D&D Monster Ranking - Plants
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2024
- A detailed look at the leafy, rooty, viny, thorny, mossy, sappy monsters of Dungeons & Dragons.
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Music by Sinyells
“Monster Fight”
“The Animal Inside (Instrumental)”
“Furious”
“Metalcore Madness”
“Metal Death”
“Djently”
“Road to Madness”
“Pleasure and Sin”
“Cruelty in Your Eyes”
“Dismal Light”
“Hostile”
Music provided by Smokinkat Records
www.smokinkat.net
Chapters
0:00 Plant Creatures Overview
4:00 Thorn Slinger
4:59 Shrieker
5:48 Violet Fungus
6:48 Tri-Flower Frond
10:26 Campestri
12:47 Quaggoth Spore Servant
13:40 Mantrap
14:47 Shambling Mound
16:26 Yellow Musk Creeper
18:19 Awakened Shrub/Tree
19:30 Gas Spore
22:42 Labyrinthine Gardens
23:54 Vegepygmy
26:23 Twig Blight
27:35 Needle Blight
27:59 Myconid Sprout
29:58 Vine Blight
30:43 Tree Blight
32:33 Kelpie
34:57 Aartuk Warrior
36:40 Myconid Adult
37:34 Wood Woad
41:27 Bridesmaid/Chamberlain of Zuggtmoy
44:03 Aartuk Priest/Elder
45:25 Corpse Flower
46:45 Treant
48:58 Fantasy Needs to Be Grounded and Have Internal Consistency
52:07 Myconid Sovereign
53:30 Bodytaker Plant
56:28 Grandmother Willow
1:00:08 Outro - Hry
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Please do a video on the kobold press monsters please do more videos like this they're the best on CZcams
DnD: "Hey, can I copy your work?"
J.R.R. Tolkien: "Sure, but change it a little so that it isn't obvious."
DnD: "No problem."
Also DnD: "TREE-Ent."
did he invent them?
@@frankyflowers You know, being interested and delving into mythology for a good part of my life.
I can't rightly recall any story that involves moving trees the way the Ents or Huorns are presented.
That is a good question actually. Tolkien was inspired by European myths, so perhaps there's some obscure tales on moving and communicating trees.
@@theblueflame2221 (Bad English sorry)
Most tales of trees are:
1-Extremely dangerous stationary plants(like the jubokko from japanese mythology or the Madagascar maneating trees).
2-Moving trees but they arent neutral like the ents of Tolkien(most are malicious or carnivorous like the inulpamahuida)
3-These ones arent completely trees but have some components in their apearance and are not completely evil, just neutral(and most are from slavic folklore like the leshy and the zuttibur)it's probably this one.
@@theblueflame2221 it appears Tolkien was inspired by Macbeth where the witches prophesy that he will rule until the forest moves. In the play men camouflaged in the garb of the forest bring his downfall. I guess Tolkien just wanted to take it further. There are talking trees in folklore but no walking trees that I am aware of.
Appreciate the comments guys.
Suddenly it dawned on me that the "Green Man" might've been an inspiration or even the "Green Knight". The oldest tales of king Arthur make him a king of the forest. Camelot originally might've been a grove rather than some keep.
I lost a character to a gas spore. The party was investigating a town undergoing a pandemic. Turns out it was caused by a gas spore, and while clearing it out I got effected by its spores. It was a one shot so I am not broken up about it, just made me realize just because something only has 1 HP doesn't mean it isn't dangerous
Regarding the vegepygmies, they're pretty much just meant to be weird plant aliens. Both of the origin stories you mentioned allude to them crashing on the planet in a spaceship.
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Yeah they were basically plant aliens.
Vegepygmies in AD&D came from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, a module where the party explores a crashed spaceship. hence the lore given.
One of my favorite monsters that I've ever homebrewed is the phantomire: a vengeful undead spirit possessing a dead tree that twists and transmutes the surrounding land into an inhospitable and toxic bog. It's roots can reach out to 120 feet to slam, grapple and drag it's victims under the murky water that it turns the surrounding soil in into and in the center of the tree is a pulsating bulb that produces a heartbeat-like sound that can charm undead in range. It can even summon will-o'-the-wisps to try and overwhelm the party with shear numbers.
All told, it came out to be a CR 13 monster.
That sounds like an awesome monster.
The awakened shrub+tree should be higher. Why? For the same reason the imp is so high on the devil list: they connect with player character and those are the most interesting and potentially powerful things in dnd
12:47: I feel like if I ran this monster straight I would be a hearless bastard and describe a scene of a Campestri frolicking about all happy, only to suddenly be crushed under the boot of a orc or death knight. Hmmm deliciously evil >:)
Also you are absolutely right that there is much more that can be done with this creature based solely on the type of mushroom it’s illustrated as. Imagine it’s singing causes hallucinations, maybe as a defense mechanism or because it innocently believe it’s giving people a pleasant experience. Or maybe druids collect these creatures and they aid them in their ritual, or maybe a community of wood elves use them both as a source of music and to trip balls. With different songs they know causing different hallucinations. So much potential!
On a DnD podcast I listen to (Rolling with Difficulty) there was a scene a while back where the party attended a party. At this party there was a choir of Campestri, and the DM described one of the guests walking up and grabbing a handful and eating them as if they were being served.
Vegepygmies coming from a fallen star is a reference to Expedition To The Barrier Peaks, an adventure set inside of a crashed spaceship from another dimension.
Dude, your channel deserves WAY more subscribers. Probably in the top 5 D&D channels online.
Thank you so much! Spread the word 💪
Campestri are a giving me some Tomb of Horrors vibes.
They are perfect for an evil wizard lair. They perplex you, they distract you, they mask sounds, and they can even unexpectedly incapacitate you while you're busy trying to figure out just what the hell you are looking at and whether that's a puzzle or an encounter. They don't even have to be evil to do that. They're just as confused as you are.
Your Original Monster is so cool! Also she DOESNT LOOK like the Rainforest Cafe tree greeter, so that's another bonus.
9:50 Tomb of annihilation is meant to be "hardcore" and deadly, I guess that's why the tri-flower monster has such extreme effects compared to the rest of 5e
Maybe so, though if the module is supposed to be deadlier, the designers should simply include higher CR monsters and more dangerous encounters. I can only speculate, but it seems like the tri-flower frond just wasn't developed and refined enough.
@@esperthebard "not developed and refined enough" tracks, since that's been D&D's whole schtick for decades
@@esperthebard I mean you could say that about most of the monster statblocks in adventure modules few get the attention and testing they rightfully deserve to stand the test of time. Not to say they aren't great sometimes but many fall behind the curb for a good reason. Good lore, and versatile use is all that saves most so when monsters are their only for their statblock such as monstrosity and demons and such having a undercooked or overcooked block stands out vastly more.
Hells yes! You are my go to D&D CZcamsr.
I'm a fan of the new wood woad lore. I think the question of why someone decided to agree to become a wood woad is an interesting one, as a creature capable of speech and everything maybe it has some memories from the person who died to make it? Maybe those memories effect its personality, like the approach it takes to protecting the forest, some could be very indiscriminate with their violence, considering virtually all humanoids a threat to the safety of the forest just be being within it, some might use violence only as the very final resort. They warn and attempt to negotiate with humanoids who would harm the forest, teaching anyone who can understand them and wishes to live in harmony with it the best way to avoid damaging its eco systems while surviving off its bounties. And as long lived creatures even if it isn't all that common for them to get made they can still potentially form a society both with each other and with cultures allied in purpose.
Definitely am gonna use the Grandmother Willow in my Disney and Dragons game as Pocahantas' druidic teacher.
There is also the manchineel tree, which has sap that can cause blisters on your skin, and can close your airways if fumes are inhaled.
The amount of monsters that are just "pile of vegetation" is honestly really surprising to me. You'd think Shambling Mound would be it but nah, there's like 5+ different kinds of "Swamp Thing" types of monsters in DND. Kelp Eel, Peat Mammoth, Arborcyte, Corrupting Ooze, Bagiennik, etc.
Watched this when it first came out. Rewatching as my players are fixing to head into areas where plants would make for good encounters.
The grandmother willow is one of my favourite creatures from EEE.
Outstanding! I hope your adventure is fruitful and branches out into even more
Im adding campestry as a pet to my druid. This is perfect
I’m surprised you neglected to mention the barometz as an example of a folkloric plant monster.
Is that the sheep which grows from a plant? I believe it acts just like a regular sheep, except it's bound to the root plant.
@@esperthebard Yeah, but it also directly stems - no pun intended - from a misunderstanding of cotton plants.
I have been fiending for one of your vids so bad ! Tyvm as always . Your the best
Thank you Stephen!
Ideas:
Every Gargantuan creatures ranked
Top 10 biggest DnD creatures
Top 10 oldest DnD creatures
Aboleths would be in Oldest for sure. Supposedly they hibernated through the previous ice age, making them potentially older than mankind itself.
Just saying; Thanks for having a D&D channel that is sane.
I'm not joking, it took me months to find a channel, yours that is, without the emotionally disturbed or social misfits attempting at some sort of politicized takeover of the game.
Not sure when I'll ever get to play a decent game, but knowing others are having fun with it counts for a lot.
So again man, cheers.
I'm glad you're enjoying my videos. You are not the only one concerned about the direction D&D is heading in, which more and more forces real world modern narratives into a medieval fantasy world. Sometimes I wonder if I should create a new RPG altogether. Really what I want is to be a successful author, and soon I will once again try to get my novel series traditionally published. If I can pull that off, that might be the best avenue for me to express my personal style.
@@esperthebard (Bad English incoming)Considering what You did with your Emporium (and how You described the creatures inside the book), i think You can do a very excellent job at making a decent fantasy world(if You also Consider the amount of mythological monsters and cryptids waiting their moment in the Spotlight).
@@esperthebard I'd even go a step further with that and say that the villains are the main characters these days and not even interesting villains at that, but the sadistic unintelligent dregs of society stealing the spotlight.
Would it be too much to ask if you know of a trustworthy publisher worth reaching out to? I'm asking for a friend.
You clearly have a passion for it, you're good at it and it's not a job when you're having fun doing it. When you think you are ready to develop an RPG I have a suggestion, maybe reach out to a lot of old school players back when D&D was more gritty and heroic focused. Wiz o/t Coast is basically selling their early fanbase out, shameful and thankless is what it is. That's a base worth reaching out towards.
Anyways all the best with those endeavours I'll be lurking around your videos when I can spare some time.
Have a good one.
What would happen if Grandmother Willow died? Maybe a curse of decay would fall on the people who caused that evil, or maybe all the strong life of that forest would be lost, or otherwise all of her magic and life would be spread to the living beings of the forest that would attack the evildoers.
What a fantastic monster, makes my imagination think of so many narratives, great work.
Thank you Neo! Well that right sounds like the makings of an adventure ...
These videos help me relax so much, thank you so much for making them
The thing about the smaller treant got me thinking- could there be such a thing a bonsai treant?
that would be fun. a hidden bonsai commanding a stand of colossal oak trees to defend the druid circle.
Pot of awakening plus branch
Every franchise has its innovators. Many work in the titan's shadow. Under appreciated, but overly necessary. You, Esper, elevate DnD. Fantasy speaks through you. Thank you for all your hard work.
That means a lot to me.
6:48
I had a lore idea for the tri -flower frond. We could go for the usual "it was artificially created by a mad scientist/Litch as a trap" OR if you want to make it natural, since its on Chult, maybe its attack could be on its way of reproduction? Since Chult is full of giant creature, it could have evolve to grab onto a limb of an animal, spray acid and then pollinate/throw its seeds into the wound. Then as the animal gets free it carries the offspring off to other areas, making the plant propagate much better.
As the plant grows in the wound it causes irritation, making the animal scratch itself and eventually flake off a bit of the scab. So the new born plant has some new fertile soil with the discarded skin. Or if the animal dies, then even better.
The fact that it's so harsh on humanoids could just be because we are not meant to be the main "pollinator" for it. It was meant to grab into the thick, heavy legs of big creatures.
Heck, we can go even further with this. Not all plants are asexual so this version could be the female and you can make another similar version that is male but maybe instead of shooting seeds into the wound it sends spore packets. Then when the animal gets free it becomes more prone to attack from the female kind that is trying to get the spore of the male plant for fertilizations. Effectively making you both the soil and the giant pollinator bee for it.
By the way nice video, plant monsters don't really get that much love sadly.
Catching up. And as always, your vision and sight capture things that can only be felt through writing. For that exactly, you chose the perfect segment as an intro, one of JRRT's most touching poems. And in addition, sharing your own poem which is of a serious quality (!) I could see it implemented in a highly regarded book.
56:36 Now that's epic!
0:00. I think Tolkien would approve.
A category that has been painfully overlooked
Will you do the ranking of the new Spelljammer monsters?
Maybe
The triflower frond is originally from a sci-fi module from 1st ed.
The wood woad to a Druid is what a golem is to a wizard I think i like it a lot
I'm always happy to see the newest bardic creation.
I love your videos, and plant monsters are some of my favorites. If I could make a suggestion, if you don’t already have one, a monster ranking video on Insectoids?
Great as usual!
Thanks Bob!
I appreciate your use of Cure song titles for your tiers.
Great video! Always makes me happy when I see you have a new tier list out. Maybe the Campestri just have a more developed palate than you...? Anyway thanks for giving The Cure their due too!
Suddenly I stop
But I know it's too late
I'm lost in a forest
All alone
Okay, but hear me out: tiny mushrooms 'singing' in their tiny, nasally voices: "CRAWLING IN MY SKIN!"
lol
Nothing gets me in the christmas spirit like a good ol D&D tier list
with the wood woad's lore, I have a side quest on the back burner in case my players decide to go to the Sylvan forest where one of the player characters is from. in his backstory, his family of satyrs was guarding the portal to the fey realm there but the community was slaughtered which is why the character left.
Because there was no more community watching over the portal, one of the elf rangers in the forest sacrificed himself for this ritual to be a wood woad guarding the space, but didn't tell his family because he thought they'd try to stop him, so there would be a chance they find the ranger's family members looking to hire people to find what happened to him.
Have to buy your book that’s grandmother willow ent is a truly a beautiful entry
Honestly i think i can work with the campestri mushroom people. Im running a horror campaign so i have an idea for lore.
Instead of cartooniness, give them a realistic human face. Turn their joyful singing into horrible wailing, and finally make them slow, pitiful creatures that move together in herds.
Like a village that was turned into mushroom monsters.
Oh and make them human sized.
That sounds cool, go for it!
The treant sapling is probably a different species or just it’s named a treant but it isn’t like how humans do a lot
I believe the tri flower frond was introduced in the expedition to the barrier peaks module. The lack of lore was due to the zoo like nature of that module. I could be wrong but i seem to remember fighting it in that module a long long time ago in an edition far far away.
29:54 Mazes and Myconids. I'm using that, thanks. :)
Idea for a plant player race, Wood Foraged: a plant based war forged created by elder druids in their last years of life. Through magical means they graft their favorite plants onto a young sapling and bless them with bits of their souls to give them life and imprint their personalities upon them. When the Druid dies the wood foraged awakens and wonders about spreading seeds and life wherever they roam. They are drawn to nature and act as shepherds and guardians of the land.
i think the wood woad has much better lore now. a creature for which you need to sacrifice a person, which can be willing. this can make the plot for an almost heroic last stand of the enemy, or be the fate of the disappeared people the party was tasked to find.
i also don't think it's lack of range is hugely detrimental. they'll probably encounter it in the woods, and it can use 10ft. of movement to teleport up to 60 feet. with a dash it can cover 360 feet of distance (in relatively optimal situations).
I actually used the flesh golem along side a wizard with lightning bolt to fight a level 8 party and it worked really well, the wizard used greater invisibility and really terrorized them.
if they just said that the Treant Sapling was created in a place where magic is ao strong that it gains sapience really early, or it just gains sapience because an Archfey said so, this problem could have been easily dealt with.
in one of the planes of magic the gathering there is the eventide set. in there is the grove where a majority of treefolk sprout from. it has influences of white and green mana, with a sprinkling of black mana. a storyline revolved around getting the last yew seed there so they wouldn't go extinct.
Precocious puberty is a thing in real-world humans. Why not in D&D treants? The majority of them take their time and wake up as fully-grown mature adults, but this one's metabolic clock was off. And since normal treants have no clue how to deal with its childish mindset - the only things their kind know how to raise is trees - naturally they'd foster it with friendly fey who understand its playfulness.
I have been waiting for this video for, I don’t know how long, actually, The pandemic kind of broke my sense of time. I’ve always loved plant monsters, I don’t know if fungus and bacteria should be included in that kind of going but whatever. This actually reminds me that’s on the first monsters I ever made with the help of my mom we’re plant monsters. I think the literal first one I remember is the cloak snatching bramble, a shadow fell plant that you’d be happy to see. I enhanced it later and you can have it if you want, just ask; I think it’s probably at c Teer.
Plant creature I can think of is the mendrake, Leszachka
Wulgaru, Boongurunguru, Cayeri, Hungry grass, Stray sod, Trenti, Umdhlebi, Vegetable lamb, Yateveo and lesky
(Bad English) Do You know a good place to know about the Wulgaru?
If You won't other planta monsters there is the inulpamahuida(or what I know about it) and the faduah and jidra.
@@omegatiger969 thank you for tell me about inulpamahuida, jidra and faduah. I didn't know about them. I only read some lore about wulgaru either as naive Australian version of a golem or a creature that terrorize small villain
@@majesticgothitelle1802 And thank You for the leszachka and the boongurunguru.
@@omegatiger969 leszachka are just female version of leshy
@@majesticgothitelle1802 Oh, well doesnt matter anyway XD.
Oh man this is crazy. My first campaign I ever ran I had a NPC quest giver that went by grandpa or grandfather oak and he was connected to others like him around the world and even others in the fey wild , shadow fell, and under dark. He was an evolved treant and linked to the hand full of others kind of like in the move Avatar. I have to say I love grandmother willow.
I love a good tier list. This was excellent. Well researched and well thought through.
I've been reading your emporium of esoterica and I must say the lower tiers are very badly represented. It was quite a relief to read monk acolyte and go haha at last a monster I could have designed!
Thank you Nick, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Also thanks for getting the Emporium. Can you elaborate on what you mean by very badly represented lower tiers? Like there aren't many F or D tier monsters in my book? (that sounds like a good thing 😁)
@@esperthebard absolutely what I meant. No bad monsters at all. Even the beasts and NPC options fill gaps that were missing from 5e. Even the garfish a fairly basic aquatic ambusher has a useful reaction where it has a chance to get away and hide after it's been hit, nicely thought out and absolutely appropriate.
@@nicka3697 Haha right on! Well I certainly tried 🐟
@@esperthebard well I'm hooked🪝
Just what I needed!
Great Monster at the end. I love when people homebrew to solve actual problems in the game. Mother Willow does a great job at introducing a powerful plant monster and an interesting support monster.
Love the content :)
I have been playing a Bionicle based RPG game where my character is a Toa of Plantlife (For those who are not familiar with Bionicle it is a Scifi-Fantasy created as a toy line by Lego but it had an insane amount of lore! The Characters are a bionic alien race like cyborgs but they are mechanical first and organic second: They still need to eat, they breath, they can bleed, they think and feel, they have beliefs and stories, and have magic powers based around the elements. Toa are Warrior heroes who are masters at utilizing an elemental power.
My character is basically able to control all things plant related which I have found made him very versatile and even terrifying in some situations. There was a Mob boss type character trying to escape in a submarine so my character pursued them on the back of a mechanical SHARK and used the Kelp to tangle the Sub and start crushing it as it pulled the Sub down to the sea floor like a Plant Kraken!
This actually gave me some seriously good creatures to inhabit my fey influenced forest near a liche's lair I'm working on
Excellent. Perhaps wood woads using the 5e lore? Blights would fit well too.
@@esperthebard my BBEG is a lich so wood woads blights and corrupted druids all around maybe some awakened undead trees and shrubs
Okayyyyy... tri-flower frond on a sidekick class as your main character then! Retainer from the knight background to interpret, and to have installed you on a mount and dressed you in a cloak. Actually sounds quite fun in a flavourful way, not just for the ill-balanced attacks. :D Hell, could even drop the cheese and just go with the concept with normal classes and have it just be a custom lineage. I always get ideas about minmaxing, and then get flavour ideas from them, and often the minmaxing itself ends up the less important part after that.
My characters once triggered The Rumbling from Attack on Titan with Treants during a one shot that took place in the same world as the main campaign. They're gonna have a fun time dealing with that eventually
The discussion with how cartoonish and unrealistic the Treant Sapling is was needed. Without a proper explanation for what's happening or why things are the way they are can really pull someone out of the immersive experience of a fantasy world. Without some sort of logical consistency or objective merit things get a bit random and nonsensical; If *anything* can happen at any time for no reason then no one is gonna care about your story. Like you said, it's going to be "immature". We make rules so that we follow them, not break them!
And I also fully agree with your perspective with GOT, The Hobbit, & the Star Wars Sequels, which often broke their rules out of apathy, or a lack of proper direction. The best of fantasy is something that is both compelling *and* consistent, like TLOR for example. Which handles so many different characters and stories in such a satisfying way while never breaking their rules.
I really don’t think the cutesy monster are bad. People play dnd in tons of different ways, and having a wide variety of styles and elements just gives people more ways to play. Cute stuff has its place!
Bro started to go in on the cute little mushroom and I just turned off their and simply said “okay bro relax it is a fake mushroom lol”
@@SpectrumTideyeah the amount of judgement coming thru was real. I was like what Disney mascot hurt you?!!?
I'm currently working on a book about plants, which will add new subclasses, spells, and monsters for DND
a neat monster to add for low level is the leaf ray from pathfinder 1e. it flys about looking for other living beings to target. a sting will inject a poison that does dexterity dmg [or nonlethal dmg] then once the target is helpless it will land and implant a seed. the seed can be removed by surgery. this seed will make another leaf ray if it manages to slay the target. the colouration changes with the leaves around it same with the poisons.
There are actually some large carnivourous plants, but they act weird. There's a bush that has hooks at the ends of it's leaves that hook onto sheep wool and get the sheep stuck until it dies and the plant can get those nutrients.
An ent ritual should create a woad from a dead stump or they should be a race born from the stumps of dead ents
Perfect timing.
I purpose the possibility that the difference between the two Treent lores being location. One could be the product of a tree changing on the material plane while the other is a direct product of the fae wilds.
What about assassin vines they are iconic for TPK I feel like they deserve a mention even if it is simple and lacks lore.
what tier would the plasmoid be in in the ooze tier list?
You can still use Campestri for a darker fantasy setting, and I don't mean add creepy lore. I mean just have them get frequently killed and or eaten. Like make a seemingly light part in a campaign where the party plays with goofy mushrooms... then they all crushed by a bigger far more dangerous monster, when the party has their guard down.
Hey Esper do you think you could make a ranking list for druids?
In regards to the different Wood Woah lore, why not make it so the OG Wood Woah are members of its kind that were freed from their servitude. This could be if some part of the ritual was not carried out correctly or the one that performed the ritual could have been killed by an adventure party at some point in the distant past. 🤔
This was better than I expected. The Blights and the Mychanids have some really good lore.
Re: the Kelpie: I wanted to be annoyed that it wasn’t a Fey Monster, but I like how they reworked the classical lore into something new and inventive.
Is it far to criticize “The Hobbit” movies for not hitting the same tone as LOTR when “The Hobbit” novel was much more whimsical than the Rings books? Well, some of the fights in DoS might be too silly, and i’m Not sure trying to marry the epic scope and weight of LOTR to “The Hobbit’s” lighter tone was the best idea, but I enjoyed the first two movies (still need to see BOTFA).
The Sequel Trilogy: Eh, I’ve only seen “Last Jedi.” I was OK with it, and it didn’t feel less serious than the Original Trilogy. Rather my complaints were that it felt like it was retreading the Original Trilogy and Luke’s backstory felt VERY forced (pardon the pun) vis a vis why Ben was evil and Luke was out of the fight.
At the perfect time thank u dude
I have a character idea for a human undead warlock character who was kidnapped by druids to be turned into a wood woad, but the ritual was interrupted halfway through and a pact was made between him and a nature god. His form of terror is a wood woad-human infusion
Jinmenju, Ya-Te-Veo, Jubokko, Umdhlebi, Mandragora, Stray Sod, Rahara, all plant creatures from Ancient mythology
Myconid Soverign should be like Gravemind from Halo and like CR>15 as it should be comparable to a very powerful necromancer or Lich.
I've got a basic lore idea for the tri-flower frond. Asirac made it. Hence it being very punishing and low CR. 'Oh let me just summon like 4 of these and leave them in a room.'
11:29 that f'ing picture! lmao!
love plant monsters, I've created an entire campaign centered around them.
a bit of a spoiler there is a neat demon prince in the pathfinder 1e games. he had an aura that added the plant subtype to people near him. he also wielded a +2 bane [plants] huge axe. i think he could also cast antiplant shell and was able to just reach beyond the auras influence.
If it's any consolation, that was a laryngeal falsetto you did, but im struggling to think of a character that uses a nasal falsetto to use as an example
Will you do a ranking of the Druid subclasses?
I might. My ranking videos haven't been getting many views these past several months, which makes me think I need to try some new kinds of content.
@@esperthebard Ooo, does your EEE book have subclasses? If so, maybe a way to boost viewers could be showcasing a Druid subclass from your book, like how you did the Grandmother Willow.
@@andrewdowns3673 It has subclasses for barbarian, cleric, fighter, and monk, along with warlock invocations. It also has an entirely new class, the paragon.
I think I have an idea for a Grimdark-lite-esque campaign setting that would be appropriate for people who, like me, are fans of such games and settings as Dark Souls, RimWorld, and Kenshi, and thus, would love to, for the most part, focus on playing and running campaigns where the vast majority of minion-level enemies are mindless, unintelligent, and/or consumed with primal rage and/or a need to destroy all life, such as undead (especially mindless undead like zombies, but also including things like wights, ghouls, and non-incorporeal undead like wraiths, spectres, and shadow fiends), slimes, feral (magical) beasts, and maybe lycanthropes.
Anyways, this campaign idea that I had, for low-to-mid-level players, would feature a bunch of these plant creatures as antagonists, one of which could be the Big Bad Evil Guy (or Gal) of the campaign, but not necessarily the world, and I believe that it could fit in nicely in a Grimdark-lite-esque fantasy setting with high-technology and a geopolitical focus like, say, Eberron or the Forgotten Realms.
Basically, the campaign would be about a cursed forest the size of a small kingdom of, say, around 1 million acres (around half the size of Yellowstone National Park) called the Blackwood, ruled by a fallen, scheming treant queen (drawing inspiration and design elements from one of Esper's Grandmother Willows, only having become corrupted and turned into a Wicked Willow due to a great tragedy that happened to the forest during a great and terrible war in the distant past, which killed the previous queen, and caused the treant to despise humanity and civilization, even prior to becoming queen). Supporting this evil queen are the following:
- A cabal of evil druids, with wood woads and shambling mounds acting as guards and servants, whom serve the evil queen of the Blackwood by plotting and scheming to expand the forest's influence by undermining the organization of good-aligned druids and rangers that's been containing and hunting down its dangers.
- A formidable demon (such as a vrock or nalfeshnee) and his/her underlings (which could include lesser fiends, undead, and evil cultists), whom had been responsible for influencing the treant queen into becoming evil in the 1st place.
- A tribe of wild elves whom call the forest their home, and whom are being manipulated by the queen to protect her from outsiders.
- A corrupted treant with druidic spellcasting, whom serves as the queen's personal champion and bodyguard, and the gatekeeper to the heart of the Blackwood, where the queen resides, along with numerous treant saplings, wood woads, and shambling mounds.
- An evil high-ranking druid/cancer mage/vermin lord whom serves as the druidic cabal's "executioner" by disposing of meddlesome adventurers by getting them, say, consumed by gas spores or a corpse flower, or zombified by yellow musk creepers, or even consumed and replaced with lookalike imposters by bodytaker plants if the victim seems important enough to use for infiltration purposes, possibly after being abducted by a wood woad or shambling mound from within or near the outer parts of the Blackwood.
- A tribe of vegepygmies, led by a chieftain, whom oversees raids on nearby settlements at night from within the outer parts of the Blackwood on the queen's behalf (in exchange for protection and shelter).
- Several tree blights that, reluctantly, and under the queen's supervision, act as overlords and overseers to parts of the Blackwood's outer regions in order to prevent those who wander into the Blackwood from escaping alive, and also to serve as commanders of vanguards of twig, needle, and vine blights that prevent adventurers from travelling to the inner regions of the Blackwood, where the queen, her evil druidic underlings, and countless younger, more naive treants reside.
- Several bodytaker plants that serve under the queen as some of her instruments of infiltrating nearby settlements from outside, by capturing nearby victims to then replace with lookalike imposters.
- Hordes of plant-zombified victims, armies of twig, vine, and needle blights, and defensive fields of thorn slingers, tri-flower fronds, mantraps, yellow musk creepers, and corpse flowers, all of whom can be controlled by the evil druids, evil demon-worshipping cultists, evil corrupted fey, wild elves, vegepygmies, bodytaker plants, and tree blights to name a few, though some of which can also be influenced by player-aligned druids, fey, and myconids like a cleric that can turn undead.
- Packs of werewolves that prowl the Blackwood, looking for prey to hunt, and tolerated by the queen for as long as they don't hunt her servants.
- An evil dragon that acts as an unwilling, double-crossing ally of the queen of the Blackwood.
However, the Blackwood also houses numerous non-hostile, though potentially-wary, inhabitants, such as friendly fey like pixies and dryads, treants, wild elves, myconids, campestri, and a dragon that are all young enough to have not experienced the tragedy that the queen herself had experienced, and that had driven her mad with grief and vengeance.
I could imagine this campaign being structured into the following modules:
starter-level start-campaign modules:
- searching for a lost villager, whom was lured into the Blackwood by a mantrap
low-level early-campaign modules:
- fighting against yellow musk zombie outbreaks
- fighting against vegepygmy raids
- fighting against twig, needle, and vine blight raids
- investigating numerous disappearances that are being linked to the evil druidic sect
- investigating numerous disappearances that are being linked to an evil kelpie
- investigating the source of the shambling mound attacks
low-mid-level mid-campaign modules:
- hunting down the traitor, whom was actually a doppelganger spawned from a bodytaker plant
- investigating the source of the yellow musk zombie outbreaks
- investigating the source of the vegepygmy raids
- finding and neutralizing the tree blight that's the source of the twig, needle, and vine blight attacks
- finding and neutralizing the werewolves that have been raiding nearby villages
- help the myconids rescue a lost myconid child from evil demon-worshipping cultists in exchange for information on how to obtain an audience with the Queen of the Blackwood
mid-level late-campaign modules:
- infiltrating and/or escaping from the evil druids' prison full of gas spores, corpse flowers, yellow musk creepers, and bodytaker plants
- acquiring part of a secret code to gain access to the heart of the Blackwood from the wild elves, either peacefully or violently
- acquiring part of a secret code to gain access to the heart of the Blackwood from the leader of the evil druid sect
- acquiring part of a secret code to gain access to the heart of the Blackwood from the evil dragon
- acquiring part of a secret code to gain access to the heart of the Blackwood from the evil demon-worshipping cult
mid-level end-campaign modules:
- defeating the Queen's champion and gatekeeper, an elder treant druid, to open the way to the heart of the Blackwood
- defeating the Queen of the Blackwood within the forest's heart, possibly with the help of an allied elder treant, whom had been a close friend of the Queen from before the tragedy, which she had avoided by fleeing from the forest before the war could consume it
By the way, Esper, I think the term you might be looking for, for this kind of simplification of popular media to something that would seem more appropriate (and marketable) for an audience of children (and parents), including the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Dungeons and Dragons, might be "Disneyfication". This, I believe, is nothing new, as the concept of fairies as a whole had been "Disneyfied" from the time of the Brothers Grimm into when they were put into fairy tales to be read to children, a process which I've been seeing nowadays with Japanese folklore.
I wonder if D&D has any plant monsters similar to Lady Adrasta's Wolf Weed guards from Doctor Who?
The fruit of the Jin min ju tree sates dragons and kills vampires
The Tri-Flower Frond originally appeared in AD&D, in I think MMII? It sounds like it's been ported to 5e without much revision, which would explain its outdated-seeming mechanics.
I'm thinking of asking my gm to allow me to plants plantshape instead of wildshape for rp with a reflavored warforged ent. Would it be too strong? If it's underpowered, I'm cool with it.
29:48 I guess fizbans Tiamat just doesn’t exist
The fact that I remembered this art even exists makes me sound incredibly petty
I could've sworn Triffids we're brought to D&D but I guess I was wrong dang.
yes
Plant Tiers Lord Esper has finally answered our prayers
ALGORITHM LETS GOOOOO
The difference between a zombie and a yellow musk zombie is the seedling growing the brain of the yellow musk zombie controlling the body as the seedling looks for a place to plant themselves before the host body dies.
Wasn't that first picture of the Kelpie a sea hag? I might be misremembering
Is the Campestri based on the dancing mushrooms in the old Fantasia movie?
Feels like there are way too many fungus in the books and not enough actual plants.
Hmmm, watching this made me think up concepts for three plant creatures.
i guess since fungi are a bit weirder than plants they give the designers more inspiration
I love the original Fantasia. And yes, it did strike me as odd how so much fungi are categorized as plants, when fungus and plant are entirely different kingdoms of organism. Well, I suppose it would be way too specific to have a fungus creature type.
About the Low DCs on monsters on monster like the Harpy and Yellow Musk Creeper, they are purposely low because they are typically fighting in groups, and just failing the saving throw just one can often just take you out of the fight. Low DC look bad on paper when you think in terms of 1 vs party, but can be very nerve-racking being forced to roll you save 5 times knowing a single bad roll could remove you from most of the encounter (remember 5e uses bounded accuracy, so harder to power cliff mobs of low tier monsters out of relevance). Would say Yellow Musk Creeper now being Medium sized Actually makes them way more deadlier becouse of how many Creeper spamming their Yellow Musk (ei. image a swarm of rats but each individual rat in the swarm is able to cast the Hypnotic Patter spell thrice per day).
From personal experience I am well aware of how strong a low DC incapacitation-like affect can be, given that all but one of my party members taken out by a harpy song and had fought a losing fight with the winged rats 3 vs 1 (now imaging if they also tamed some owlbears to kill for them).
I will say the Low DCs are fine because its trying to tell you that the creatures is meant to be fought in groups at higher levels. Will say if any of those monster effects had a decent DC save they would become infamous TPKers like in older editions, basically instant traps you have to heavily hint for players to avoid, which is hard because those Low DC are often intended at the same time to be ambush monsters that the party can't plan for (e.i. fighting more than a single harpy at a time would have the same "Rocks fall everyone dies" energy as some Mind Flayers and Intellect Devourers getting the drop on a party)
I am heartened everytime you say sapient, not just sentient.
Thank you! I try to be precise with my words.