druids & rangers gathering wood

[Sab Kaylag]

i was wondering if there was a different way for druids and rangers to gather wood from hacking down trees with axes?  and if so what is it?  Thanks sorry for asking a silly question, im new here.

[Dorganath]

Build a camp fire and forage.
  Use Flint and Steel on Tinder placed on the ground to make a fire. Foraging is a function of the camp fire.

[Black Cat]

Just place the fire by a tree.
I thought for a long time that this function didn't work before a druid told me that I needed to build the fire near the tree (don't build it too near though or you'll set fire to the tree *grins* //unable to use the fire due to the tree getting in the way)

[Sab Kaylag]

Thanks both of you that'll help

[Lord of the Forest]

Well, as a ranger I see it as chopping just some branches of a tree and not chop down the whole tree itself. It is like taking some branches without chopping the whole tree.

[Sab Kaylag]

I can see that like trimming off the already dead branches on a tree.  
Thanks i didn't see that before

[Acacea]

Lord of the Forest - 11/30/2006  11:25 AM

Well, as a ranger I see it as chopping just some branches of a tree and not chop down the whole tree itself. It is like taking some branches without chopping the whole tree.

Heh actually I'd think it was pretty much just what the ability implies--foraging for wood around the area without chopping anything off, since that's kind of the point of having it. Chopping usable branches off trees is what everyone else does...the trees don't actually explode, usually... unless they're big hulking brutes or just needed the whole thing, I suppose... *muses*

[Lord of the Forest]

well, forage for wood can also mean you pick up branches from the floor, not off the trees. Still you could chop some branches off a tree.

But I've heard that doing both at the same time is against the rules.

Edit: forgot to add something

[Dorganath]

Lord of the Forest - 11/30/2006  4:42 PM  
  But I've heard that doing both at the same time is against the rules.

 It's certainly against the spirit of properly RPing an agent of nature, and it's exploitive in that it takes a system that was intended to aid Rangers and Druids in maintaining proper RP and turns it into a potential advantage to those characters who are supposed to be preserving nature, not squeezing it for every last drop.
  Having said that, I'm pretty sure we've tweaked things so you won't get any more benefit out of foraging then chopping, after some people did exactly that.

[Desicardo]

Just my two cents on this for rangers..

Aside from Hickory, I have noticed that most wood is fairly well guarded by bugs and other nasty mostly evil type things.  It would not be unreasonable for a ranger to find an infested tree and cut it down to save other trees from becoming infested or diseased by the parasites (guards) around it.  Where I live, this is often done due to a bug called the emerald ash bore in r/l.  Not unreasonable as a woodland manager that a ranger would do what is necessary for the good of the forest then pick the best wood from the fallen tree rather than waste it.

Then again I play my ranger as more of a forest ranger/ woodland manager than a save the trees at all cost type person.

[CHAzz]

also, keep in mind that while dead wood is prefered for a fire, if you want to make anything useful out of it, you need to gather green wood and season it properly.

[twidget658]

A ranger comes by an oak tree. He/she sees a couple branches on the ground that are suitable to make some arrows out of. Then he/she looks up into the tree and spots a few more. He/she climbs the tree to remove some branches that are good for making some bows. Is the ranger just going to collect from the ground and not promote the trees growth by pruning some branches or removing some branches that will not affect the tree? Is the ranger just going to step over the good branches on the ground?

"It's certainly against the spirit of properly RPing an agent of nature,…”

I think it supports the spirit that a ranger is a conservative. He/she will get what he/she can from both places and let nothing go to waste. A ranger uses nature to support him/her. It is his/her life line. He/she protects it because it sustains him/her.

“…and it's exploitive in that it takes a system that was intended to aid Rangers and Druids in maintaining proper RP and turns it into a potential advantage to those characters who are supposed to be preserving nature, not squeezing it for every last drop."

I would think a ranger WOULD be able to get more branches than a barbarian or fighter. I would have to say that a ‘naturey’ type would have a definite advantage over other classes. It only makes sense. Squeezing every drop? I say it is using everything that is available.

[Dorganath]

Before anyone gets themselves in a bunch over the "exploitive" perception, you should know that every branch gathered by foraging reduces the amount of wood that the nearby tree will yield by the same amount.
  CNR trees will yield, at most, 10 branches until the tree is destroyed and must respawn at some later time. If a druid or ranger foraged 4 branches, then the most anyone could chop from that same tree is 6 additional branches...and keep in mind it's random, so someone may not be able to chop any more from that same tree.
  Further, the time interval between foraging attempts is much longer than the respawn timer on the CNR trees.
  This has been a long way of saying that druid/ranger foraging is very far from being something that's exploitable.

[twidget658]

Either I missed something or you are saying that it is ok to forage and chop.

[Dorganath]

**unnecessary comment removed, with apologies **
  Should druids chop? No, not at all.  They can't, unless they take weapon feats to do so...which goes against their dogma, and if we see it, there will be problems.
  Should Rangers chop?  I suppose this question can be answered best by asking the question...what is a ranger?  I leave this as an exercise to the individual player, as I'm not going to define proper RP for what a Ranger should and should not do.
  But really, the point of my statement was to address the idea that the foraging system is somehow exploitive, and it is not. There's no advantage to foraging.  It's an alternative for the sake of RP.