Assassin Tree: Difference between revisions
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Assassin Trees are full-sized trees that are animate and perfectly hostile to all other animate existence. As a plant, the Assassin Tree considers all non-plant creatures to be enemies. | Assassin Trees are full-sized trees that are animate and perfectly hostile to all other animate existence. As a plant, the Assassin Tree considers all non-plant creatures to be enemies. | ||
Assassin Trees are thankfully rare compared to other sorts of trees, but that still means they are uncomfortably common. They can be found in forests and jungles, hilly or mountainous wilderness, swamps, and even tundra and deserts. Indeed, more than a few desert oases have been lost to these vegetable menaces. | |||
Even worse, it is not uncommon to find Assassin trees in ruins and abandoned structures everywhere, often in the company of Leatherleaf (which explains how the ruins came to be ruined). In the wild, Assassin Trees can be attracted to campfires and the like, although thankfully, these wooden beasts seem to be less active in the hours of darkness. | |||
Perhaps worst of all, it is not uncommon for the rich and powerful to have Assassin Trees as part of their landscaping. A grove of Assassin Trees in the center of a decorative garden can be a useful thing for the rich and evil... | |||
The Assassin Tree is a carnivorous plant that creates its own grisly fertilizer by smashing animals with its long, heavy branches. These remarkable plants can detect movements in the earth and air and detect changes in light and heat through their broad leaves, giving them exceptional awareness of the area around them. Possessing limited intelligence or agenda, they lash out at whatever living things pass nearby, rarely worrying about how dangerous those things might be. | |||
Unfortunately, Assassin Trees are hard to pick out in a vegetated setting. Their bark and leaves can grow in any of several ways, sometimes even on a single plant, meaning that up close it is hard to be certain you are looking at one. If you can see one from a good distance, it is easy to spot that they look like a pair of long, narrow trees that have grown together in the center of their slender trunks. They have two root balls at the ends of woody 'legs', a central trunk, and then two or three distinct leafy crowns. The entirety of their massive bulk is unnaturally flexible for such a wooden creature, and they move with startling speed. | |||
When they attack, which is almost always when they sense anything warm or moving nearby, they stride close on their wooden 'legs' and then smash the ground below with deadly force. They are terribly poisonous, the merest brush of their leaves or bark raising painful weeping welts. If they are successfully attacked, by heroes able to withstand their attacks or by town guard with siege weapons, they shatter before their final destruction into a jagged mass of debris, which is still horribly animate. Worst of all, if you shatter one but fail to finally put it down completely, the mass of debris will eventually sprout into dozens of new assassin trees. | |||
Assassin Trees do not seem to be directly related to assassin vines, although there are obvious parallels between the two creatures. | |||
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<!-- Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance" --> | <!-- Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance" --> | ||
| Ability-1-Action-Required = | | Ability-1-Action-Required = Always On | ||
<!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | <!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | ||
Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | ||
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| Ability-2-Action-Required = | | Ability-2-Action-Required = Full Attack Action | ||
<!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | <!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | ||
Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | ||
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| Ability-2-Description = As a full attack action, instead of attacking adjacent creatures with Scourge of Leaves, the Assassin Tree pulls up one of its two root balls and 'takes a step' with it, attacking all creatures in a 25 ft. x 25 ft. space (5x5 square area) adjacent to where the 'stepping' root ball sets down. The 'stepping' root ball must set down in an unoccupied space that is within 50 feet of the 'rooted' root ball (the one that did not move). Every time it uses Rooting Crush the Assassin Tree may choose which root ball to move and which one to root. Rooting Crush does not provoke attacks of opportunity. When it uses Rooting Crush, it rolls a separate to-hit roll for Scourge of Leaves (its basic melee attack) for each creature in the affected area, but rolls damage only once for all creatures successfully struck. | | Ability-2-Description = As a full attack action, instead of attacking adjacent creatures with Scourge of Leaves, the Assassin Tree pulls up one of its two root balls and 'takes a step' with it, attacking all creatures in a 25 ft. x 25 ft. space (5x5 square area) adjacent to where the 'stepping' root ball sets down. The 'stepping' root ball must set down in an unoccupied space that is within 50 feet of the 'rooted' root ball (the one that did not move). Every time it uses Rooting Crush the Assassin Tree may choose which root ball to move and which one to root. Rooting Crush does not provoke attacks of opportunity. When it uses Rooting Crush, it rolls a separate to-hit roll for Scourge of Leaves (its basic melee attack) for each creature in the affected area, but rolls damage only once for all creatures successfully struck. | ||
In addition, all creatures that are adjacent to the space where it sets down its root ball must make a Reflex save versus a DC of {{Save-DC}} or they are knocked [[Prone]]. Creatures that succeed on the save are [[Quelled]] instead. | |||
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<!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | <!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | ||
| Ability-3-Action-Required = | | Ability-3-Action-Required = Automatic after successful attack or being touched | ||
<!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | <!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | ||
Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | ||
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| CombatTactics = Assassin Trees move to attack as soon as they perceive a non-plant creature of any sort. Their tactics are simple, preferring to use Rooting Smash against any group of three or more foes they can reach. If they cannot use Rooting Smash, they will use Scourge of Leaves on the closest valid target. If they cannot attack with Scourge of Leaves, they will shoot Pollen Puff as a full attack and edge closer with five foot steps. | | CombatTactics = Assassin Trees move to attack as soon as they perceive a non-plant creature of any sort. Their tactics are simple, preferring to use Rooting Smash against any group of three or more foes they can reach. If they cannot use Rooting Smash, they will use Scourge of Leaves on the closest valid target. If they cannot attack with Scourge of Leaves, they will shoot Pollen Puff as a full attack and edge closer with five foot steps. | ||
After Siege of Brambles activates, it will collapse its new form on top of as many enemies as it can, then attack viciously using Siege of Leaves. Note that much like a swarm, it automatically does damage to creatures within the debris pile, so it will try to keep foes within its area while still attacking with Siege of Leaves. Without Rooting Smash it is quite slow, but it still has a very long reach. If all foes manage to get beyond its reach, it will use Pollen Puff and pursue until all enemies are outside its perception range. | |||
Note that even though they are not exactly intelligent, Assassin Trees are NOT mindless. They will never break off a battle against a non-plant once begun, but they will use simple tactics, and will do things like edge slowly closer under the cover of darkness, and they will definitely position themselves deliberately in points of good ambush. | |||
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| OutOfCombat = In the wild, Assassin Trees are deadly menaces. In the wild, they are good at ambushes, blending into the vegetation, despite having no special Stealth skill. They tend to be sudden, brutal fights. If they are shattered into their Bramble form and survive, they will sprout dozens of new Assassin Trees. | | OutOfCombat = In the wild, Assassin Trees are deadly menaces. In the wild, they are good at ambushes, blending into the vegetation, despite having no special Stealth skill. They tend to be sudden, brutal fights. If they are shattered into their Bramble form and survive, they will sprout dozens of new Assassin Trees. | ||
Where Assassin Trees truly become pernicious is when they are paired with other plant monsters. Sentient plants will 'assign' Assassin Trees to places where they can serve as guards and obstacles. Some plant creatures seem to be able to communicate with Assassin Trees...somehow...and can direct them around. | |||
Even civilized areas can have Assassin Trees. They occasionally come into vogue as exotic plantings in the gardens of the rich and evil. Such domesticated Assassin Trees can be kept fairly docile with plentiful food and water, as well as premium soil. Note that a disgruntled Assassin Tree does a LOT of siege damage, and will generally break free of nearly any confined area fairly quickly. Narrow moats of strong brine are often used to deter them in 'decorative' settings, but such measures are far from perfect and magic is the best way to contain them. | |||
Assassin Trees have been encountered even in sewers, as shoots escape these gardens and sprout in the most inconvenient places. | |||