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Here's a monster I'm throwing at my PCs on Thursday, and I thought I'd see what people thought of it. It's supposed to be based off the sassone leaf residue poison found in the DMG and the CV.
(Pardon me if any of the terminology is a little off, or if this has found its way into the wrong forum).
Sassone Plant
Size/Type: Medium Plant
HD: 6d8+30 (56 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft.
Armor Class: 17 (+1 Dex, +6 natural), 11 touch, flatfooted 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+8
Attack: Stab +9/1d4+3+poison
Full Attack: Stab +9/1d4+3+poison
Space/Reach: 5 ft/ 5 ft
Special Abilites: poison, pollen spray
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, plant traits, damage reduction 5/slashing
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +3, Will +1
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 3, Wis 8, Cha 3.
Skills: Hide +3, Listen +5, Move Silently +3, Spot +6.
Feats: Alertness, Stealthy, Weapon Focus (stab)
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Solitary or pack [2-4].
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 7 - 12 HD [Large]; 13-19 [Huge].
Level Adjustment: -
Poison (Ex): Injury; Fortitude DC 15, initial 1d12 hp, secondary 1d4 Con. The save DC is constitution-based. Pollen Spray (Ex): Once an hour, the sassone plant can spray some of its pollen out, creating an area with a 20' radius that mimics two spells for 1d4+2 rounds. Anyone in or entering the radius of the spray must suceeds on a Fortitude save DC 15 or be treated as under the effects of a glitterdust spell; furthermore, the pollen serves to throw off attacks made from outside the area of effect, as anything within the radius gains a 20% miss chance. Sassone plants are immune to the blinding effect of this spell.
* The sassone plant recieves a +8 bonus to all Hide and Move Silently checks made in a temperate forest region.
***
I'm shooting for a CR 4 (or maybe 5). Suggestions, nitpicks (other than just in terminology)?
Can it really see, or is the low light vision mimicking some other sense?
Realizing that this is a common plant trait, my question still stands. Does it actually have eyes or some other sense?
This encounter may be a lot harder for your party if it happens in the forest/jungle at night and it relies on some other sense.
You may want to considerBlindsight or Blindsense as an alternative. http://d20srd.org/srd/naturalSpecial...tAndBlindsense
Just my $.02
How about 'watersense'? (people are 85%+ water). That would be awesome. They'd be at a disadvantage when it's raining or if you jump into a lake (just like vision). Obscuring Mist would fog their watersense just as it fogs vision. But they'd easily detect invisible foes... fun for the players to figure out, and kind of makes sense for plant-critters...
Can it really see, or is the low light vision mimicking some other sense?
Realizing that this is a common plant trait, my question still stands. Does it actually have eyes or some other sense?
This encounter may be a lot harder for your party if it happens in the forest/jungle at night and it relies on some other sense.
You may want to considerBlindsight or Blindsense as an alternative. http://d20srd.org/srd/naturalSpecial...tAndBlindsense
Just my $.02
I'll check that out, but I was going by the plants in the SRD for most of this stuff (and it seemed like they all used low-light vision, to the point that it's part of the plant subtype). I might check that out some tomorrow (off to slave away from 8 to 2 am), but I don't quite have time at the moment.
The most delicious part of this monster? About half of this party's damage potential is ranged piercing attacks, and half the melee power is bludgeoning.
Then there's the beefy paladin of slaughter and the kobold sorcerer.
Plants have heaps of water in them, too. As does rain and all kinds of stuff. I believe that IRL, some plants have a water sense, so they can grow tap roots to aquifers in arid climates. While a mobile plant would most certainly have a water sense, I doubt it would use it to search for prey or stuff to attack with
Perhaps a heat sense would make more sense? Almost anything with an internal metabolism would have a slightly higher thermal output than the ambient temperature.
Yes they do. Everything that's alive has a con score, and plants can (and do) have int scores.
Beeulzebub might be thinking of Cha and Wis scores.
From the SRD:
Plant Type
This type comprises vegetable creatures. Note that regular plants, such as one finds growing in gardens and fields, lack Wisdom and Charisma scores (see Nonabilities) and are not creatures, but objects, even though they are alive.
But I think if they are monsters, they have all the abils, just like any other.
Also: (regarding Int)
Under Features
Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die, if the plant creature has an Intelligence score. However, some plant creatures are mindless and gain no skill points or feats.
That's interesting, ojox - That is one fast plant - It's worse than kudzu!
Now we see why sassone residue is so expensive.
A few questions
I'd actually like a physical description of this plant, if you please. The reasoning is that a 17 strength suggests that this thing is as beefy as a medium-sized shambling mound. Is that your goal?
Sassone residue is valuable because it is poisonous. This critter makes the stuff, but it's less potent. Why not put a few more points into Con (raising the save DC to 16), increase the primary poison damage by another 1d12, making it identical to the poison, but then bringing the Str down to 12 or so. I say this because it sounds more like an "ambush, let the poison do it's job" creature than a bruiser.
The lower attack bonuses shouldn't be a problem, because this is more of an ambush plant, because of that +8 racial bonus. With a +11 hide versus a 4th level character's spot of +9 or so, it stands a good chance of getting the first shot in. Bumping a point into Dex would help that all the better, too.
Overall, the design is solid. I like the concept, and it should be an effective creature. Even if you took every suggestion I gave (Ha!), I'd leave it as a "tough" CR 4, instead of a CR 5.
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Monster: Sassone Plant
