Spirit of the Land template

[Shade]

Originally Posted by Jaysyn

Speaking of Dark Sun, Athas.org never did make any templates for the Spirits of the Land. They made a few actual spirits in Faces of the Forgotten North, but no templates or easy ways to generate them. Think you guys can come up with something?

Originally Posted by Shade

At first glance, they don't seem much different than the spirit of the land in MM2. Do they differ enough to warrant conversion?

Originally Posted by Jaysyn

Not a conversion per se, but a template or way to create them from a base terrain or something similar. Each one is supposed to be unique.

It's pretty hard to use the Epic Wildshape: Spirit of the Land if you can't make one. Yes, I'm wanting to use an epic druid NPC in my next campaign.

Shall we lend Jaysyn a hand?

[Shade]

Here are the base manifestations in MMII...

Air Manifestation
To manifest as air, a spirit of the land must have a windy vally, breezy seashore, or the like in its terrain. In this form, it gains the following abilities.

Air Mastery (Ex): Airborne creatures take a –1 penalty on attack and damage rolls against a spirit of the land manifested as air.

Flight (Ex): A spirit of the land manifested as air is naturally buoyant. At will as a free action, it can produce an effect like that of the fly spell (caster level 5th), except that the effect applies only to itself. This ability gives it a fly speed of 120 feet (perfect).

Earth Manifestation
An earth manifestation simply requires any type of land. In this form, a spirit of the land gains the following ability.

Earth Mastery (Ex): A spirit of the land manifested as earth gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls if both it and its foe are touching the ground. If an opponent is airborne or waterborne, the spirit of the land takes a –4 penalty on attack and damage rolls. (These modifiers are not included in the statistics block.)

Fire Manifestation
A fire manifestation requires a volcanic region, hot spring, or the like on the spirit of the land's terrain. In this form, it gains the following abilities.

Burn (Ex): A spirit of the land manifested as fire's slam attack deals bludgeoning damage plus fire damage from the spirit's flaming body. Those hit by a spirit's slam attack also must succeed on a DC 30 Reflex save or catch on fire. The flame burns for 1d4 rounds. A burning creature can take a move action to put out the flame. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Creatures hitting a spirit of the land manifested as fire with natural weapons or unarmed attacks take fire damage as though hit by the spirit's attack, and also catch on fire unless they succeed on a DC 30 Reflex save.

Fire Subtype (Ex): A spirit of the land manifested as fire gains immunity to fire and vulnerability to cold.

Water Manifestation

Swim (Ex): A spirit of the land manifested as water can swim at a speed of 60 feet.

Water Mastery (Ex): A spirit of the land manifested as water gains a +1 bonus on its attack and damage rolls if its opponent is touching water.

A spirit of the land manifested as water can be a serious threat to a ship that crosses its path. A spirit can easily overturn small craft (5 feet of length per Hit Die of the spirit) and stop larger vessels (10 feet long per HD). Even large ships (20 feet long per HD) can be slowed to half speed.

[Jaysyn]

Aside from SLAs, skills & mental stats, I think the formless states will be pretty similar for all of the SotLs

Colossal fey
Senses: all-around vision, darkvision, low-light vision; Listen +30, Spot +30
Languages: telepathy within lands
Immune: all attacks (see below)
Speed: 0 ft. (0 squares)
Space: [extent of land]; Reach —
Special Actions: elemental manifestation
Spell-like Abilities (CL 21th):


Abilities: Str —, Dex —, Con —, Int ??, Wis ??, Cha ??
SQ: Diffuse & Formless

Skills:


All-Around Vision (Ex) Because a Spirit of the Land in its formless state is composed of the terrain surrounding it, it can see in any direction, bestowing a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Search checks.

Diffuse and formless (Su) Because a Spirit of the Land is normally composed of the terrain surrounding it, a Spirit of the Land cannot be attacked directly unless it manifests its elemental form. In its normal formless and diffuse state, a Spirit of the Land cannot be directly attacked, although it will suffer and die if its land is destroyed.

Elemental Manifestation (Su) At will, a Spirit of the Land can assume a corporeal form, made from the predominant elements of its land. Each Spirit of the Land has specific and unique elemental manifestation, and each of these is treated like a separate monster. See ―Spirit of the Land (Elemental Manifestation).‖ Should a Spirit of the Land‘s elemental manifestation be destroyed, the physical dissipates and the Spirit must wait 24 hours before it can manifest itself again, or use any of its spell-like abilities, including the granting of spells.

Wild Empathy (Ex) This ability works like the druid‘s wild empathy class feature, except that the Spirit has a +6 racial bonus on the check.

[Jaysyn]

Athasian Terrain types & Manifestations

Forests, Jagged Cliffs, Swamp, Mountains, Verdant Belts, Stony Barrens, Sandy Wastes, Rocky Badlands, Mud Flats, Boulder Fields, Salt Flats, Obsidian Wastes, Ocean, Sea of Silt.

Forests / Verdant Belts = Earth w/ verdant qualities

Jagged Cliffs / Mountains = Earth, Air

Swamp / Mud Flats= Earth, Water

Stony Barrens / Boulder fields / Salt Flats = Earth

Sandy Wastes = Earth w/ sandy qualities

Rocky Badlands (Lava Gorge?) = Earth, Fire

Ocean (Last Sea) = Water

Obsidian Wastes / Sea of Silt = n/a

[Shade]

To mix it up a bit, we might draw some ideas from paraelementals.

Swamp/Mud Flaps might get the ooze paraelemental's acid.

Since magma paraelementals get burn, the fire manifestation should be applicable for Lava Gorge. Or to mix it up, use the magma mephit's breath weapon and fast healing?

For the Salt Flats, maybe the salt mephit's breath weapon and fast healing?

For the sandy wastes, maybe a sand golem's brownout or a brown dragon's sandstorm?

[Jaysyn]

Those all sound great. Maybe an Envelope / Engulf SA for the swampy or sandy areas. There are so many things that we could use I'm almost thinking that we need SLA / Special Quality random/pick lists for each terrain type.

[freyar]

Can we figure out the lists of terrains we want to do?

[Shade]

I think the terrain types listed in Jaysyn's post about four back is probably what he's looking for. If you wanna take it further, though, I'm fine with it.

[Jaysyn]

Originally Posted by Shade

I think the terrain types listed in Jaysyn's post about four back is probably what he's looking for. If you wanna take it further, though, I'm fine with it.

Yeah, those are the terrains listed in the 3.5e Dark Sun campaign setting.

[freyar]

Ok, I wasn't sure if that was all, and, to be honest, I got a bit lost back there.

[Shade]

Salt Flats Manifestation
In this form, a spirit of the land gains the following abilities.

Breath Weapon (Su): A spirit of the land manifested as salt may breathe a x-foot cone of salt crystals once every 1d4 rounds. This deals xdx points of damage (Reflex half). Living creatures that fail their saves are tormented by itching skin and burning eyes. This effect imposes a –4 penalty to AC and a –2 penalty on attack rolls for 3 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Fast Healing (Ex): A spirit of the land manifested as salt gains fast healing x while in contact with salt.

Sandy Wastes Manifestation
In this form, a spirit of the land gains the following abilities.

Brownout (Ex): The dust cloud that surrounds a spirit of the land manifested as sand produces a constant condition of brownout, a common side effect of sandstorms. Creatures within 10 feet of a sand golem take a -4 penalty on Dexterity-based skill checks, as well as Search, Spot, and any other checks that rely on vision. These effects end when the creature leaves the 10-foot area around the spirit of the land.

Sandstorm (Sp): Once per day, a spirit of the land manifested as sand can create a vortex of violently churning sand at a distance up to 80 yards away. All creatures within a 60-foot radius of the center of the sandstorm take 1d6 points of damage each round they remain within the sandstorm. Creatures in the swirling sands are blinded and must make a Balance check (DC 15) during each round they move more than 5 feet or fall prone.

[freyar]

Cool! That's pretty good!