Paragon of the Forest

[Ruethgar]

I have this character in mind that will be a roaming gardener. Apart from the obvious Verdant Lord fixes, my DM gave a little leeway on the Ranger ACF as long as I fill in the missing Favored Enemy with the Extra Favored Enemy feat.

What should her personality be?

Gia Ex Natura
Warforged, CN
Major Fey Bloodline 3/Companion Focused Plant Druid 3/Landforged Walker 5/Beast Master 1/Verdant Lord 5/Legacy Champion 6(wondrous architecture stronghold garden with the Calling power).

Str: 8
Dex: 14
Con: 10
Int: 14
Wis: 16
Cha: 10

Flaw: Love of Nature: Ironwood Body
Flaw: Beastly: Skill Focus(Handle Animal)
First: Wild Cohort(Plant)
Retrain: Greenbound Summoning0th, Plant Defiance1st, Plant Control3rd, Ashbound8th, Extend Spell11th
Third: Item Familiar
Sixth: Leadership
Ninth: Landlord
Twelfth: Non-Epic Destiny(Druid)

Physical: Zhe stands six and a half feet tall with grey, and black darkwood bark covering zer like skimpy armor. A thick, leathery, green, black, and grey darkleaf fills in where the bark fades. Vines, ranging from woody to fleshy, are visible at each of zer joints. Zer hair is made of black thorns forming higher, longer, and upright in the front and fading to shorter and flatter facing forward on the top. With short thorns facing up on the sides and back. Zer eyes change color and brightness slightly depending on mood but the norm is a dull steel blue growing bright yellow for joy, grey for sadness, orange for fear, red for anger, and green for tranquility.

Garden of Gia:
Requires: Knowledge Nature 8, Woodland Stride, Caster Level 5
Drawback: 4-3: -3 skills, -20 HP, 38,000gp over 20 levels
Rituals: Unspecified, find plant X, fertilize with the bones of creature Y, earn the blessing of nature paragon Z.

5: The Trees that Roam: Called, +10% XP, +1 to any skill per 3 ranks invested, +1 spell slot 2 levels lower per spell invested
6: Windbreak Brambles: Endure Elements(continuous)
7: Green Empathy(wild empathy for plants), Sapience(Cha 10, Int 10, Wis 12), Senses(60ft radius), Communication(Emapthic)
9: Woodland Stealth: Hide in Plain Sight(adjacent to tree)
10: The Trees that Provide: Ring of Sustenance, Generic Caster Orisins Sorcerer times per day using personal stats
11: The Trees that Hide: Obscuring Mist(if immobile)
12: Woodland Warning: Uncanny Dodge
13: Woodland Vigor: +2 Con Enhancement
14: May cast invested spells as Still, Silent, and Enchewed as master casts
15: Garden Grace: +4 Dex Enhancement
16: The Trees are Alive: Intelligent Legacy Major
17: Green Guardians: Death Ward
18: Shimmering Leaves: Spell Resistance, +4 Wis +2 Int/Cha to item
19: Garden Ramparts: Wall of Stone 2/day
20: The Trees that Guide: +6 Wis Enhancement

Origin: Powerful magic leaves scars. This is a well known fact of the craft. In places of catastrophic magical upheaval, even simple spells can leave scars that form perfect imprints of the magic that created them. These perfectly imprinted scars are the living spells we know and fear. But sometimes the scars of magic just don't have the power to maintain an effect but the imprint is there, waiting. Gia owes zer life to one such magical scar.

Once upon a time there lived a sorcerer king, now long forgotten to history. This king knew the rituals of the Warforged and devoted his efforts in raising an army of these metal monstrosities. No one knows what happened to this King or his armies, but his kingdom has long since fell to ruin, the forest reclaiming the land until only a few crumbling walls and magical scars remained. Eventually, the fey wilds breached the forest, and while the weave had faded most of the scars left by the Kings magic, the Warforged ritual scar remained as it had always been, for the creation of life is among the most powerful of magics. The magic of the wilds quickly erased the remnants of the faded spells, but when it touched the Warforged scar, the power of the fey provided the spark for one last creation as the scar burst with life and thus Gia was born. The ritual's form splintered quickly with the power and began to heal as the other scars had, but in the spot where Gia came to be, there is a massive, intricate rune marked by arcane infused flora that thrives to this day, a reminder of the power of the creation of life and a shadow of a scar that once was.

[atemu1234]

I have this character in mind that will be a roaming gardener. Apart from the obvious Verdant Lord fixes, my DM gave a little leeway on the Ranger ACF as long as I fill in the missing Favored Enemy with the Extra Favored Enemy feat.

Sounds fairish.


Gia Ex Natura
Warforged
Major Fey Bloodline 3/Mystic Wild Defender 2/Landforged Walker 5/Verdant Lord 3/Legacy Champion 10(wondrous architecture stronghold garden with the Calling power).

You probably could have gone for druid and kept the flavor, but whatever


Not very powerful, and to be perfectly honest more for flavor than anything. But while for most of my characters I've been able to hobble together at least a trope filled melody of a background, for this one I am stuck. I want her to be a sort of old wise woman, literally, of the forest but I can't really think of much more beyond that as far as details. Anyone have any ideas that might spark this character more into being?

Since it is of fey descent, why not have it be of fey creation? A seelie fey saw a warforged, and thought of what he could add and make his own.


As more of a side note, what should her spell selection be?

Well, there isn't much power in growing plants.

[nedz]

My first thought was Huey and Dewey from Silent Running - which might work.

What level are you starting at ?

[Ruethgar]

You probably could have gone for druid and kept the flavor, but whatever

Since it is of fey descent, why not have it be of fey creation? A seelie fey saw a warforged, and thought of what he could add and make his own.

Well, there isn't much power in growing plants.
The original build used Druid and I may well go back to it for better spells, Ranger can get into Verdant Lord a level earlier though.

Thank you for your suggestion I will keep that in mind as a possibility.

True not much power in growing plants, but a fair bit in getting two spells class features from level one, even if from a poor list.

Will likely be starting at level 1.

[nedz]

Right, so at level 1 you are:
Warforged Mystic Ranger with some Fey heritage.

I find looking at how the character starts out simplifies things.

How about something like:

In a derelict building in the forest, overgrown with trees, is an abandoned forge. It hasn't produced Warforged in longer than it takes trees to grow old. One day a petal, whilst exploring the ruin, falls into the forge and it spins into action. Stamp: a strange new creature emerges and explores their surroundings: all it knows is the forest.

or

Dwarven scrap merchants are lugging an old forge through the forest when, carelessly, they drop it. It rolls down a hill, gathering speed, until it falls - Splash - into a faerie pool. The forge, long inactive, is infused with new energy and Stamp: a strange new creature emerges and explores their surroundings: all it knows is the forest.

[Ruethgar]

Somewhat Ebberon origin centric. But I will consider them.

Came up with the thought of a dryad making a wish to wander the world and the price was the slow, agonizing death of her tree and being born anew from the carcass, the remains of her life-long partner forever grafted to her skin but her wish of mobility granted.

Any other thoughts?

[Ruethgar]

How does this sound for a more Faerunian origin?

Powerful magic leaves scars. This is a well known fact of the craft. In places of catastrophic magical upheaval, even simple spells can leave scars that form perfect imprints of the magic that created them. These perfectly imprinted scars are the living spells we know and fear. But sometimes the scars of magic just don't have the power to maintain an effect but the imprint is there, waiting. Gia owes her life to one such magical scar.

Once upon a time there lived a sorcerer king, now long forgotten to history. This king knew the rituals of the Warforged and devoted his efforts in raising an army of these metal monstrosities. No one knows what happened to this King or his armies, but his kingdom has long since fell to ruin, the forest reclaiming the land until only a few crumbling walls and magical scars remained. Eventually, the fey wilds breached the forest, and while the weave had faded most of the scars left by the Kings magic, the Warforged ritual scar remained as it had always been, for the creation of life is among the most powerful of magics. The magic of the wilds quickly erased the remnants of the faded spells, but when it touched the Warforged scar, the power of the fey provided the spark for one last creation as the scar burst with life and thus Gia was born. The ritual's form splintered quickly with the power and began to heal as the other scars had, but in the spot where Gia came to be, there is a massive, intricate rune marked by arcane infused flora that thrives to this day, a reminder of the power of the creation of life and a shadow of a scar that once was.

[Aleolus]

...wow. I am honestly in awe of these. These are all amazing backstories for a character, and I wish I could consistently come up with stuff like this

[Ruethgar]

I didn't like the dryad one, it fits as far as fairy tale wishes and I guess a Savage Species ritual could be stretched to that, but the mechanics just don't mesh without home brew or extreme fluff.

Plus there is the bit where she used to cast as a high level Druid and now doesn't, I would think watching your loved on die in agony because of you would be enough of a payment for a wish without also stripping you of all of your magic.

The magical scar is a little snowflaky, but I like my characters special. I feel it is not as much of a stretch compared to the dryad from what's written about magic, for Faerun at least, that something like that could happen and, more importantly, would eventually happen given time.

The random accidents producing a new Warforged from an Ebberon forge seem a little too mundane or simple to me. Probably easier to pass a DM, and with a bit more fluff I would probably like them just the same.

As far as a Seelie making a Warforged, perhaps Unseelie. From what I read they are far less racist and would more readily accept a Warforged.

At any rate, still needs a personality.