Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[Beni-Kujaku]

Udoroot

I have read this statblock a few times now, and I have actually told myself a few times "you know, depending on the situation, I'd rather play a shrieker fungus". And that's never a good sign.

Spoiler: Long picture

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The udoroot is just what it says on the tin: a root. A 10ft-big bulb buried below the surface, with the only emerging parts being sunflower-like human-size "crowns" with which the udoroot can psionically perceive its surrounding and kill unfortunate animals and travellers, which it then uses as fertilizer. If the sunflowers weren't that suspicious, it would almost have made a good surprise attacker. It is a potent manifester, capable of using two (2) psi-like abilities per turn with a single standard action. Also, it literally cannot die "unless the root is dug out and severed, burned or otherwise destroyed". The problem? Where do I even start...

Spoiler: Problem #1: moving

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First, it is inanimate. Remember the shrieker fungus, and how the inability to move or attack made it one of the worst creatures in the game? Well the Udoroot also lacks Dex, and its even more unwieldy than the fungus, as it's Huge, which means it's about 15 tons (if I go by a 10ft diameter and neglect the weight of the crowns and roots). Contrary to the shrieker, a horse can't carry you, and cannot even drag you. If nobody in the party has more than 40 Str (all in all, quite a likely scenario), you're going to have to move by yourself. But, once again, your land speed is exactly zero, and you're paralyzed, which means you'll have to use magical means of transportation, as everything that gives you wings will not work. You don't have a face for the Winged Mask, you don't have feet for Airstep Sandals, a flying carpet isn't strong enough to lift you... I guess a phoenix cloak and a level in monk or barbarian would allow you to fly at a 10ft speed at the cost of a level and 50k gp. That or mineral warrior. I really think your best bet is to use a cart with a whole crew of horses (really, a single horse can drag 3k lbs, you'd need 10 of them to transport you). The best is to buy 2 dozen mules for a few hundred gps. Now, you can go around in your cart by waving a carrot with your telekinesis, but you still can't go inside dungeons, or buildings, or tight forest. Aren't you glad? I'd really like to know if one of you know how to move efficiently without wasting tens of thousands of gp or looking like an award-winning turnip in a cart.

Interestingly, it would not have happened in 3.0, as the Udoroot had a Dex score, though I don't know what part of it could move.

Spoiler: Problem #2: contributing

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Even when you're there, it's not like you're all-powerful. Your PLAs are generally not bad, especially offensively --Mind Thrust, Id insinuation, Energy Stun and Telekinetic Force are all good to great abilities, even moreso if you can spam them twice per round, and Astral Construct makes for a decent beatstick-- but they are lacking in defense. Mental barrier is not as good as inertial armor, and Thought Shield on a Plant is just useless. But even if they were good, it would not do you any good. As written, your crowns are not a part of your body, they are just objects you have to bring with you in order to manifest PLAs. So all your defensive powers (and basically nothing you can gain with class levels) can help you protect your most vital area. Because, yeah, the biggest problem with the Udoroot is that when all its crowns are dead, it cannot manifest PLA, and it cannot perceive its surroundings in any way. It's even explicitly helpless. So these AC 5 objects with 7 HP and Hardness 5 have to be protected unless you want to be completely useless in combat. And they don't scale with your level, it's 7 HP until level 20. And if they're destroyed, you have to wait for ONE MONTH for them to regrow. One month without PLA, and one month during which you are helpless. That is so long that you'd probably be desperate enough to pay for a Regenerate spell. The worst part is that they can be harmed by area spells without benefitting from your elemental resistances, which means a simple Fireball will destroy them all and leave you helpless. Fortunately, they're objects, so you can use any item-centric method to protect them. A CL 6 Drow House Insignia of 1/day Augment Object is only 6.5k gp, and you can ask your local artificer to cast Hardening on your crowns for less than 2k gp, for a total of Hardness 16 and 14 HP, which is much more reasonable, up to mid levels, at which point you'll have to be more creative. Also, you can probably Make Whole them, since they're not technically creatures, which changes everything.

Once again, this would not be a problem in 3.0, as the crowns could not be harmed by AoE spells, and the udoroot coul manifest one PLA per remaining crown, up to 6 per round! Also, it had Astral Construct at-will, which means it could indefinitely create 6 Astral Construct II per round, which doesn't sound like a CR 5 monster to me.

Spoiler: Problem #3: advancing

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Like the shrieker, not many classes fit a creature with no Dex and low Int. However, the Udoroot at least has decent Wis and Cha, which opens up a few new possibilities. There is of course the Ardent, like for 60% of monsters I'm rating here it seems, with obviously the Freedom mantle to gain some moving capabilities, and Double Manifesting may even allow you to manifest two powers per turn depending on how you interpret the infamous "The manifestation of powers by a psionic character is considered a psi-like ability". You could also be a Wilder for more choice but less versatility, or Metamind, which allows you to unequivocally manifest your known powers as Psi-Like abilities, hence twice per round. Sadly, you can't become a Truenamer.

Just for the awful difficulties you'll meet in your everyday life, the reliance on items and the unreliability of your main trick, I'll assign 2 RHD and DLA-3 to the Udoroot, despite its undeniable immediate power.


Wow. What a way to finish the XPH (the Yuan-ti Pureblood and Halfblood both get the same rating as their non-psionic version)! The Udoroot and the Unbodied in quick succession really stretch the line of what could be considered workable as a playable character (with notably the Unbodied being one of the most "out there" officially playable monsters in the whole game, up there with the Sharn and the Phaerimm). Next time, we will start the Fiend Folio, which has creatures ranging from the Red Ethergaunt, still to this day the creature with the highest reassigned LA (+7) all the way down to... Well, to our next monster, the Abyssal Ghoul! See you, have a nice day!