Herbalism Feats

Arthropod’s Spite

Prerequisite: Bug Focus

Both you and your bugs have a propensity to get riled up when things don’t go your way.

Benefit: Whenever a creature makes a successful saving throw against one of your bugs, you get a +1 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls against that creature for 2 rounds. This bonus applies both to your physical attacks, as well as to all attack and damage rolls made by bugs you activate.

Bug Focus

Prerequisite: Entomology class feature

While all entomologists feed their bugs fodder blessed by nature itself, your bugs seem to get a bit more out of that luxurious diet.

Benefit: Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against your bugs.

Bug Focus, Greater

Prerequisite: Bug Focus

Though you revere nature with all your heart, you apparently can’t help but transform those bugs in your possession into super-competitive arthropods that would take over pretty much any ecosystem if you ever let them out of your sight.

Benefit: Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against your bugs. This stacks with the bonus granted by Bug Focus.

Culinary Focus

Prerequisite: Culinary background class feature

Your cooking skills run tall rather than wide, focusing on perfecting what you do know rather than picking up new tricks.

Benefit: Choose a major culinary skillset that you know. Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against abilities from the chosen major culinary skillset.

Special: You can gain Culinary Focus twice. Taken a second time, it applies to your other major culinary skillset.

Culinary Focus, Greater

Prerequisite: Culinary Focus

While others experiment, you perfect.

Benefit: Choose a major culinary skillset for which you have already taken the Culinary Focus feat. Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against abilities from the chosen major culinary skillset. This stacks with the bonus from Culinary Focus.

Special: You can gain Greater Culinary Focus twice. Taken a second time, it applies to your other major culinary skillset.

Culinary Study

Prerequisite: Culinary background class feature

Everyone from chocolatiers to butchers knows little tricks that make the job easier. You’ve spent the time to pick a few of these tricks up.

Benefit: Choose a minor culinary skill for which you meet the prerequisites. You learn the chosen minor culinary skill.

Cultivator Savant

Prerequisite: Cultivation pots class feature, Extra Herbs

If you can’t cultivate it, it deserves to be extinct.

Benefit: Select one herbalism plant whose description states that it cannot be grown in cultivation pots. You can now grow up to one specimen of that plant in your cultivation pots? however, using the extra cultivation green thumb ability on this plant costs 4 green thumb points rather than 2. Further, the plant’s yield is halved when using the bounty of nature green thumb ability.

Special: You can gain Cultivator Savant multiple times. Each time, select a new herbalism plant.

Normal: If an herbalism plant says it cannot be grown in cultivation pots, then it simply cannot be grown in cultivation pots.

Cyclical Husbandry

Prerequisite: Entomology class feature

It’s not exactly what happens in the wild, but it’s a fairly good proxy if one assumes the gods are wanton children.

Benefit: Whenever you choose not to feed a bug and allow it to starve to death, you may feed its remains to another bug as though it were an herbalism plant whose point value is equal to the dead bug’s feed cost. Bug remains spoil and become inedible 24 hours after the bug’s death.

Expert Fruit Cultivator

Prerequisite: Fruit Cultivator, herbalist level 11th

Your ability to make plants bear fruit is downright uncanny.

Benefit: All fruit yielded by a cultivation pot is done so at the standard rate for herbs, save that a fruit’s yield is still cut in half when using the bounty of nature green thumb ability. Normal: Fruit yields at half the rate of herbs.

Expert Fungus Cultivator

Prerequisite: Fungus Cultivator, herbalist level 15th

You yield fungus at rates normally used to describe staple crops.

Benefit: All fungus yielded by a cultivation pot is done so at the standard rate for herbs, save that a fungus’ yield is still cut in half when using the bounty of nature green thumb ability.

Normal: Fungus yields at half the rate of herbs.

Extra Companion Talent

Prerequisite: Plant companion class feature

You put a great deal of time into training the giant plant strapped to your back.

Benefit: Choose a plant companion talent for which you meet the prerequisites. Your plant companion learns the chosen talent.

Special: You can gain Extra Companion Talent multiple times. Each time, choose another plant companion talent for which you meet the prerequisites.

Extra Cooking

Prerequisite: Culinary background class feature

You’d make for a good caterer.

Benefit: The size of your culinary pool increases by +3 points.

Extra Forage

Prerequisite: Foraging class feature

You know various little tricks that find an extra mushroom here, or a wild carrot there.

Benefit: You collect an additional unit of generic produce with the foraging class feature.

Extra Spore Modification

Prerequisite: Fungus hive class feature, sporekeeper level 3rd

Benefit: Choose a fungus hive spore modification for which you meet the prerequisites. You gain the chosen spore modification.

Special: You can gain Extra Spore Modification multiple times. Each time, the required sporekeeper level increases by +6 and you choose another fungus hive spore modification for which you meet the prerequisites.

Extra Herbs

Prerequisite: Green thumb class feature

It turns out you can get more out of nature if you ask really, really nicely.

Benefit: Whenever you replenish your green thumb pool, you gain 2 temporary green thumb points that persist for 24 hours. These temporary green thumb points may only be used in conjunction with the extra cultivation green thumb ability.

Special: You can gain Extra Herbs multiple times. Its effects stack.

Fruit Cultivator

Prerequisite: Cultivation pots class feature, Extra Herbs, herbalist level 5th

Fruit-bearing shrubs and trees lay out hefty roots. You’ve figured out how to support such plants in your cultivation pots, though they aren’t quite as happy in said pots as they would be in the wild.

Benefit: You can now grow fruits in your cultivation pots as though they were herbs. All fruit yielded by the cultivation pot is done so at half the standard rate for herbs. For example, there is only a 50% chance that gathering from a cultivation pot containing a fruit will yield a unit of herbalism plant. Spending 2 green thumb points increases this to a 100% chance. Further, using the extra cultivation green thumb ability on a cultivation pot containing a fruit costs 4 green thumb points instead of 2. Finally, a potted fruit’s yield is cut in half when using the bounty of nature green thumb ability.

Normal: Fruits cannot be grown in cultivation pots.

Fungus Cultivator

Prerequisite: Extra Herbs, herbalist level 9th

Pots represent something far closer to a closed, stagnant system than does wild nature, and many mushrooms resist cultivation for this very reason. You’ve found a way to get them to grow, albeit inefficiently.

Benefit: You can now grow fungi in your cultivation pots as though they were herbs. All fungus yielded by the cultivation pot is done so at half the standard rate for herbs. For example, there is only a 50% chance that picking a cultivation pot containing a fungus will yield a unit of herbalism plant. Spending 2 green thumb points increases this to a 100% chance. Further, using the extra cultivation green thumb ability on a cultivation pot containing a fungus costs 4 green thumb points instead of 2. Finally, a potted fungus’ yield is cut in half when using the bounty of nature green thumb ability.

Normal: Fungi cannot be grown in cultivation pots.

Geologist’s Armor

Prerequisite: Find rocks class feature, Con 13

You keep chunks of stone in pouches and bags all over your body. At some point, that much nature-blessed earth was bound to start doing something.

Benefit: You have an armor bonus to AC equal to the number of geologist rocks in your possession.

Instant Cooking

Prerequisite: Short Order Cooking, gourmend level 10th

The food’s ready when you say it’s ready.

Benefit: Once per day, the Short Order Cooking feat requires only a swift action to perform a culinary skillset ability with a culinary point cost of 2 or less.

Mutable Companion

Prerequisite: Plant companion class feature, naturalist level 10th

Your plant companion is quite the quick study, but, unfortunately, doesn’t remember things very well.

Benefit: Whenever you collect your herbalism plants for the day with the find herbs class feature, you may select a plant companion talent with no prerequisites that is unknown to your plant companion. Your plant companion knows the chosen plant companion talent until the next time you collect herbalism plants with the find herbs class feature, at which point it promptly forgets the previously-chosen talent.

Special: If your plant companion knows every single plant companion talent with no prerequisites, then your plant companion talent selection when collecting herbalism plants for the day differs. Choose a talent with no prerequisites that grants an ability with a limited number of uses per day. The plant companion may use the chosen limited-use talent twice as many times as normal today.

Mycology Focus

Prerequisite: Combinatorial mycology class feature

You seem to have a certain ability to find the best mushrooms in a given area.

Benefit: Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against plant products produced with the combinatorial mycology class feature.

Mycology Focus, Greater

Prerequisite: Mycology Focus

Your mushrooms are some of the finest examples of their respective species.

Benefit: Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against plant products produced with the combinatorial mycology class feature. This stacks with the bonus granted by Mycology Focus.

Persistent Poisoner

Prerequisite: Green thumb class feature, poison use class feature

If at first they don’t succumb, stab, stab again!

Benefit: You gain the following green thumb ability.

Persistent Poison (Su): As a swift action, the herbalist focuses her command over the natural world onto a weapon that has been treated with a recipe or plant that is treated as though it were a poison. That poison is not consumed the next time it poisons a creature. Once affected by this ability, a particular plant or dose cannot be affected again. This ability costs 3 green thumb points.

Pharmacist

Prerequisite: Compounding class feature

You’re comparatively adept at the medicinal application of toxic compounds.

Benefit: You may medicinally apply an additional 2 points of poisonous herbalism plants with the compounding class feature daily.

Prodigal Son

Prerequisite: Herbalist level 10th

It may only be a glimpse of your true potential, but that glimpse is potent nonetheless.

Benefit: You gain limited access to the abilities normally wielded only by herbalists of tremendous power. Choose one of the following natural prodigy capstone options, but only if you would have access to it at 20th level. (Many capstone options are unique to particular archetypes.) You may use the chosen ability once per day.

• A rock is a rock (1d8 damage per herbalist level)
• Master lepidopterist
• Netter extraordinaire
• Rapid placer
• Reinvigorating rocks
• Sapient plants
• Toxic thumb

Rapid Poisoner

Prerequisite: Green thumb class feature, poison use class feature

You’ve been working on a wrist technique, and it’s finally bearing fruit.

Benefit: You gain the following green thumb ability.

Rapid Poisoning (Su): As a swift action, the herbalist applies a recipe or plant that is treated as though it were a poison to a weapon. This ability costs 1 green thumb point.

Rock Focus

Prerequisite: Find rocks class feature

To most anyone else, a rock is just a rock. They don’t quite understand all the selection criteria that goes into taking an excellent sample.

Benefit: Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against your rocks.

Rock Focus, Greater

Prerequisite: Rock Focus

Your rocks rock.

Benefit: Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against your rocks. This stacks with the bonus granted by Rock Focus.

Rock Hoarder

Prerequisite: Find rocks class feature

There’s always room for one more!

Benefit: The maximum number of rocks you may possess at any one time increases by +1.

Rocks to Rocks

Prerequisite: Find rocks class feature

There’s also always room for one less.

Benefit: Whenever you use the find herbs class feature to find your herbalism plants for the day, you may throw away a rock. If you do, you make an additional roll on the find rocks table corresponding to your current biome today.

Short Order Cooking

Prerequisite: Culinary background class feature, gourmend level 5th

Rather than cook everything you need for the day atonce, you take the time to cook things when the order’s up.

Benefit: You may now perform culinary skillset abilities that can normally only be performed when using the find herbs class feature to find herbalism plants for the day at any time over the course of the day. You may only expend up to 3 culinary points per day in this manner, and you require 1 minute of uninterrupted concentration per culinary point spent to produce output with that ability. If interrupted, the culinary points are lost, no output is produced, and the culinary point cost still counts against the number of culinary points you can spend with Short Order Cooking daily.

Special: You can gain Short Order Cooking multiple times. Each time, the required gourmend level increases by +6 and you can expend up to an additional 3 culinary points as described above daily.

Normal: Most products that require culinary points must be produced when gathering herbalism plants with the find herbs class feature.

Soil Study

Prerequisite: Rare earth class feature

You are well-versed in the properties of rare earths, even for a gardener.

Benefit: You gain a rare earth for which you meet the prerequisites.

Toxicologist

Prerequisite: Toxicology class feature

You’re always eager to mix up another potent cocktail of death.

Benefit: You can use the toxicology class feature an additional time per day.

Verdant Protector

Prerequisite: Cultivation pots class feature, gourmend level 5th OR herbalist level 5th

Nature is a tinkerer, and few are the months that go by without the loss of one of Her experiments. Though nature is not much of a preserver, some sapients under Her banner are. For whatever reason, you have chosen to champion one of these near-dead species, and carry a specimen about wherever you go.

Benefit: You lose a cultivation pot, but gain a rare plant cultivation pot. A rare plant cultivation pot comes pre-filled with your choice of one of the special herbalism plants listed below. Treat your rare plant cultivation pot as though it were a standard cultivation pot, save that you can never, ever empty the plant held within. It must always hold the special herbalism plant you chose for it upon first gaining Verdant Protector.

Rare Herbalism Plant List

Ancient Guru (Fungus)

Biome(s): Extinct
Point Value: n/a
Duration: see text
Appearance: A very special case among known “extinct” fungi, ancient gurus are made when certain species of mushrooms reach somewhere around 200 years old. At this point, the mushroom undergoes a metamorphosis, emerging as the characteristically-hoary guru. As each species that harbors the capability to metamorphosize in this manner is much-beloved for its culinary use, the guru may as well be extinct.

An herbalist who possesses a cultivation pot containing ancient guru has a +1 alchemical bonus to Knowledge skill checks, Wisdom-based skill checks, and Wisdom-based ability checks. Starting at 11th level, this increases to a +2 alchemical bonus. Ancient guru produces no harvestable units of herbalism plant.

Celestial Yarrow (Herb)

Biome(s): Extinct
Point Value: 4
Duration: instantaneous
Appearance: Said to be a gift from the heavens itself, celestial yarrow only grows in the presence of virtuous souls. As the wilderness has no virtue in the eyes of archons, only locations such as temples and churches can support celestial yarrow. As a result, it is extinct in the wild, and, being of supernatural origin, was never wild to begin with.

When one unit of celestial yarrow is chewed as a standard action, the chewer is healed of 5 points of damage per herbalist level of the picker. In addition, starting at 11th level, celestial yarrow also cures various afflictions, conditions, and ailments as the heal spell.

Special: If a potted celestial yarrow is owned by an individual who is not Good, then it does not produce harvestable herbalism plants.

Combustible Lemons (Fruit)

Biome(s): Extinct
Point Value: 4
Duration: see text
Appearance: Nature comes up with all sorts of defensive systems, and one of the low-hanging fruits is fire. Granted, just about every time nature tries fire out, the species annihilates itself within a few centuries, but it’s one hell of a wild ride while it lasts.

When one unit of combustible lemons is thrown as a thrown splash weapon with a range increment of 20 feet, a standard action, it ignites in the square in which it lands, dealing 1d4 points of fire damage per herbalist level to creatures occupying that square with a Reflex save for half damage. At the beginning of the herbalist’s next turn, the combustible lemon continues to burn, dealing fire damage equal to half the initial damage rolled, rounded down, to all creatures in a 5foot radius from the initial square of impact with a Reflex save to negate. Finally, at the beginning of the herbalist’s following turn, the combustible lemon gives one final blast of flame and sputters out, dealing fire damage equal to one-quarter the initial damage rolled, rounded down, to all creatures in a 10-foot radius from the initial square of impact with a Reflex save to negate. Each of the three aforementioned damage phases of combustible lemons deals a minimum of 1 fire damage.

Franklin Tree Leaves (Herb)

Biome(s): Extinct
Point Value: 4
Duration: see text
Appearance: Growing to a height of some twenty feet, the Franklin tree is renowned for the attractive scent its blossoms produce, as well as for its autumnal foliage, which rivals the beauty of cherry blossoms in the spring. An exceptionally picky plant, the Franklin tree grew in a single locale of a few acres along the banks of a major river. Now extinct in the wild, the descendants of one such tree saved by a botanist are sold far and wide as garden ornaments. In such a setting, the picky nature of the Franklin tree is a survival advantage, for it makes the tree a source of bragging rights. Consider, if a gardener (or a nobleman hiring out said gardener) can make one take root and grow, well, he’s certainly better than the neighbor who can’t pull that off. Take that, inferior neighbor!

An herbalist can brew tea from one unit of the leaves of the Franklin tree, a process that requires 10 minutes of uninterrupted effort. Brewing Franklin tree leaf tea produces four doses, each of which can be consumed as though it were a potion. When consuming a dose, the drinker gains a tea charge, which persists for 1 hour before fading. As a swift action, the drinker may expend the tea charge to gain the benefits of the expeditious retreat spell for 1 round. Starting at 7th level, expending the tea charge grants the drinker’s choice of the benefits of the haste spell or the benefits of the expeditious retreat spell for 1 round. A specific creature may only gain up to 3 tea charges per day through the consumption of Franklin tree leaf tea.

Prototaxites (Fungus)

Biome(s): Extinct
Point Value: n/a
Duration: see text
Appearance: Before wood, before giant ferns, before terrestrial plants larger than a sad, herbaceous shrub, there was prototaxites, a 20-foot capless spire of fungal matter that all but shot into the sky amid a backdrop of spineless animals and primitive plants clinging to the earth like so much liverwort. Though long gone, in no small part thanks to the atom bomb of the plant kingdom known as wood, magic is indeed wondrous, and small bits of proxotaxitic fossil can be made into a living snapshot of a primal planet.

An herbalist who possesses a cultivation pot containing prototaxites radiates a dim, albeit constant, aura of energy, one which crackles with the primal forces of millions of years past, before the world was settled, before magic was brought to heel, and when alien creatures claimed the planet’s surface. The herbalist is immune to all 0th-level spells, as the spell immunity spell. This increases to all 0th-level spells and all 1st-level spells at herbalist level 5th, to all 2nd-level and lower spells at herbalist level 11th, and to all 3rd-level and lower spells at herbalist level 17th. After negating a number of spell levels equal to its owner’s Wisdom modifier daily, rounded down and minimum 1, prototaxites ceases to provide benefit until the next time the herbalist collects her herbalism plants for the day with the find herbs class feature. Treat 0th-level spells as though they had a spell level of 0.5 for the purpose of consuming prototaxite’s daily spell absorption limit. The owning herbalist may suppress or reinstate the effects of prototaxites as a standard action. Prototaxites produces no harvestable units of herbalism plant.

Silphium (Herb)

Biome(s): Extinct
Point Value: 4
Duration: 1 round + 1 round/level (D)
Appearance: A giant fennel whose nature resisted cultivation, silphium grew in one small region and was gathered to extinction by the people who lived there. Acting as a flavoring for the meat of grazing cattle, a medicinal plant for many common ailments, and one of the early world’s most powerful abortifacients, silphium was, at one time, worth its weight in silver.

When one unit of silphium is blown in the face of a creature within 60 feet as a standard action, that creature finds itself temporarily unable to produce spawn. Whenever the subject would produce another creature, such as a giant frog spawning giant tadpoles for support, a vampire creating a vampire spawn from a victim, a wizard using a powerful spell to create a new species of creature from scratch, or a horrific creature exploding to fling its young far and wide, it must make a Fortitude save or else that effect fizzles and it makes no spawn. Silphium does not interfere with the summoning of creatures, just their creation.

Toromiro (Herb)

Biome(s): Extinct
Point Value: 4
Duration: see text
Appearance: Toromiro is a flowering tree whose wood radiates faint magic that facilitates the production of scrolls.

Unlike most herbalism plants, toromiro may be used by any creature, not just the picking herbalist. One unit of toromiro may be expended when making a scroll with the Scribe Scroll feat. If expended, the scroll’s creator gets a +5 bonus to Spellcraft checks made to produce the scroll, and the materials cost of that scroll is reduced by 50 gp, to a minimum of 0 gp. Scrolls produced with the aid of toromiro generally cannot be sold, if only because the industry has moved away from toromiro scrolls and tends to use vellum these days.

Note to the GM: Toromiro is limited in its business applications because allowing a character to make magic items cheaper than their base selling price is a pathway to madness. That said, if there’s somebody in your story who needs a specific scroll and isn’t going to be looking into resale, that’s the sort of situation in which the sale of a toromiro scroll should be allowed. Just keep your enterprising wizard/herbalist combo away from resellers so that they don’t drain an entire small city of its assets one scroll at a time. They’ll try.

Vestigial Awareness

Prerequisite: Plant companion class feature, know at least one limited-uses-per-day plant companion talent

Your plant companion uses its follow through to lift you out of the way of oncoming attacks.

Benefit: Whenever your plant companion uses a plant companion talent with a limited number of uses per day, you gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC for 1 round.

Vestigial Protection

Prerequisite: Plant companion class feature, know at least one limited-uses-per-day plant companion talent

Your plant companion has learned to move its body in such a way that it protects you, particularly when performing its fancier maneuvers.

Benefit: Whenever your plant companion uses a plant companion talent with a limited number of uses per day, you gain DR 1/- and resistance 1 against acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic for 1 round. This stacks with all other sources of damage reduction and resistance, save itself.

Vestigial Recovery

Prerequisite: Plant companion class feature, know at least one limited-uses-per-day plant companion talent

An enterprising plant companion can transfer what little remains when performing its more ornate abilities into a tiny jolt for its master.

Benefit: Whenever your plant companion uses a plant companion talent with a limited number of uses per day, you gain fast healing 1 for 1 round. This stacks with all other sources of fast healing, save itself.

Vestigial Vitality

Prerequisite: Plant companion class feature, know at least one limited-uses-per-day plant companion talent

When your plant companion is feeling particularly alive, it can pass a spark of that energy on to you.

Benefit: Whenever your plant companion uses a plant companion talent with a limited number of uses per day, you gain 1 temporary hit point that lasts for 1 minute.