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I want advice regarding the Protector Tree spell, especially as used as the Wood Kineticists "Timber Sentinel" impulse.
From the description: "A Medium tree suddenly grows in an unoccupied square within range. The tree has AC 10 and 10 Hit Points... The tree isn't large enough to impede movement through its square.
If the tree is in soil and survives to the end of the spell's duration, it remains as an ordinary, non-magical tree, and continues to grow and thrive."
Do you think two uses of this impulse would create trees sturdy enough to support a hammock for a medium creature?
Is there a species of tree that would be stronger at that size?
GMs, would you allow the caster determine the species?
Kineticists are trained in Nature, so may know to "plant" Palm or Acacia trees in the desert rather than Oak or Cedar.
Leave fruit trees in areas where they could thrive.
If you're desperate, build a raft.
What would you allow?
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Yesterday, my wife created a new character Monet, a Lotus Leshy who is a 2nd-level Water and Wood Kineticist. Her token is a Monet water lily painting. Monet has Plant Whisperer background and spends her time designing water gardens. She took Timber Sentinel and expects to have fun creating trees.
Do you think two uses of this impulse would create trees sturdy enough to support a hammock for a medium creature?
Is there a species of tree that would be stronger at that size?
A medium tree would be a sapling. It would bend under the weight of a hammock, leaving the hammock on the ground. Hardwoods, such as oak, would be sturdier, but not sturdy enough. Use four trees instead.
GMs, would you allow the caster determine the species?
Yes, but they would have to be ordinary, common trees, not exotic species nor species with special abilities. And a sapling would be too young to bear fruit, so they won't be a food source, either.
Kineticists are trained in Nature, so may know to "plant" Palm or Acacia trees in the desert rather than Oak or Cedar.
A responsible nature-loving character would conjure trees that can survive in the environment.
Leave fruit trees in areas where they could thrive.
Reminds me of Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman. Go for it.
If you're desperate, build a raft.
A birchbark canoe would use fewer trees.
What would you allow?
I expect that Monet has used Tree Sentinel to conjure the appropriate trees for her water gardens.
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The cantrip Timber is excellent for generating compost.
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You know this does raise another interesting problem. Would a kineticist conjuring all these tree be seen as an abomination to druidic groups? The character could upset the natural order of things by making so many trees. (Let alone a fire hazard). If dedicated the kineticist could also upset a small village economy by producing so much wood.
That is the main reason I declared that Protector Tree creates a sapling rather than a full-grown tree. A conjured tree that resembles a 3-year-old tree is less of a resource than a conjured tree that resembles a 10-year-old tree. The opening line, "A Medium tree suddenly grows in an unoccupied square within range," is ambiguous about the size of the tree, since a tree is not shaped like the humanoid creatures we use to judge Medium size. The magic of the spell animates the tree for one minute so that it can use its branches to defend allies, so it is not a tiny 1-year-old size. But the experience of sawing down some fast-growing Tree of Heaven weeds that I neglected for a year while sick demonstrated to me that even a sapling can have 10 hit points.
Thus, for cultivation of trees the spell saves 3 years of time over the non-magical growing of trees, but the orchard grower still would need to wait several years for the tree to mature. My farmer relatives on the thumb of Michigan have small patches of forests near their fields that they call "woodlots." These are trees that our ancestors grew for the wood, but now mostly serve as windbreaks because we don't rely on homegrown wood anymore. My in-laws in northern lower Michigan lived on a tree farm, a forest deliberately planted to be harvested for wood. The land had been purchased and planted by their grandparents Billy and Kitty Stubbs after lumberjacks had cleared away the original forest there. My father-in-law would cultivate the pine trees by sawing off dead branches to encourage knot-free wood (lower branches tended to wither due to higher branches cutting off sunlight). And about every five years, they would make a deal with a local lumber company to harvest a section of the forest. That area near Traverse City, Michigan, is famous for its cherry-tree orchards.
We also told folk tales of Johnny Appleseed. Unlike most folk tales, Johnny Appleseed was a real person, a missionary named John Chapman. He believed in giving gifts to people, but traveled light, much like a Pathfinder adventurer. So his lightweight gifts were apple seeds for settlers to plant. He also tended several nurseries of apple seedlings, but sold the future orchards to new settlers rather than settling down on the land himself.
In other words, farmers (technically, nurserymen) have cultivated trees for wood on Earth without any magic, so the Protector Tree spell merely aids the process rather than introducing anything new. Druids would have no more argument with tree-conjuring kineticists than they have with tree-planting farmers.
And the leshy kineticist Monet in my upcoming campaign was raised by druids, so she keeps the forest ecology intact.