Herbmastery

Mastery of this New Order Discipline enables a Grand Master to identify readily any substance derived from living or growing organic material. He is aware of any secret uses to which an organic material may be put, and he is skilled in effecting the release of a substance’s medicinal and/or magical properties.

Improved Grand Master Discipline

• Kai Grand Master Superiors (5 disciplines) who have this Discipline are able to purify water, thereby making contaminated or briny water suitable for consumption. Roughly two pints (one litre) of water per day can be purified using this skill alone. This daily total steadily increases as a Grand Master advances in rank.
• Through their knowledge and use of common plants, Kai Grand Sentinels (6 disciplines) who have this Discipline are able to make contaminated or rotten food fit for human consumption.
• Kai Grand Defenders (7 disciplines) who possess this Discipline are able to neutralize any poisonous toxins that may be present in organic materials such as plants, berries, and fruits. Through the use of this skill, the transformation of toxins can sometimes result in an increase in Endurance and/or Combat Skill when the previously poisonous matter is swallowed.
• Kai Grand Guardians (8 disciplines) who possess this Discipline are able to use their advanced knowledge of Herbmastery to produce explosive compounds from simple organic materials.
• Sun Lords (10 disciplines) who possess this Discipline are able to cause living plants, e.g. grasses, bushes, flowers, weeds, rushes, to entwine themselves around the limbs of hostile creatures, thereby hampering their free movement. Sun Lords are able to target only one creature in this way. An additional creature can be affected for every level a Grand Master rises above the rank of Sun Lord.
• Sun Princes (15 disciplines) who possess this Discipline can alter the growth rate and pattern of any kind of natural plant, to accelerate its growth, to modify its shape or even the properties of the substances it produces (e.g replacing toxins with healing substances). However, plants mutated by evil forces cannot be affected by this capacity.

Usage

Herbmastery is a deceptively useful discipline. While it doesn't directly help you surmount challenges, it often helps you identify herbs that will restore EPs, mitigating the consequences of failing those challenges. The major drawback of Herbmastery is with instant-death scenarios, which Herbmastery does not help avoid.