Verdant Lord

Requirements

Alignment: Any nonevil.

Skills: Profession (herbalist) 8 ranks, Wilderness Lore 8 ranks.

Feats: Plant Control, Plant Defiance

Spells: Able to cast Command Plants

Summary

Saying the verdant lord has a green thumb is like calling a red dragon a creature with a slight affinity for fire. The verdant lord is the final defender of the Forest. He has left behind the druid’s search for global understanding of nature’s secrets to focus all his energies on the world’s plant life.

Elven and half-elven druids are the most likely characters to embrace the role of the verdant lord. Druids of other races, rangers, and the occasional priest of Obad-Hai or Ehlonna have also been known to adopt this prestige class. It’s almost impossible for characters without such ties to become verdant lords because they have neither the interest in nor the required understanding of seeds, saplings, and trees.

Since most verdant lords have little use for civilization, they tend to be loners, watching the years pass by from their groves. Adventuring verdant lords are rare, but those who do exist are marvelous to behold. They tend to take their gardens with them, often bringing several plant creatures, such as animated trees and treants, along on adventures. Verdant lords tend to be soft-spoken, easygoing individuals—right up until someone lights atorch and threatens living plants.

Role: Spell Utility

Characteristics: Eco-warriors, that gradually take on the traits and powers of a plant

Source: Masters of the Wild

Game Rule Information

The Verdant Lord has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Wisdom for casting spells and your druid like abilities and Constitution for bolstering your wild shape HP

Alignment: Any Nonevil

Hit Die: d8

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Verdant Lord's class skills are Animal Empathy (Cha), Climb (Sir), Concentration (Con), Craft (any) (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intuit Direction (Wis), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Scry (Int), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Sir), and Wilderness Lore (Wis)

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Verdant Lord.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Verdant Lord is proficient with whatever they were already proficient with prior to taking levels in this class.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each verdant lord level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he belonged before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (additional wild shape options, metamagic or item creation feats, or the like). If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a verdant lord, the player must decide to which class to add each verdant lord level for determining spells per day and spells known.

Create Infusion: At 1st level, the verdant lord gains Create Infusion as a bonus feat.

Expert Infusion Ex: At 2nd level, the character can automatically identify the spell contained in an infusion and the caster level of that spell. He also gains a bonus equal to his verdant lord level on both Profession (herbalist) checks and Wilderness Lore checks related to plants, including the use of this skill to forage for herbs.

Sun Sustenance Ex: Also at 2nd level, the verdant lord gains the ability to draw energy from the sun. As long as he spends at least 4 hours of the day outdoors, he can draw sustenance from the sun itself, and thus he requires no food that day. He still thirsts, however, and needs the standard amount of water to survive.

Spontaneity: Beginning at 3rd level, the verdant lord can channel stored spell energy into certain healing spells that he hasn't prepared ahead of time. This works like the cleric's spontaneous casting ability, with the following exceptions. He can "lose" a prepared spell to cast any regenerate spell of the same level or lower (a regenerate spell is any one with "regenerate" in its name; these spells are presented in Chapter 6). For example, a verdant lord who has prepared faerie fire (a 1st-level spell) may lose that spell to cast regenerate light wounds (also a 1st-level spell) instead. Domain spells, if the character has access to them, cannot be converted into regenerate spells.

Plant Facility: At 4th level, the verdant lord can rebuke or command plants with Plant Control as if he were three levels higher than the actual caster level he uses to determine the benefits of that feat. This means that he can also command 3 additional HD of plant creatures.

Fast Healing: At 5th level, the verdant lord gains Fast Healing as a bonus feat.

Treant Wild Shape Sp: Beginning at 6th level, the verdant lord can use wild shape to take the form of a treant and back again once per day. This ability otherwise works like wild shape. Since a treant has a voice and manipulative appendages, the verdant lord can cast spells normally while in treant wild shape.

Animate Tree Sp: At 8th level, a verdant lord can animate a tree within 180 feet of him once per day. It takes a full round for a tree to uproot itself; thereafter it has a speed of 30 feet and fights as a treant with respect to attacks and damage. The animated tree gains a number of bonus Hit Dice equal to the number of verdant lord levels the character possesses. Though its Intelligence score is only 2 while animated, the tree automatically understands the verdant lord's commands. The character can return the animated tree to its normal state at will, and it automatically returns to its normal state if it dies or if the verdant lord who animated it is incapacitated or moves out of range. Once the tree returns to its normal state by any means, the verdant lord cannot animate another tree for 24 hours.

Gaea's Embrace: At 10th level, the verdant lord permanently becomes a plant creature, though all forms of wild shape that the character could previously use remain available to him. His type changes to plant, and as a result he gains low-light vision, is immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, and polymorphing, and is not subject to critical hits or mind-influencing effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, or morale effects). He no longer suffers penalties for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any aging penalties he may already have suffered, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and the verdant lord still dies of old age when his time is up.

Table 1-1: Verdant Lord Progression

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day/Spells Known
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Create Infusion	+1 level of existing class
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Expert infusion, sun sustenance	+1 level of existing class
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Spontaneity	+1 level of existing class
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Plant facility	+1 level of existing class
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Fast healing	+1 level of existing class
6th	+6	+5	+2	+5	Treant wild shape	+1 level of existing class
7th	+7	+5	+2	+5	—	+1 level of existing class
8th	+8	+6	+2	+6	Animate tree	+1 level of existing class
9th	+9	+6	+3	+6	—	+1 level of existing class
10th	+10	+7	+3	+7	Gaea's embrace	+1 level of existing class