Magic system: Transform, Plants, and Elementals

[Primitive Screwhead]

[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION]

I had too many questions in my previous thread and one of them got overlooked. The issue of how Transform works with elementals:

Transform:

Buried in the text on Transform there is a sly mention that to transform someone into an earth elemental you need both Transform Earth and Transform Fey.. because Elementals are 'Fey' creatures? Is this right?

Page 116 of the May OLD playtest document:
" There is a difference between spells that affect elementals (the fey creature type) and those that affect elements. A Transform Earth spell can turn things to stone, but it cannot turn something into an earth elemental. For that you’d need both Transform Earth and Transform Fey."

Split from thread at http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...uestions-on-Magic-May-30th-game#ixzz35U1qQG6K

In my conversations with my group, which has a Druid, it was noted that the Plant listing is very limited and virtually pointless as a Druid {well, as anything really}. I had previously recommended that the 'Infuse Time' enhancement be added to the plant list as a 'Grow Plant' option, since the Druid cannot even get crops to grow faster.

With the additional question of Transform Fey for elementals, you leave the Druid even farther out of the loop. They cannot conjure up a small twig-based nature elemental, aka homunculus, to go spy for them, or turn a nearby tree into a combatant, aka treant.

My recommendations to handle this are:

Change the creature type of 'Plant' to 'Animates' that covers living things that have an INT score of 1 or less

<ul>
<li> normal plants {apples, oranges} {things that if they died, they would be on the 'Nature' list} </li>
<li> sentient plants </li>
<li> sentient 'things' {elementals, animated chairs, etc.. }</li>
</ul>

But not constructed sentient things like Golems, living spells, or clockwork guardians.

Add to the Transform enhancement of 'animate' and 'deanimate' to the list.

In this way you could use Transform Animates to change a tree into a treant, a rock {or group of rocks} into a rock elemental, a vine into a grasping bramble, and a candlestick into an annoying disney character... {note: things like chairs and candlesticks animated this way have to be crafted out of a single tree, a properly sized group of rocks, etc...}

You could then use Transform Earth plus transform Anima to turn that tree into an earth elemental.

Since Anima limits the intellect to 1 die, the creatures will react based purely on instinct, but can be commanded using Compel Animates. Without direction, they will tend to just sit and wait for something to eat {assuming they eat}

I believe this is a better handle on elementals than linking them to the Fey creature type, as well as makes the Plant/Animate list actually useful.