PF - Homebrew FF Themed Leshy Advice

[unseenmage]

So i gave my players some neat loot, which they promptly sold. Now the Bad Guys have it and I could use some advice for how to resolve the mess I've made.

We found the Final Fantasy d20 (https://www.finalfantasyd20.com/) material and I shoehorned it into our regular PF game as a cameo. Things happened and now FF solar system is a canon place in our PF universe AND there's a gate leading there from underneath Andoran in the Candlestone Caverns. The fun part is there were these leshys, and a minor bad guy who had a new kind of leshy manual on him made from the crystals of a myrr tree (https://finalfantasy-crystalchronicles.fandom.com/wiki/Myrrh_Tree).

Now the players are level 7 and they need to fight the leshy born from this manual who's under the current command of intellect devourers from the bottom of the Darklands.
So I need advice as to what this new kind of crystal tree leshy should be. Should be a boss for a level 7-10 party of two PCs.

I'm thinking that6 the KISS method might be best. Treant, made of crystal. Treant or lgargantuan animated object stats with the hardness or DR of crystal.

Thoughts playground?


FYI biggest difference between FFd20 and base PF is that FFd20 has damage over time effects and PF does not. Dots are brutal so this creature should probably have at least one damage over time ability.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Pathfinder does have DoT effects though? Bleed is the most common in terms of HP damage

[Psyren]

Some kind of plant with a template to make it sturdier/made of crystal?

I have no idea what these things are or what they can do, which makes suggestions difficult. "Boss for two level 7-10 PCs" isn't very helpful because that still leaves questions like caster vs. bruiser vs. sneak on the table among others; that's also a fairly big range as APL goes, especially since there are only two players.

Whatever you go with, consider a Simple Class Template (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/simple-class-templates/) to give it casting ability if it doesn't have any. Unless that thing can't use magic - again, no idea what it can and can't do.

[Elysiume]

In addition to bleed, Pathfinder has more specific DoTs, such as Acid Arrow (https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Acid%20Arrow) or Trial of Fire and Acid (https://www.aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Trial%20of%20Fire%20and %20Acid), poisons (although they typically don't do direct HP damage), and damage-per-round AoEs like Sirocco (https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Sirocco) or Polar Midnight (https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Polar%20Midnight). It's not uncommon for monsters that deal acid damage to have a similar DoT effect to Acid Arrow.

I'll second Psyren and say that more details would help a lot. Crystal makes me think of DR ignored by bludgeoning damage, but there are examples where that doesn't apply, such as carnivorous crystals. Crystal objects/enemies are often vulnerable to sonic energy, but leshies are immune to sonic damage — that could fall anywhere from having the crystalline vulnerability to sonic energy win out, having the leshy immunity win out, or anything in between. The DoT could be a physical consequence of getting hit and having shards of crystal rake your flesh (e.g. getting hits inflicts 1d6 bleed damage) or something more magical, etc. etc.

e: I'll also second the note that 7-10 is a huge range; an average encounter for an APL 10 party is an epic encounter for an APL 7 party.