Treetopper Feat

[Rhytania]

This feat will allow you to be suspeneded in the air in forest type rooms. Basically it will have the affect of a levitate or fly spell without the time limit, but the echoes will reflect that you are indeed in the treetops. It will also allow you to move to adjacent forest rooms as well.

Prerequisite should be a decent climb skill rating and a decent dex.

Climb checks can be made upon movement between the rooms with a failure resulting in falling with damage.

Syntax "climb tree up" "climb tree down"

[Kregor]

Ooooo

How many times I have smoted being perched up in a tree with my bow, having to only pretend I am up there. This would be a cool concept becase not only would the smoting be taken care of, but people on the ground would actually not be able to reach you.

I agree that it could require a high DEX, STR as well (gotta climb 'em to get up there), and depend on the climb skill for checks. A sorely underutilized skill that would get a nice boost in training and usage, I think.

A very cool creative MUD interpretation of the feat. I like it.

[Jerigo]

I really like the idea of this feat and would definitely try to gain it if it were ever implemented, but I just had one question about it. As Kregor said, there are tons of times in forest RP where one character or another will smote climbing up into a tree for safety or to set up and ambush or for whatever reason. If a feat were added to put that action in the code, then would that mean that players without the feat would be forbidden from smoting the action?

[Lathander]

It should also have a high degree of failure for those wearing anything but light armor types. Might be neat to have a random check vs the climb/dex combo to determine if you fall out of the tree and take some falling damage. That chance of falling should increase if you are engaged in ranged combat while in the tree. I think the feat should be usable in conjunction with the hide skill as well.

[Kregor]

I would certainly agree that engaging in combat while treetopped would call for climb checks, just like fighting on horseback calls for mount checks. Note that you are basically balancing yourself upon a branch whilst firing at your enemy, or even more challenging, fighting another treetopper in melee. That's the stuff Errol Flynn movies are made of!

Basically, you'd get better at climb the more you treetopped anyways. So the bruises would pay off ultimately.

As far as smoting once a feat were to come into play, that would be imm call if the feat were implemented, I would suppose then it becomes smoting something you can't do. I'd imagine most of the local rangers would have some amount of ability to climb and perch in the trees for scouting, etc. But one who could do so deftly, with the ability to fight, etc. I suppose that should be where a feat would come in.

As it is, I will smote perching on a lookout, or shooting a warning shot from said perch, but when it looks like there may be an actual fight, I smote dropping to the ground, because anyone will be able to reach me with melee attacks anyways.

[Andreas]

I think this is an excellent idea. It would make better use of the climb skill and add another dimension of roleplay to rangers.

[Zach]

sorry to post on an old thread... but yeah... thats why they are there...

I think this would be great... a lot of us smote being on the lower branches as you could still smote... but to be on the "treeTOP" would require a feat... One could still smote climbing the lower branches but to be higher... one would need this feat...
Silva would most defonatly like this feat

[Rhytania]

Thanks for reviving it. I almost forgot it was even here.

[Alaudrien]

haha hmm but not only for rangers and such...a tree along a highway for the thuggish bandits could lay waste to caravans in an ambush to get there hands on there booty! ><

[Paskry]

This would be very helpful if it were implemented, though I see a few areas where it can be abused:

(I suppose that this would work in combat like levitate/fly)
Oog can not initate the attack because he cannot reach Paskry while
Paskry is in the tree. So Paskry shoots Oog who is on the ground and the battle program opens and executes. Oog would be able to strike back once Paskry has opened the attack, though Paskry would still be in the tree, sniping Oog.

Also, like the above if it were set to work right:

Paskry sits in a tree in Shilmista, picking off the stupid orcs for an indeterminate time.
Basically, camping.


On the flipside, there should be a TreeBash command that would shake the tree and do a check on(in the above example) Paskry's skill level in Treetopping. If Paskry does or does not fall, there would be a rain of needles/leaves/sticks/birdnests/Long Lost boots of the Ranger Thorin.

Paskry

[Rhytania]

That defeats the purpose of the feat. this isnt like a spell or a skill, this is a feat that is very costly for a pc to take, and not only a feat but it will still be tied to his climb and dex skill. if Oog decides to mess with Paskry and Paskry manages to climb in the tree good on him. if Paskry sets up a sniper blind to harass the orcs coming in and out of Shilmista so be it. The whole purpose of the feat is for those reasons. One who is comfortable among the forest should not be restricted to ground fighting, a highly skilled range attack can be just as effective as mele if trained enough, this feat will give them an edge as far as combat but also provide another RP tool that is currently unavailable.

[Paskry]

I can see how that works Rhytania, I was just pointing out how it could be abused by Twinks and how we could help balance it out for fair play.
Though you Could argue that life is not Fair so this one thing would be fine.

Paskry

[Lathander]

I agree with Rhytania. If Oog wants to be able to fight back, Oog should learn a ranged combat skill. As it is, levitating PCs can't be attacked from the ground unless a ranged attack is used. Why would this be different?

Here are some things to consider.

• What if the TreeTopped ranger/druid fumbles a weapon? No code prevents them from immediately picking it up. If such a feat is added, we would expect appropriate rp.
• It should not be subject to "dispel magic" as levitate would, but some sort of "dislodge" spell or any spell that negatively impacts dex should require a new check to see if the PC stays in the tree.
• What about spells like "earthquake," "flamestrike," "magic missile," "acid arrow," etc.? There are plenty of countermeasures.

[Rhytania]

Thanks Lathander, thats exactly the intent of what I was trying to make. If we could combine the code for mount into this it would be ideal ie you make a check every round (both combat and non-combat rounds) to remain up in the tree, if you fail you fall. Same thing applies if you move around the forest as this feat will also allow you to move into adjacent forest type sectors, if you fail your check you fall and will take some form of damage. If you engage in battle the combat round is much faster than a non-combat round and you will have to keep making checks at this speed until either a) you fall or b) combat is over. If the feat remains in this context it remains both balanced and true to its form in table top.

[Zach]

There would be a lot of checks for this feat... but that is only because we are talking a lot about them... i am sure there are other feats that make just as much checks if not more...

Being above and in trees would mean a better advantage against those not in the tree w/ this feat... could we impliment a bonus to ranged attacks that?

[Balek]

Ideally there would probably be a climb check made every time an attack is made or damage is taken, much like how mount seems to work right now. I see this feat as roughly analogous to mount, except you're sort of mounting a tree instead .

If it's possible, it would be great if the climb checks could be tiered so that taking damage is a more difficult check than making a melee attack, which is more difficult than making a ranged attack.

[Oog]

Why youz pick on Oog!?! Oog butt-bump da tree and all da elfie apples falls out for Oog ta eat! Oog want new "butt-bump" feat! Den "improved butt-bump."

[Bugoron]

I agree with Rhytania. If Oog wants to be able to fight back, Oog should learn a ranged combat skill. As it is, levitating PCs can't be attacked from the ground unless a ranged attack is used. Why would this be different?

Here are some things to consider.

• What if the TreeTopped ranger/druid fumbles a weapon? No code prevents them from immediately picking it up. If such a feat is added, we would expect appropriate rp.
• It should not be subject to "dispel magic" as levitate would, but some sort of "dislodge" spell or any spell that negatively impacts dex should require a new check to see if the PC stays in the tree.
• What about spells like "earthquake," "flamestrike," "magic missile," "acid arrow," etc.? There are plenty of countermeasures.

On the subject of fumbling the weapon, would there possibly be a way to flag the treetopping so that whenever a treetopped PC drops/fumbles something and tries to get it from the ground, they are met by 'That is too far away for you to take' ? This would require the PC to remove themselves from the tree, and if battle had been initiated, then coming down would mean instant battle from the foes they had been fighting, AND they would be swung at before they even have time to pick up their weapon again, a nasty little addition against pot-shot PCs who botch with their weapon.

[Rhytania]

I am sure its possible, an intercept on the get/grab/take command while in a treetop? Also I think for pc's with a strong strength should be allowed to bash the tree with a high enough check forcing the noncombative treetopper to make checks for each succesful bash, rather than waiting a whole 60 seconds. However the DC should be high with a stamina/health decrease much like you would receive from bashing a strong heavy door. I do not think that this should require anything but a seriously high strength stat, another feat to tree bash doesnt seem right to me.

[Zach]

But some of the trees are HUGE in with... some big enough to withstand a cannon shot and not budge and laugh at the cannon ball that they can not not get back... so some guy with a shield throwing himself against a HUGE tree would do NOTHING but hurt him... this would work only with tiny trees...