Creating an Island from Scratch...?

[Samloyal23]

Dragon Kings, I think, had a level 10 spell that created a forest. That was 2nd Edition, but I think it should be easy to convert if you have that book. It had some other proto-Epic spells that would help your druid build an island, check it out.

 

[Shaghayegh]

Dragon Kings, I think, had a level 10 spell that created a forest. That was 2nd Edition, but I think it should be easy to convert if you have that book. It had some other proto-Epic spells that would help your druid build an island, check it out.

Prolific Forestation and Prolific Vegetation are the spells you are thinking of...

 

[Advilaar]

Epic level handbook if you are using 3e does have methods in it for creating a island. You can decrease the level needed for said spellcater NPC by saying he had a bunch of folks doing a ritual for several years.

 

[Herobizkit]

Yes, Invocations (not sure from which sourcebook but began in d20 Modern) would be the solution here - basically a long string of Arcana checks with ritualists helping and super-rare reagents and such.

Also, consider an old solution of Feather Token: Tree coins thought up by one of my players. They're cheap and easy to make, and every coin makes a fully grown oak appear. Yeah, I think a blanket Dispel Magic could make them disappear, but if he's strong enough to make an Island, he must be strong enough to protect what he makes.

 

[Shaghayegh]

Are there any spells that would make a reef grow faster? Hmm... You know, if you had plenty of time and no better way to do it, you could use summoned/controlled sea creatures to just move rocks, sand, and other debris to a site until it piled up...

 

[The Red King]

Not to be annoying, but why tell the PC's how he did it at all? Have some locals bump into the players and give them multiple accounts of how he did it.

Some say it sprang up over night!

Some say that he took a peninsula from another area and teleported/dragged it there.

Some say it was a comet that he pulled down from the sky!

Eh?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Not to be annoying, but why tell the PC's how he did it at all? Have some locals bump into the players and give them multiple accounts of how he did it.

Some say it sprang up over night!

Some say that he took a peninsula from another area and teleported/dragged it there.

Some say it was a comet that he pulled down from the sky!

Eh?

The reason is I'm trying to develop the backstory for a campaign I'm co-creating with one of my buddies. It's a point of personal pride to have a reasonable mechanical explianation for how things are as the DM, even should the players never learn of it. It's part of the fun for me. Also, because we are co-creating, I need something my friend can also be on the same page about, but that's a secondary reason.

If this island of yours isn't required to be any massive and you'd rather have a lower level caster, he could build his own floaton. I think a determined low-level caster working all day and night to achieve a goal makes a better story than an epic mage altering reality with a snap. All he'd need is a lot of Craft checks and maintenance(unless the caster is a Druid, in which case he can just grow new plants and fix the supports once every week or so with Plant Growth and Lesser Restoration, respectively); the materials can be found everywhere, so there are no costs to pay - You only need a portion of contested/owned land where you can grab them and carry them over to your to-be place. They may include but are not limited to plants(roots help keeping it in one piece; the more plants you have, the better), wood(Use the Wood Shape spell for live supports and meshes! L. Restoration won't affect dead plants!), a kind of soil, maybe air or some other gas trapped underneath to keep it floating if too heavy for it's size(I didn't mean that many plants, dammit), etc. Some people actually did this in real life, a D&D char won't have probs with execution. This kind of island won't support a fortress no matter how big it is, but it's sufficient for houses or hideouts, along with his personal zoo.

I freakin love this. The final objective will be to end up with an island miles across. However, I would love for all of this to have started this simple, a Druid trying to make his own way in the world, starting simple, relying upon the aid of those in the sea and the sea itself, THEN growing into something great. I will craft a story that starts here, on a little raft in the sea.

Also, consider an old solution of Feather Token: Tree coins thought up by one of my players. They're cheap and easy to make, and every coin makes a fully grown oak appear. Yeah, I think a blanket Dispel Magic could make them disappear, but if he's strong enough to make an Island, he must be strong enough to protect what he makes.

I would love it should this creator magically craft one tree at a time, until there were enough to support the continued growth of a forest on it's own. Feather Tokens require the Major Creation spell, I'll either need to multiclass (likely with a Cleric with the Creation Domain) or find some other way for this Druid to accomplish this, but I'll work it in. These crafted trees would become the heart of his Grove, from which the rest of the forest grew out of.

Are there any spells that would make a reef grow faster? Hmm... You know, if you had plenty of time and no better way to do it, you could use summoned/controlled sea creatures to just move rocks, sand, and other debris to a site until it piled up...

Great idea. A number of Wild Empathy checks to call the sea creatures to his aid in the beginning, then Awakening a few to serve as friends and co-creators in the later years.

Thanks for all the ideas so far, keep them coming!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Are there any spells that would make a reef grow faster?

The final objective will be to end up with an island miles across. However, I would love for all of this to have started this simple, a Druid trying to make his own way in the world, starting simple, relying upon the aid of those in the sea and the sea itself, THEN growing into something great. I will craft a story that starts here, on a little raft in the sea.



I would love it should this creator magically craft one tree at a time, until there were enough to support the continued growth of a forest on it's own.

A reef is primarily built of coral, and only certain kinds that build hard casings, as opposed to more delicate, deep-water corals.

Wiki

Although corals can catch small fish and plankton, using stinging cells on their tentacles, most corals obtain the majority of their energy and nutrients from photosynthetic unicellular algae called zooxanthellae that live within the coral's tissue. Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear, shallow water, typically at depths shallower than 60 metres (200ft). Corals can be major contributors to the physical structure of the coral reefs that develop in tropical and subtropical waters, such as the enormous Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

So, if you start in shallow enough water- or you have raised up the seamount hi enough buy onenofmthe methods we suggested- you need only 2 Druid spells to accelerate the growth of a coral reef to a couple times normal speed.

1) the least important one is Stone Shape. With it, you'd reshape some of the seafloor to be more "coral-friendly", and include a basis for whatever nifty shape you want from your reef. Want a coral reef maze to protect your harbor from uninvited guests? Use Stone Shape to lay out the basic form and depth of a maze. Once grown in, only your harbor masters will know the safe path through.

2) the most important one would be Plant Growth. Using it (sparingly, of course), you cause an algal bloom so that the unsettled coral polyps- and other zooplankton- have an abundant food supply. Cast over your Stone Shaped maze, and before long, lots of little, well fed coral polyps will start to precipitate out and start building your reef.


Edit: in addition, Shrink Item helps you too: use it to shrink boulders so you can transport them and put them into place.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I would love it should this creator magically craft one tree at a time, until there were enough to support the continued growth of a forest on it's own. Feather Tokens require the Major Creation spell, I'll either need to multiclass (likely with a Cleric with the Creation Domain) or find some other way for this Druid to accomplish this, but I'll work it in. These crafted trees would become the heart of his Grove, from which the rest of the forest grew out of.

Again, Plant Growth is your friend.

And speaking of friends, make some:

Here's an interesting fact: Aspen Trees are a clonal species- they can spread by runners. One of the largest organisms on Earth is an Aspen grove in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains that has 41,000+ trunks.

That inspired this:

No Man's Land:

5000 years ago, a druid (whose name is lost to humanity...) of great power picked a large and remote island devoid of human life as his home, choosing a grove of aspen trees his most sacred space. At some point, he chose to cast Awaken upon one of the aspen...and the entire grove came to life! He had forgotten that Aspen spread by runners...the entire grove was actually one plant- and now it had a mind equal to his own. He trained it in the ways of the druids.

Eventually, death found the druid, but his greatest student lived on. Eventually, the Aspen grew enough in power that it began to experiment with Awaken itself. First, it made other Aspen and a few other mighty trees as self aware as it was, forming the Green Council, each a druid, cleric or mage in its own right. They, in time and in turn, granted awareness to some of the animals of the forest...bringing them into a society ruled by the Green Council, each day's food created by powerful magics.

As decades passed, the island became a great druidic haven, but still unknown to man.

1000 years ago, Man came...and he was not ready for what he found. The animals and trees welcomed those who resembled the one who had made their haven possible, but the ignorant sailors who found the island hunted for food for their journeys, and were driven back by the island inhabitants. The sailors returned to civilization to tell tales of the mysterious island to the East, where both animals and trees thought and fought as if men.

The Counci's research of the civilized world (directly and through its awakened, shapechanged agents) has brought them much information about the destructiveness of man...and also solutions as to how to fight back. Those shapechanged agents often lived lives among the so called civilized men, bringing their children, natural shapeshifters, back to the island. The Council did much the same.

Now, the island is inhabited by more than trees and awakened animals. Alongside them now live natural shapechangers and other curious hybrids of man and beast or beast and plant...all members of an insular society on the island.

And they are leery of Mankind's intent.

(In game terms, the island is inhabited by Awakened Trees of the Green Council (each with 20 levels of some combination of Druid, Cleric, Wizard or Sorcerer, some with Epic levels); Awakened animals (any class, Rangers and Druids most common); Anthropomorphic Animals (see WOTC's Savage Species); Shapeshifters (see WOTC's Eberron, but instead of being linked to Lycanthropes, they are linked to Druids); and Woodlings (see WOTC's Monster Manual III).

 

[Samloyal23]

Someone needs to research a Transmute Water to Stone spell. Just stand on a boat over one spot, cast it over and over every day, and create sheets of rock out of sea water...