Tarrasque Wrangler
First Post
I've been thinking a lot today about the Awaken spell, specifically for an adventure I'm working on involving a herd of intelligent wild horses who were awakened by druids centuries before. It got me thinking about some of the implications of a spell like Awaken, which I thought I'd throw out to you all.
1. Can awakened animals breed with regular animals (of their species, of course) or only with other awakened animals? After all, it's not an "animal" anymore. The spell slaps a template (magical beast) on the animal. One could argue that what the spell is actually doing is a rather radical neurological mutation. So is Skippy the Talking Dog a good ol' canis familiaris or some new species, like canis sapiens?
2. If you allow that an awakened animal can breed with a factory-issue animal, what are their children? If you follow the X-Men school of genetic theory, some might be intelligent and some not. Or maybe they mix the traits of both parents, and they're just kinda slow.
3. If they can only breed with other awakened members of their species, is a druid fundamentally obligated to awaken one of each sex? After all, it wouldn't be very druidic to create some genetic freak (against its will, even) that can't propagate its line.
4. Does it strike anyone as odd that Awaken is a druid spell at all? It seems to me that tinkering with an animal's "operating system" is one of the grossest violations of the natural order I can think of, and I'm not a druid who's paid to think about these things. I mean, a lizard or a dog or a bear is as smart as it NEEDS to be. It's one thing to create glowing mice, but to fundamentally alter a mouse's brain would be to alter it's entire reason for being. I don't mean to make this sound like an anti-biotech rant, I'm just pointing out that Awaken seems counter to the Druid's philosophy as I understand it. Maybe it would be better suited as a Sor/Wiz spell?
I don't expect there's a right or wrong answer to any of these, just wanted to discuss it.
1. Can awakened animals breed with regular animals (of their species, of course) or only with other awakened animals? After all, it's not an "animal" anymore. The spell slaps a template (magical beast) on the animal. One could argue that what the spell is actually doing is a rather radical neurological mutation. So is Skippy the Talking Dog a good ol' canis familiaris or some new species, like canis sapiens?
2. If you allow that an awakened animal can breed with a factory-issue animal, what are their children? If you follow the X-Men school of genetic theory, some might be intelligent and some not. Or maybe they mix the traits of both parents, and they're just kinda slow.
3. If they can only breed with other awakened members of their species, is a druid fundamentally obligated to awaken one of each sex? After all, it wouldn't be very druidic to create some genetic freak (against its will, even) that can't propagate its line.
4. Does it strike anyone as odd that Awaken is a druid spell at all? It seems to me that tinkering with an animal's "operating system" is one of the grossest violations of the natural order I can think of, and I'm not a druid who's paid to think about these things. I mean, a lizard or a dog or a bear is as smart as it NEEDS to be. It's one thing to create glowing mice, but to fundamentally alter a mouse's brain would be to alter it's entire reason for being. I don't mean to make this sound like an anti-biotech rant, I'm just pointing out that Awaken seems counter to the Druid's philosophy as I understand it. Maybe it would be better suited as a Sor/Wiz spell?
I don't expect there's a right or wrong answer to any of these, just wanted to discuss it.
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