Help me design an evil pumpkin-headed scarecrow

[Jay R]

I have a new mini – it’s a scarecrow with a pumpkin head, wearing a wizard’s hat.

Clearly, I need to use it in my game in late October.

So please help me design a pumpkin-headed scarecrow caster who would be a legitimate threat for a party of five 9-th level PCs. [If it matters, they are a bard, rogue, ranger, druid, and enchanter wizard. The party includes an 8th level Kensai and a 7th level cleric.]

What kind of creature would it be? It’s not a golem, because I already have pumpkin golems I intend to use, either as part of the same encounter, or earlier. But it could be a construct. And it might be guarded by golems.

What kind of caster would a pumpkin-head scarecrow be? What spells would it use?

The world is in chaos, with creatures appearing from other planes all the time, and civilization is breaking down. So it could be anything at all. It doesn't have to fit a particular terrain, climate, or plane. But they will be traveling through farmland, plains, forest, and over to hills and mountains. The land is pretty much settled and civilized, but civilization is breaking down from the constant threats.

Any fun ideas? I want a Halloween theme, but I want it to be a real encounter, not a joke or a throwaway.

[Gruftzwerg]

1. Changeling
2. Urban Druid 11
3. Urban Companion - Huge Animated Object (looks like a scarecrow body without a head)
4. Aberration Wild Shape - AWS into a Beholder
(4.5) Assume Supernatural Ability: Beholder's "Eye Rays"
5. Use Minor Shape Change to look like a "large" Pumpkin
6. "Ride" your scarecrow body
7. Have FUN! ^^

[Fero]

How about a pumpkin Lich that is a plant instead of an undead. If it dies, it possesses a new jack o lantern somewhere within a large radious and grows a new body. As it needs Jack o lanterns, it typically only comes out around [Halloween equivalent holiday]. It casts as a sorceror, with access to Druid spells. It's spells are mostly plant, fear, and Necromancy spells. However, it can also lift its hat/topper to cast fire spells by shooting flames out the top of its head.

[Tzardok]

I know that there is an animated scarecrow creature somewhere in the game, but I can't remember where. Maybe in the Dragon Magazine. I'm looking for it.

[hamishspence]

I know that there is an animated scarecrow creature somewhere in the game, but I can't remember where. Maybe in the Dragon Magazine. I'm looking for it.

Dragon 355 (May 2007) has stats for Scarecrows as a low level construct (CR3) in its Creature Catalogue VI article.

[SangoProduction]

(Let's be honest, this might be low-balling it a bit on the difficulty, depending on the specifics of your party. Knowing the classes alone doesn't really tell much. But it's a lot easier to add difficulty than to remove it.)
(In particular, I would recommend adding summoning spells / followers / "interns" to its entourage as its harvests "its" lands.

Pumpkin-Headed Scarecrow Caster: The Harvest Mage (CR 9)
-------------
Type: Native Outsider (Evil, Lawful)

Hit Dice: 9d8+45 (85 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 20 (+3 Dex, +7 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+10
Attack: Eldritch Blast +12 ranged touch (5d6, 60 ft.)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.

Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, Pumpkin Bomb, Harvest’s Grasp
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., planar instability, damage reduction 5/cold iron, spell resistance 19

Saves: Fort +11, Ref +11, Will +9
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 20

Skills: Knowledge (arcana) +14, Knowledge (planes) +14, Bluff +17, Intimidate +17, Spellcraft +14, Concentration +17
Feats: Weapon Focus (Eldritch Blast), Improved Toughness, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot

Environment: Rural Farmland, Any
Organization: Solitary

Special Attacks:
Pumpkin Bomb: 1/day, ranged touch attack, 30 ft. radius burst, 9d6 fire damage, Ref DC 19 half.
Harvest’s Grasp: 2/day, as per spell Entangle, with added 2d6 negative energy damage each round, Avoiding entanglement avoids the damage.
Special Abilities:
Freeze (Ex): The Harvest Mage can hold itself so still it appears to be an inanimate scarecrow. An observer must succeed on a DC 20 Spot check to notice The Harvest Mage is really alive.

Spell-Like Abilities:
(CL 9th, concentration +14)

At will - Eldritch Blast (5d6), Darkness, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Mage Hand, Feather Fall
3/day - Mirror Image, Fly, Quickened Fear (DC 19)
1/day - Blight (DC 18), Dimension Door

Tactics:
During combat, the Harvest Mage uses Pumpkin Bomb and Eldritch Blast to damage from afar, and Harvest’s Grasp to control the battlefield. It uses its spell-like abilities to enhance its mobility and defense, and will retreat and reposition as necessary to protect itself.
When using its spell-like ability to fly, it appears to be carried by a murder of crows.

[Bullet06320]

how about The Great Pumpkinhead?
https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=23572886&postcount=49

[Doctor Despair]

How about a pumpkin Lich that is a plant instead of an undead. If it dies, it possesses a new jack o lantern somewhere within a large radious and grows a new body. As it needs Jack o lanterns, it typically only comes out around [Halloween equivalent holiday]. It casts as a sorceror, with access to Druid spells. It's spells are mostly plant, fear, and Necromancy spells. However, it can also lift its hat/topper to cast fire spells by shooting flames out the top of its head.

I actually really like this idea, but let's take it a step further:

1. The lich, Jack, did something really creative and, unknown to the kingdom, made his phylactery a pumpkin -- and then used that pumpkin to produce fields of pumpkins, all sharing a small piece of his phylactery in its substance.

2. The lich then worked to popularize the tradition of jack-o'-lanterns to ensure the kingdom would always produce a crop of pumpkins each year, and ensured that they were using all or mainly pumpkins from his phylactery crop.

3. Unknown to the lich, however, this was an imperfect process -- which he only discovered after his death a few centuries later, long after the origin of the jack-o'-lantern tradition had passed into obscure folklore in the kingdom. By effectively splitting his phylactery into so many fragments, he only animates with part of his consciousness, and part of his strength -- an aspect of his former self, one might write in a statblock.

4. With rudimentary intelligence and cunning, each year he animates from the largest pumpkin in the crop and then seeks to regain his sense of self by stealing their jack-o'-lanterns and attacking passersby. The denizens of the kingdom actually believe the jack-o'-lanterns act as a ward against him, as typically he leaves the family unharmed after collecting the pumpkin, and legend has it that the bigger your pumpkin, the safer you are, with insufficient offerings leaving you vulnerable.

5. The kingdom usually calls for heroes to hunt down this foul spirit before it wreaks further havoc. After he is defeated, he rises again -- from the next largest pumpkin -- and so on. Only pumpkins of a requisite size are eligible, so decide ahead of time how many reincarnations are appropriate.

6. If the heroes are unsuccessful in killing him, and he gathers a critical mass of pumpkins in his trapped, briar-ensnared lair, he begins a ritual to extract his essence from the pumpkins. An eldritch light shines over the site as multiple aspects rise, chanting. If the ritual completes, the aspects merge, and the lich is restored to power -- the party loses. The party has a finite amount of time to rush to the lair, defeat crazed beasts and angry spirits stirred from the ongoing magical energies, bypass the traps, penetrate the briar walls, and defeat the aspects to interrupt the ritual.

[Melayl]

That is AWESOME!

[Clause]

captured one, template
worm that walks
devil of possession prc
animated object.
golen of vines
effigy creature template

[nox]

awakened pumpkin druid
Raiment (libris mortis) advanced, with intelligence and make it spellstiched
animated via possession/haunting (i think its called from ghostwalk)
a unique fiend, weakened by an improper summoning.
reskin an eye of fear and flame.

[Jay R]

Lots of great ideas here. You have all sent me running to the rulebook to understand what you've done, so this has been worth much more than merely a single encounter.

I'm probably going with SangoProduction's Harvest Mage, in part because it's already statted out.

But I do have one question about it: what is planar instability?

Also, I might consider re-statting it as a plant, not an outsider.

Everybody: thanks for all the help!

[arkieNork]

There are quite a few existing monsters you can just take as is.
for example WW8302 Creature Collection I - Revised 3.5 (just happen to have it open)
has a Bone Lord on page 23. CR7.
Are we allowed to post a screen shot of single page of a source book on this site?

[ShurikVch]

How about a Scarecrow from the Night of the Straw Men (https://web.archive.org/web/20090710104720/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/duad/20080507)?

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sfery/images/7/73/Dungeon154-Scarecrow-Carl_Frank10-31-39-.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20191012083213

(Just awaken it so it wouldn't be mindless)