Nature Sense

[kgauck]

Nature Sense will be available IMC as a feat to nomadic Rjurik of 4th level.
This will be a regionally and culturally based availability based on the
following text from Jared Diamond in the book _Guns, Germs, and Steel_, pp.
143-4. Druids will get it as a class feature at 1st level.

"For the last 33 years, while conducting biological exploration in New
Guinea, I have been spending my field time there constantly in the company
of New Guineans who still use wild plants and animals extensively. One day,
when my comanions of the Foré tribe and I were starving in the jungle
because another tribe was blocking our return to our supply base, a Foré man
returned to camp with a large rucksack full of mushrooms he had found, and
started to roast them. Dinner at last! But then I had an unsettling
thought: what if the mushrooms were poisonous?

"I patiently explained to my Foré companions that I had read about some
mushrooms` being poisonous, that I heard even of expert American mushroom
collectors` dying because of the difficulty of distinguishing safe from
dangerous mushrooms, and that although we were all hungry, it just wasn`t
worth the risk. At that point my companions got angry and told me to shut
up and listen while they explained some things to me. After I had been
quizzing them for years about the names of hundreds of trees and birds, how
could I insult them by assuming they didn`t have names for different
mushrooms? Only an American could be so stupid as to confuse poisonous
mushrooms with safe ones. They went on to lecture me about the 29 types of
edible mushroom species, each species` name in the Foré language, and where
in the forest one should look for it. This one, the tanti, grew on trees,
and it was delicious and perfectly edible."

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[geeman]

At 12:40 PM 6/14/2002 -0500, Kenneth Gauck wrote:

>Nature Sense will be available IMC as a feat to nomadic Rjurik of 4th
>level. This will be a regionally and culturally based availability based
>on the following text from Jared Diamond in the book _Guns, Germs, and
>Steel_, pp. 143-4. Druids will get it as a class feature at 1st level.

Aside from allowing characters to detect edible plants will it have any
other effects? Bonus to Knowledge, Herbalist; Knowledge, Nature or
Wilderness Lore skills, perhaps?

Gary

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[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary" <geeman@SOFTHOME.NET>
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2002 1:51 PM


> Aside from allowing characters to detect edible plants will it have any
> other effects? Bonus to Knowledge, Herbalist; Knowledge, Nature or
> Wilderness Lore skills, perhaps?

There is normally no bonus for druids who typically have both Nature Sense
and those skills, so I`d be wary about applying a bonus. I`m more inclined
to reduce the time of foraging if it comes up. The druid would be my
standard of nature excellence, and others who take the Nature Sense feat
should not exceed what druids can normally do. Something I would already
have done with druids is grant automatic success under the conditions
specific to a search. They know when to search, where to search, and so
when they forgage for herbs (p. 8-9 in the King of the Giantdowns) they are
automatically successful if they meet the criteria in the description.

One immeditate effect is like the Poison Use ability. The Poison Use
ability means you can use poisons without accidentally poisoning yourself.
I have the same risk with foraging. If you roll a 1 on a Wilderness Lore
check, you would accidentily poison yourself with something on the order of
Greenblood Oil or Medium-size spider venom. Nature Sense prevents that
risk.

Its the kind of thing that wouldn`t be very useful unless you literally
lived off of your ability to forgage for food a good deal of the time.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[Birthright-L]

<<
Nature Sense will be available IMC as a feat to nomadic Rjurik of 4th level.
This will be a regionally and culturally based availability based on the
following text from Jared Diamond in the book _Guns, Germs, and Steel_, pp.
143-4. Druids will get it as a class feature at 1st level.
"For the last 33 years, while conducting biological exploration in New
Guinea, I have been spending my field time there constantly in the company
of New Guineans who still use wild plants and animals extensively. One day,
when my comanions of the Foré tribe and I were starving in the jungle
because another tribe was blocking our return to our supply base, a Foré man
returned to camp with a large rucksack full of mushrooms he had found, and
started to roast them. Dinner at last! But then I had an unsettling
thought: what if the mushrooms were poisonous?
"I patiently explained to my Foré companions that I had read about some
mushrooms` being poisonous, that I heard even of expert American mushroom
collectors` dying because of the difficulty of distinguishing safe from
dangerous mushrooms, and that although we were all hungry, it just wasn`t
worth the risk. At that point my companions got angry and told me to shut
up and listen while they explained some things to me. After I had been
quizzing them for years about the names of hundreds of trees and birds, how
could I insult them by assuming they didn`t have names for different
mushrooms? Only an American could be so stupid as to confuse poisonous
mushrooms with safe ones. They went on to lecture me about the 29 types of
edible mushroom species, each species` name in the Foré language, and where
in the forest one should look for it. This one, the tanti, grew on trees,
and it was delicious and perfectly edible."
>>

Excuse me, but isn`t this an example of *Wilderness Lore*??

Besides that, the name "Nature Sense" seems to imply a very different kind
of ability to me, altogether. Reminds me of things like Sense Motive and
Tremorsense (Ex). Or stuff like this:

"A dwarf can also intuit depth, *sensing* his approximate depth underground
as naturally as a human can sense which way is up."

"While in the magic jar, the character can *sense* and attack any
life force within 10 feet per caster level (on the same plane)."

"They also receive a +8 racial bonus to Spot checks and Wilderness Lore
checks when tracking by scent, due to their keen *sense* of smell."

"The character can *sense* the presence of evil."

Etc.

See what I mean?

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[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "the Falcon" <M.M.Richert@ITS.TUDELFT.NL>
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2002 9:15 AM


> Excuse me, but isn`t this an example of *Wilderness Lore*??
>
> Besides that, the name "Nature Sense" seems to imply a very
> different kind of ability to me, altogether. Reminds me of things
> like Sense Motive and Tremorsense (Ex).

I didn`t name the feat, its on page 35 of the PHB as a class feature of
druids. While a character certainly could use Wilderness Lore to identify
plants, animals, and safe drinking water, this feat makes such tasks
automatically successful.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[Sir Justine]

I my group we make that nature sense gives +2 to knowledge (nature) and wilderness lore, in addition to what is described in the Player's.