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This is a great article, but I have a couple questions, and I realize I may have rolled too low on my Reading Comprehension skill check, but...
1. The Nahre Lotus requires 100 gallons of water per plant to flourish, and produces up to 50 gallons of pure water per day...why can't the plant sustain itself on the water drawn from the Plane of Water? Is the 100 gal per plant sustenance or space for growth? Is it unable to process the water it produces? Did I miss this, or, as my wife is telling me, it doesn't really matter...?
2. The Orevine draws metals into itself within 100 feet of its roots...why wouldn't it draw in all the metals of a vein, which could be thousands of feet in length alone?
This is a great article, but I have a couple questions, and I realize I may have rolled too low on my Reading Comprehension skill check, but...
1. The Nahre Lotus requires 100 gallons of water per plant to flourish, and produces up to 50 gallons of pure water per day...why can't the plant sustain itself on the water drawn from the Plane of Water? Is the 100 gal per plant sustenance or space for growth? Is it unable to process the water it produces? Did I miss this, or, as my wife is telling me, it doesn't really matter...?
The idea was basically to create the idea of how much space the plant needed - and to reinforce the idea that the environment needed to be kept "pure." - also that it isn't just an endless beaker but requires as watery environment. But, it is also analogous to real plants requiring oxygenated air even though they produce oxygen as a waste product.
From a gaming standpoint - I wanted to create a constraint to make it difficult for people to move it around making them appropriate to NPC environs but limit their utility as treasure.
I hope that makes sense. But you could just go with your wife's assessment.
2. The Orevine draws metals into itself within 100 feet of its roots...why wouldn't it draw in all the metals of a vein, which could be thousands of feet in length alone?
Maybe that was written as well as it could be, maybe I should of written as a 100 feet from its stem to indicate the reach of the roots. But basically, the idea behind the constraint is to limit the plant so that it needs to cultivated and tended to - a vine couldn't just grow rampant eliminating entire regions of mineral deposits - letting a lone plant do the work of legions of miners. My goal was to create a magical plant which definately had utility, but still was constrained enough that it didn't disrupt how the economics of the game (at least as I envision them) worked.
If you want you can think of the plants drawing of metals into itself as a spell like effect with limited area of effect - making it like all magical effects in the game.
I hope that helps you out - I am really glad you liked the article I hope you find a way to incorporate some of the stuff into your game.
Thanks for the questions and the interest in additional detail!
breeding them?
All had costs, and often conditions -but those were for already living ones..
But if you want to make them yourself.. pay half in material?
Thinking of breeding more orevines as the old one is drying out ;)
Just a "simple" check and no mentionable cost? Or a check and pay half (some ores as seed)?
Also, there is this spell: Polymorph anything... it sure is tempting to turn a few dozen normal ferns into wishing ferns ;)
Or other magical plants as those are permanent switches (plant to plant)
Oh and those ealfengrape, how many can they continously feed for that 25 gold a month? Just asking since most meals go at a few coppers (Watchmen earning 5 gold a month!!!), and thus getting 250+ meals for that monthly 25 gold would be a minimum unless you like expensive foods...
breeding them?
All had costs, and often conditions -but those were for already living ones..
But if you want to make them yourself.. pay half in material?
Thinking of breeding more orevines as the old one is drying out ;)Just a "simple" check and no mentionable cost? Or a check and pay half (some ores as seed)?
Also, there is this spell: Polymorph anything... it sure is tempting to turn a few dozen normal ferns into wishing ferns ;)
Or other magical plants as those are permanent switches (plant to plant)Oh and those ealfengrape, how many can they continously feed for that 25 gold a month? Just asking since most meals go at a few coppers (Watchmen earning 5 gold a month!!!), and thus getting 250+ meals for that monthly 25 gold would be a minimum unless you like expensive foods...
Cost is hard depends on the DM. But for magical plants - I would say the cost of "breeding" them should be around 75% of a plants cost but would take a DM determined time for them to reach maturity - no less than one year - maybe several - they were intended as an NPC color element -not a PC tool.
Well you can't polymorph a ring into a ring of wishes - I would say the same applies you could definately get a plant with an idnetical appearance - but not the magical propoerties.
It would take roughly 4 times the amount of normal grape vine that would be capable of feeding a Watchmen for a day as only 25% of the vines are ever ripe at one time. Also even watchment rarely eat only grapes - even if those grapes actually could meet their dietary requirements - and the check requirements to keep the stuff growing aren't that easy - it would take a pretty committed team to keep enough of the stuff growing for it to be a staple in any substantial local diet. Again the intent was to create a story element with a little magical color not a mechanism to short circuit game economies. When I wrote it up my goal was to create an interesting luxury good, not to replace conventional farming.
I hope these responses are helpful to you, and I hope you find the plants fun.
I apologize if its not what you were looking for this is just a quick reply from the office.