Sorcery: Plant Spells XIX

Sorcery: Plant Spells XIX

Here we have some plant spells from D&D/Pathfinder. Changestaff transforms a staff into a small treant. Control Plants lets the caster dominate a plant creature mentally. Plant Shape lets the caster assume a form of any plant creature. Repel Wood creates a zone that repels wood.

Changestaff

Keywords: None.

Full Cost: 16 points.

Casting Roll: Will.

Range: Touch.

Duration: Hours equal to margin of success on the casting roll.

The caster plants his wooden staff into the ground, and the staff transforms into a twigling (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners, page 31). At the end of the casting, you must pay 1 FP and make a Will roll to animate the twigling. If you are victorious, the twigling is animated for margin of success hours. If it is killed, the summoner must wait a full day to call replacements. Dismissing the twigling is a free action, but the caster may only dismiss him if it is physically present. The twigling then reverts into the staff form. The caster can only cast this spell if his character’s point total is at least 2 times bigger than the twigling’s. The summoned twigling obeys all orders issued by the caster.

Statistics: Ally (Twigling; Built on 50%; Constantly, no roll required; Conjured, +100%; Environmental, Ground, -20%; Magical, -10%; Maximum Duration, hours equal to margin of success, -5%; Minion, +50%; Requires a wooden staff, -10%; Requires Will Roll, -5%) [16]. Notes: The Maximum Duration limitation is priced based on Maximum Duration, 12 hours. As a special effect, this spell breaks sorcery rules by allowing free maintenance, but this is offset by imposing a FP cost to cast

Control Plants

Keywords: Resisted (Will).

Full Cost: 28 points.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: Special.

You can mentally dominate a sentient plant creature, even if it is normally immune to mind control. You must be able to see or touch the victim. To use this ability, concentrate for one second and then roll a Quick Contest: your IQ vs. your subject’s Will. Use the following modifiers: Range penalties to the subject (see p. B550); -1 per slave already under your control; +2 if you concentrate for a full minute, or +4 if you concentrate for a full hour.

If you win, your victim will obey your every command until you free him. In effect, he temporarily gains the Reprogrammable disadvantage (p. B150), with you as his master. Your control persists for as long as you take uninterrupted Concentrate maneuvers.

Once you stop, your control lingers for one minute per point by which you won the Quick Contest. If you are incapacitated (stunned, knocked out, etc.), or attempt to force the subject to act against his principles (e.g., commit suicide or harm a loved one), roll another Quick Contest. If your victim wins, he breaks free. Roll at the moment of truth – you can march him to the edge of a cliff, but he doesn’t roll until he’s about to leap.

If you lose, you cannot attempt to control that subject again for 24 hours, and he feels a sense of mental coercion emanating from you. On a critical failure, you also lose control of anyone else under the influence of this ability!

Your victims have no initiative while under your control, and temporarily acquire Slave Mentality (p. B154).

Statistics: Mind Control (Accessibility, Plants Only, -40%; Cosmic, Affects plants, +50%; Puppet, -40%; Sorcery, -15%) [28].

Plant Shape

Keywords: None.

Full Cost: 45 points or 125 points or more; see text.

Casting Roll: None. Special casting time.

Range: Self.

Duration: Indefinite.

The caster can assume different plant forms, as if using the Morph advantage (p. B84). The transformation requires 10 seconds. If he is knocked out or killed, he immediately reverts to his native form (which will also be unconscious or dead).

The caster retains his intelligence, but gains all the physical attributes of the new form. Note that FP are not increased for spellcasting purposes. The caster may not add traits to templates, but he may freely omit racial mental disadvantages (e.g., Bestial), and he may always choose to drop the racial IQ modifier from a template and use his own IQ. Such changes raise the cost of plant templates, which are cheap due to limited mental capabilities. This spell includes the ability to make cosmetic changes. This lets the caster impersonate a specific member of any plant species he can turn into.

The caster can always take on the form of a being he can see or touch, provided its racial template cost does not exceed his maximum. Once he has assumed a form, he can opt to memorize it by concentrating for one minute. This allows him to shapeshift into that form at any time. The caster can memorize a number of forms equal to his IQ. If all his “slots” are full, his must overwrite a previously memorized form (his choice) to add the new form. Memorizing cosmetic changes also requires a “slot”.

If the caster can assume any racial template worth no more than his native one, Plant Shape costs 45 points. This makes many forms available – anything no more powerful than his native form. If the caster can assume more powerful forms, add the difference between the maximum racial template cost and the cost of his native template to the base 45 points. For instance, a human who can take on any plant racial template worth up to 75 points would pay 120 points for Plant Shape.

In addition, the caster may purchase the improved (125-point) version of this spell. This shortens the transformation time to 1 second.

Statistics: Morph (Accessibility, Plants Only, -40%; Sorcery, -15%) [45]. The improved version adds Reduced Time 4, +80% [+80].

Repel Wood

Keywords: Area (Leveled).

Full Cost: 42 points for level 1 + 12.5 points/additional level* (or more).

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

Range: 100 yards.

Duration: 30 seconds.

You can create a zone of wood repulsion anywhere within 100 yards of you. To place the zone at a distance, use Innate Attack (Gaze), with normal range penalties, but at +4 for affecting an area. An intangible force moves wooden objects within the area without touching them. The force can move any wooden object it has strength enough to lift, at a Move equal to your Repel Wood ST, modified as usual for encumbrance level (see Encumbrance and Move, p. B17).

Repel Wood can only move things directly from its center. It simply causes wooden objects to move until they’re in contact with the border of the spell’s area, whereupon they are free to move or they’re held there against a hard obstacle with Repel Wood’s telekinetic ST until the duration runs out. Objects can only move or be moved in the opposite direction if the mover wins a Quick Contest of his ST or TK level against your Repel Wood ST.

The basic (42-point) version of this spell lets you affect an area up to 2 yards across and has ST 5. Each additional doubling of area adds 12.5 to basic cost; the GM sets the cap on this increase, but 128 yards is the recommended maximum. For an additional +100% to cost (including any increased area), rounded up, the ST can be upgraded to 10 or more. This is summarized in the table below.

Repel ST	2 yards	4 yards	8 yards	16 yards	32 yards	64 yards	128 yards
5	42 points	54 points	67 points	79 points	92 points	104 points	117 points
10	83 points	108 points	133 points	158 points	183 points	208 points	233 points
15	124 points	162 points	199 points	237 points	274 points	312 points	349 points
20	165 points	215 points	265 points	315 points	365 points	415 points	465 points

Statistics: Telekinesis 5 (Accessibility, Wood, -40%; Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Extended Duration on Persistent, 3x, +20%; Increased Range, 10x, +30%; Independent, +40%; Persistent, +40%; Repulsion, -60%; Sorcery, -15%) [42]. Additional levels add more Area Effect (+50%) to the advantage [+12.5*].

* Calculate the total cost, then round down.