Voice of the Forest

Nature is a force to be reckoned with when it stirs from its natural cycle, and elves know it well.

The Quintessential Elf

Author Alejandro Melchor
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2002

In everything they do, elves try to live in harmony with their surroundings, and nature notices such efforts. druids are the priests of the natural world, but once in a while, the wilderness chooses a champion, one who will speak with the voice of the wild and be a mediator between elves and nature. The voice of the forest stands between his two worlds and can rally the forces of one to help the other, calling for the elves to defend the forest, and able to call upon the power of the land to help the elves in their plights.

Druids and rangers are the foremost candidates the wild chooses to be its champions, mainly because they already are familiarized with its ways. Other likely candidates are barbarians and clerics of nature deities, but they sometimes lose focus of nature’s goals. Nature sometimes finds worthy voices among fighters and bards if they revere nature in their ways, and other classes hear the call only under very special circumstances. Since a voice of the forest must be very close to nature, wood and wild elves hear the call more clearly, with high elves following close behind. Grey and sea elves are less inclined to become voices, while drow almost never do. The name ‘voice of the forest’ does not mean that the character cannot be the chosen of the forces of mountain ranges, the deep sea or dank caverns.

As Non-Player Characters, voices of the forest tend to be loners and hermits, coming forth only in times of necessity for both the elven kingdom that encloses their home and for the forest that they fight for.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

Race: Elf.
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 1st level divine spells.
Skill: Wilderness Lore 5 ranks.
Feat: Endurance.
Other: Must speak Sylvan.
Special: The character must hear the call of the wild and spend a month meditating in the forest or another appropriate wilderness setting.

Class Skills

The voice of the forest’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Animal Empathy (Charisma), Climb (Strength), Concentration (Constitution), Craft (Intelligence), Handle Animal (Charisma), Heal (Wisdom), Knowledge (nature) (Intelligence), Listen (Wisdom), Profession (Wisdom), Spot (Wisdom) and Wilderness Lore (Wisdom).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier

The Voice of the Forest
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Forest mind
2	+1	+3	+0	+3	Voice of the beasts
3	+2	+3	+1	+3	Voice of the trees
4	+3	+4	+1	+4	Voice of the woods
5	+3	+4	+1	+4	One with the forest

Class Features

• Armour and Weapon Proficiency: Voices of the forest are proficient with all simple weapons. They are proficient with light and medium armour and with shields but, like druids, they cannot wear metal armour (thus, they may wear only padded, leather or hide armour) and they must use only wooden shields. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket and Tumble. Also, Swim checks suffer a -1 penalty for every 5 pounds of armour, equipment, or loot carried.
• Forest Mind (Su): The mind of a voice of the forest is linked on a subconscious level with that of his home terrain type, and thus gains a +2 bonus to saving throws against the spell-like abilities of fey creatures. In addition, by entering a deep trance for one minute once per day per prestige class level, he gains a general sense of the land’s layout, gaining a +4 insight bonus to all navigational skill checks like Intuit Direction, Profession (sailor) or Profession (cartographer).
• Voice of the Beasts (Sp): The voice can speak with animals as the spell speak with animals three times per day plus one per Wisdom modifier. Once per week per voice of the forest level, the character can summon animals as per the spell summon nature’s ally II. At every consecutive level, he can summon a more powerful version of the spell. For example, at 3rd level he can summon animals as with a summon nature’s ally III, and at 5th level as with summon nature’s ally V.
• Voice of the Trees (Sp): The voice can speak with plants and plant creatures as the spell speak with plants three times per day plus one per Wisdom modifier. Once per week per voice of the forest level, the character can command plants to move in a 400-feet radius area, plus 40 feet per prestige class level. The voice of the forest
  chooses how the plants move to achieve one of the following results:
  • Entrap any creature in the area as per the entangle spell as if cast by a druid of the voice of the forest’s total character levels.
  • Help allies in combat by simulating a flanking condition for every opponent in the area, granting allies a +2 bonus to attack rolls and giving rogues the chance to do sneak attacks.
  • Help allies in combat by moving wildly, ruining opponents’ aim and giving allies one-half concealment (20% chance to miss).
• Voice of the Woods (Su): The character can communicate telepathically with any plant creature, fey, beast or magical beast in sight. If the voice of the forest has levels in a spellcasting class, the DC of the spells he casts at a creature contacted increases by +2, although some creatures can take dire offence at this use of the ability.
• One With the Forest (Su): Once per day, the voice of the forest can step into the ground and expand his conscience to span the forest around him as far as five miles plus one mile per Wisdom modifier.

On a Concentration check (DC 15) the character can focus on any place within the area and witness anything happening there as if he were present. Unlike divination magic, this does not create a sensor, but creatures with a Wisdom score of 15 or higher can roll a Spot check (DC equal to the character’s original Concentration check) to feel as if the forest was watching them. The character can maintain this condition for an hour per voice level plus his Constitution modifier and emerges from the ground as he wishes or when this duration ends. With a Fortitude save (DC 20), the voice of the forest can emerge at the spot he was spying into – failure means he emerges where he entered.