I've lost the page where I did my last Wilderness Tree on, so this is basically from whole cloth.
Things a Wilderness character should be able to do:
Gather / identify herbs. A fun subgame in uptime, good in downtime.
Track. A bit ref-intensive, but generally excellent, and also a solid uptime skill.
Shoot things with a bow. Ideally I'd take Targeteer away from Warrior entirely - what's a tank doing with a ranged weapon?
Stealth. Finger-scouting is generally considered rubbish, but 'I hide in the trees and scout ahead to work out what's going on / I hide in the trees because I'm scared of the big gribbly thing and I hope it goes away' is good. Possible offshoots from stealth involve sneak attacks (although they're more a Subterfuge thing) and sniping (which needs to be carefully thought out from a balance point of view). I count 'climbing trees' under 'stealth' as it's something you generally do in order to be hard to spot or reach.
Identify gribbly things. "Oh, that's a swog, they vomit up poison. Oh, that's a bear, don't get too close or it will eat you. I'm not sure, but I think that's a lesser-spotted mongoose, let's go and hide now, those things spit acid."
Hose other people's stealth. "WIDE DETECT SNEAKY BASTARD!"
Some of the other traditional wilderness skills, such as 'perform basic outdoor survival tasks' and 'ask the refs where I am', should probably just come with the class skill (in my ongoing aim to make class skills actually something worth buying in their own right rather than just really irritating Huge Deadwood).
Because they're a non-casting class and because they traditionally did, they should probably have some kind of basic melee combat ability, like a skill to do Singles and a DAC skill or three, rubbish armour use, 'haha my rubbish armour is actually quite good', that kind of thing.
Skills:
Wilderness, Class Skill. I would make this 10XP but this is mostly because I don't like class skills (I'd also make Subterfuge 10XP). The more Wilderness you have, the more generally competent you are assumed to be (mostly in downtime) about things like wilderness survival, orienteering and local geography.
Herb Lore, which should be purchasable every level from first level. If I was integrating into my Alchemy system, I'd make this 'can find a number of levels of herbs up to Wilderness + Herb Lore with a maximum level of your Herb Lore', but that's a formula and I'm bad at numbers. It's currently 8XP, although if it's every level it might want to come down to 6XP. Should also include identifying herbs.
Potion Lore, a skill for identifying potions. This needs to integrate with the alchemy system so I can't really propose a format (if alchemy is just 'you can id anything with the first rank of the base skill', this would be one skill bought against a certain level of herb lore, probably I; if alchemy is more complicated in how you id potions, this would also become more complicated.) This is very handy if refs put out potions on dead monsters.
Track, 6XP at 2-4-6-8:
- I: You can track things that would normally leave tracks and are taking only moderate precautions against being tracked, in the wilderness only. You may not track competently in the city. You may conceal your tracks from anyone with Track I, 2nd level spells or below. You can recognise the method used to defeat your tracking if you cannot track something, unless Track II+ or equivalent is used to defeat your skill in which case you do not even see covered tracks. Can generally tell what kind of creature made a track even if you haven't seen them start making it.
- II: You can track things that would normally leave tracks and are taking only moderate or insufficiently trained precautions against being tracked, anywhere on the surface of the Material Plane. You may conceal your tracks from anyone with Track II, 4th level spells or below. You can recognise the method used to defeat your tracking if you cannot track something, unless Track III+ or equivalent is used to defeat your skill in which case you do not even see covered tracks. Can generally tell what person made a track as long as you have seen the person.
- III: You can track anything that is not capable of becoming incorporeal or teleporting and is taking only moderate or insufficiently trained precautions against being tracked, anywhere on the Material Plane. You may conceal your tracks from anyone with Track III, 6th level spells or below. You can recognise the method used to defeat your tracking if you cannot track something, unless Track IV or equivalent is used to defeat your skill in which case you do not even see covered tracks. Can generally tell what person made a track even if you haven't seen the start of it as long as you have a decent description of the person (including their footwear!) - by corollary, you get a decent description of the footwear of anyone you're tracking.
- IV: You can track anything that exists, anywhere that you can follow - and if you can't follow, you know where they went. You may conceal your tracks such that nothing short of divine intervention or the direct action of an elemental lord can follow them. If you cannot track something, you will know what covered the tracks (and probably where it came from, and where it went). You get a reasonably good description of whatever you're tracking, and if you have a description or a scent you can identify a particular person's tracks.
Targetteer, 4XP:
- I: Grants the ability to do SINGLE THROUGH with a bow or with a crossbow.
- II: Grants the ability to do SINGLE THROUGH with either a bow or crossbow (whichever was not picked at level 1).
- III: May now call DOUBLE THROUGH with a choice of either bow or crossbow.
- IV: Gains the ability to call DOUBLE THROUGH with the other weapon.
- V: Gains the ability to call TRIPLE THROUGH with the weapon specified at Level III.
- VI. Gains the ability to call TRIPLE THROUGH with the other weapon.
- VII. Gains the ability to call QUAD THROUGH with the weapon specified at Levels III and V.
- VIII. Gains the ability to call QUAD THROUGH with the other weapon.
Bownmanship, 4XP at 1-3-5-7: (in the spirit of Concussive Shot)
- I: Strikedown replacing damage call for one shot per encounter.
- II: Strikedown in addition to damage call for one shot per encounter.
- III: Strikedown replacing damage call for one shot per opponent per encounter.
- IV: Strikedown in addition to damage call for one shot per opponent per encounter.
Camoflage, 6XP:
- I: You can hide yourself within a terrain feature given suitable camouflage. You must go to the edge of the terrain feature, assume 'hidden' position and spend 60 seconds 'hiding yourself'; you are then hidden within the terrain feature and are invisible as per invisibility rules. Being watched while concealing yourself is not enough to prevent you hiding; any call other than Nothing will interrupt you, as per casting. A terrain feature is defined as an inanimate object or plant large enough to physically hide you.
- II: You may move slowly (i.e. not running) around the edge of (and through) this terrain feature up to the limits of physrepping. If you move more than a metre from the terrain feature this breaks invisibility. Two terrain features are considered separate features (and thus moving between them requires you making yourself visible while you hide yourself in the new one) if they are physically separated by more than a metre.
- III: It now only takes you 30 seconds to hide in a terrain feature.
- IV: You may run while hidden in a terrain feature.
- V: It now only takes you 10 seconds to hide in a terrain feature.
- VI: You may make a melee attack (a single damage call) from a terrain feature and remain hidden, as long as you immediately move at least 5m along the terrain feature afterwards. (After this movement, you may make another attack.)
- VII: It now only takes you 3 seconds to hide in a terrain feature.
- VIII: You may make a ranged attack from a terrain feature and remain hidden, on the same terms as melee.
Recognise Scent, 1XP per race (different races are different skills for double-buying purposes):
I: Detect (race) at reasonably close range (1m or so)
II: Wide Detect (race)
What constitutes a race comes down to ref discretion. If you want to take lots of 'junk' races (like 'deer' - races not likely to occur in uptime) it might be reasonable to be able to take two or three per XP.
Weapon Competency, 5XP (splitting the 10XP skill at II into two 5XP skills, one at I, and adding D&D-style dual-wielding):
- I: You may call Single with your choice of a short club or a dagger (i.e. weapons under 18"). (This is probably your secondary weapon in your belt, doing halves with a staff as your primary weapon.)
- II: You may call Single with your choice of a short club, a dagger, a shortsword or a short mace (i.e. weapons under 36")
- III: You may use your first weapon choice as an offhand weapon with your second weapon choice
- IV: You may dual-wield two of your weapon pick at II
- V: You may now wield any weapon under 36" in either hand.
- VI: You may use an on-hand weapon up to 42" (pick a specific one).
- VII: You may use any on-hand weapon up to 42".
- VIII: You may use any weapon up to 42" off-hand also.
Swordsmanship, 5XP at 2-4-6-8: (This is the 'run away' skill, inspired by Hamstring)
- I: You may call Strikedown by blow once per encounter in return for taking Repel 5 from the opponent. You must not do damage to them until they have regained their feet.
- II: You may call Strikedown 5 by blow once per encounter in return for taking Repel 5 from the opponent. You must not do damage to them until they have regained their feet.
- III: You may call Strikedown 10 by blow once per encounter in return for taking Repel 5 from the opponent. You must not do damage to them until they have regained their feet.
- IV: You may call Strikedown 30 by blow once per encounter in return for taking Repel 5 from the opponent. You must not do damage to them until they have regained their feet.
(The strikedown durations probably need tweaking.)
Agility, 5XP, DAC skill, not usable in 3pt or greater armour, incompatable with Fortitude.
Grace, 5XP, DAC skill, incompatable with Fitness.
Fitness, 6XP Health skill.
Scout Armour, 3XP, wear 2 more points of armour.
Fur and Leather Hardening, 10XP at Wilderness III, your 1pt armour counts as 2pt armour and your 2pt armour counts as 3pt armour for purposes of protection only (not 'how much you can wear' or DAC skills).
Apply Preparation, 10XP, requires Herb Lore III, some kind of 'intracts with alchemy' skill.
- I'd put Bowmanship to STRIKEDOWN 5 just due to the difficulty of hitting moving targets with LARP archery. I like its flavour, same with Swordsmanship. I don't see that those durations need tweaking. I like this tree. --Requiem