Special Conversion Thread: Plants

[freyar]

I still need to look up symbionts, and now I have to go read that ciruja plant.

 

[Cleon]

I still need to look up symbionts, and now I have to go read that ciruja plant.

Take your time.

 

[Shade]

Looking over the symbionts again, I'm leaning toward non-symbiont. As far as I can tell in the original text, the ivy has no means of making its host do what it wants, and thus has no need of an Ego score.

 

[Cleon]

Looking over the symbionts again, I'm leaning toward non-symbiont. As far as I can tell in the original text, the ivy has no means of making its host do what it wants, and thus has no need of an Ego score.

What do you want to do then, make it a non-hazardous hazard or a Plant monster with hardly any stats?

 

[Shade]

Probably the latter, otherwise it's just equipment, and the CC doesn't do equipment.

 

[Cleon]

Probably the latter, otherwise it's just equipment, and the CC doesn't do equipment.

Okay, how about reducing a Shrieker to Diminutive and tweaking it? That would give us something like:

Skullcap Ivy
Diminutive Plant
Hit Dice: ½d8 (2 hp)
Initiative: -5
Speed: 0 ft. or fly 5 ft. (clumsy)
Armor Class: 10 (+4 size, -5 Dex, +1 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-17
Attack: —
Full Attack: —
Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Spores
Special Qualities: Plant traits, symbiosis
Saves: Fort +2, Ref —, Will -4
Abilities: Str –, Dex –, Con 11, Int –, Wis 2, Cha 1
Skills: —
Feats: —
Environment: ?
Organization: Solitary or patch (3-5)
Challenge Rating: —
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 1 HD (Tiny); 2 HD (Small)
Level Adjustment: —

 

[freyar]

A good start. How about this for symbiosis? BTW, is the spores attack just for reproduction?

Symbiosis (Ex/Su?): Skullcap ivy prefers to grow on the head of intelligent mammals, replacing the hair of its host. The host reaps several benefits and a few disadvantages. For one, as long as the skullcap ivy has adequate sunlight and water, the host requires half as much food and water as usual (if kept out of sunlight, as in a dungeon, the ivy nourishes itself from the host's bloodstream but requires only half the food of a Diminutive animal, which is a negligible amount compared to a Medium or Small humanoid's daily intake). Furthermore, the host and ivy provide each other air to breath, so both can survive in airless or toxic? environments. On the other hand, while a skullcap ivy is immune to spells that target plant monsters, the host becomes vulnerable to entangle and similar spells. Specifically, if the ivy or the host is in the area of an entangle spell, the host must succeed at a Fortitude save, or the ivy will grow and start to strangle the host, causing suffocation if not killed. Also, during the spring months, the blooms of a skullcap ivy attract bee-like creatures. Any bee-like creature (such as a giant bee or a spider killer) will attack hosts of skullcap ivies before any other opponents.

 

[Cleon]

A good start. How about this for symbiosis? BTW, is the spores attack just for reproduction?

It was originally, but we could make it a 1/week attack that causes some minor penalty as the spores try to infect their new host.

Symbiosis (Ex/Su?): Skullcap ivy prefers to grow on the head of intelligent mammals, replacing the hair of its host. The host reaps several benefits and a few disadvantages. For one, as long as the skullcap ivy has adequate sunlight and water, the host requires half as much food and water as usual (if kept out of sunlight, as in a dungeon, the ivy nourishes itself from the host's bloodstream but requires only half the food of a Diminutive animal, which is a negligible amount compared to a Medium or Small humanoid's daily intake). Furthermore, the host and ivy provide each other air to breath, so both can survive in airless or toxic? environments. On the other hand, while a skullcap ivy is immune to spells that target plant monsters, the host becomes vulnerable to entangle and similar spells. Specifically, if the ivy or the host is in the area of an entangle spell, the host must succeed at a Fortitude save, or the ivy will grow and start to strangle the host, causing suffocation if not killed. Also, during the spring months, the blooms of a skullcap ivy attract bee-like creatures. Any bee-like creature (such as a giant bee or a spider killer) will attack hosts of skullcap ivies before any other opponents.

Hmm, firstly it should be (Ex).

Secondly, it doesn't let the host live in vacuum or poison gas, it just stops them asphyxiating.

Finally, I don't much like the bee-creatures always attacking the host.

How's this strike you...

Symbiosis (Ex): Skullcap ivy grows on the head of intelligent mammals, replacing the hair of its host. The host reaps several benefits and a few disadvantages. For one, as long as the skullcap ivy has adequate sunlight and water, the host requires half as much food and water as usual (if kept out of sunlight, as in a dungeon, the ivy nourishes itself from the host's bloodstream but requires only half the food of a Diminutive animal, which is a negligible amount compared to a Medium or Small humanoid's daily intake). Furthermore, the host and ivy provide gasses for each other to breath, so the host will not asphyxiate if the air is low on oxygen (although they have no special protection from airless vacuums or poison gas).

On the other hand, while a skullcap ivy is immune to spells that target plant monsters, the host becomes vulnerable to entangle and similar spells. Specifically, if the ivy or the host is in the area of an entangle spell, the host must succeed at a Fortitude save, or the ivy will grow and start to strangle the host, suffocating them for [1d4?] points of nonlethal damage per rounds until the host or the skullcap ivy is killed or the entangle spell's duration ends. Also, skullcap ivy produces sweet-smelling blooms during the spring months which attract pollinating insects, including monsters such as giant bees. These creatures may attack the skullcap ivy's host if they try to prevent them feeding on the plant's nectar.

 

[freyar]

The precise quotes are

In addition, both the skullcap ivy and the host are sources of the gases necessary for the other’s survival. The skullcap converts the host’s exhaled carbon dioxide into oxygen, while the host breathes the oxygen and converts it to carbon dioxide. This along makes a skullcap ivy a welcome symbiote among many spelljamming crews.

On the down side, skullcap ivy produces small blue flowers in the springtime, attracting bees and wasps. Hosts must prepare themselves for the ever-present attentions of such insects during that time of year.

I think the bit about spelljamming implies they let you breathe in vacuum, right? I did add the toxic bit as a bit of poetic license, but I'm willing to take that out. I could go either way on the bees, but I think general "attraction" may be too vague.

Suffocation already has specific rules, so I'd rather not go into nonlethal damage, etc. And it sounds in the original like it's supposed to be lethal. We could go into garrotting rules (we've done it before), but that seems a bit messy for such a simple-sounding critter.

 

[Shade]

I think the bit about spelljamming implies they let you breathe in vacuum, right? I did add the toxic bit as a bit of poetic license, but I'm willing to take that out.

That makes sense, and I'm not bothered either way by the toxic bit.

I could go either way on the bees, but I think general "attraction" may be too vague.

Agreed. If we leave it in, we need some explanation.

Suffocation already has specific rules, so I'd rather not go into nonlethal damage, etc. And it sounds in the original like it's supposed to be lethal. We could go into garrotting rules (we've done it before), but that seems a bit messy for such a simple-sounding critter.

Eww. Let's just stick with the suffocation rules.