Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Big Mac" data-source="post: 4326774" data-attributes="member: 61182">Hmmmm. Something has been bugging me about this creature since the begining. I've tried to argue a way to make this creature work, but I'm not happy with it. I think I finally realised why.I'm starting to think the turning thing is a bit of a dead end. Druids don't normally have turning power - right.So a player of a druid PC is never going to think of trying to turn one of these creatures. So what is the point of a creature that can be turned by druids?All that means the GM is going to have to drop some sort of "why don't you try to turn it like a cleric" hint. Which of course could come across as the GM telling the players the answer.I think what we actually need is something that works in a similar way to a turning attempt, but something that isn't called turning.Turning is when a cleric repells undead creatures (or other creatures if they have the right domain). So how about a SQ that makes these creatures somehow get repelled by druids. And how about making it semi-automatic. That would mean the GM wouldn't need to drop hints.The original text says: "Birch tree spirits are bound into the service of druids or magic users specialising in plantcraft by either a hold plant or charm plant spell." So how about using that to give these creatures a massive fear of druids and magic users specialising in plantcraft (which would be druids, rangers and clerics with the plant domain in 3rd edition terms).How about calling the SQ "Hierophobia"?The Yau-Mor (from the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=4324758#post4324758" target="_blank">Converting Al-Qadim and Oriental Adventures creatures</a> thread. Seem to have the opposite attitude to fear. Here is the text:"In particular, yau-mor hate spellcasters, and will always seek to attack them when possible. They are not too swift on the uptake, however, and will not attack mages and priests until those individuals do something to call attention to themselves. After one has selected a spellcaster as a target, it will not attack others until the original target is dead."I think that text could be inspiration for a Hierophbia quality:Hierophobia (Ex): As part of ritual that summons a birch tree spirit and binds it into its tree, it is infused with an unnatural fear of anyone who can wield natural magic. Birch tree sprits fear druids, rangers and clerics with the plant domain. However, they have no special ability to detect natural magic and only show their fear when a spellcaster does something that draws attention to their ability. After a birch tree spirit becomes aware of a spellcaster who can cast druid, ranger or plant spells they immediately retreat into their tree and...XI haven't got to the specifics of what happens when the go back into their tree, but that could follow along from the original text and this would then be fairly true to the original intention. (I'm guessing it would be similar to what happens to a dryad who hid in their tree.)But if we did make this switch, it would allow us forget about this creature being an undead to do what freyar wanted to do from the start - make it a fey creature.</blockquote>

Verification