Plantblood (CR +1)[3pp]

The plantblood, or half-plants, live between the worlds of flora and fauna. They often have grass for hair,thorns for nails, leaves for ears, bark-like skin that comes in any of a hundred hues, and eyes that come in any color that flowers do.

Creating a Plantblood

Plantblood” is an inherited template that can be applied to any creature that does not have the construct, ooze, plant or undead type (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A plantblood uses all of the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Challenge Rating: As base creature +1

Senses: Plantbloods gain low-light vision.

Armor Class: Natural armor class improves by +1.

Defensive Abilities: A plant blood gains the following:

Plant Flesh (Ex)

When a creature becomes a plantblood, many of its internal organs are replaced by vegetable matter. Whenever a sneak attack, critical hit, or other form of precision damage is scored against the plantblood, there is a 50% chance that the extra damage is negated and damage is rolled normally.

Abilities: Dex –2 (minimum 0), Con +4. A creature with Dexterity 0 has grown roots and cannot move.

Skills: A plantblood has a +5 racial bonus on Stealth checks in forests and flora-heavy areas.

Special Qualities: The plantblood retains all the base creature’s special qualities and gains those described here.

Plant Feeding (Ex)

If plantblood remains in the direct sunlight for at least 4 hours, it does not need to eat that day.

Plantblood (Ex)

A plantblood creature counts both as a plant and the base creature’s type for the purpose of spells and effects that specifically affect creatures of the plant type. Plantblood creatures can use magic items with powers or abilities that work specifically for creatures of the plant type. A plantblood also has a +4 bonus on saving throws against poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, polymorphing, and mind-affecting effects.

Variant Plantbloods

This template is an unusual idea that might seem difficult to place in a game at first glance, but many options exist for using plantbloods.

Dryad-Spawn: Plantbloods might result from matings between dryads or other plant-themed fey and other creatures.

Environmental Effect: Something in the environment slowly turns creatures into plantbloods. The cause could be food, water, poison, or even a disease. If a plantblood spreads the template by an attack, increase its CR adjustment by +1.

Plantblood Plague (Ex or Su): Disease—contact, injury or inhaled; save Fort DC 15; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect gain plantblood template over 5 days; save 2 consecutive saves, making just one save postpones the effect for an additional day.

Plantblood elves: All elves (or other creatures closely associated with the natural world) could be plantbloods in a given campaign. Each elf subrace could be associated with a different tree: oak, birch, yew, holly, etc.

Magical Crossbreeding: A plantblood might be a hybrid created by druidic magic. Perhaps a druid or a spellcasting treant has been turning humanoids into plantbloods as a curse.

Podlings: The plantbloods might be neutral evil beings created by the implantation of a seed. In this case, each plantblood should have the implant and hive mind abilities described below. This option increases the template’s CR adjustment by an additional +1.

Hive Mind (Ex)

Each plantblood is in constant communication with all others within 1 mile. Plantbloods within sight of one another cannot be caught flat-footed or flanked unless all of them are.

Implant (Ex)

Once per day as a full-round action, a plantblood may implant a seed into a helpless foe. If the victim qualifies for the plantblood template, the seed slowly grows over the course of 30 days, gradually taking over the organs of the base creature. At the end of the 30 days, the victim becomes a plantblood, and its alignment changes to neutral evil.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Advanced Bestiary, Copyright 2014, Green Ronin Publishing, LLC; Author Jeff Hersh, Developer Owen K.C. Stephens

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