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Old 04-24-2010, 04:23 PM   #1
erika_akachan
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default looking for Ent/living tree racial template

Looking for a good racial template for an ent type being or living tree, any existing in gurps print or have any good ideas?
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Old 04-24-2010, 04:32 PM   #2
lexington
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Default Re: looking for Ent/living tree racial template

Quote:
Originally Posted by erika_akachan View Post
Looking for a good racial template for an ent type being or living tree, any existing in gurps print or have any good ideas?
There are several Wood Elementals in Dungeon Fantasy: Summoners that would make a good starting point.
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Old 04-24-2010, 04:35 PM   #3
b-dog
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Default Re: looking for Ent/living tree racial template

DF 10 has some Wooden Doom things (animated trees) that might be useful.
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Old 04-24-2010, 06:31 PM   #4
mlangsdorf
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Default Re: looking for Ent/living tree racial template

These haven't been playtested, but they're my plan for ent-like monsters for my Dungeon Fantasy game. They're meant to be terrifyingly powerful boss monsters for use against high point value delvers, and you may want to reduce the DR against less epic heroes.

Arguably, they should have some notes for what their corpses are worth as loot, and you may want to make them smaller than SM+5... or not, that's pretty reasonable for a large tree.

As noted below, standard combat tactics against SM0 foes involves 1-3 grapples using Judo and converting the +12 to hit from extra limbs and size modifier to Deceptive Attack, and then various Limb Wrenches, Arm Locks, Chokes, or Neck Snaps to turn the victim into a paste.

I didn't design this for characters or as a druidic ally, and the template cost probably comes out to a few hundred points. There may be additional disadvantages, too - I generally don't worry about role-play disadvantages. There may be additional skills, too, such as Naturalist, Tracking, or Intimidate.


Treefellows are massive, sentient trees. They generally respond positively to elves and faeries, and poorly to loggers. They are not Good nor Evil, and can be as touchy as anyone else. Their great height makes it hard for them to hit small things like delvers in combat, but they also tend to grapple and crush anything smaller... which is just about anything. They know a surprising number of efficient unarmed combat techniques. Wise delvers do not offend treefellows, or if they must, do it only from range.
Code:
ST: 60        HP: 80      Speed: 6.25
DX: 12       Will: 12      Move: 9
IQ: 11        Per: 14      SM: 5
HT: 13       FP: 15       DR: 8
Dodge: 9    Parry: 11    Block: N/A
Judo (16): Parry and throw for damage for 7d-2 crushing, or parry and armlock. Can also grapple and rip limb from limb.
Tree branch punch (16): 4 arms, 7d+12 crushing. Usually thrown as a Telegraphed Attack to overcome size penalties.
Traits: Doesn’t Breathe; Doesn’t Sleep; Extra Attack 3; Extra Arms 2; High Pain Threshold; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Indomitable; Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Blood); No Fine Manipulators; Peripheral Vision; Unfazeable; Vulnerable 1.5 to fire.
Skills: Judo-16, Karate-16.
Class: Plant.
Notes: None.
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Old 04-25-2010, 01:55 PM   #5
Not another shrubbery
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: looking for Ent/living tree racial template

To summarize:
  • DF9 has the Wood Elemental on p31, and some Lenses on pp31-32.
  • DF10 has the Wooden Doom (trees under Animate Plant) template on p26.
  • Magic has the Body of Wood Meta-Trait on p165, which might be useful if you don't have any of the other sources.
  • Thaumatology suggests a tweaked Earth Elemental template to use for Wood on p48.
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Old 04-25-2010, 04:18 PM   #6
William
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Default Re: looking for Ent/living tree racial template

In an article I wrote for Pyramid, I provided a racial template for a sessile tree race:

Racial (-208 points)

Attributes: ST 0 [-100]; DX 0 [-200]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 10 [0]

Secondary Attributes: Dmg 0d/0d (1d-1/1d+1 with TK), BL 0 lbs (20 lbs with TK), HP 20 (Size, -30%) [28], Will 11, Per 11, FP 10, Basic Speed 2.5, Basic Move 0 [0], SM +3

Social Attributes: Treetongue (Native/None) [-3], TL0 [-15 in a generally-TL3 world]

Advantages: 360 Degree Vision (Magical, -10%) [23]; Deep Sleeper [1]; DR 2 (Semi-Ablative, -20%) [8], Doesn't Breathe [20], Doesn't Eat or Drink [10], Extended Lifespan 3 [8], Injury Tolerance (Homogeneous, No Eyes, No Head, No Neck) [57]; Resistant (environmental syndromes) [15]; Sanitized Metabolism [1]; Subsonic Hearing (also normal human range; Magical, -10%) [5]; Telekinesis 10 (Magical, -10%) [45]; Telecommunication (Telesend) (Magical, -10%; Racial, -20%; Broadcast, +50%) [36]; Temperature Tolerance 4 (15 to 110 degrees) [4]

Disadvantages: Cannot speak (Mute) [-25]; Dead Broke [-25]; Dependency (fertile soil and sunlight, very common, daily) [-15]; Fragile (Combustible) [-5]; No Legs (Sessile) [-50], No Manipulators [-30], No Sense of Smell/Taste [-5], Numb [-20], Phobia (Fire) (12) [-5]; Vulnerability (Fire (Common), x2) [-30]

Features: Affected by Plant spells (though not Animate Plant); awake for 2/3 of the year and hibernate in winter; subject to diseases and poisons, albeit mostly different from those of humans; Taboo Traits: Fixed ST and DX [0]

Skills: Brawling-10 (DX/E) DX+10 [39]

Variants: The Size Modifier, Temperature Tolerance, and Extended Lifespan are all selected for typical oaks or pines found in temperate environments. GMs may prefer that tree PCs sleep daily rather than yearly; this may lead to difficulties re-establishing contact with a party on occasion (a difficulty alleviated if the entire group are trees), but will allow the PC to be active in winter. Substituting Innate Attack (TK), a new innate attack specialty, for Brawling will reduce basic damage, but will allow mage PCs to buy spell-attack skills from their racial default instead of from 0. An intriguing line of cultural development could use this as the base skill for a martial art (Tree Kei?) that makes good use of the fighter's bodiless state, complete with holds, throws, and even a related Trained by a Master advantage and exotic techniques like Power Blow and Pressure Points.

----------

And an adventuring tree variant, which undergoes a ritual process that allows them to project their consciousness:

Adventuring tree (+258, for a total of a 50 point template):

CF: Add one foreign cultural familiarity [1]

Language: Add one language, spoken and written [6]

TL: Increase to campaign normal [15 for a TL3 campaign]

Advantages: Buy off the Racial limitation to Telesend [6]; add Magery 1 [15]; and Warp (Magical, -10%; Projection (affect substantial) -0%; Blind, +50%; No Strain, +25%; Reliable 10, +50%) [215]

Such trees can move, speak, and use their TK at their point of view, while remaining invisible. They face an obvious set of challenges in interacting with the world. I suggested that those that did this usually pick up magical abilities through rune magic, carving their own bodies with permanent rune symbols and thus making themselves into rune tokens. A particular tree will presumably have the usual affinities of their species for the Ogham runes of the tree-lore, if you use this.
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