Welcome back for the next-to-last monster of Frightful Fridays! A-Z! Today's monster marks the 50th I've done for this feature (the 51st overall monster thanks to Paris's contribution), and I'm celebrating this milestone with a new plant. I wanted to explore the idea of an ostensibly good-aligned creature that sees itself as a protector of the multiverse's forests, including the not so nice ones. This creature doesn't object to those who keep an evil forest in check, and it will even aid those trapped within such a forest, but it intervenes when paladins start hacking away at living trees, even if those trees are evil.
Today's extra touches on the yggdrasillian's multiplanar exposure, which grants a range of powers to weapons crafted from wood gifted by the creature (or harvested its corpse).
I'll be back tomorrow with the last monster of the month, and then I'll be back to my regular Friday schedule starting this Friday. Thanks for reading!
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| 'God of the Forest' by Noah KH |
This creature looks like a pair of gigantic, intertwined trees uprooted and began walking; numerous birds and squirrels make homes in the mobile plant.
Yggdrasillian CR 18
XP 153,600
NG Huge plant
Init -2; Senses blindsight, low-light vision, tremorsense; Perception +44
Defense
AC 34, touch 6, flat-footed 34 (-2 Dex, -2 size, +28 natural)
hp 294 (28d8+168)
Fort +22, Ref +7, Will +16
DR 20/wood; Immune cold, electricity, fire, plant traits; Resist acid 20, sonic 20; SR 29
Offense
Speed 50 ft.
Melee 2 slams +28 (4d6+8/19-20)
Ranged rock +17 (3d6+8)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks aligned attack, trample (7d6+12, DC 32)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 28th; concentration +31)
Constant—speak with animals, speak with plants
At Will—command plants, summon swarm
3/day—animate plants
1/day—changestaff, plane shift
Statistics
Str 26, Dex 6, Con 23, Int 21, Wis 24, Cha 17
Base Atk +21; CMB +31 (+35 bull rush, +35 sunder); CMD 39 (41 vs. bull rush, 41 vs. sunder)
Feats Awesome Blow, Bludgeoner, Bull Rush Strike, Greater Bull Rush, Greater Sunder, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (slam), Improved Sunder, Intimidating Prowess, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Knowledge [nature]), Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Survival), Weapon Focus (slam)
Skills Diplomacy +17, Handle Animal +31, Intimidate +25, Knowledge (nature) +39, Knowledge (planes) +33, Perception +44, Sense Motive +35, Survival +41
Languages Celestial, Common, Elven, Giant, Sylvan, Treant
SQ all-plant, call of the forest, planar crown
Ecology
Environment any forest
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure standard
Special Abilities
Aligned Attack (Su) At the beginning of a yggdrasillian’s turn, as a free action, it can designate its attacks as aligned (either chaotic, good, evil or lawful, but no combinations). This allows it to bypass damage reduction based on the chosen alignment, and its attacks deal 2d6 extra damage to outsiders with the opposite alignment. While this ability is active, the yggdrasillian detects as the chosen alignment in addition to its normal alignment.
All-Plant (Ex) A yggdrasillian is comprised of all plants in the multiverse, even those species that have gone extinct. The creature is a source of flowers, wood and roots from any plant, and it replenishes any samples that it gives to others—or if they have somehow been taken from it—after a month.
Call of the Forest (Su) If any forest takes a total amount of damage equal to or greater than 200 hit points, these is a 75% (+5% for every 50 points of damage over 200) chance a yggdrasillian will notice and then unerringly teleport to the location (including across planes) to deal with the destruction’s source. If one yggdrasillian notices, there is a percentage chance equal to half the previously calculated chance that a second creature will appear.
Planar Crown (Su) A yggdrasillian’s crown holds a wide variety of planar environments, which allows animal and vermin denizens from multiple planes to nest upon the creature. The yggdrasillian’s summon swarm spell-like ability draws from these inhabitants.
Guardian of all forests, regardless of their location in the multiverse, a yggdrasillian makes a formidable opponent to any who threaten them. Even in nightmarish planes where all of a forest’s plants present a murderous array for visitors, a yggdrasillian will step in to preserve it from destruction. A typical yggdrasillian stands 20 feet tall and weighs 5,000 pounds.
Those who approach a yggdrasillian peacefully can learn much from it about not only the multiverse’s flora, but also about the planes themselves. An extensive planar traveler, as well as an ancient being, a yggdrasillian is a font of knowledge that many other planar travelers seek out. Additionally, powerful arcane spellcasters seek out a yggdrasillian for an exotic spell component that may no longer exist except as part of the creature’s repository.
A yggdrasillian is virtually immortal, and only a dozen exist across the multiverse. When something destroys a yggdrasillian, it explodes in a riot of pollen and spores that drift upon multiversal winds and take root in millions of places. At one of those locations, a new yggdrasillian grows, becoming fully mature and holding all the memories of its parent after 50 years. If something destroys the budding yggdrasillian, another rooted plant fired by the parent takes its place; thus, even though the yggdrasillian is at its most vulnerable, only a monomaniacal killer can achieve the goal of truly destroying the creature.
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Yggdrasillian Wood
Similar to darkwood in composition, yggdrasillian wood weighs the same as a like amount of darkwood, but is even more limited in the types of items that it can create. Only weapons may be crafted from this wood, and the weapons cannot have any metal components, which negates the wood’s properties. Weapons made from yggdrasillian wood are considered masterwork items and the wielder can choose the weapon’s alignment (chaotic, evil, good, lawful or unaligned) as a free action at the beginning of her turn. The weapons bypasses damage reduction based on the alignment choice and deals an extra 2d6 points of damage to creatures of an opposing alignment. A yggdrasillian wood weapon costs 50 times the masterwork version of the same weapon.
Yggdrasillian wood has 20 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10.
