Variant Rules: G
4 variant rules, from Gardens of Wonder to Growing Items.
Gardens of Wonder · Geomancy · Gradual Ability Boosts · Growing Items
Gardens of Wonder
A toxicologist alchemist walks through a carefully tended garden, its medicinal and poisonous plants growing and blooming in neat, colorful rows, each separated from the others and meticulously labeled. Elsewhere, a druid explores a wild grove welling with primal power, using their knowledge and intuition to choose exactly the plants they need for their latest poultice. Whether cultivated or purely natural, a garden of wonder is a location where an herbalist, poisoner, or other character interested in plant-based concoctions can gather ingredients with ease.
As the Game Master, you should handle the tending or exploration of such a garden using the downtime rules for Earn Income to represent the construction of an artificial garden or exploration of a natural garden, as well as the harvesting of ingredients to make herbal concoctions. This is the simplest method and the one that fits most easily into the existing structure of downtime. Note that while this section focuses on gardens in the traditional sense, these rules are equally applicable to a variety of different endeavors and structures (see A Garden By Any Other Name.)
Another method would be to use the ritual garden of death to gather up poisonous creatures in the area and establish such a garden right away. Ritualists more interested in healing others than harming them can develop a garden of healing ritual that has the same costs and effect, but for creatures and plants that provide medicinal benefits rather than deadly toxins.
Establishing a Garden
Using a ritual or spending personal downtime are two ways to establish a garden, but your group might be interested in establishing a garden, orchard, or other location that grows consumable items for them as a shared party resource within the campaign. For such a scenario, GMs should use the following guidelines, which are based on the cost differences of a magic scroll and a magic wand. A player can't establish a garden unless the GM and the group have agreed to use this variant together.
Essentially, a garden is a living item or collection of items that produce herbal alchemical items, poisons, or similar consumables at a steady rate (typically one per day) without the need for additional downtime. These consumables are only temporary, however, typically taking the form of a short-lived fruit, flower blossom, or other perishable good. As such, they expire at the end of the day; since characters with a garden can't stockpile their bounty, they're encouraged to use the consumable items each day. Even magical and other extraordinary means of preservation have no effect.
To seed the garden with enough plants or animals to produce sustainably, the PCs must pay a cost equal to the maximum cost of a permanent magic item that is 2 levels higher than the consumable's level. For example, it costs 2,000 gp to plant sufficient antidotal herbs to obtain a perishable greater antidote each day, because greater antidotes are 10th-level consumables and the maximum cost for a 12th-level permanent item is 2,000 gp. PCs with skill in herbalism or gardening can attempt to use Earn Income to help defray the setup costs of a garden, using Lore skills such as Gardening Lore as normal. If you are also using the variant for growing items from this chapter, a character could use the Grow activity to grow a garden. Additional gardens can be used to increase the number of daily consumables the PCs have access to, but the PCs should have enough space to accommodate the expanded gardens. A given group of PCs shouldn't maintain more gardens than half the number of PCs in the party, rounded down.
Using Gardens as a Reward
Some players tend to wait for the perfect moment to use a consumable item, which can ironically lead to them not using any of their items unless the situation is extremely dire, since they're always anticipating that the next encounter might be a better time to drink that potion or elixir. Unfortunately, this can sometimes mean the party never has the fun of trying out a strange consumable or seeing the bit of variety it can introduce. Gardens are a great reward for groups that are hesitant to use consumables because they feel more permanent, reliable, and safe, and since gardens' rewards need to be used each day or lost altogether, players are incentivized to find creative uses for the consumables each day. Since the garden is located at a specific location, that means the group needs to be able to return to that location to retrieve the consumables. If you give the group an especially elaborate garden capable of producing multiple consumable items each day, the group can become more invested in setting up roots nearby and establishing a base of operations organically. This can be a perfect incentive to get players invested in the local area.
A Garden by Any Other Name
While a garden is especially narratively attractive to characters like herbalists, druids, poisoners, leshys, and the like, these same guidelines are perfectly capable of describing locations far different than a natural location lush with plant life. Here are a few examples.
Bakeries and Kitchens
A fighter sponsors a bakery with her tournament winnings, and in return, the baker agrees to bake a fresh magic pastry for her each day when she stops by on her morning run. This "garden" is likely tended by a friendly NPC who the PCs have assisted in some way. Perhaps the cost of founding the garden was an investment in the baker or chef's startup, or maybe the PCs were granted the land on which the bakery sits as a reward for services rendered to the local community. If the land and buildings are a reward for services rendered by the PCs, the reward itself might cover all or a portion of the costs of creating the garden.
When using Earn Income to help defray the costs of creating this kind of garden, Accounting Lore, Baking Lore, and Society are all appropriate skills.
Haunted Churches and Sites Of Power
A cleric creates a living scroll factory from parchment scraps won from contract devils and mummy wrappings, producing eerie-looking (and presumably evil) scrolls each midnight that explode into black flame the following midnight. Any of a variety of undead or extraplanar creatures might serve as the central seed for a "religious garden" that supplies the character with scrolls, catalysts, or other thematically appropriate consumables. This type of garden is most likely to be appropriate at higher levels, where a PC has the power to compel service from the undead or extraplanar entity who powers the garden. However, a PC who dedicates themself to the service of such a creature might be able to create and benefit from this type of garden as part of their tenure.
When using Earn Income to help defray the costs of creating this kind of garden, Architecture Lore or a lore skill related to a type of creature tied to the site (such as Devil Lore or Mummy Lore) are appropriate skills.
Ooze Farms
An alchemist from the ooze-loving city of Grairond establishes a laboratory of strange oozes, generating a beaker-full of odd, mutagenic gloop each day that can be used in the creation of almost any alchemical consumable of an appropriate level. Ooze gardens are most appropriate for generating alchemical consumables, particularly bombs and elixirs, though they might also be used to generate alchemical foods. This garden requires a full alchemist's lab in addition to the other requirements mentioned previously, though the alchemist can still make use of that lab when generating alchemical items that aren't part of the daily consumables produced by the garden.
When using Earn Income to help defray the costs of creating this kind of garden, both Crafting and Ooze Lore are appropriate skills.
Rock Gardens and Stalagmite Caverns
A deep gnome druid carefully tends a cavern where the slow drip of limestone grows a forest unlike anything born from soil and sunlight. Gardens of stone and gems are actually more common beneath the surface than gardens containing flowers and herbs, and they can be an excellent source of consumables like talismans, mineral-based alchemical items, and other consumables crafted from gems and stones. Such subterranean gardens are most common among drow and svirfneblin, though any ancestry or species that makes its home in the Veimaikhik might have the necessary skills to manage a garden of stone and gems. These types of gardens are particularly good for creating consumables like gadgets or talismans but require a repair kit in addition to the normal creation costs for establishing a garden.
When using Earn Income to help defray the costs of creating this kind of garden, Crafting, Engineering Lore, and Mining Lore are appropriate skills.
Wildlife Preserves
A grizzled big-game hunter has grown attached to the animals she once poached and has retired to create a walled green space with carefully tended grasslands, ponds, and other habitats. Animals roam free, safe from the outside world. A wildlife preserve could operate as a zoo, an animal safe haven, or a private hunting ground for a noble, but at their core they all need to maintain a stable population of wildlife. The animals in one might produce resources like milk and eggs, and can be hunted or slaughtered for meat, pelts, feathers, and components for items like alchemical foods and bottled monstrosities.
When using Earn Income to help defray the costs of creating this kind of garden, Hunting Lore, Fishing Lore, or a lore skill related to creatures on the preserve (such as Canine Lore or Dinosaur Lore) are appropriate skills.
Treasure Vault, page 167.
Geomancy
The natural vistas of the world are varied and beautiful, and they contain power just waiting to be tapped. From the burning sands of a desert to the freezing tundra of a taiga, from the breathless heights of the tallest peak to the claustrophobic caverns deep underground, each type of terrain holds its own wonders. Geomancy is the study of the magic within these places, and while it has much in common with the primal forces of druidism, it focuses on the specifics of the many types of terrain and how they can resonate within someone who respects those details.
To a geomancer, the world is a living tapestry of magic, woven together in different biomes and ecosystems that each interact with those around them, sometimes working together and other times at cross purposes. A novice geomancer learns to tap into that flow of magic and enhance their castings whenever their magic has a resonance with the surrounding area, but a true master can chain magic to build an artificial resonance cobbled together out of nothing more than their own power and connection to the land.
Terrain Types
Each of the nine fundamental geomantic terrains represents a wide variety of environments and biomes. For instance, the mountain terrain applies to hilly regions, the forest terrain applies to jungles and rain forests, and the swamp terrain includes marshes and bogs. While each of these fundamental terrains isn't homogeneous and offers diverse magical secrets to a geomancer, over time, geomancers have nonetheless developed certain broad associations with each type.
Aquatic Geomancy
Rivers course, tides ebb and flow, and water shifts from ice to vapor, all while creatures grow and adapt within the depths. Casting spells in water calls for a free flow of ideas and emotions. Geomantic rituals intended to change one thing to another often take place in aquatic terrain, or in a liminal space between aquatic terrain and another type of terrain, such as a beach.
Arctic Geomancy
Icy winds carry crystalline flecks of snow that distort the horizons, and desolate nights bring undulating light shows to the black skies. An arctic environment draws a geomancer toward illusory magic that replicates the splendor and mystery of the sparkling tundras, and to long-lasting protection against the elements.
Desert Geomancy
Sandstorms rage as the sun glares down oppressive heat, only to retreat into a frigid night. Life is harsh in the desert, and only the powerful and adaptable survive; the desert's geomantic energies reflect that truth. When the environment is unforgiving, so is the geomancer, who brings forth punishing magic as merciless as trackless stone and sizzling sand.
Forest Geomancy
Forest are defined by the thick growth of plants, a canopy of green home to creatures across every stratum from the forest floor to the treetops. All forests, from those of humid ferns to frozen conifers, share growth and creation. This generative power thrives in a geomancer, coming to life in spells that spring vines and thorns or call forth ancient creatures tied to the land.
Mountain Geomancy
Mountains reach to the skies above, breathtaking and impassable. They stand ever-vigilant and seemingly outside the passage of time until, over the course of eons, even they crumble. Mountains serve as barriers and thresholds: boundaries between nations and demarcations between lush windward and arid leeward. This role leads geomancers to associate mountains with wards and barriers.
Plains Geomancy
The vast expanse of grasslands represent limitless potential spanning off in every direction. Animals and caravans alike migrate across the plains, but humans and other sapient creatures also settle down and build farms. The openness of the plains calls for spells of the wind, plant cultivation, and fast, effortless travel. A geomancer on the plains feels the vastness within them, stretching as broad as the distant horizons.
Sky Geomancy
The open sky is a soaring realm of freedom and exhilaration. The sky is capricious, reflecting the moods of the firmament and altering those of the creatures that live beneath; its oppressive gray or clear blue evoke different emotions. As night falls, the heavens become a star-flecked wonderland beneath the pale gaze of the moon. The sky opens the geomancer to change and uncertainty, allowing for magic to move physical forms and enchantments to sway minds.
Swamp Geomancy
Wetlands cultivate teeming life, though many of the organisms that thrive in swamps can also bring disease. Marshes, bogs, and fens have their own slightly different geomantic properties, but all envelop the geomancer, engulfing the self in gripping mud, murky water, and calls of buzzing insects. The magic of death and rebirth flourishes in the duality of the swamp.
Underground Geomancy
Places beneath the surface of the world are home to countless secrets, from the caves just under the surface to deep, dark caverns of progressively increasing mystery and alien splendor. Twisting tunnels block sight but provide ghostly echoes, revealing distant truths to those who can interpret them. Geomancers feel the pull of the mysterious knowledge held deep in the earth, tracing through the ground as surely as mineral veins. Geomancers tap into this force to learn the answers to enigmas long forgotten to those on the surface.
You can find the Geomancer archetype on the archetypes page.
Secrets of Magic, page 210.
Gradual Ability Boosts
In this variant, a character gains ability boosts more gradually as they level up, rather than receiving four ability boosts at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels. Each character gains one ability boost when they reach each of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th levels. These are collectively a single set of ability boosts, so a character can't boost the same ability score more than once per set; players can put a dot next to each boosted ability score or otherwise mark it to keep track. PCs also receive an ability boost at 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th level (a second set); at 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th level (a third set); and at 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th level (the fourth and final set).
This spreads out the ability boosts, and using them earlier means a character can increase their most important ability modifiers at a lower level. This makes characters slightly more powerful on average, but it makes levels 5, 10, 15, and 20 less important since characters usually choose the least important ability boost of the set at those levels.
Gamemastery Guide, page 182.
Growing Items
In an ancient forest, an elf plays a haunting melody on a flute among the trees, growing entire buildings seamlessly from still-living wood. Elsewhere, a fungus leshy holds a conversation with the mushrooms of an underground cavern, convincing them to twine together into a latticed armor to defend the cavern against a new threat encroaching from the Veimaikhik. The traditional methods of crafting items tell the story of a crafter retrieving the necessary raw materials and then working those materials via forging, woodworking, tailoring, or other such means; however, this is but one of many ways to create magic items. In a primal setting or adventure, or in a campaign taking place in a natural region like the fey forests of the Kaineizex, it might fit your story better to grow an item from a living thing instead. While most such stories take place in a natural environment, they can just as easily occur in a hidden laboratory, where an alchemist might form magical oozes into specific shapes before curing them with magical reagents, producing a sword as durable as any steel.
Mechanically, the process of growing an item uses the same principles as Crafting it normally, though the details and the story differ. Use the Grow activity, a variant of the Craft activity. This activity has the rare trait; it's only available if you've decided to use this variant in your campaign.
Example
If Mianin wanted to Grow a suit of leaf weave armor, she would spend 2 gp on initial fertilizers and nutrients and allow four days for the armor to grow, attempting a DC 14 Crafting check. At the end of the fourth day, if she succeeds, Mianin can choose to either use accelerants to complete the growth right away or to instead spend more downtime to cultivate the armor over the course of a few weeks. She has time to spare and finds this kind of task soothing, so even though a level-0 task doesn't provide profit at an especially fast rate, she decides to spend 5 additional days growing the armor. She's quite fortunate and rolls a critical success on her Crafting check, allowing her to make 2 sp of progress per additional day, for a total of 10 sp (or 1 gp). This reduces the remaining amount she need to pay to 1 gp, so she spends that amount on a magical additive that promotes plant growth, at which point she is finished growing her new armor. This new armor, which Mianin grew herself and is in accordance with her principles as a druid, provides much greater satisfaction than anything she could buy in a shop.
Adjusting Skills
In a game or setting where the act of creating new items happens primarily or exclusively through careful cultivation of living organisms, GMs can choose to have Grow use Nature instead of Crafting. In worlds or settings where this ruling is in play, inventors are likely nonexistent, or at least rare, while druids serve an even more central role in their communities, going beyond spiritual guidance roles to also serve as innovators and economic leaders. Such a change should be made carefully and intentionally, with an eye toward the type of story being told. There's little point in allowing a hybrid system where you can choose between Crafting or Nature to craft items, since Nature has many other uses and thus can easily make Crafting obsolete by comparison. Instead, consider a hybrid version where players use Nature to Grow items and Arcana to craft items the normal way, cutting the Crafting skill entirely.
Treasure Vault, page 164.