enters or leaves its forest|
[/TABLE]
After 30 years, the Overgrown's type changes to Plant. The changes continue even after the obvious effects end, but they aren't visible or even understood, even by the Overgrown itself.

Forest's Love (Su): If the Overgrown can cast spells granted by nature, such as those of a druid or ranger, then the creature gains bonus spell as if from having a high ability score. A bonus spell can be added to any level of spells the Overgrown already has the ability to cast. The Overgrown gains one bonus spell per ten years spent in its forest, to a maximum of ten. If an Overgrown benefits from this effect, the DC to defeat Nature's Pull (see below) increases to 22.

Trackless Step (Ex)- An Overgrown leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. It may choose to leave a trail if so desired.

Forest Kinship (Ex)- Due to their connection with nature, all forest fey initially have their attitude towards the Overgrown improved by one catagory.

Nature’s Pull (Su): The Overgrown become dependant on the magic of the forest and it causes them great emotional stress to leave. To leave the forest of its home, the Overgrown must succeed on a DC 17 will save. The DC increases to 22 if the Overgrown gains benefits from the Forest’s Love ability. If the Overgrown leaves the forest, Nature’s Drift pauses and the Overgrown loses the benefits from the Forest’s Love ability until the Overgrown returns to it’s home forest.

Abilities: Modify from the base creature as follows: Wis +4, Cha -2
Skills: An Overgrown gains a +8 bonus on Survival and Animal Empathy checks. The Overgrown uses its wisdom modifier for Animal Empathy. Otherwise same as the base creature, unless changed by Nature's Drift.
Feats: An Overgrown gains Track, and Weapon Finesse as bonus feats even if they do not meet the prerequisites. Otherwise same as the base creature.
Challenge Rating: Varies
Alignment: Any
Level Adjustment: -

If any of you have actually made it this far and are still interested, I'd like to know what you think. Suggestions and criticism are welcome.

DracoDei
2007-05-26, 09:49 PM
I was WONDERING how you were going to handle CR, I see you ducked the issue completely... also, at what point do they start to qualify as a plant?

roadkiller
2007-05-26, 10:00 PM
I was WONDERING how you were going to handle CR, I see you ducked the issue completely... also, at what point do they start to qualify as a plant?

Gah, I forgot add that in, thank you. 30 years with the template. If any of you out there can come up with a decent way of classifying it's CR, I will warship you as a homebrew genius. Really.

Baron Corm
2007-05-27, 10:09 AM
well it's not like i can turn down something like that!

my suggestion: move immunity to critical hits up to the ten year drift chart and immunity to nonmagical diseases down to the five year drift chart. every ability gained from the 10-year drift chart increases CR by 1. every two abilities gained from the 5-year drift chart increases CR by 1. every four abilities gained from the 1-year drift chart increases CR by 1. increase CR by 1 initially just for gaining the template.

Tengu
2007-05-27, 11:38 AM
It's hard to measure the LA of a template that bases highly on luck (since, depending on your rolls, you gain better or worse attributes as time goes by). Should be high though.

roadkiller
2007-05-27, 09:46 PM
Trackless Step and Forest Kinship added. I'm really not sure that it's very good idea to give a general CR modifier at all. This is definately not something to be used by players at all, hence the "-" for LA. I suppose it could be, but it would have to be checked by the DM.

Reptilius
2007-05-27, 10:21 PM
Uh...under skills it says that an overgrown gains a +8 bonus to Animal Empathy Checks...Animal Empathy doesn't exist anymore. You could say that it applies to Wild Empathy instead.

Wild Empathy (Ex)



A druid/ranger can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid/ranger level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result.

The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.

To use wild empathy, the druid/ranger and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

A druid/ranger can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a -4 penalty on the check.

Poppatomus
2007-05-27, 10:28 PM
Does the extension of senses ability just let them now when they are entering or leaving the forest? should it also provide some kind of bonus to track them while inside. Maybe something similar to the divine ability to designate a creature within a certain distance as a familiar, or just a +10 to track.

otherwise, very, very cool.

Kyace
2007-05-28, 12:30 AM
On year 10, do you roll on the 1 year, 5 year and the 10 year charts?


Overgrowns without lowlight vision gain it out to 120 ft. Those with lowlight vision add 120 ft. to their range
Lowlight vision doubles how far you can see compared to human eyesight with a light source, it has no range itself. You might take a page from Aquatic Elves (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elf.htm#aquaticElf) and turn lowlight vision into superior lowlight vision.

Edit: Sorry have to.

Does the extension of senses ability just let them now when they are entering or leaving the forest?
You know when you are leaving the forest when you stop passing trees. :P