Lecture 10: College of Plant Magic

“Greetings Students of Magic, Faculty Members, and Visiting sages,
“Today's lecture will focus on plant magics with an eye towards its effects on various cultural types as well as certain tactical and strategic applications. Before I get into this lecture, I would like to briefly outline what I mean by various cultural types—thus creating a foundation for various listeners to relate the spells and their effects within the society I am talking about. I am not an expert in the studies of various different cultures, so of necessity, this outline will be somewhat broad and general in nature.”
“Generally speaking, plant spells hold their greatest effect over cultures that practice food production via the collection of plants. In cultures that are just starting out from scratch, plant cultivation tends to be long, hard, and almost not as efficient as simple herding or hunting of animals. Those who are engaged in a semi-nomadic level of existence tend to reap the rewards of both animal consumption as well as the benefits of plant consumption. Where plant consumption for a society begins to overshadow that of a hunter's existence is where the knowledge of plants becomes sufficient enough to overcome various obstacles inherent in domesticated plant growth. Ultimately, the hunter/gather level of existence begins to become less efficient as hunters are overly efficient in hunting their prey and prey herd sizes diminish greatly.”
“Let’s examine the first culture type with regards to plants and the knowledge involved. A pure hunter society will not be engaged in the pursuit of a refined plant knowledge base. Most of the plants a hunter might be interested in are the chance found berries and/or nuts that come into season in a region where the hunter lives. This is not unlike the problems inherent to any other society except for the fact that the hunters generally don't take too much time taking care of these resources. They also tend to compete with nature itself in the form of other creatures who find such plant morsels to their liking. The other issue involved here is that by allowing these resources to be ‘natural’, a hunter society has to spend time wandering about finding nature's bounty. “
“The opposite side of the coin would be those who are farmers. They in turn set aside a section of land and concentrate in a smaller region, a higher density of the plants so they don't have to waste time searching for what they seek. An analogy would be that for the hunters, plants would be as silver coins. If you had 100 silver coins for either of the hunter or farmer societies, the hunter society would have the silver coins to be found one per half acre, spread over 50 acres of land. The farmer however, would have all 100 of the silver coins found planted in perhaps two acres. The hunter spends his time wandering over 50 acres to find his coins whereas the farmer wanders over only two. “

Seek Plant

“So how would a simple spell such as Seek Plant help in either instance? Like any seeker type spell, Seek Plant permits its caster to locate specific plants regardless of where such plants might be found. It eliminates the guesswork in trying to locate something that might not be readily seen—thus facilitating the search. Whereas a hunter might be looking to find a plant in the wilds so that he can benefit from its existence on the spot in season, a farmer might be more interested in finding a plant so that he might domesticate it for his own purposes. Likewise, a well established farmer society might find such a spell useful in locating plants that are in fact, harmful to the agrarian society.”
“Thus, they can eradicate the plant from easy access. For example, let us say we have a plant that is harmful to humans, and is relatively rare. This poisonous plant is capable of killing old people and children outright if the extract of a plant is prepared as a poison, and has a 50% chance of killing the average healthy adult. The authorities of such a society might mount an offense against such a plant by seeking it out, and destroying it.”
“A herder might also find it useful to do a Seek Plant on a specific type of harmful plant in order to determine if such plants are present in a meadow where he intends to let his herd graze. The hunter society might also have learned that certain types of plants growing at the base of an Elm tree for instance, but not in the heart of an old growth forest—might need to locate such a plant for medicinal purposes or even religious purposes if such plants have the effect of altering one's mental states.”

Identify Plant

“Identify Plant is a spell that will quickly alter the perspective of educated hunters in a region they are unfamiliar with, or perhaps quickly boost the medical capabilities of an agrarian culture. Even a bright mage with zero knowledge of herbal medicine, armed with this spell, has a fifty fifty chance of advancing herbal medical knowledge per casting of the spell. This spell along with the ability to draw and/or paint images, permits a mage to create books that will be true knowledge instead of knowledge gleaned in a hit and/or miss method as practiced in non-magical societies. Certain various plants are helpful for digestive disorders, are helpful for keeping wounds free of infections, reduce fevers, as well as a multitude of other helpful capabilities. Again, I cannot stress highly enough, that any magical society utilizing such a spell in its day to day affairs—will advance their herbal medical capabilities tremendously.”

Heal Plant

“Heal Plant tends to be a spell that mostly agrarian cultures will utilize as opposed to hunter cultures. Hunters tend to be more concerned with the random bounty of a land rather than tending to the bounty of the land. This does not mean that hunter culture mages will not be interested in such a spell. It does mean that a mage in such a culture might not find it a commonly used spell unless such a plant is rare and is very useful to the mage. An agrarian based mage however, would find such a spell extremely useful—but unfortunately in a very limited fashion as well. Whereas plants that are managed by an agrarian culture tend to have a density that is very high for the region they are managed in, the energy costs required to handle the magics of this spell are rather prohibitive. Let me illustrate this point carefully. There are 640 acres of land to a square mile—making an acre some 4,840 square yards in size. Farmers without the benefit of magic tend to plant their acreage with oxen pulling plows (or other various creatures in place of oxen). In general, they plant in long narrow plots of land called furlongs that are about 220 yards in length by one rods wide (a rod is 5.5 yards in length). Four such furlongs comprise a full acre of land. As you can see, such magic is extremely expensive and power intensive. Just to handle an acre of land, a mage would have to cast this spell in 11 yard radii per casting, a total of 10 times. In power terms, this would cost some 4 mages of average health and fatigue to cast per casting. Not a spell that has a wide application primarily because it is so very costly!”

Shape Plant

“Shape Plant is perhaps another one of those useful strategic spells in the grand scheme of things. For those cultures who practice a strong philosophy of merging man with nature rather than the conquest of nature by man—the spell has some rather interesting implications. Cast upon gourds, this spell can produce various useful implements for the storage of fluids without requiring too much in the way of technology. As mentioned in the spell, carpentry can be achieved without the utilization of metal tools or even stone tools. The thing to note here however, is that any culture that begins to accumulate useful tools and/or items of material size will begin to wander less and less—residing in a single location—the hallmark of an agrarian culture. I should point out that as in everything, there are exceptions to the rule. The wizard nomads of Ulfhein are a perfect example of this. Another culture to note would be some of the more traditional Elven cultures spread through the various planes of existence. We can also point to various druidic like cultures that practice a form of semi-nomadic lifestyle where living plants are made to serve the needs of the tribe. This is one plant spell that has a broad range of applications—primarily on a strategic level.”
“One mage I know of on a personal level, utilized this spell in a place called Yrth. He needed a permanent bridge across a minor creek/river. Rather than build a major bridge across this barrier, he caused two old Oak trees to grow towards each other from opposite sides of the river such that their branches intertwined and melded into each other. He then used other trees to steady the trees forming the bridge so that the winds didn't blow his bridge down."
"One other use that this spell can be applied towards is the creation of platforms amongst the branches of the trees. These ambush platforms would give a woods dwelling culture a major advantage over those who travel only along the ground.”
“I would tend to classify this spell as one of the spells that help a mage earn his place within a group of people as a professional. I will note however, that this spell's tactical nature in combat is severely limited for what it can gain the caster. In combat, ten seconds is an awfully long time to be casting a spell, and the plant material is shaped using the caster’s hands. Using this spell to render a wood-hafted weapon useless is to me would likely be a pointless waste of time and energy.”

Plant Growth

“Plant Growth is another one of those spells that would be useful on a commercial level if it were not quite so expensive energy wise. Its costs are at the exact same level as that of Heal Plant, and thus questionable for the same reasons as given in Heal Plant I mentioned earlier. It should be noted however, that in general, this spell is useful when applied towards emergency use of plants for medicinal purposes. One can take any seedling, plant it, apply this spell, and watch the plant mature in as little time as three to five minutes.”
“Any mage who is a plant mage can become rather dangerous with this particular spell. Need a poison? Plant a seed. Need a barrier? Plant some of the more nasty tangle growth plants and let this spell do its function. But one rather ingenious use of this spell is to utilize a tree seed and planting it between some barrier that needs to be breached. A rapid growth of a tree in a rock cleft can force such a cleft open under the right circumstances. In places where one does not have rope available, yet both the spells Shape Plant and Plant Growth can create a living ladder if such is needed. Granted, there are easier ways of achieving this goal that are far faster than spending a week or so at this task, but it can be achieved. I would not be surprised to find places tended by Elves who utilize just such a technique. One technique that I've heard used on a somewhat combative level is to plant poison Ivy seeds in places where you know your enemy will tend to make camp. Having a heavy concentration of poison ivy near riverbeds is also a favorite tactic used by plant mages. Even more devastating is to use this spell to grow poison ivy at will, and then burning these plants such that the smoke is inhaled by the victims. Nasty, nasty stuff.”

Bless Plants

“Bless Plants is a spell that suffers similar problems as any of the other area cast plant spells. Although cheaper in fatigue costs by as much as 66% less than Heal Plant or Plant Growth, this spell is still a costly spell when applied at a level of commercial farming. A hunter/gatherer type culture might find this spell highly useful because most such plants they find in the woods or plains are by nature, small in area. Casting this spell three months earlier than when the nomadic hunter/gathers intend to pass by will double the bounty of the plants they desire. As is generally true, such bounty will generally be raided by various other birds and creatures who compete with the humanoids for such food.”
“For a farmer however, the energy costs are rather high. Using our typical furlong by four rods wide acre, we find that a mage would have to cast this spell at a little over 50% of his average fatigue, a total of 10 times to get nearly an acre's worth of plants blessed. Assuming that the mage was well trained in his skills, it generally takes about 13 to 14 spell castings to handle one acre's worth of land instead of 10. This spell is however, highly useful for farmers who can afford to pay for the spells to be cast upon their holdings. For reference, if the church takes its 10% tithe of the land's production, a farmer can expect to see only 8 bushels of wheat as his portion after tithe—per acre of wheat he plants. He needs 2 bushels of seed stock for next year's plantings, leaving him with 6 bushels of wheat per acre as his "profit" as it were. It generally takes about 3 days to bless two acres of land with this spell. A farmer who owns 10 acres of land would need a total of 15 days labor on the part of the mage. Assuming that the farmer pays the mage a total of $375 for his work, this is what would happen. Each acre yields 8.8 bushels of wheat normally. Now, each acre yields 17.8 bushels of wheat per acre. The Church tithes takes its portion at 1.8 bushels leaving the farmer with 16 bushels of wheat. Subtracting 2 bushels leaves us with 14 bushels of wheat. At approximately $36 per bushel, the farmer would expect to have increased his profit from its original $216 per acre to $504 per acre. Not bad when you consider that the farmer originally paid the mage $375 for this to happen. It should be noted however, that with the extra crop yield, also comes the extra labor needed to reap the benefits.”
“Now comes the hard part. There are only so many mages available in the market to meet the needs of the farmers. Let’s examine the rural population of say, four small villages each with about say, 250 people each. If only one person in one hundred is a practicing mage, we will find that we have 10 mages. Let’s assume that none of those 10 mages ever decide to leave for the cities, but remain close to their families and their upbringing.”
“Generally speaking, those four communities will have about 1,250 acres of land under cultivation between them. At two days per acre per mage (allowing for spell failures), we'd find that in order to handle the work load, those mages would need to spend some 250 days of labor covering all 1,250 acres of land. Since a growing season tends to be only sixty to ninety days long (editor’s note: growing seasons are actually about 90 days to 240 days long, depending upon latitude; some alpine and subarctic areas may have shorter growing seasons), you can see where mages will be unable to handle anything but the smallest fraction of crops available.”
“Chances are good, that the only people who will be able to utilize the talents of mages in this fashion are those who are of higher status within the community. Now lest I've filled your heads with visions of extremely rich mages living off the proceeds of a bidding war for their talents, let me point out that in many agrarian cultures, farmers do not have the ability to pay in coin, but tend to pay in barter. A mage who casts this spell on an acre of wheat might find himself paid with a single bushel of wheat instead of in coin. One variant of this spell I have come across is the spell Minor Plant Blessing (see Note 1).”
“All in all, this is one spell that rural mages should take the time to learn. They should also be aware however, that this spell involves a lot of hard work and will keep them very busy during planting season and so on. (See Note 2)”

Create Plant

“Create Plant is one of those spells that has some hidden ramifications for society in general. Having never learned this spell myself, and lacking the experience of having seen this spell actually cast, I must profess a certain intellectual annoyance at the wording of this spell book within my library. Let’s examine what the spell is purported to be able to do. It is supposed to be able to create grasses, shrubs, and even trees where none existed before. This spell as described presumably means that a mage can bring forth into existence, some plants that are not exactly shrubs or trees, and thus perhaps, be classified as grasses. Taken literally, this spell means that either grasses, shrubs, or trees only can be brought forth into existence. My question is, which is it?”
“As many city folks may not know, grains are all considered to be grasses. If a plant mage armed with this spell were to go forth where a farmer has made the fields ready—and casts this spell with the express intent of creating barley plants for instance—the farmer now no longer needs to utilize seed stocks from previous plantings—but instead, have the mage create it out of nothing. It should be noted however, this produces a very limited range of utilization because this spell is four times more costly than a Bless Plants spell. If it takes one and a half days per acre to bless plants—and that value is a bit optimistic by the way, as circles do not match rectangular measurements precisely, then this spell will take 6 days per acre!”
“A farmer would be better off planting his fields the mundane way than to use a mage in this manner. However, a mage who knows this spell could easily cast it over a small portion of land, utilize Bless Plants on it to double the yield, and then use the resulting yield as seed crops for farmers to use in the mundane manner for next year's crops. Thus, a mage need only hear about a certain type of grain in existence, and visualize it for when he casts this spell! The same holds true for other various plants that the mage may have heard of. He can utilize this spell to bring forth plants not native to a region, and husband them carefully such that they provide seeds for further utilization in the normal manner. Since I have yet to see this spell in action, here are some of the possibilities I can see for the spell itself depending on how the laws of magic work in various different planes.”
“1) The mage can bring into existence, plants he knows about and can control what is brought into existence. 2) The mage has no control over what is brought into existence except when he controls magic perfectly (see Note 3)”
“The real question here is whether or not the mage can also create plants that he has no prior knowledge of its existence. For example, there are some grains in worlds where magic is very limited or even close to non-existent where the farmer can get up to 24 bushels of wheat per acre. Could a mage upon hearing of this wondrous plant, create it on his own world?”

Wither Plant

“Wither Plant as they say, is one of those spells of balance. If the good mage can giveth, he most certainly can taketh. As it turns out, this spell, while apparently one that can be utilized in a decidedly hostile manner against a farmer, can be utilized in a helpful way to insure that the only plants which can grow in a given area—are those the mage targets. Thus, rather than having to weed a field as the grains of choice are growing, the farmer could hire a mage to help keep his labor costs down and kill the plants before they even get a chance to grow. Unfortunately, this process is an ongoing one where plants might take root in a region and grow like, well, weeds. What makes this spell useful however, is the simple fact that it kills plants of a given type over a range of area. Seeds from unwanted plants generally tend to grow near their parent source. Killing the plants before they can go to seed certainly cuts down on the numbers of plants that have to be dealt with later. All in all, a very helpful community spell—and for mages who tend their own gardens, or alchemists who need specialized plants—a spell a mage might find very useful.”

Forest Warning

“This next spell is an intriguing one for me, and requires some forethought on behalf of the mage who uses it. It is the Forest Warning spell. People who choose their camp sites with care generally tend to look for ways that make the camp defensible where needed in a potentially hostile region.”
“The usual prerequisites for a campsite is that it has some water nearby if possible, that it has high ground not only for combat reasons, but also in case it should rain—after all, who wants to sleep at the bottom of a marsh after it rains? But the campsite should also if possible restrict the number of ways that a potential enemy might approach. It is thus, that this spell can become very useful indeed.”
“The first thing to consider is that anyone who intends to sneak up on a sleeping or unaware campsite will likely abandon their efforts if they should happen across this patch of magically warded ground. Secondly, it can just as easily channel an ignorant foe as it can help to ward the campsite against surprise attacks. After all, would you want to walk onto a patch of ground that suddenly makes noises magically—not knowing what other spells may lie in wait? But this spell has other potentials as well.”
“Suppose you are being pursued by an enemy. This enemy can't see you, but is on your trail and wants to catch up with you. Cast this spell and leave it ongoing as you leave. As the pursuer stumbles across it, he must now investigate upon discovering the patch of warded land, whether or not you have stopped and that they have caught up with you. After all, this spell is purely defensive no? If there is a warded patch of land, then it is clear it was warded for a reason. Note that this "trick" only works once or twice—but a wily mage will of course have other plans in mind when he is being pursued—providing the mage has other tricks available up his sleeve.”
“To illustrate this technique, I can only relate a tale told to me by a mage who created a rather ingenious trick utilizing unexpected sound with another's paranoia. The mage had cast a spell such that any time a combination lock dial as turned, it would produce an audible "snick" noise. Most thieves fear traps being set off when they attempt to break into a secure area, and the mage reasoned that this loud noise might make a thief worried enough to back off. Little did that mage know how successful he was with his subtle trick. The same thief kept trying over and over again to determine whether the massive chest was trapped or not. It frustrated the thief to no end that he could not only not find the trap mechanism—but that other mages with spells could open the chest plainly, take items of value out, and return the items later on. Eventually the thief was caught—but that is a story for another day. Suffice to say, the thief would hear the sound and assume the worst. So too can Forest Warning be used.”

Tangle Growth

“Tangle Growth as a spell needs no real discussion as its primary use and tactical use are pretty self-evident. The energy usage for this spell is one that when utilized near river banks, or open plains or forest edges—is highly effective. This spell can also be highly effective when springing a trap on a small band of men as they walk without knowledge of the pending ambush. Take a group of say, ten archers along with five or six standard warriors and line them up alongside the kill zone. Cast the spell Tangle Growth when the victims reach the zone. Archers do their dirty work wounding the victims, and the regular warriors act as a barrier against those who survive the initial onslaught. Suddenly finding yourselves in grass that restricts movement rates by a factor of 2, or amongst bushes who keep you pinned and immobile can be highly demoralizing.”

Hide Path

“Hide Path as a spell sounds like a neat spell for many, but it suffers from a lack of vision you might say. Trackers as a rule have to depend on their wits and their experience to keep atop a trail they are tracking. No one person leaves tracks non-stop that any blind man can follow in and of itself. Tracks are not generally a straight line written in flashing lights that say "He came this way, stupid". But what does happen is that the old adage two points determine a line combined with various signs of a passage, that permit a tracker to follow the route of his quarry.”
“Hide Path has the potential for allowing a mage to increase the distance between one "sign of passing" he leaves and the next one. When the tracker fails to find the signs, or loses the trail as the saying goes, he must cast about for more signs until he again picks up the trail. Generally, they work in a circular pattern of search until they can find signs of their trail once again. Since this spell has a duration of one minute, a good idea when under the influence of this spell would be to move quickly so as to put as much distance as possible between the last known point on the trail and when the spell wears off.”
“A change of direction is always a good idea when using this spell in the hopes of getting the trackers to make the presumption that two points determine a line. If it looks like you intend to head north, and you've been moving north non-stop for two days, and then suddenly using this spell, move to the east or west—chances are good that the trackers will continue on north in the hopes that they will assume your intentions were to go north and they will likely pick up signs of your trail northwards. But if the trackers know that you intend to go to the City of Jamballah that is two days journey from where they lost your trail—chances are good they will still pick up your trail again as they continue towards Jamballah as well. Like many things involving magic and the minds of intelligent creatures—it becomes a battle of wits.”
“The best time to use this spell is with advance preparation with the full knowledge that you are going to be tracked, and that you know your pursuers don't know your ultimate destination. The only other reason you might utilize this spell is to remove traces you were ever near a specific point so as to hide your activity—such as entering a hidden cave, or the harvest of a particular plant, or something equally important to keep from prying eyes.”

Plant Sense

“Plant Sense, when combined with other various woodcraft skills, is one of the worst spells any pursued individual can face. If a tracker should lose his trail, casting this spell will increase his effectiveness in a major way. When going up against an individual who has utilized the Hide Path spell, this spell is extremely helpful. While not a spell that guarantees results, it is a spell that can partially counter Hide Path's abilities to cause confusion. What makes this spell particularly useful for hunters however is its heightened awareness of the passing of animals through the growth. A hunter looking for prey will find that what may have been somewhat minute traces of animals suddenly become much easier to discern. All in all, a spell with limited use, but when needed, a good one to have available.”

Animate Plants

“Animate Plants is one spell that is better utilized as an enchantment than one that is used on the spur of the moment (editor’s note: in 4e, there is no enchantment form of this spell; however, the 2e version did have one, costing 50x casting cost). It may be frightening for the more gullible and paranoid people it could be utilized against, and may cause animals to back away at having something as unusual as a plant acting as if it were an animal—its primary best utilization is in the creation of animated trees. A circle of druidic oriented mages could easily enough cast this spell on trees whose lifespans number in the generations of humanoids. Walking into a wood of old tree growths while of hostile intent towards a band of hunters who know said forest is likely going to cause a lot of grief. Only a mage who is constantly alert and utilizing mage sight has a chance to notice if the trees before him are animated. The saying about not seeing the trees for the forest is very true here. A forest known to have man killing trees will make most of the people very afraid to sleep under the canopy of trees at night. It has been hypothesized that this is what is in effect, causing many of the problems in the Blackwoods of Yrth.”

Plant Form

“Plant Form as a spell is perhaps the equivalent to Shapeshift in the Animal College. Utilizing this spell along with Hide Path makes for an interesting way for a mage to hide himself from pursuit. By casting the Hide Path on himself, and then turning into a tree a short distance from that spot where the hide path spell was engaged, the tracker, unless totally familiar with that area, is likely going to pass the tree without thinking twice about it. Of course, turning into a sapling in a totally dense ‘old growth’ forest is likely going to make any true naturalist wonder how such a tree can grow when its nearby neighbors are crowding out light for it to grow by—but in general, such a tactic should work easily enough.”
Another benefit of turning into a tree is that for individuals upon whom this spell is cast, can rest in relative security. If you have a mage with this spell and two companions for instance, a Mage might be willing to cast this spell upon his friends and himself and just rest. A mage with Remove Curse and a wounded companion for instance, might deliberately change his wounded friend into a tree, and leave them in that state until the mage could come back to remove ‘the curse’ of a permanent plant form upon his comrade. There is of course, a special need to worry about lightning strikes if the companion is the tallest object in the immediate surroundings, but that is the chance one takes. It should be noted that it is unwise to leave a friend in a region where loggers are known to look for suitable trees. My suggestion is that if you are going to turn someone into a tree, turn them into poison sumac or perhaps some other tree that most loggers find little or no use for. It should be noted that if you do turn someone into a poison sumac, that you at least be near a bog or swamp….”
"Okay, this concludes the first part of the lecture. The second part of the lecture has to do with the application of these spells on a broader level. This includes ceremonial magics along with the creation of specialized magical tools—in common terms, magic items. Let’s look at the application of a single spell to that of a single farming community. Let’s say we have a community that is named Threefirs, home to some 250 people, some 80 of which are aged 14 and under, and some 12 of which are aged 60 or older."
"This farming community holds some 625 acres of land under cultivation, of which only 312 are actually planted for the upcoming year's production of food. They need to leave 312 acres of land fallow such that they don't deplete the fertility of the land. This leaves them with almost 313 acres of land that they must tend to."
"In a community of 250 people, you would expect to see two practicing mages available for the community's needs. For the sake of this discussion, we are going to assume that these two mages are bright individuals who have learned the Bless Plant spell to nearly expert levels. Each of the mages is presumed to be of average physical capabilities but for their education, mental acuity, and their training in the magical arts. As these mages gather about to cast a ceremonial casting of Bless Plants, they determine that they can only use 100 of the villagers in their quest for blessing the plants. Taking 50 minutes for the ceremony, the mages find that they only need to extend the radius of effect some 110 yards in radius. Through the knowledge gained by previous generations doing the same thing, the mages know that if they cast this spell over a region that is 1 furlong in length, and 36 rods wide, they can get nearly 7.8 acres of land blessed out of roughly 9 acres of land initially targeted. After all, a Circle will miss parts of a square it is cast in. If they work on 9 acres of land at a time, getting some 87% of the 9 acres blessed, the mages would need to cast this spell a total of 35 times."
"Since these mages are trained to near expert levels, it means that out of 100 spell castings, they will succeed 95 times, fail normally only 3 times, and fail with magical backlash some 2 times. Put in better perspective, out of 35 times, there is a good likelihood that the mages will succeed 33 times, fail once, and fail with magical backlash once. In a universe where a single backlash applies to all who are present in a ceremonial casting, this has the potential of crippling a limb of 100 villagers at the same time, or cursing their fields to producing only Half of the normal yields instead of twice the normal yields, or it can even potentially cause them to suffer the depredations of demonic creatures if the head mage in charge of the ceremonial casting is ‘evil’ enough. In instances where magical backlash affects each participant of a circle differently, with the primary mage casting/leading the ceremony affecting the entire fields with his backlash—the effects will be more devastating!"
"There are of course, other uses for the study of the plant spells. One can easily craft magical tools with dedicated powerstones crafted in as part of the tools utility. Let’s examine some of the possibilities. One of the true benefits of the plant college is the fact that very few of its spells requires Magery to utilize. Create Plant and Plant Form are the only two spells of the college that require Magery of any kind to cast. This means that in a region that is mana high, plant magics can be researched and cast by non-mages. The other benefit is that magical tools used by non-mages will work, as there will be no limitations against them using such things. Let’s look at the first spell Seek Plants. A staff constructed with this spell embedded in it will permit anyone to seek out specific plants. The down side to this is that if people are irresponsible in their harvest of rare plants, such plants will become even more rare, or be wiped out entirely! As such an item can be crafted magically in less then two months time, they will likely be relatively common. No practicing doctor should be without one, as it will guide him to the plants he needs to create his poultices and herbal remedies. The suggested retail costs for this item is actually only $50! For only $50, there isn't a single adventurer who should leave civilization without it. With it, the adventurer can seek out roots of edible plants, fruit bearing plants, or even grains and berry bearing plants—easily."
"If we look at the Identify Plants staff, we're looking at something that is a bit steeper in price, but one that no large group of foragers should be without. At $1,790 for such a thing, anyone can look willy nilly at plants and attempt to find which plants are useful versus those which are not. More importantly however, such a staff provides a mage with an auxiliary capability that will serve him well on a commercial level. Some plants would make for good seasoning capabilities, while others will act as a useful dying agent. Being able to find such plants and utilizing them would help a mage even if he didn't specialize in plant magics."
"Rich Landed Lords might find it interesting to purchase a single staff of weeding. It is somewhat expensive at the cost of $30,000 to make, but it is a worth while investment to make. The staff of weeding would actually be a staff of Wither Plant with two levels of Power enchanted into it. At 10 seconds worth of time per casting, a simple man could easily use it to touch the ground and will all weeds to die. Stepping one step back, the worker then touches the ground behind him for another ten seconds, and all weeds die. Utilizing this procedure, a worker who is weeding a section of land, can cover a swath of land that is a furlong in length by one yard wide, in only one hour. Using a longer staff so that the worker can reach into the plot of land up to ten feet deep, and the worker can cover 1/4 of an acre in half a day, or 1/2 an acre per day. Such a process would greatly reduce the manpower required for weeding fields. There is of course, the potential for abuse in that a person with this kind of item can instead, destroy the very plants that farmers need or desire."
"If we are going to discuss specialty items that are self powered, then Plant Sense is a good candidate. By embedding two levels of Power in it, once activated, at the cost of but a single fatigue level, the wearer will always be that much more alert as per the spell Plant Sense. This is a reasonable investment for Rich lords to make for their foresters on the lookout for trespassers on their Lord's forest or for trackers in search of their prey. At $37,500 to make, a single expert tracker will tend to ruin many people's day as they cross paths with the tracker."
"And finally, the lecture ends with a discussion about Animating Plants. Druids or other plant mages may desire to create animated trees. By spending close to three years plus 105 days, a druid enchanter can bring an oak tree into animated life. It will obey to the best of its abilities, the commands of its master. If a Druid teaches the trees to attack only at night against sleeping victims, then run away after killing a victim, such trees can be dangerous. Of course, being limited in their abilities means that an alert party can deal with them, but it does throw curves for those who are inexperienced in the ways of the Plant mages."
"Thank you, and have a good day."

Gamespeak Section

Notes: 1: Minor Bless Plants AREA Cast upon plants within the first 30 days of the plants existence, provides an increase in the plant's yield by 25%. Extended use of this spell in a region without resting the soil will result in a drop in the land's fertility, and deplete the soil. Duration: one crop or growing season. Base Cost: 1/4. To be affected, plants must be entirely in the area of effect. Time to Cast: 5 minutes Prerequisite: Heal Plant Item: Staff. Cost to create: 500 Energy. Note: can be used by a Non-mage. Special: this spell does not really deplete the soil like Bless Plants does, and crops using this spell are subject to normal soil depletion rules.
2: The Bless Plants spell in my game world has the added limitation that the spell must be cast in the first 30 days of the plant's life or it will not increase the yield. In theory, one could cast this spell on the second to last day before harvest—as the spell is written now, and still reap the benefits of a doubled yield. This is why the houserule has been added. In addition, this spell will deplete the soil more quickly. Each use of this spell will drop the fertility of the land by 5% unless it is allowed to lay fallow for a year. Once Soil is depleted to 50% fertility, it becomes pretty useless for growing any kind of crop and may take decades of lying fallow to recover. Farmers who know of this can however, choose to marl their land (a mixture of clay and powdered limestone I believe) along with animal manure. Even simple animal manure is helpful for bringing the land back to an acceptable level of fertility. Simply using the land to grow wild grasses and allowing sheep and/or cattle (preferably cattle by the way) to graze on the land will help. Soil depletion can only recover at half the rate that it originally depleted, and in this case, might take a score of years to recover back to normal! The only exception to this are lands where frequent flooding deposits a whole new layer of silt on the land.

3: By this, I mean a Critical Success in game speak.
Ok - pet peeves. As noted earlier, the spell Create Plants is a bit too open ended and requires the GM to customize the spell in his own world. As such, I would suggest that GM's take the time now to decide how they want those spells to work in their game world. Players who read this should see just how effective the GM will permit them to be with the spell. As I said earlier, one could conceivably say "Hey, why don't I create a plant that is much more nutritious and has a higher yield than the medieval grains?" Some of today's crop yields are not only the result of more advanced technology regards to agronomy—but are also the effect of selective breeding and careful crossbreeding of various breeds of wheats and grains (cereals). If a player claims "Why can't I create such a plant if it exists today?" what are you going to say as a GM? More importantly, if you are the player, what is your GM going to say to you?
Spells that need to be re-worked in my opinion: Bless Plants: The house rules are my attempt at reworking them.
Create Plants: This spell needs to be reworked so that it classifies plants either by type or by size. It also needs to set limits on the spell works. As a GM, I would suggest that the only plants a plant mage can create are those plants for which he has actual seeds for, or has had experience with. One can easily purchase a book on plants and herbs (I did) for their campaigns if they are that interested (why did I buy such a book? To find out what plants were useful for what reasons—medicinal, commercial as in dyes, and just plain food types). One of my players has a bit of knowledge from when he was interested in wild plants and living off the land. He enjoys herbal teas and has suggested that we try sumac as a tea (I'm glad I never did like coffee or tea!)
Animate Plants: needs to give the GM guidelines on how animated plants interact with the world. Having a stat "HT" based on how much energy was involved in creating the animation is fine. But what is the plant's dexterity? What is its Strength? Since Animate states that an IQ 9 spirit inhabits the item being animated, one can presume that the animated tree has an IQ of 9. So HT = 2x Energy to animate, and IQ = 9. DEX? ST?
I can not stress enough, that people should go out and pick up a copy of Guns, Germs, & Steel by Jared Diamond. It is subtitled "The Fates of Human Societies" and has a lot of information that Game Masters who build their own game worlds will find interesting. It touches an an amazing array of topics well worth considering when designing your worlds as well as crafting histories for it.

Copyright (c) 2004 by Harold Carmer