Lord of Wicker

[ardentmoth]

Hi all,
First-time poster, long-time lurker.

The most bizarre role playing opportunity popped into my head tonight, and I wanted to share it with all of you. I need help either identifying what class or combination of classes would work best for this character, or if i would need to write my own spells for it .

The Wickerer

Concept- An insane transmuter who believes wicker to be the uniting essence of all things. He maniacally laughs, shrieking "I am the lord of WICKER!!!" whenever he enters battle, then immediately begins a series of spells which turn the enemy into various wicker objects--useful, industrious, and permanent (except by limited wish, wish or miracle). He's spent countless sleepless nights devoted to weaving baskets and chairs and, well, everything he could think of, out of wicker.

Skills of likely importance would be Craft (wicker objects, weaving, some such similar thing), knowledge (arcane), concentration.

I know Druids have several spells affecting wooden objects, but "Wild Shape" doesn't seem this guy's style. He could be a wizard or socreror, but they don't get polymorph any object until 9 (if i recall correctly). From what i can tell, there isn't a quick and easy way aside from polymorph any object to turn flesh into wicker.
--

Yes this is bizarre. Nutty. Strange. But wouldn't it be fun to play? Thanks for the help and advice.

 

[moritheil]

Hi all,
First-time poster, long-time lurker.

The most bizarre role playing opportunity popped into my head tonight, and I wanted to share it with all of you. I need help either identifying what class or combination of classes would work best for this character, or if i would need to write my own spells for it .

The Wickerer

Concept- An insane transmuter who believes wicker to be the uniting essence of all things. He maniacally laughs, shrieking "I am the lord of WICKER!!!" whenever he enters battle, then immediately begins a series of spells which turn the enemy into various wicker objects--useful, industrious, and permanent (except by limited wish, wish or miracle). He's spent countless sleepless nights devoted to weaving baskets and chairs and, well, everything he could think of, out of wicker.

Skills of likely importance would be Craft (wicker objects, weaving, some such similar thing), knowledge (arcane), concentration.

I know Druids have several spells affecting wooden objects, but "Wild Shape" doesn't seem this guy's style. He could be a wizard or socreror, but they don't get polymorph any object until 9 (if i recall correctly). From what i can tell, there isn't a quick and easy way aside from polymorph any object to turn flesh into wicker.
--

Yes this is bizarre. Nutty. Strange. But wouldn't it be fun to play? Thanks for the help and advice.

Welcome!

I really think that you should look at yanking an existing PrC and salvaging parts of it for this concept. For example, how about having him summon wicker monsters? Take the alienist class, and instead of summoning pseudonatural versions of monsters, the wicker caster could summon wicker versions of them. Make up a template - perhaps they get immunity to critical hits and vulnerability to fire? Look at the Greenbound Summoning feat, too, for something similar.

 

[ardentmoth]

Well, I was looking for a RAW method of accomplishing it, that's why I posted in here ^_^.

But I will look more seriously into "editing" a few of the PrC's, though I was hoping for something of perhaps a low-level (although because of the RP requirements, I might be able to get away with a "fully-loaded" character).

And thank you for the welcome!

originally i was thinking of possible spell combinations....

flesh to stone -> ? -> "..." to wood.

but there's something of a gap between stone and metal transmuting...

 

[Maleketh]

The Manual of the Planes - which was, admittedly, 3.0 - has a Wood Element Creature template. If the wood is woven together like wicker, you've got a nice, large list of creatures to summon.

 

[jaelis]

As far as turning creatures into wicker, a variant of the flesh to stone spell would do. That's only level 6, compared to level 8 for PaO.

 

[ardentmoth]

Maleketh- AWESOME for the summoning Idea, maybe i can tweak that a bit to suit my needs. You win a spatula.

Jaelis- Yeah, i was thinking about that as I replied last time...Guess I'll start editing some spells and check the results with House Rules. MWAHAHAHAHA!

Any other ideas? Maybe some rare or often overlooked kind of "wood" cleric domain, or perhaps the template of some monster whose gaze turns flesh to wood? open to all suggestions RAW, and will also be looking for other possibilities (psionics maybe?). Can't wait to finish off the creation of this "basket-case."

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

There was a monster from 2E Ravenloft that would be a perfect fit for this concept. I believe it was a wicker golem or something like that. It was on the cover of a Ravenloft module, IIRC.

The story went something along lines of the golem was collecting all the missing scrolls that were used to bind the wicker together. In the process it was killing all the owners of the missing scrolls.

The picture was cooler than words can describe. It was distinguishable from almost all other Ravenloft cover art in that the picture took up the entire cover; there was no border or other designwork (beyond the title).

 

[ardentmoth]

This is what I've got so far...

...It's still a work in progress.

Tesper (Aka The Wickerer, The Wicker Witch of...nvm, you get it) (level 12 sorcerer currently).

Concept- An insane transmuter who believes wicker to be the uniting essence of all things. He maniacally laughs, shrieking "I am Tesper, lord of WICKER!" whenever he enters battle, then immediately begins a series of spells which turn the enemy into various wicker objects--useful, industrious, and permanent (except by limited wish, wish or miracle). He's spent countless sleepless nights devoted to weaving baskets and chairs and, well, everything he could think of, out of wicker. "Come Jerry, the fray of unbelievers awaits us!"

He carries Jerry, a Squirrel familiar, with him. Jerry doesn't mind that his friend is insane, because let's face it, squirrels love nuts. The squirrel has a habit of sleeping in party members' bags and nibbling the daily rations. He is occasionally used as a decorative fixture, doubling as a tool of espionage. Squirrels grant a +2 to reflex saves.


Alignment: Chaotic Neutral. Tesper and Jerry don't pay much heed to the norms, being a bit odd themselves. About the only thing structured about Tesper is his Obsessive particularity about his manufactured items.

I foresee skills such as Craft (wood, baskets, weaving, etc.) and Knowledge (arcane) to be of utmost importance, with several secondary skills.

I rolled starting stats (4d6, drop lowest), and stuck with what I recieved, assigning them as follows:

Str- 7
Dex- 14
Con- 10
Int- 15
Wis- 12
Cha- 18

Signature spells:

Weave (Cantrip)
Weave causes a small amount of straw or wicker (a pile or stack of it generally) to be woven together into a simple basket or box. Size is determined by the quantity of straw or wicker available.

Wicker shape (Sorcerer 2)
Wicker shape enables you to form one existing piece of Wicker into any shape that suits your purpose. While it is possible to make crude baskets, shields, rafts, and so forth, fine detail isn’t possible. There is a 30% chance that any shape that includes moving parts simply doesn’t work.

Flesh to Wicker (and Wicker to Flesh) (Sorcerer 6)
As Flesh to Stone, except that target becomes a wicker effigy of their former selves. If attacked, they take no damage (as they're lifeless) but instead take on whatever deformity or maiming was given them by the vandal, assuming they are restored by either a "wicker to flesh" spell, limited wish, wish, or miracle. They may be burned as easy as kindling. When this is cast on Jerry, the empathic link is maintained with Tesper, allowing spying and spells from a distance. Jerry doesn't like it, but he'll allow it for an acorn and a promise to be back to normal soon.

Tesper also knows a small number of summon monster spells. The monsters summoned(because of self-imposed, insane, limitations) gain the [wicker] subtype, and cannot be celestial or fiendish. This self-inflicted (by obsession) innate-ability is called "Effigial Summons." Monsters with the Wicker subtype gain immunity to critical hits, but are vulnerable to fire to the point of kindling, as they are made of living, woven wicker.

Other spells include mostly transmuting spells, though some others may fall through the cracks.




thoughts?

 

[moritheil]

Maleketh- AWESOME for the summoning Idea, maybe i can tweak that a bit to suit my needs. You win a spatula.

Jaelis- Yeah, i was thinking about that as I replied last time...Guess I'll start editing some spells and check the results with House Rules. MWAHAHAHAHA!

Any other ideas? Maybe some rare or often overlooked kind of "wood" cleric domain, or perhaps the template of some monster whose gaze turns flesh to wood? open to all suggestions RAW, and will also be looking for other possibilities (psionics maybe?). Can't wait to finish off the creation of this "basket-case."

Yeah, as I mentioned above, Greenbound Summoning is a feat that applies the "greenbound" template. It turns creatures into plant versions of themselves (so no criticals, and vulnerable to fire). I had forgotten about the Wood Creatures; that's a nice catch.

 

[ardentmoth]

this is Just a hilariously fun character to play. thanks for the helps!