Min/Max Boards

I don't think it has to be a hive mind, but the original mythology really emphasizes how there's always three of them and you might not always have two friends on hand who want to play magic weasels. Plus playing a swarm of weasels is unique, and controlling "multiple" characters with one class is an interesting gimmick. Most of the potential mechanics described could easily be refluffed to be three "separate" characters controlled by one player, or a team of three siblings who are just trained to work cohesively, or whatever your take may be.

But then you could also do a short class for one sickle weasel and have the weasel trio part be a prestige class...

I know time/distance tend to get fuzzy, but Dryads seem so thoroughly DEFINED by their limited range and bond with their tree. I thought giving them the ability to join other characters on far-ranging, continent or dimension spanning adventures without having to stop for a day every few hundred yards to bond to a new tree would be worth a feat. Sure the DM can just ignore Tree Dependency, but then why have it there in the first place? I don't mind reducing the number of hours required for the ritual to 2 right off the bat, since then you're not wasting feats on something that doesn't come up as often.

As for tree bond, I don't want anything to be TOO weak so I'll patch up some of the poorly worded or lamer ones (Cypress, yeah, no question that one needs a do-over). But because of the range limitation dryads have, I didn't really think of these as permanent options. More like, at the beginning of each adventure the GM says "ok you arrive in this new country, there are these kinds of trees living here" and you can choose and enjoy a simple bonus until the adventure takes you somewhere else. So not all the trees are going to be even. Having Dryad Vagrant means you can switch between the bonuses somewhat, but sometimes your dryad will just have to make do with a tree that isn't all that useful at the moment.

edit: I tried to fix all the trees you mentioned (except monkey puzzle because I am a stubborn coot), but I'm not sure if I worded fan palm right.

I came up with a few Dryad feats

Dryad Vagrant
You wander farther from your tree than other dryads
Prerequisites: Dryad
Benefit: The distance you may travel from your tree before experiencing ill effects is doubled. You may also choose a new tree for your Tree Dependent ability after an 8 hour ritual as opposed to a 24 hour ritual
Special: This feat may be selected more than once, each time the distance is increased by an additional 100 yards per HD and the number of hours required for your ritual is reduced by half, to a minimum of 2 hours

Tree Bond
You draw power from different plants you choose to attach yourself to
Prerequisites: Dryad
Benefit: When you perform a ceremony to attach yourself to a new tree you gain the following bonus depending on what kind of plant it is. When choosing a new tree to bond with, you are limited by the environment you are searching in.
Alpine
Aquatic/Shoreline
Desert
Rainforest
Sub-Tropic Forest
Temperate Forest
Urban/Agricultural
Special: Not every location has the same trees and a GM can choose to remove or add any tree from the list depending on the location.

If anyone wants to add more options for Tree Bond please do so. I'm an ecology grad student with more OCD than sense! Lets make it three times as thorough as the half-golem material list!

I thought about playing up the lightning, but I didn't want that to be the main focus since a rain-based dragon seemed more unique. Lightning absorption so it can eat lightning does sound cool though, and I like the camouflage idea though, maybe invisibile while in rain or other inclement weather? Maybe those two abilities in place of the fast healing.

for the capstone ability, how about something like this:

Command of the Rain King: Once per day a rain linnorm can place a geas on a sentient creature. Until this geas is completed, the creature is transformed into a variety of water elemental known as a "rain elemental". The creature retains all race and class levels, but gains elemental traits, the Water subtype, a swim speed equal to twice its base speed, and a fly speed equal to half its base speed (poor maneuverability). Once the geas is completed, the creature returns to its original form and loses all rain elemental traits.

or

Reign of the Rain King: At 20th level a rain linnorm becomes one with all aspects of rain. It can choose to modify its breath weapon so that it deals either half untyped/half fire, half untyped/half cold, or half untyped/half acid.
In addition, it may choose to have its breath weapon act as a Plant Growth spell over the area affected by the breath weapon.

Rain Linnorm

HD: d12

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Feature
1	+1	+2	+0	+2	Rain Dragon Body, Boiling Breath
2	+2	+3	+0	+3	Keen Senses, Primal Blood
3	+3	+3	+1	+3	Blindsense 60', Amphibious, Create Food and Water
4	+4	+4	+1	+4	Flight, +1 Str
5	+5	+4	+1	+4	Quench, +1 Con
6	+6	+5	+2	+5	Avarice, +1 Str
7	+7	+5	+2	+5	Weather Arcana, +1 Cha, +1 Con
8	+8	+6	+2	+6	Control Wind
9	+9	+6	+3	+6	Growth, Tail Slap, +1 Cha
10	+10	+7	+3	+7	Control Weather, +1 Str, +1 Con
11	+11	+7	+3	+7	Primal Skin, +1 Cha
12	+12	+8	+4	+8	Iron Scales
13	+13	+8	+4	+8	Weather Lord
14	+14	+9	+4	+9	Frightful Presence, Growth, Crush
15	+15	+9	+5	+9	Demand Attention, +1 Cha
16	+16	+10	+5	+10	Fast Healing
17	+17	+10	+5	+10	Weather Arcana
18	+18	+11	+6	+11	Weather Mastery, +1 Str, +1 Con
19	+19	+11	+6	+11	Storm Breath, +1 Cha, +1 Str
20	+20	+12	+6	+12	Wind Walk, +1 Str, +1 Con

Skill Points: 2 + Int modifier, quadruple at first level
Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Climb, Intimidate, Listen, Knowledge (any), Search, Spellcraft, Spot, Swim

Features
Rain Dragon Body: A rain linnorm loses all other racial bonuses and gains Dragon traits (darkvision 60' and immunity to paralysis and sleep). It is a medium sized dragon with a bite natural attack (1d8) and 2 claw attacks (1d6). Rain linnorms have a base speed of 40 feet and a swim speed equal to 1/2 their base speed. Their claws are capable of fine manipulation and can be used for somatic components.

Rain linnorms also get a natural armor bonus equal to their Con modifier. Whenever a rain linnorm grows one size category, its natural armor further increases by 1

Boiling Breath: 60-foot line of caustic boiling water, once every 1d4 rounds; damage 1d6/HD with a Reflex DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Con modifier for half. Half the damage (rounded up) is fire damage, the other half is untyped.

Keen Senses: A rain linnorm sees four times as well as a human in shadowy illumination and twice as well in normal light. It also has darkvision out to 120'

Primal Blood: A rain linnorm can cast magic as a sorcerer of 2/3 its level, but it has a CL equal to its HD. Unlike other sorcerers or dragons, they may only select spells from the druid list. If it multiclasses as a sorcerer, the casting stacks and they are no longer limited to the druid spell list.

Dragon Level	Sorcerer Casting
1	-
2	1
3	2
4	2
5	3
6	4
7	4
8	5
9	6
10	6
11	7
12	8
13	8
14	9
15	10
16	10
17	11
18	12
19	12
20	13

If a linnorm takes a casting prc, it may choose to advance its casting as that of a sorcerer.

Blindsense: At 3rd level, the linnorm gains blindsense with a range of 60 feet

Amphibious: At 3rd level, the linnorm can freely breath, act and use any of its abilities underwater

Ability score increase: The rain linnorm's ability scores increase by the shown amount.

Level	Bonus Gained
4	+1 Str
5	+1 Con
6	+1 Str
7	+1 Cha, +1 Con
9	+1 Cha
10	+1 Str, +1 Con
11	+1 Cha
12	+1 Str, +1 Con
13	+1 Cha
15	+1 Cha
16	+1 Str, +1 Con
17	+1 Cha
18	+1 Str, +1 Con
19	+1 Cha, +1 Str
20	+1 Str, +1 Con

For a total of +7 Str, +7 Con and  +7 Cha at 20th level.

Flight: While it doesn't possess wings, at 4th level a rain linnorm learns how to manipulate the air around it to fly. It gains a flight speed equal to 10 feet per HD, with poor maneuverability. The maneuverability doesn't increase naturally, but players can take the Savage Species feat that increases it by two steps (stackable).


Rain Linnorm SLAs: At 3rd level Create Food and Water 1/day for every HD
   At 5th level Quench 1/day for every 3 HD
   At 8th level Control Wind 1/day for every 3 HD
   At 10th level Control Weather 1/day for every 3 HD

Avarice: Rain linnorms are driven by two obsessions: notoriety and treasure. Good or bad, rain linnorms demand credit and accolades for what they do, and their obsession for treasure dwarfs that of other dragons. At 6th level a rain linnorm gains a racial bonus on Intimidate and Appraise equal to 1/2 HD

Weather Arcana: At 7th and 17th levels the rain linnorm adds one spell with either the [electricity] or [air] descriptor of a level it can cast to its list of spells known.

Growth: At 9th level the rain linnorm grows to large size
   At 14th level the rain linnorm grows to huge size
Its AC, bonus to hit, base damage, grapple and skills change accordingly, but it doesn't get any ability score bonus or penalties

Tail Slap: At 9th level the rain linnorm can make a tail slap attack dealing 1d8 damage

Primal Skin: At 11th level, the rain linnorm gains SR equal to its HD + 11

Iron Scales: At 12th level the rain linnorm gains DR/magic equal to half its HD

Weather Lord: At 12th level the rain linnorm gains +2 on the caster level of any spells with the [electricity] or [air] descriptor it casts and those spells ignore any limits on caster level they may have

Frightful Presence: At 14th level this ability takes effect automatically whenever the dragon attacks, charges, or flies overhead. Enemies within a radius of 30 feet × half the dragon's level are subject to the effect if they have fewer HD than the dragon. A potentially affected enemy that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ dragon’s HD + dragon’s Cha modifier) remains immune to that dragon’s frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failure, enemies with 4 or less HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with 5 or more HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds. Dragons ignore the frightful presence of other dragons.

Crush: The linnorm can make a crush attack dealing 2d8 damage

Demand Attention: At 15th level the rain linnorm's vanity and obsession for notoriety reaches its peak. It gains a bonus on initiative checks equal to its Cha modifier.

Eat Lightning: At 16th level a Rain Linnorm becomes immune to Electricity damage. Instead, the linnorm is healed 1 point of health per 3 damage it would normally suffer.

Rain Hunter: At 16th level a Rain Linnorm's shimmering scales allow it to mimic the appearance of rain. When outdoors in rainy conditions the rain linnorm can disappear into the rain as an immediate action, giving it total concealment. This concealment lasts until the rain ends, whether through natural or magical means, or the linnorm leaves the area where it is raining.

Weather Master: Rain linnorms live for the chaotic changes in the weather. At 18th level, a rain linnorm's flight maneuverability increases to perfect when flying in any kind of weather created by itself. If it already has perfect maneuverability, its speed increases by 50%

Storm Breath: At 19th level, a number of times per day equal to its Cha modifier and as a move action, a rain linnorm can make its breath weapon persist in the form of a boiling storm cloud with the same area as the breath. This storm cloud can be shaped in any way the dragon wants and moves at flight speed equal to the dragon's base speed with perfect maneuverability. It doesn't hinder movement but creatures and objects that start their turn inside it take damage equal to the dragon's breath weapon (reflect save allowed). The dragon needs to spend a move action every turn to keep the cloud going, and can sustain it for up to 1 round for HD.

Command of the Rain King: Once per day a 20th level rain linnorm can place a geas (as the spell) on a sentient creature. Until this geas is completed, the creature is transformed into a variety of water elemental known as a "rain elemental". The creature retains all race and class levels, but gains elemental traits, the Water subtype, a swim speed equal to twice its base speed, and a fly speed equal to half its base speed (poor maneuverability). Once the geas is completed, the creature returns to its original form and loses all rain elemental traits.
A creature who does not attempt to follow the geas still takes damage and become sickened, even if normally immune. However, such creatures gain a +5 bonus on their Fortitude save.

comments:

Thats a good point about carrying with your back, but the 1/2 carrying capacity due to dinky arms thing comes straight from the original source. I don't mind limiting them to small weapons instead. Of course, I want to make sure all the intense abrian enthusiasts won't be super disappointed if I don't make it as accurate as possible 

ok, I went with the new vampire spawn ability

What if instead of getting true minions the fungal spawn you created had a time limit? Like they're mushroom zombie thralls under your control but they only live a week before they collapse into a pile of fermenting mushrooms. That and they can't make their own spawn.

HD: d10

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Feature
1	+1	+0	+2	+0	Ostrichy Body, Abyssal Bird, Atrophied Arms, Shriek, +1 Str, +1 Dex

Skill Points: 2 + Int modifier, quadruple at first level
Class Skills: Balance, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival

Features
Ostrichy Body: An abrian loses all other racial bonuses and gains magical beast traits (darkvision 60'). An abrian is medium-sized and have a move speed of 50'. Abrians have a kick natural attack dealing 1d8+Str modifier damage and a beak natural attack dealing 1d4+1/2 Str modifier damage.

Abrians also gain a bonus to natural armor equal to their Con bonus

Abyssal Bird: An abrian's beak threatens a critical hit on a natural attack roll of 19-20 and deals triple damage with a successful critical hit.
An abrian also gains Sonic Resistance equal to their HD

Atrophied Arms: Abrian arms are capable of fine manipulation, but are small and weak. An abrian uses 1/2 of its Strength score to determine its carrying capacity.

Shriek: Once every 1d4 rounds as a standard action an abrian can let loose a supernaturally loud and distressing shriek. Anyone within 20 feet of a shrieking abrian must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + HD) or be dazed for 1 round.
   At 4 HD the targets are also deafened for 1d6 minutes if it fails the save
   At 8 HD the targets also take 1d10 points of sonic damage if it fails the save
Abrians can strengthen the shrieking of other abrians by shrieking together. If 4 HD worth of abrians shriek together it duplicates the effect of one 4 HD abrian shrieking. If 8 HD worth of abrians shriek together it duplicates the effect of one 8 HD abrian.
Abrians are immune to their own shriek and the shriek of other abrians.

Ability Increase: Abrians gain +1 Str and +1 Dex at level 1

Fungal Creature (prc)




Prerequisites
-Constitution 10+
-Must be humanoid, giant, monstrous humanoid, animal, magical beast or vermin
-Must have been infected with a fungal agent, either having been slain by another fungal creature or willingly consuming a special myconid potion

HD: d8

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Feature
1	+0	+2	+0	+0	Fungal Infestation, Poisonous Blood
2	+1	+3	+0	+0	Spores

Skills: 2 + Int modifier per level
Class Skills: None

Features
Fungal Infestation: A fungal creature gains the Plant type and all plant traits and immunities.

Poisonous Blood: Any creature making a bite attack or attempting to swallow a fungal creature whole must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Con modifier) or take 1 point of Strength damage and 1 point of Dexterity damage. One minute later, the creature must make a second save at the same DC or be nauseated for 1 minute and take 1d6 Strength damage and 1d6 Dexterity damage.

A fungal creature can drain its own blood to procure an ingested poison that affects creatures as described above. A number of doses can be drained per day equal to the fungal creature's Con modifier. Unfortunately, its blood has a distinctive and largely unwelcome smell and taste, so most intelligent creatures would not eat food tainted with it unless the taste were thoroughly disguised with a DC 15 Profession(Cook) check. Adding it to food or drink straight away will make it instantly noticeable as toxic. A fungal creature must deal 1 point of damage to itself per dose and the drawn blood retains its poisonous nature for just 1 day after being removed.

Fungal creature blood quickly oxidizes when exposed to the air. Applying the poison to a creature's skin will not make them poisonous, nor will applying it to an object make the object poisonous.

Spores: At 2nd level, a fungal creature begins growing useful spores. At the start of each day a fungal creature has access to a number of Spore Charges equal to its HD. These Spore Charges cannot be stored beyond each day. A fungal creature can expend Spore Charges to use any of the following abilities:

<sub>Attack Spores: By expending one Spore Charge, a fungal creature an release a cloud of spores in self-defense as a standard action.  The form is either a 20 foot burst radius or 20 foot cone.  All hostile opponents within the affected area must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ HD + Wis mod) or take Xd6 damage (X=1/2 HD) and suffer a -1 penalty on attack rolls and skill checks as the spores enflame and irritate the skin.  A successful save halves the damage, and the creature suffers no penalty on rolls.  At 5 HD, the cloud’s area increases to a 30 foot burst radius or a 40 foot cone.

Create Spawn: If a Fungal Creature lowers a victim’s Constitution score to 0 with its Poison Spore Cloud and then expends Spore Charges equal to the victim's HD, the victim returns to life reanimated by the fungal infection in 1d4 days (twice as long in overly dry conditions) with one level of fungal creature. The new fungal creature is under the command of the fungal creature that created it and remains enslaved until its master’s destruction. At any given time a fungal creature may control spawns whose combined CR is no bigger than the fungal creature's own CR-2; any spawns he creates that would exceed this limit are created as free-willed fungal creatures. A fungal creature that is enslaved may not gain the second fungal creature level, thus being unable to have spawns of its own. A fungal creature may voluntarily free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a fungal creature or a fungal spawn cannot be enslaved again.

Poison Spore Cloud: By expending one Spore Charge, a fungal creature can release a choking yellow cloud of spores in a 15-foot-radius spread. The spore cloud lingers visibly in the air for 10 rounds, but it dissipates normally on the wind. This cloud functions as an inhaled poison.

Any creature that does not hold its breath before the fungal creature activates this ability is assumed to inhale the spores. Each breathing creature in the cloud must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 fungal creature HD + fungal creature’s Con modifier) or take 1d2 points of Constitution damage and be fatigued for 1 minute. Thereafter, the creature must succeed on a second save (whether or not it succeeded on the first) or take 1d2 points of Constitution damage and become fatigued (or exhausted if already fatigued)

A creature that continues to inhale the spores continues to make Fortitude saves against their effects. Multiple spore clouds from multiple fungal creatures require multiple saves from any creature in an area where the clouds overlap. Creatures that are immune to poisons are immune to the fungal creature’s poison spore cloud.

Rejuvenation: By expending one Spore Charge, a fungal creature gains Fast Healing equal to their Con modifier for 1 minute as a free action.</sub>