Best template for undead/swampy Fey and Plants? - Yewmen

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all,

Id like to bulk up a couple of types of Fey and Plants, namely Dryads, Thorns, Wood Woads, Briarvexes and Twigblights (and a few others potentially, but you can see the theme here).

I would like to make it clear I dont want to slap class levels on them. I will be doing that ANYWAY. What I want to find a template that slightly raises (by a CR of 1 or 2) the power level of these creatures, while moving them towards a darker, swampier, more undead theme. If you have read the Iron Druid Chronicles, I want to make a set of creatures that serve as the Morrigans Yewmen. If you havent, the Morrigan in those books is an Irish deity, a powerful druid and master of death, and breeds a special sort of plant based warrior known as a Yewman. They are powerful mercenaries.

The aim is to have it so in any encounter of the above creatures, there is a chance they are Yewmen. As I said, I will already be adding classes to some of those creatures regardless of if they are Yewmen or regular creatures, so I am really looking for a template, one that keeps most of their good stuff, but gives them a little bit more. I can handle minor refluffing.

Worst comes to the worst, I can homebrew it, but I would rather avoid that.

So looking for templates that augment combat prowess, perhaps add some SLAs, maybe add tentacles (vines), or give undead traits, or something like that, but where the base creature retains its mental scores or has them buffed. CR +1 or +2.

Anything spring to mind?

[Jowgen]

Kind of a stretch from your concept, but Mineral Warrior (Underdark) is quite good on minions, and you could fluff the stone they turn into to be something that suits your desired aesthetic. They'll take a -2 to all mental stats (I know, not what you're looking for), but get +2 Str, +4 Con, +3 Natural Armor, Dr 8/Adamantine, Burrow speed at half their highest speed, and Con to attack 1/day. Also the earth subtype, for what that's worth.

Alternative, you might use a non-plant base creature and use the Wood Elemental template from Manual of the Planes. I gives a few neat things that might fit your concept.

[Jack_Simth]

How does the Woodling (Monster Manual III, page 197) strike you? More of a nature theme than a swamp/undead theme, though.

[Albions_Angel]

Wood Element is interesting. Doesnt affect Fey by raw, but these are essentially a unique subset of creatures I am creating, so no issue there. Halves movement speed though so thats a potential issue. Gains a ranged attack. Most of the creatures I am using are too low for the DR. I would like to use the Briarvex and wood woad as they are perfect for bruisers. Thorns and Splinterwaif Knaves make good troops too. Dryads a perfectly flavoured, apart from being tied to the tree, but there are acorns of far travel for that.

Mineral Warrior is interesting. The fey end up totally fine, still above average mental stats. The Plants get nailed by it though. Yewmen are cunning and powerful warriors after all.

Woodling is nearly what I am after. Big boost to AC, keeps all abilities and specials, DR (which presumably stacks with existing DR). It doesnt seem to do a lot else though, as the slam attack, SLAs and immunities are already there for most of the creatures I would be applying it to, even if I hadnwaved it not applying to plants.

Good ideas, lots to mull over. Keep it coming :) Thanks all!

[DrMotives]

There's a matching pair of templates in Unapproachable East that are perfect. Blightspawned targets an animal or plant and makes them a plant. They have a magical disease added to their natural attack that, if it kills the victim, makes them rise again with blightspawned. Blightspawned creatures make a monthly save with a slowly increasing difficulty, that if they fail, they die & rise again with the juju zombie template.

While both templates modify stats, blightspawned doesn't touch INT, and juju zombie lowers it by 4, but leaves a minimum of 1. So most plant monsters with class levels will retain them.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Albions_Angel
So looking for templates that augment combat prowess, perhaps add some SLAs, maybe add tentacles (vines), or give undead traits, or something like that, but where the base creature retains its mental scores or has them buffed.

Might not be quite what you’re looking for, but the Greenbound template (Lost Empires of Faerûn) adds a +6 natural armor bonus and a slam attack, while leaving base stats unchanged. It’s intended to change non-plant creatures to the plant type, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be added to plants to make them extra-planty. (I also don’t see an LA, which may or may not be a printing error.)

Maybe not completely ideal for your purposes, but it does make things tough and plantlike. The hefty boost to natural AC could be handy for wilderness creatures.

[Thurbane]

Gravetouched Ghoul, while not exactly swampy or plant based, probably wouldn't be too bad.

[hamishspence]

Might not be quite what you’re looking for, but the Greenbound template (Lost Empires of Faerûn) adds a +6 natural armor bonus and a slam attack, while leaving base stats unchanged. It’s intended to change non-plant creatures to the plant type, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be added to plants to make them extra-planty. (I also don’t see an LA, which may or may not be a printing error.)

My copy says "LA: Same as the base creature +8". It can be applied to Fey but not Plants. WOTC did do a set of articles on "breaking the standard template rules" though: Creatures that Cannot Be parts 1 & 2:

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060407a
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20070401a


There's a matching pair of templates in Unapproachable East that are perfect. Blightspawned targets an animal or plant and makes them a plant. They have a magical disease added to their natural attack that, if it kills the victim, makes them rise again with blightspawned.

Volodni from the same book are pretty good Plant creatures for the OP's concept - humanoid, fairly low CR and LA.

Giving them a high starting intelligence (Elite array?) may synergise well with Mineral Warrior - thus even with -2 to Int, they can still be above average.

Swamps are dark and wet - so Amphibious Creature template from Stormwrack, and Dark Creature template from Tome of Magic/Cormyr Tearing of the Weave (the latter one's Hide In Plain Sight ability is Supernatural in Cormyr rather than Extraordinary as in Tome of Magic but does not require Cover or Concealment in Cormyr version) might be worth trying - it's a LA+1 template.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by hamishspence
My copy says "LA: Same as the base creature +8".

I completely missed that. Yeah, pass on the greenbound.

(Is it really worth all that LA? For plantiness and a slam attack?)


Originally Posted by hamishspence
Swamps are dark and wet....

Swamps are definitely wet, but by no means do they need to be dark. I'm out in swamp habitat nearly every day, and even with a full canopy of leaves in summer, a swamp is just as well-lit as an upland forest.

[Thurbane]

Does LA matter if it's for monsters/NPCs?

[Palanan]

In this case the OP specified CR +1 or +2, and I'm guessing an LA of +8 is a little outside that range.

I still wonder if the greenbound is really worth that much, but moot point in this context.

[Thurbane]

In this case the OP specified CR +1 or +2, and I'm guessing an LA of +8 is a little outside that range.

I still wonder if the greenbound is really worth that much, but moot point in this context.

According to LeOF, it's CR +2, so it falls within OP range. Still, Woodling might be better suited to OP needs.




Greenbound
Woodling
Wood Element Creature


+6 natural AC
+7 natural AC
+2 natural AC


Slam
Slam



SLAs
SLAs
Spikes


DR 10/magic & slashing, fast healing, grapple bonus, resist cold 10 electricity 10, plant traits, tremorsense
DR 5/slashing, low-light vision, plant traits, vulnerability to fire
Half ground speed, elemental traits, darkvision, DR/magic, plant immunities, woodsense


Str +6, Dex +2, Con +4, Cha +4
-
-


+16 bonus to Hide and Move Silently in forested areas
+4 bonus to Hide and Move Silently in natural areas



CR +2
CR +2
CR +0 to CR +2


LA +8
LA +3
-