Garden Warden

Botanist • Herbalist • Keeper of the Living Wilds

                                                                                               "Even in a dying world, something will always choose to bloom.”

Introduction

The Gardens were never truly tame.

Even before the Breaking, flowers whispered, vines moved when nobody watched, and certain trees were said to remember the names of the dead.

When Underland began to collapse, the plants changed.

Some became poisonous.

Some became hungry.

Others began protecting the remaining people.

You learned their language.

Or at least enough of it to survive.

Garden Wardens are botanists, herbalists, healers, gardeners, and protectors of the living wilds. They understand that the plants of Underland are not simply resources to be harvested. Many possess strange instincts, ancient memories, and magical connections to the world around them.

A Garden Warden might maintain a hidden sanctuary, travel in search of rare plants, protect sacred groves, or simply carry enough seeds to start a garden wherever they go.

Where others see weeds, you see survivors.

Ability Scores:

Ability Score Increase

Ability Score Increase. Increase your Wisdom score by 2 and your Constitution score by 1.

Your understanding of nature has sharpened your instincts, while years spent working among dangerous flora have made you resilient.

Feat:

Feat

Green Thumb

You possess an unusual connection to plant life.

You gain the following benefits:

• Increase your Wisdom or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
• You gain proficiency with an Herbalism Kit if you don't already have it.
• You have advantage on Intelligence (Nature) checks made to identify plants, fungi, herbs, and plant-based creatures.
• During a Long Rest, you can prepare a small amount of natural medicine from available plant material.
• You can identify whether a plant is poisonous, medicinal, edible, magical, or otherwise unusual after examining it for at least 1 minute.

The DM determines whether sufficient plant material is available and what effects can reasonably be produced.

Skill Proficiencies:

Skill Proficiencies

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Medicine

Skill Proficiencies Description:
Your knowledge of plants, herbs, fungi, and natural remedies has made you an experienced botanist and healer. You can recognize useful flora and understand how the natural world can be used to preserve life.

Tool Proficiencies:

Tool Proficiencies

Tool Proficiencies: Choose one: Herbalism Kit or Gardener's Tools.

Tool Proficiencies Description:
Your work requires practical knowledge of cultivating, harvesting, preserving, and preparing plants. You may specialize in medicinal herbs, magical flora, gardening, or maintaining enchanted gardens.

Languages:

Languages

Languages: Choose one of the following:

• Sylvan
• One language of your choice

Languages Description:
Your connection to the Gardens has brought you into contact with fey creatures, awakened plants, dryads, magical beasts, and other inhabitants of Underland's wild places.

Equipment:

Equipment

You begin with the following equipment:

• An Herbalism Kit or Gardener's Tools
• A satchel of unusual seeds
• Three medicinal herbs
• A botanical journal
• A thorn-covered cloak
• 10 gp

Alternatively, you may take the starting wealth determined by your DM.

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Your Strange Seed

Every Garden Warden carries something growing, waiting, or refusing to grow.

Roll a d6 or choose one.

d6	Seed
1	A black rose that blooms only near death.
2	A blue flower that whispers names.
3	A golden vine that grows toward magic.
4	A tiny mushroom that follows you.
5	A red flower that feeds on blood.
6	A seed that has never sprouted, despite everything.

The seed is considered a personal keepsake. The DM may determine that it possesses a minor magical property or develops one as the campaign progresses.

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Spell List

Spell List Introduction

Some Garden Wardens develop a form of plant-based magic, drawing power from the living world around them.

For characters who possess spellcasting abilities, the following spells may be added to their class's spell list.

Their magic may manifest as vines, flowers, roots, spores, glowing pollen, or strange botanical growth.

Spell Level	Spells

Spell List Extended

Cantrips: Druidcraft, Thorn Whip

1st Level: Entangle, Goodberry

2nd Level: Barkskin, Spike Growth

3rd Level: Plant Growth, Speak with Plants

4th Level: Grasping Vine, Guardian of Nature

5th Level: Commune with Nature, Tree Stride

The DM determines whether these spells are added to a character's class spell list or granted through another appropriate magical feature.

Suggested Characteristics

Suggested Characteristics

Garden Wardens tend to be patient, observant, nurturing, stubborn, and deeply protective. Years spent around magical plants have taught them that the natural world has its own language and that survival often requires patience rather than force.

Personality Traits

Roll 1d8 or choose one.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I name every plant I meet.
2	I prefer plants to people.
3	I talk to flowers when stressed.
4	I am endlessly curious about strange fungi.
5	I always smell faintly of herbs.
6	I become furious when someone damages a garden.
7	I collect seeds everywhere I go.
8	I insist that plants understand more than people think.

Ideals

Roll 1d6 or choose one.

d6	Ideal
1	Life. Something must survive the ruins.
2	Balance. Nature cannot be controlled forever.
3	Protection. The Gardens belong to everyone.
4	Growth. Even broken things can become something new.
5	Freedom. No ruler should own the living world.
6	Renewal. The world may be broken, but it is not finished.

Bonds

Roll 1d6 or choose one.

d6	Bond
1	A particular tree raised me.
2	I protect a sacred garden.
3	I carry the last seed of an extinct flower.
4	Someone I loved became part of the Garden.
5	I believe the plants know what woke beneath Underland.
6	I promised someone that I would restore a garden destroyed during the Breaking.

Flaws

Roll 1d6 or choose one.

d6	Flaw
1	I become irrationally protective of plants.
2	I trust strange plants far too easily.
3	I refuse to burn living vegetation.
4	I am fascinated by dangerous flora.
5	I sometimes forget people cannot hear the plants speaking.
6	I would risk myself to save a rare plant that most people would consider useless.

Contacts

Contacts Description

Garden Wardens tend to develop connections with herbalists, gardeners, healers, druids, fey, farmers, plant creatures, and caretakers of sacred groves.

Some contacts may be people.

Others may be considerably harder to have a conversation with.

Roll a d6 or choose one.

d6	Contact
1	An elderly herbalist who taught you how to identify dangerous plants.
2	A gardener who maintains a secret greenhouse somewhere in Underland.
3	A fey creature who trades magical seeds for unusual favors.
4	A healer who relies on you for rare medicinal herbs.
5	An awakened plant that considers you a friend.
6	An ancient tree that remembers something from before the Breaking.