Hello people!
I have a Leshy Warden druid that I very much enjoy playing, but I am unfortunately a bit lost on the actual cost of creating new Leshy (via ritual, not summoning).
Here are the various excerpts that are relevant.
A leshy warden is an expert at summoning and growing leshies. She counts as a plant creature for the purpose of growing leshies.
- [...]
- Time: 2 weeks per HD. Plant creatures take half the time required to grow the leshy.
- Cost: never less than 1,000 gp. Plant creatures reduce the cost to create the creature by 25%.
- [...]
- Tougher Leshys: Each additional Hit Die adds 2,250 gp to the cost (and thus 4,500 gp to the overall price), increases the Knowledge check DC by +2, and requires an 2 additional weeks to grow. Attempts to create leshys larger than Small always fail—the strange spiritual energies that animate these creatures are only capable of doing so to a body no larger than that of a human child.
Leaf leshys are usually grown under the shade of fruit or nut trees. To grow a leaf leshy, the maker plants an acorn and pine cone together, then mounds up leaves, sticks, and needles around them. When first born, a leaf leshy has no armor, leafy cape, or weapon, but can construct them from available materials given a day and left to its own devices (no Craft check required).
CL 5th; Price 1,000 gp
RITUAL REQUIREMENTS
Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks, magic stone, plant growth, summon nature’s ally I; Skill Knowledge (nature) DC 12; Cost 500 gp
For a simple level 1 leaf leshy, is the base cost for a ritual I am doing 1,000 GP or 500 GP? Do I pay 750 GP or 375 GP? Can I at all, even though it says "never less than 1,000 gp"? Would the price automatically default to 1000 GP? Or can I only create a lvl 2 one? (That's a steep cost rise)
Please help, I need my little plant soldiers..
Many thanks!
The summary is just a summary, and should be referred to only if nothing else gives the answer (e.g., I don't think the rules for tougher leshies are anywhere else). In particular, the 500 gp cost in the leaf leshy specific rules takes precedence over the "min 1000 gp cost" in the summary.
You get your 25% discount, so you pay 375 gp per 1 HD leaf leshy grown.
Thank you so much! That's what I hoped to hear.
So, if I want to grow a stronger leaf leshy with two HD, that would be 2*500GP (-25%) for the ritual? And not 500GP+2,250GP (-25%)?
No, sorry, "375 gp per 1 HD leaf leshy"
means (375 gp for each (1 HD leaf leshy)),
not ((375 gp for each HD) leaf leshy).
That is, I wasn't addressing tougher leaf leshies.
A single 2 HD leaf leshy would cost 500 gp + 2250 gp = 2750 gp before your discount => 2062.5 gp after discount.
I do not know why the tougher ones are +2250 gp / extra HD regardless of the cost of the base leshy, but that's the only rule I can find on that. (Kinda reminds me of the homunculus, which costs 1050 for a base 2 HD creature but +2000 per HD beyond that.)
Anyway, the good news is I'm confident the 25% creation discount does apply to the cost of extra HD.
If you do shell out the extra for more HD, remember creatures get another feat at each odd HD (like PCs). That can be more useful than the HP. (If you go even farther, it also gets a stat bump at each multiple of 4 HD, (again like PCs).)