Hey, everyone. Last week we got a little sidetracked, but we are back this week with the promised preview of the Advanced Race Guide. As part of the treesinger druid archetype, elves can gain a number of plant companions in place of a druid’s normal natural bond ability. Below you will find the full rules for these leafy companions.
Plant Companions
Each plant companion has different starting sizes, speed, attacks, ability scores, and special qualities. All plant attacks are made using the creature’s full base attack bonus unless otherwise noted. Plant attacks add the plant’s Strength modifier on the damage roll, unless it has only one attack, in which case it adds 1-1/2 times its Strength modifier. Some plant companions have special abilities, such as scent. Plant companions cannot gain armor or weapon proficiency feats, even as they advance in hit dice, and cannot use manufactured weapons at all unless their description says otherwise.
As you gain levels, your plant companion grows in power as well. It gains the same bonuses that are gained by animal companions, noted on Table 3–8: Animal Companion Base Statistics on page 52 of the Core Rulebook. Each plant companion gains an additional bonus, usually at 4th or 7th level, as listed with each plant choice. Instead of taking the listed benefit at 4th level, you can instead choose to increase the companion’s Strength and Constitution by 2.
Illustration by Anna Christenson
Carnivorous Flower
Starting Statistics:Size Small; Speed 30 ft., climb 10 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d6); Ability Scores Str 10, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
4th-Level Advancement:Size Medium; Attack bite (2d6); Ability Scores Str +4, Dex –2, Con +2; Special Attacks rage (1/day, as the barbarian class feature for 6 rounds).
Crawling Vine
Starting Statistics:Size Medium; Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Attack slam (1d4); Ability Scores Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2; Special Attacks grab; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
4th-Level Advancement:Size Large; AC +1 natural armor; Attack slam (1d6); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex –2, Con +4; Special Attacks constrict 1d6.
Puffball (Floating Fungus)
Starting Statistics:Size Small; Speed 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (average); AC +1 natural armor; Attack thorn (1d4 plus poison); Ability Scores Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6; Special Attacks poison (Frequency 1 round [6], Effect 1 Con damage, Cure 1 save, Con-based DC); Special Qualities low-light vision.
4th-Level Advancement:Ability Scores Str +2, Con +2.
Sapling Treant
Starting Statistics:Size Medium; Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.; AC +1 natural armor; Attack 2 slams (1d6); Ability Scores Str 15, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 7; Special Qualities double damage against objects, low-light vision.
4th-Level Advancement:Size Large; AC +2 natural armor; Attack 2 slams (1d8); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex –2, Con +4.
Next week will continue on our tour of Chapter 1: Core Races with a look at some new feats for human characters.
Pretty cute. I wonder what the companion is in the picture. I orginally thought it might be a treant sapling, but according to the stat blocks those are medium creatures, that thing looks small.
Is it a Carnivorous Vine? or some new type of companion?
Pretty cute. I wonder what the companion is in the picture. I orginally thought it might be a treant sapling, but according to the stat blocks those are medium creatures, that thing looks small.
See that little twig sticking out of its head? Obviously it just hit the arbitrary small/medium divide, making it a medium creature. Like a halfling with a huge afro.
Anyway, awesome! Looking forward to the guide even more now!
This reminds me quite a bit of one of the old Dragon magazine articles (from #357, maybe? It was one of the last few), that had rules for Druid Plant Companions. Those were sort of like a Summoner's Eidolon, in that they could "evolve" a number of different abilities from a base "chassis."
That was one of my favourite issues! I'm looking forward to seeing the stuff in this book! :-)
You know, the medium-sized treant actually has less armor than I would expect. Only a +1 natural armor bonus, (on top of the bonus that they get from animal companion advancement) doesn't seem as high as I would expect for something with bark. Most other animal companions have a much better Dex bonus, giving them a better overall AC than the treant will have.
But the treant will be a Sundering machine (24 Str at level 4!); give it Power Attack and Imp Sunder and that think will destroy stuff. It'd take a bit of work since you'll have to give it a 3 Int... but TREE SMASH!
Good thing Half-Elves count as elves for stuff like this. And Humans can take Racial Heritage. I feel bad that Gnomes can't get it though. I think it would definitely make sense for them too.
Good thing Half-Elves count as elves for stuff like this. And Humans can take Racial Heritage. I feel bad that Gnomes can't get it though. I think it would definitely make sense for them too.
I think you're going to need someone a big higher up on the Paizo totem pole to clarify that one, because as-written I don't think that half-elves can take elven archetypes / feats / etc. unless it specifically states they can (see the old version of the Arcane Archer). Racial Heritage is a maybe, but I think you'll need a designer to okay that one; seems a bit much that half-elves can use their own material, plus human and elven material in this book and I know that someone said that half-elves can't take human or elven favored class bonuses, which is still an "effect" related to race.
Good thing Half-Elves count as elves for stuff like this. And Humans can take Racial Heritage. I feel bad that Gnomes can't get it though. I think it would definitely make sense for them too.
I think you're going to need someone a big higher up on the Paizo totem pole to clarify that one, because as-written I don't think that half-elves can take elven archetypes / feats / etc. unless it specifically states they can (see the old version of the Arcane Archer). Racial Heritage is a maybe, but I think you'll need a designer to okay that one; seems a bit much that half-elves can use their own material, plus human and elven material in this book and I know that someone said that half-elves can't take human or elven favored class bonuses, which is still an "effect" related to race.
But we'll see.
Half-elves are seriously unimpressive to me. I think it's part of their draw that they can have the best of both worlds, because honestly, that's the only reason I can think to play one.
Probably just another thing I'll hand wave though.
And if you are anything like me, chances are you'll just hand wave racial requirements on most stuff. More diversity that way.
Unless you play PFS. Then I feel sorry for you, with the stricter rules and all.
That's also why I let fighters in my game cast 9th level wizard spells. More diversity that way.
That's... not really comparable. Plant companions make as much sense for druids of any race as they do for elves, as opposed to giving one class an unrelated class's primary features. If it was something like the unique elven hounds long bred and kept secret within elven houses that'd be one thing, but a mini-treant companion is appropriate and flavorful for any race of druid and I can hardly fault a GM who'd open up the option.
Sure it is. One is something reserved for a specific type of character, and the other is something reserved for a specific type of character.
Sure, perhaps the specific example of plant companions should be more widely available, but to just allow any racial archetype for any race? That cheapens them greatly. Why not just allow clerics to take rogue archetypes? Or paladins to take alchemist archetypes? Or a fighter to cast wizard spells? You're already ignoring major prerequisites of racial archetypes.
And if you are anything like me, chances are you'll just hand wave racial requirements on most stuff. More diversity that way.
Unless you play PFS. Then I feel sorry for you, with the stricter rules and all.
That's also why I let fighters in my game cast 9th level wizard spells. More diversity that way.
That seems unnecessarily inflammatory for an offhand comment. And your comparison is hyperbole at its worst. I find that many feats with racial requirements seem to have them forced on for the sake of giving a specific race a specific 'trick' which is, in my opinion, silly. Allowing a human to take the keen senses feat is far and away from allowing non-spellcasters to cast spells they don't have access to in the slightest. Your implication is that my house-rule is bad-wrong-fun. Condescending AND pretentious. I'm disappointed, because yours is a voice I respect on the Paizo forums.
I may plan to strip the racial restrictions from darn near everything in the book and use them instead for non-race-specific organisations created by the given races.
For example: Elves create an order of druids called the leafsingers. It's all elves at first. But eventually, their secrets get out, or maybe they start allowing other races to become members. There's nothing inherent in the elf that makes them uniquely able to learn the abilities of the leafsinger. They just came up with it first.
Stuff I don't mind being restricted to race is biology-specific stuff or things that depend on specific racial abilities. A drow-only antimagic class building on their spell resistance would remain race-restricted, for example. Or restricted to any races with spell resistance.
That's generally what I do as well. Any feat based on culture is something a member of another race can get if adopted by that culture. I have no trouble with the treesingers being a group of elven druids really into wood crafting--it makes logical sense--but if they welcomed a member of another race into their society, they could reasonably learn those secrets. Especially with druids. I mean, imagine you have a couple elven druids dying, then their friends reincarnate them. They both come back as humans. Are they going to be kicked out of Kyonin? If the formerly elven, now reincarnated human druids have a kid, isn't he or she going to be genetically human but culturally elven?
The regular elves who go on about "Forlorn" must really have to remember reincarnation. They talk about the horror of elves being raised by humans, lost to their people and their culture, only to find that the new "Forlorn" elf was a human until last week when a witch hexed him with a reincarnation hex. Wow, those humans. They really don't understand our ways and, um, yeah....
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