Xaeyruudh's Index

House Rule: Changestaff

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This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

This is a house rule affecting the changestaff spell in the Xaeyruudh campaign.


The Xaeyruudh Campaign

Many temples of nature-related powers (including Isis) keep at least a few prepared changestaves hidden around the building and grounds. They may sell extra staves to adventurers who perform valuable services for the temple.

There are four modifications/clarifications of this spell.

Type of wood

The changestaff can be crafted from any kind of wood which will hold the right shape; maple is a fine choice, willow isn’t. The treant-like creature created by the spell will resemble the tree the staff was taken from.

Size of Creature and Staff

A changestaff is not a quarterstaff. For one thing it’s much more carefully decorated, but more importantly it’s thicker. A six-foot quarterstaff is probably about an inch-and-a-half thick, while a six-foot changestaff is six inches in diameter.

The creature created by activating the staff will stand about four times the height of (two size categories larger than) the staff. It will be proportional to other trees of the same type, but a rule of thumb is diameter equals one inch for each foot of height.

Note that using the staff involves “planting” it. In this case, that doesn’t mean burying part of the staff in the ground; a shovel will not help. It means the caster has to be able to pick up the staff, hold it in one or both hands, and drive it forcefully against the ground — not to break it, and it’s not necessary to stab it into the ground. Think Gandalf and “you shall not pass” …without needing to break the bridge.

There’s theoretically nothing stopping a 3 foot tall halfling from employing a Huge changestaff to conjure a Colossal treant… but somehow that halfling has to be able to lift and “plant” a staff that’s many times bigger than he is.

Hit Dice of Creature

The creature created by activating the staff will have 1 HD for each 4 feet of height, rounded down.

Crafting Time

Crafting the changestaff has a DC of 20, plus 1 per foot of length.

Curing and shaping the staff requires 1 day per inch of diameter. Additional time for carving and polishing is determined by the DC.

Examples

As noted above, the one-inch-per-foot rule applies to both the staff and the created creature.

A medium-size changestaff might be 7 feet tall, 7 inches in diameter, and produce a treant-like creature 28 feet tall, 28 inches in diameter, with 7 HD.

A huge-size changestaff could be 30 feet tall, 30 inches in diameter, and produce a creature 120 feet tall, 10 feet in diameter, with 30 HD.


Source


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