Sorcery: Plant Spells VIII

Sorcery: Plant Spells VIII

Some of the plant spells are very difficult to build as Sorcery spells. Change Species temporarily transforms one plant into another. Create Paper is useful in an office. Create Book is a variation of the previous spell. Druid's Panacea is a multipurpose druidic healing spell. Fast Plant Growth enlarges plants.

Change Species

Keywords: Buff.

Full Cost: 32 points.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Range: 100 yards.

Duration: 30 minutes.

The caster changes the species of a plant – sunflower to tulip, acorn to walnut, birch tree to grapevines, etc., as if using the Morph advantage (p. B84). The mass cannot be altered by more than ±20%.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Only on plants, -40%; Advantage, Change Species, +200%; Extended Duration, 10x, +40%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [32]. Note: “Change Species” is Morph (Accessibility, Plants Only, -50%; Magical, -10%; Mass Conservation, -20%) [20].

   

Create Book

Keywords: None.

Full Cost: 12 points for level 1 + 6 points/additional level.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Touch.

Duration: 10 seconds or permanent; see text.

This spell allows you to create a stack of paper sheets and bind them into a book. To do so, take a Concentrate maneuver and roll vs. IQ. Success means the book appears in hand or within arm’s reach. Failure means nothing happens. Critical failure means the creation happens, but in a way that’s inconvenient or dangerous – the GM should be creative!

The produced book can weigh up to 10 x (level squared) lbs. – 10 lbs. at level 1, 40 lbs. at level 2, 90 lbs. at level 3, and so on. Note that a stack of 1818 A5 sheets of paper weighs 10 lbs., so a single level of this spell is usually more than enough.

Created book is unstable. It vanishes in 10 seconds unless you use character points to “stabilize” it. Each point spent stabilizes a quantity worth 10% of the campaign’s average starting wealth. (This is just the tradeoff used for Trading Points for Money, p. B26.) The GM determines the cash value per pound of matter.

Points spent to stabilize matter come from your “Creation Pool,” a number of points set aside for the purpose. You can’t apply any modifiers to these points. Points used to stabilize matter are unavailable until reclaimed – which causes the matter to vanish. If the matter is crafted into an object, the item is unmade when the matter vanishes. If the matter is mixed with other materials (e.g., alloyed), you must separate it to reclaim your points; this can be a tedious process. If it’s destroyed (e.g., melts naturally) or transformed (e.g., eaten), you can’t reclaim your points – they’re gone. You can increase your Creation Pool with unspent points at any time.

Statistics: Create Paper (Link, +10%; Magical, -10%; Reduced Fatigue Cost 1, +20%) [6/level] + Control Paper 1 (Link, +10%; Magical, -10%; Only to bind books, -40%) [6].

Create Paper

Keywords: None.

Full Cost: 5.5 points/level*.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Touch.

Duration: 10 seconds or permanent; see text.

This spell allows you to create sheets of paper or stacks of them. To do so, take a Concentrate maneuver and roll vs. IQ. Success means the paper appears in hand or within arm’s reach. Failure means nothing happens. Critical failure means the creation happens, but in a way that’s inconvenient or dangerous – the GM should be creative!

The produced paper can weigh up to 10 x (level squared) lbs. – 10 lbs. at level 1, 40 lbs. at level 2, 90 lbs. at level 3, and so on. Note that a stack of 907 A4 sheets of paper weighs 10 lbs., so a single level of this spell is usually more than enough.

Created paper is unstable. It vanishes in 10 seconds unless you use character points to “stabilize” it. Each point spent stabilizes a quantity worth 10% of the campaign’s average starting wealth. (This is just the tradeoff used for Trading Points for Money, p. B26.) The GM determines the cash value per pound of matter.

Points spent to stabilize matter come from your “Creation Pool,” a number of points set aside for the purpose. You can’t apply any modifiers to these points. Points used to stabilize matter are unavailable until reclaimed – which causes the matter to vanish. If the matter is crafted into an object, the item is unmade when the matter vanishes. If the matter is mixed with other materials (e.g., alloyed), you must separate it to reclaim your points; this can be a tedious process. If it’s destroyed (e.g., melts naturally) or transformed (e.g., eaten), you can’t reclaim your points – they’re gone. You can increase your Creation Pool with unspent points at any time.

Statistics: Create Paper (Magical, -10%; Reduced Fatigue Cost 1, +20%) [5.5/level*].

* Calculate the total cost then round up.

Druid’s Panacea

Keywords: None or Resisted (Will).

Full Cost: 42 points.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Touch.

Duration: Instantaneous, the poison flushes in 1d hours. Addictions and insanity are removed for 3 days. Memories are restored permanently.

By making physical contact with a subject – who must be resting at the foot of a large (SM +2 or more), living tree - you may immediately heal him an amount of HP equal to the tree’s SM, but no more than 8 HP. This also automatically stops any bleeding. You may heal subjects of your own race and any “similar” races (GM’s call); e.g., a human can heal other humans but not dogs or plants.

Your casting roll is at -2 if the subject is unconscious. In addition, if used more than once per day on a given subject, you are at a cumulative -3 per successful healing. Failure costs you 1d FP instead of the usual 1 FP!

Alternatively, the caster may cure the subject in other ways:

1. The caster may cure some disease this way. The casting roll is penalized by the severity of the disease – from +1 for the common cold to -2 for severe flu. He cannot cure a disease that imposes a worse penalty. The penalty for repeated attempt applies to this option too.

2. This caster may flush poisons from the subject’s body. The caster must first roll against Poisons (or Alchemy, Pharmacy, etc., as appropriate) to identify the poison. He cannot attempt this roll until he knows that the subject has been poisoned. In most cases, this can be discovered when the first symptoms show! This spell flushes the poison in 1d hours, after which it has no further effect.

3. You can temporarily remove any addictions or mental disadvantages that represent insanity in a subject. If the subject is willing, no resistance roll is needed. If not, he resists with Will and must be completely immobilized or otherwise under your control while you cast the spell. Successful casting gets you inside of his head, where you can “see” his addiction and/or insanity; the GM will reveal his Addiction or “insane” disadvantages. You must then win a second Quick Contest of IQ vs. Will – or make another unopposed IQ roll, for a willing subject – at -1 for every full -5 points in disadvantages you wish to remove. You may substitute Brainwashing for IQ, if better. A critical success here gives the subject an excuse to buy off his problem, if he has the character points!

4. The caster can permanently restore any lost memories of the subject. This works the same as above, but the duration is permanent.

Statistics: Healing (Affects Self, +50%; Cannot restore crippled limbs, -10%; Capped, 4 FP, -20%; Environmental, Large Tree, -50%; Magical, -10%; Reduced Fatigue Cost 3, +60%) [36] + Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Druid’s Panacea (Neutralize Poison), +180%; Environmental, Large Tree, -50%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Melee Attack, Reach C, Cannot Parry, -35%; No Signature, +20%; Reduced Duration, 1/180, -40%; Sorcery, -15%) [16/5=4] + Mind Control (Accessibility, Only to remove addictions, amnesia, or insanity, -10%; Conditioning Only, -50%; Environmental, Large Tree, -50%; Extended Duration, Permanent, Only when restoring memories, +50%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Melee Attack, Reach C, -30%; Sorcery, -15%) [10/5=2]. Notes: “Druid’s Panacea (Neutralize Poison)” is Unusual Training (Body Control, only to flush poisons) [1] + Body Control (VH) HT [8] modified with Cosmic, No die roll required, +100% and Magical, -10% for a final cost of 18 points. All three advantages are built as Alternative Abilities.

Fast Plant Growth

Keywords: Resisted (HT).

Full Cost: 15 points for level 1 + 9 points/level.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Range: 100 yards.

Duration: 3 minutes.

If the subject non-intelligent plant or a hex of non-intelligent plants fails to resist, the caster may enlarge it.

Each level of Fast Plant Growth lets the caster make the plants in the target hex stretch and monstrously sprout to fill an adjacent hex. With the Density of Vegetation rules (GURPS Magic – Plant Spells, p. 6), the caster may raise the density level of a hex instead of adding a new one (except an Impenetrable hex, which will not change). A newly filled hex has the same density as the hex from which it spread.

Plants that pile up against a fixed object do (1d x Talent) crushing damage per minute. Use the rules for structural damage on pp. B558-559. Movable objects are shoved as per Lifting and Moving Things (p. B353); BL is 15 x Talent. Any ambulatory being can evade the expanding plant life. Those who cannot are shoved as inanimate objects. If pushed against a solid barrier, the shoved individual suffers 1/10 of the crushing damage inflicted each turn.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Only on non-intelligent plants, -60%; Advantage, Fast Plant Growth, +90%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [15]. Notes: “Fast Plant Growth” is Growth (Variant; Magical, -10%; Maximum Size Only, +0%) [9]. Additional levels add additional levels of Fast Plant Growth to the Advantage enhancement [+9].