Friday, December 26, 2008

Why, that's a Christmas Treant!

The final comments are in from the Christmas Bonus What the Heck (the current Weekly What the Heck is still taking comments for 15 more hours). The result is the christmas treant, a hideous gift-moving (or at least ornament-waving), cat-eating abomination.

I'd like to thank Jeff and greywulf (with special thanks to Jeff for the name) for their ideas, all of which have been mashed together to create:
Christmas Treant
Christmas treants are large leafy beasts that eat any fresh meat, but have a preference for cats and small humanoids. They distract their prey with shiny baubles to lure them into the treant's grasping branches. This of course works exceedingly well on cats.

Level 9 Lurker
Christmas Treant Shrub
XP 400
Medium fey beast (plant)
Initiative +10 Senses Perception +6; low-light vision
HP 78; Bloodied 39
AC 23; Fortitude 22, Reflex 20, Will 20
Vulnerable fire (a christmas treant takes ongoing 5 fire damage [save ends] when damaged by fire).
Speed 2; see also engulf
mBranch Thrash (standard; at-will)
+14 vs. AC; 2d8 + 3 damage.
MEngulf (standard; at-will)
Reach 2; small or smaller target only; +12 vs. Reflex (automatically hits a dazed creature); the target is grabbed and pulled into the treant’s space; the target is dazed and takes ongoing 5 damage until it escapes the grab. A creature that escapes the grab shifts to a square of its choosing adjacent to the treant. The treant can move normally while creatures are engulfed within it.
CDistracting Baubles (minor; at-will) * Charm
Close burst 3; +10 vs. Will; the target is pulled 1 square.
CNarcotic Pollen (standard; recharge 3 4 5 6)
Close blast 3; +10 vs. Fortitude; 1d8 + 4 damage, and the target is dazed (save ends). Miss: Half damage, and the target is not dazed.
Alignment Unaligned Languages -
Skills Stealth +11
Str 16 (+7) Dex 15 (+6) Wis 15 (+6)
Con 18 (+8) Int 2 (+0) Cha 10 (+4)

Christmas Treant Shrub Tactics
A christmas treant uses narcotic pollen as often as possible to daze enemies and distracting baubles as necessary to get them within reach of engulf once they are dazed.

Level 13 Controller
Christmas Treant Bush
XP 800
Large fey beast (plant)
Initiative +10 Senses Perception +10; low-light vision
HP 134; Bloodied 67
AC 27; Fortitude 27, Reflex 25, Will 25
Vulnerable fire (a christmas treant takes ongoing 5 fire damage [save ends] when damaged by fire).
Speed 2; see also engulf
mBranch Thrash (standard; at-will)
+18 vs. AC; 2d8 + 5 damage.
MEngulf (standard; at-will)
Reach 3; medium or smaller target only; +17 vs. Reflex (automatically hits a dazed creature); the target is grabbed and pulled into the treant’s space; the target is dazed and takes ongoing 10 damage until it escapes the grab. A creature that escapes the grab shifts to a square of its choosing adjacent to the treant. The treant can move normally while creatures are engulfed within it.
RNeedle Fling (standard; at-will)
Ranged 5; +18 vs. AC; 1d10 + 4 damage, and the target is dazed (save ends).
CDistracting Baubles (minor; at-will) * Charm
Close burst 5; +15 vs. Will; the target is pulled 1 square.
CNarcotic Pollen (standard; recharge 3 4 5 6)
Close blast 3; +15 vs. Fortitude; 1d10 + 6 damage, and the target is dazed (save ends). Miss: Half damage, and the target is not dazed.
Alignment Unaligned Languages -
Str 20 (+11) Dex 19 (+10) Wis 19 (+10)
Con 22 (+12) Int 2 (+2) Cha 10 (+6)

Christmas Treant Bush Tactics
A christmas treant bush uses the same tactics as the christmas treant shrub with one exception: It uses needle fling to attack targets that are too far away to be affected by its narcotic pollen.

Christmas Treant Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful Nature check.
DC 20: Christmas treants are strange fey plants that distract and daze with their baubles and pollen, then engulf their disoriented prey.

Encounter Groups
Christmas treants are sometimes found in the company of mischievous fey.
Level 12 Encounter (XP 3,500)
* 1 christmas treant bush (level 13 controller)
* 2 christmas treant shrub (level 9 lurker)
* 2 banshrae dartswarmers (level 11 artillery)
* 1 banshrae warrior (level 12 skirmisher)
I don't have a lot to say about this one except that family gatherings happened later than usual this year so I'm glad I got back and got it posted (almost) on time. Also, "move your presents" didn't become a power verbatim, but it did directly inspire the distracting baubles power. Finally, we went out and got a slightly better picture of one of the decorated bushes that inspired the original drawing.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Distracting baubles is an awesome power! My wife is also distracted by shiny baubles, as are many racoons, so I have to keep both away from after-Christmas shopping.