Plant creatures (Dungeons & Dragons)

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The Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game contains many plant creatures that are composed of vegetable material, but unlike normal plants these monsters may be carnivorous, intelligent, mobile, or any combination of the three. In the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons , plant creatures have the plant "creature type".

<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> Fantasy role-playing game

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997. It was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry.

Fantasy Genre of literature, film, television and other artforms

Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction set in a fictional universe, often inspired by real world myth and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became literature and drama. From the twentieth century it has expanded further into various media, including film, television, graphic novels, manga and video games.

Role-playing game Game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.

Contents

In 3rd edition, all plant creatures have low-light vision. Plant creatures have a wide array of immunities, [1] including being immune to: all mind-affecting effects, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning. They are also not subject to critical hits.

Assassin vine

Assassin vine
Information
TypePlant
AlignmentNeutral

The assassin vine is a dangerous plant which grows both in and underground. It is basically a tree which uses its vines to kill victims and deposit the bodies near the roots for fertilizer. It consists of a main vine attached to the tree, about 20 feet (6.1 m) long, with smaller, 5-foot-long (1.5 m) vines breaking off. It has both leaves and berries. The berries have a bitter taste and are used to make a heady wine despite being widely believed to be poisonous. The underground version of the assassin vine is darker in coloration to the ground dwelling one. [2]

Fertilizer Substance added to soils to supply plant nutrients for a better growth

A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. Many sources of fertilizer exist, both natural and industrially produced.

Wine alcoholic drink made from grapes

Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol, carbon dioxide, and heat. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. These variations result from the complex interactions between the biochemical development of the grape, the reactions involved in fermentation, the terroir, and the production process. Many countries enact legal appellations intended to define styles and qualities of wine. These typically restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of grapes, as well as other aspects of wine production. Wines not made from grapes include rice wine and fruit wines such as plum, cherry, pomegranate, currant and elderberry.

Dark tree

Dark tree
Information
TypePlant
AlignmentNeutral Evil

The dark tree resembles a cypress tree, but in its bark is a fiendish, evil-looking face, and two of its branches are gnarled, wooded, spindly arms.

Cypress name applied to many plants of different genera

Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word cypress is derived from Old French cipres, which was imported from Latin cypressus, the latinisation of the Greek κυπάρισσος (kyparissos).

The dark tree dwells in warm jungles and waits for intelligent creatures to wander into its midst. It attacks in whatever way it can with its two arm-branches, and once its prey is dead, it drinks their blood.

Dark trees are neutral evil in alignment.

Hangman tree

Hangman tree

The hangman tree resembles a sparsely foliaged, deciduous oak with noose-like vines hanging from the branches, hence the name. Though plants, they are highly intelligent, and are capable of speaking Common, have minds and consciousnesses, and are resistant to magic. They can sense when prey is near, hibernate in the winter, and can attack and such with wills of their own.

Oak genus of plants

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae (she-oaks). The genus Quercus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and North Africa. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, while Mexico has 160 species of which 109 are endemic. The second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species.

Noose loop at the end of a rope in which the knot tightens under load and can be loosened without

A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot tightens under load and can be loosened without. The knot can be used to secure a rope to a post or pole, but only where the end is in a position that the loop can be passed over.

Hangman trees, having few leaves and shallow root systems, need to catch prey. They release on will a hallucinatory perfume when victims are in the vicinity, which makes them mistake the Hangman tree for a normal tree, or even a treant. Victims then come near, and, as can probably be guessed, the hangman tree drops its nooses around the necks of the victims, strangles them, and then lifts them up and drops them into an opening which leads into their stomachs at their tops.

Treant

A treant is a fictional creature found in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.

Hangman trees are regarded as neutral in alignment, despite distinctly evil habits. [3]

Mantrap

Mantrap
D&DMantrap.png

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the mantrap is a type of giant plant monster.

Publication history

The mantrap first appeared in the original first edition Monster Manual II (1983). [4]

The mantrap appeared in second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons under the "plant, carnivorous" entry in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989), [5] and under the "plant, dangerous" entry in the Monstrous Manual (1993). [6]

Description

A mantrap is a giant plant that attracts prey by scent, entrapping and dissolving its victims in acidic secretions. Its pollen causes creatures to become fascinated by the odor, and proceed to the body of the plant and voluntarily climb into one of its leaf traps, which close and firmly entrap the victim.

Myconid

Oaken defender

Oaken defender
First appearanceMonster Manual IV

The Oaken defender resembles an enormous (30 feet (9.1 m) across) disk made of dirt, wood, moss and dry leaves, with six vine-like tentacles protruding from the rim at roughly equal intervals. The topside of the disk has what looks like a huge, angry face made of stumps and roots set into it. Oaken defenders appeared in the Monster Manual IV.

Oaken defenders live in dryad groves and assist in the defense of such places. They spend most of their time sleeping dormant, just beneath the soil and leafy canopy of their habitat, but sense when they or their grove is being oppressed, and rise out of the ground to defend them. They attack with brute strength, and with their 6 woody tentacles. Their enormous mouths are not used for combat, only for feeding. The two "eyes" set into the face on the top of the disk are not actually eyes, but heat sensitive lumps which can detect movement and allow them to see almost as if they were not blind.

Oaken defenders speak crude Sylvan.

They are regarded as neutral in alignment.

Phantom fungus

Phantom fungus

The phantom fungus is a dangerous plant which lives underground. It has a central, plantal, greenish-brown body with a large, toothed mouth and four stumpy legs. Growing from its shoulders are 6 (3 on each side) clusters of 6 tubular nodules arranged in a hexagonal shape. Coming from the holes between each of the 6 nodules in a cluster, is a long, pink, clawed tentacle. [7]

When in its natural habitat (fungal caves) the phantom fungus blends in perfectly and can barely be seen. This means it is invisible except when dead. Its primary goal in life is to hunt, grappling victims with its nodule tentacles and bringing them to its mouth.

They cannot speak.

They are regarded as neutral in alignment.

Shambling mound

The shambling mound is a fictional plant-like creature, also called a shambler, a name which lends itself to the eponymous magic spell.

Shrieker

The shrieker resembles a large fungus. The shrieker shares a symbiotic relationship with the violet fungus in order to catch food. The shrieker emits a high-pitched wail to lure prey, and when it comes, the violet fungi attack with their tentacles.

Tendriculos

Tendriculos

The tendriculos is an enormous, savage, sentient plant. It resembles a huge, tangled shrubbery, with a gaping mouth at the front, vines hanging from the chest and attaching to the ground, and two large, foliage covered tentacles coming from the sides. [8]

The tendriculos is a monster which desires only to consume as much as it can in the shortest time it can. Though it can eat pretty much anything organic, it prefers live meat. It attacks ravenously anything which moves with its deadly tentacles, grappling, constricting, and moving them to its crushing mouth to swallow them whole. The tendriculos can blend in with other plants and be stealthy if it needs to, but can rarely be bothered. Animals and plants of the forest are greatly unnerved by the presence of this heathen plant. They avoid it and anywhere it has been for the last 24 hours.

Tendriculi cannot speak.

They are regarded as neutral in alignment.

Treant

Treants are sentient trees with human characteristics. They are typically portrayed as protectors of the forests and antagonists to industrialization and despoiling of nature. They are typically allies of druids and fey, opposing malicious races such as orcs.

Vegepygmy

Violet fungus

The violet fungus resembles a large, purple fungus with tentacles. The violet fungus shares a symbiotic relationship with the shrieker in order to hunt. The shrieker emits a high-pitched wail to lure prey, and when it comes, the violet fungus attacks with its tentacles. [9]

Volodni

Volodni
Information
TypePlant
AlignmentAny

"Volodni" are a plant race that was introduced in the 3rd edition rules in the Unapproachable East source book for the Forgotten Realms role-playing game. [10]

Wood woad

The wood woad is a plant. They resemble big, burly, bestial men made entirely of wood and bark bearing no foliage. They always carry part of a tree trunk for a shield and a large branch for a club. They are similar to treants. [11]

Characteristics and habits

Wood woads are brutish and dim-witted, but are not actually evil, being merely protective of small patches of forests and having little interest in affairs outside of their own. If harm comes to their forest, however, they become deadly and curious opponents. The creatures have the ability to bend and warp wood with their minds to make walls and doors and barriers, and typically use this ability to create obstacles for their foes while the Wood woad closes in to bash them with its branch club. Wood woads are also capable of entering trees, much like a dryad (some view them as the masculine, aggressive, more bestial equivalent of Dryads), and can also teleport between tree to tree in their territory.

Wood woads speak a rudimentary form of Sylvan.

They are regarded as neutral in alignment.

Plants from the Tome of Horrors

Plants from other sources

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References

  1. ↑ Slavicsek, Bill; Richard, Baker (2005). Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 386. ISBN   978-0764599248.
  2. ↑ Williams, Skip, Jonathan Tweet, and Monte Cook. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2000)
  3. ↑ Monster Manual II (1983)
  4. ↑ Gygax, Gary. Monster Manual II (TSR, 1983)
  5. ↑ Cook, David, et al. Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (TSR, 1989)
  6. ↑ Stewart, Doug, ed. Monstrous Manual (TSR, 1993)
  7. ↑ Williams, Skip, Jonathan Tweet, and Monte Cook. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2000)
  8. ↑ Williams, Skip, Jonathan Tweet, and Monte Cook. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2000)
  9. ↑ Williams, Skip, Jonathan Tweet, and Monte Cook. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2000)
  10. ↑ Baker, Richard, Matt Forbeck, and Sean K. Reynolds. Unapproachable East (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
  11. ↑ Burlew, Rich, Eric Cagle, Jesse Decker, Andrew J. Finch, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Rich Redman, Matthew Sernett, Chris Thomasson, and P. Nathan Toomey. Monster Manual III (Wizards of the Coast, 2004)
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