Speaking of Fey PCs…

[Dannyalcatraz]

Towards the middle of this thread:

Naming Fey characters

Sometime last year, I designed a 3.5Ed PC who was centered around taking those Fey Heitage feats plus a few other wildcards. I figured out most of the mechanical details, but- strangely for me- I’m having trouble settling on a good NAME. Everything I’ve come up with is too much of an inside...

www.enworld.org

I started thinking about The Green Knight from the old Arthurian tale with Sir Gawain. In this thread, I’d like to brainstorm a 3.5Ed warrior PC that does him a bit of homage.

For those unfamiliar, besides being green, the knight’s most memorable quality is that he survives a beheading challenge issued to Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain must then journey to the Green Knight’s castle to uphold his side of the challenge by submitting to a possible beheading himself.

My issues:

1) I recall that the rules have a Learnean template which would allow the character to survive beheading. But it’s a subset of the multiheaded template. That prereq introduces several elements not found in the inspirational character and more LAs than I’d want. So is there a Regenerative template or similar way to give a PC that power?

2) I’m trying to find what options exist for making the character green, not only in color, but also in the original’s implied connection to nature. IOW, how can I make this character “plantlike”? I know there’s Drift from the Geomancer PrCl, but that requires a spell casting background, and this is more of a warrior character. There’s also a plant template of some kind, and a plantlike race from Eberron. Are there other options?

 

[Arakhor]

Mongoose had a Green Knight prestige class in Quintessential Ranger, I think, based specifically on the legend.

There's also Thorns, small fey first appearing in Monstrous Manual III, who are literal little green plant men.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thanks!

To clarify: while I personally use all kinds of 3rd party stuff myself, I’m primarily looking for WotC material.

And in a similar vein, I want to be sure to use creatures that are commonly available for PC use. So unless it’s in something like Savage Species or otherwise noted as being PC approved, that’s not for me.

(That said…. Feel free to post anything relevant, because someone else might have a similar idea and issues, and what doesn’t help me might unlock a treasure for them.)

 

[Arakhor]

Well, it's been a while since I looked at MM3, but I think that Thorns came with an "as player characters" section, so if anything, WotC will have over-estimated how useful they are as PCs.

You could also try an earth genasi (from Forgotten Realms), but flavour them as being plant-derived, rather than from elemental earth. That could easily justify having greenish or bark-like skin and fronds for hair.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I found the Plant Devotion fest which lets a PC become more plantlike for a short period of time:

Plant Devotion – Feat – D&D Tools

Complete list of all D&D spells, rulebooks, feats, classes and more!

dndtools.net

The Earth Devotion ability looks good, too.

Earth Devotion Feat
Earth Devotion – Feat – D&D Tools

 

[Voadam]

I think plant is a promising thematic path for both green/nature and regenerating/capable of surviving a beheading.

I remember a 3.5 regenerating plant guy in a Goodman Games module, but it might have been an OGL one off.

As an NPC a tendriculos is a regenerating plant that is vaguely humanoid, but they are not really intelligent (int 3 and cha 3), have no applicable LA, and are huge, so they are not out of the box PC appropriate. Awakened and polymorph might provide some possibilities though.

 

[Richards]

The 3.0 Manual of the Planes includes the "Wood Element Creature" that allows for plant/elemental PCs. As a wood element human, your Green Knight would gain a lot of plantlike features that would probably include not being slain if his head were to be cut off. (To quote - or at least paraphrase - a line from Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing: "You can't kill a plant by shooting it in the head.")

Johnathan

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The 3.0 Manual of the Planes includes the "Wood Element Creature" that allows for plant/elemental PCs. As a wood element human, your Green Knight would gain a lot of plantlike features that would probably include not being slain if his head were to be cut off. (To quote - or at least paraphrase - a line from Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing: "You can't kill a plant by shooting it in the head."

Johnathan

I actually have a 3.5Ed Clc/BttlSorc/Geomancer inspired by Swamp Thing- all of the PC’s Geomancer Drift possibilities were of the plant variety. The campaign fizzled before he could get his next feat- Brew Potion. I had already talked to the DM about his potions being tubers he grew on his body…

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just found the Greenbound template. Very promising!

Template - Greenbound Creature

Edit: LA +8. Ouch!

The Seelie Court Fey template also vibes with the Green Knight and his supernatural nature.

Template - Seelie Court Fey

The Knight class has features that echo the original story. After all, the GK challenges Sir Gawain to a beheading challenge. It’s not combat, strictly speaking, but it is a mortal challenge.

Knight – Class – D&D Tools

Complete list of all D&D spells, rulebooks, feats, classes and more!

dndtools.net