A modest proposal: Plants and Picking

[Knight Of Pentacles]

[COLOR="Red"][SIZE="7"]

moEr Baby flesh Pls.

[/SIZE][/COLOR] [/B]

[SIZE="1"]Though seriously![/SIZE]

I have this great idea that sort of helps moderates the whole EFU: Escape from Farmland conundrum (?!?) ... (I think?).



Get this!  How about requiring a herbalism check or at least a minimum number of points in herbalism to be able to harvest from plant nodes.  Freddy Fighter, no points in herbalism, no lore, 10 int, greatsword swinging bravo from Waterdeep goes out into the wilds and would know a phoenix pine cone to be any more significant than a dandelion stalk; let alone being able to recognize it?  Hopefully this would keep those petty few who enjoy destroying plant nodes for the mere sake of being Scumbag Steves or those having little in-game reason to even know the difference between a vervain plant and a weed.  

Perhaps this will help prevent that horrible setting change everyone keeps anticipating.

[NetherGonnaGiveYouUp]

Pretty sure even if said fighter did not recognise a plant, it is not an expert task to rip off pinecones from a tree.  This would likely just reduce the already small number of Herbalists who actually bother to hire people to gather reagents for them thus involving others rather than just sitting in game alone all day grinding out items over their tables.  

[Knight Of Pentacles]

I suppose they should put points into herbalism if they want to make a profit in this manner?  That seems reasonable.  Its not hard to pick herbs, though to identify them and their individual parts (which ones contain magical properties) requires knowledge of flora.

[NetherGonnaGiveYouUp]

Herbalism is specifically making things out of herbs, collecting them in gardening.

[MirrorMask]

I agree that something should be done pertaining to it, if not to make it more exclusive, then to spice it up a bit.  Since gardening is no longer an efuss skill (right?) maybe make the plants invisible  or unharvestable to anyone without any points in herbalism.

[granny]

we got FARMING

[Valo56]

There are some plants (less now than in EfU:A) that required lore checks to identify before picking for a quest. Requiring that for all plants (one check per type of plant) to realize that they are in fact more valuable than a blade of grass would be nice. Making it so that druids/rangers/those with herbalism or farming ranks don't need to make the check would keep it from hurting those who need these plants, and would simply be an obstacle to those who take them without need.