Ultimate Herbalism (PFRPG)
Ultimate Herbalism (PFRPG)
For people who like chaos magic, but don't like randomly killing their party.
Why does this book exist?
Classical chaos magic design is weird. It usually uses the exact same spell list as a wizard or sorcerer, but, for some reason, the world can explode when the chaos mage so much as sneezes. To me, wanting to be the chaos mage, the tabletop equivalent of "that guy", always seemed selfish; moreover, the designs that made "chaos magic" possible seemed a little lazy, for they were almost always something draped over something else that already existed. Nobody wanted to make a dedicated chaos splatbook.
Ultimate Herbalism nips both problems in the bud, introducing a druidic chaos magic system that has been built from the ground up with fun, non-party-killing play in mind.
The Flavor
Herbalists, gourmends, and naturalists are champions of the natural world selected by Mother Nature Herself. In this way, they represent a spontaneous acquisition of power, much like a sorcerer, and not a slowly-learned acquisition of power, like a druid or wizard. Nature's reasons for choosing a particular champion vary widely from individual to individual, but given the variety She maintains in the biosphere to ensure life goes on after a major disaster, this almost-schizophrenic selection process really shouldn't be a surprise.
The Process
- Each morning, pick random herbs from a selection based on your current biome.
- Each evening, store leftover herbs overnight day in preservation vessels.
- When you have enough, plant your favorite herbs in cultivation pots so you always have them.
- Learn and collect the ingredients for recipes, which give you huge, awesome effects that reward you for being a compulsive gatherer.
Modular Customization
Generous Kickstarter backers have piled on the bonus content in Ultimate Herbalism to make sure the experience any player wants is there with a little twiddling.
A: Give up either the ability to store or the ability to plant in exchange for the ability to collect rocks. Rocks act like detonating AoE herbs, but don't spoil. (Geologist archetype - has its own spellbook)
B: Give up recipes in exchange for the ability to collect bugs. Feed bugs to activate them again and again multiple times per day, giving you a spammable ability if the core system is too random. (Entomologist archetype - has its own spellbook)
C: Force your first herb collection roll of the day to be made in a special high-chaos biome, increasing the chaos for a taste of variety nobody else can have! (Mycologist archetype - has its own spellbook)
D: All of the above - Special care has been made to allow archetypes to stack, utterly transforming the base class with their cumulative effects. Who's up for an entomologist/geologist/mycologist?
Product Features
3 base classes, the master chef gourmend, the classic herbalist, and a martial specialist with a pet venus fly trap - the naturalist.
3 naturalist archetypes: creationist, mycologist, and sporekeeper
9 herbalist archetypes: aromatologist, compounder, entomologist, flowerchild, gardener, geologist, mycologist, poisoner, and zen cultivator.
9 biomes sharing a 22-page herb log
27 recipes
9 microcosms, each with four unique herbs that modify core biome tables
Over 50 tables. Institutionalized chaos loves tables.
Over 80 watercolor paintings by my mother, Vera Crouch
