DM Entry: Mistletoe as Divine Focus

The following material has been added to the Aryathan Jiil Classes and Prestige Classes book. The spell has been added to the Aryathan Jiil Libram of Magic IV. 

Also recently, all 4 of the Librams of Magic have been updated to make the formatting the same across all four of those books, and about a dozen or so new spells have been added to book 4. Additionally, a new Index has been made that includes all of the spells from the four Librams, this helps me to know what spells have already been updated, but you may find it useful if you need to know where you found a spell in one of the Librams.

Divine Focus: The default divine focus for a druid or ranger is a sprig of mistletoe or holly. –Player’s Handbook.

Holly and Mistletoe: Sprigs of holly and mistletoe are used by druids as the default divine focus for druid spells. Druids can easily find these plants in wooded areas and then harvest sprigs from them essentially for free. –Player’s Handbook.

Below are some new optional divine foci for druids and rangers, as well as how to harvest them.

Barrowed Mistletoe: Any mistletoe not personally harvested by you. Using barrowed mistletoe as a divine focus for one of your spells reduces the duration to 50% of normal (or -2 to the spell’s save DC for instantaneous or permanent spells), and reduces the range to 75% of normal (or -1 to the spell’s save DC for Touch, Personal, or 0-ft spells). The saving throw penalties (if any) stack.

Greater Mistletoe: Greater mistletoe must be harvested personally on Midsummer’s Eve, cut with a gold or silver sickle or the touchsickle spell, and caught in a golden bowl (worth at least 100 gp) before it touches the ground. Mistletoe that is harvested in any other way is considered normal mistletoe, sometimes referred to as “lesser mistletoe”. Using greater mistletoe as a divine focus for one of your spells increases its duration to 125% of normal (or +1 to the spell’s save DC for instantaneous or permanent spells).

Holly: Using holly as a divine focus for one of your spells reduces the duration to 50% of normal (or -1 to the spell’s save DC for instantaneous or permanent spells), and reduces the range to 75% of normal (or -1 to the spell’s save DC for Touch, Personal, or 0-ft spells), and reduces the area to 75% of normal (or -1 to the spell’s save DC for Effect or Target spells). The saving throw penalties (if any) stack.

Oak Leaves: Using holly as a divine focus for one of your spells reduces the duration to 50% of normal (or -2 to the spell’s save DC for instantaneous or permanent spells), and reduces the range to 50% of normal (or -2 to the spell’s save DC for Touch, Personal, or 0-ft spells), and reduces the area to 50% of normal (or -2 to the spell’s save DC for Effect or Target spells). The saving throw penalties (if any) stack.

Harvesting: A druid’s or ranger’s divine focus cannot be found within a spell component pouch. Rather, you must harvest your own, or barrow someone else’s divine focus. In no circumstance can you use a purchased divine focus to cast a druid or ranger spell. To harvest divine foci, you simple make a normal Survival check to hunt and forage (see the Survival skill description in the Player’s Handbook) and then roll on the table below to determine if you have harvested any and what kind you have found. Every serving of food and water your check indicates also produces an equal amount of divine foci chances. Thus if you rolled a 12, you would sustain 2 people with food and water, and also produce two rolls on the table below, each result representing a single divine focus for a single casting of a spell.

How Many Do I Have For My New Character? Any new character (regardless of the character’s level) may roll 10 times on the table below. Thereafter you must forage for additional divine foci during game play.

Chance of Finding	Divine Focus	Duration	Range	Area
01-10	None	—	—	—
11-50	Oak Leaves	50% (or -2 to the spell’s save DC for instantaneous or permanent spells)	50% (or -2 to the spell’s save DC for Touch, Personal, or 0-ft spells)	50% (or -2 to the spell’s save DC for Effect or Target spells)
60-85	Holly	50% (or -1 to the spell’s save DC for instantaneous or permanent spells)	75% (or -1 to the spell’s save DC for Touch, Personal, or 0-ft spells)	75% (or -1 to the spell’s save DC for Effect or Target spells)
—	Barrowed Mistletoe	50% (or -2 to the spell’s save DC for instantaneous or permanent spells)	75% (or -1 to the spell’s save DC for Touch, Personal, or 0-ft spells)	—
86-00	Mistletoe	—	—	—
—	Greater Mistletoe	125% (or +1 to the spell’s save DC for instantaneous or permanent spells)	—	—

Touchsickle

Updated from Dragon 164, AD&D 2^nd edition.

Transmutation

Level: Druid 2, Ranger 2

Components: V, S

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Personal

Target: You

Duration: 1 round/level

            One of your hands becomes a sickle. It only requires a touch attack to damage a target and strikes as a magic weapon (although it has no enhancement bonus to attack or damage rolls). You may use touchsickle to harvest greater mistletoe as if it were a gold or silver sickle.