Creative Characters -Tender, Briarborn Druid

For our next team of Creative Characters. we’ll be venturing into the deep wilderness with INTERESTING fun characters with nature/wilderness theme. For the sake of reference, and consistency, all characters here are created with the Elite stat array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) and all hit points are rolled as averages (and rounded down). They are also written so that they can be used as either NPCs or PCs as the reader chooses, and are written with all special abilities typed out, so as to ensure a minimum amount of book-flipping throughout your game.

Tender CR 7

XP 3,200
Female briarborn druid 8 (leshy warden)
NG Medium humanoid (plant)
Init +2; Senses low-light visionPerception +15

DEFENSE

AC18 , touch 14 , flat-footed 14 (10+ armor, +2  Dex, +4 natural , +2 dodge bonus in forest terrain).
hp ( 64 (40 class (8d8) +8 (favored class bonus) +16 Constitution )
Fort +9, Ref +4, Will +10
Immune mind-affecting effects, paralysispoisonpolymorphsleep effects, and stunning

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 orcbane quarterstaff +7 (1d6+2)/+9 (1d6+4 +2d6) vs. orcs
Druid Spells known (concentration +12)

4thsummon nature’s ally IV, thorn body
3rdburst of nettles, plant growth, summon nature’s ally III, thorny entanglement
2ndarboral archer, summon nature’s ally II, vine strike, wood shape
1stgoodberry, nature’s paths, spikes of the locust tree, summon nature’s ally I, thorn javelin
0thcreate water, drench, stabilize, virtue

TACTICS

During Combat Tender avoids direct combat when possible, using spells such as thorn javelin to make ranged attacks and summoning a myriad of natural creatures, plants and incarnated leshies to fight on her behalf. In combat, her entire environment is her weapon.

STATISTICS

Str 12 (+1) , Dex 14 (+2), Con 16 (+3) , Int 10 , Wis 18 (+4), Cha 8 (-1)
Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 19
Feats Armor Proficiency (Light), Armor Proficiency (Medium), Augment Summoning, Oaken Fortification, Photosynthetic Healing, Shield ProficiencySimple Weapon Proficiency, Spell Focus (conjuration)
Skills  Knowledge (nature) +13,  Survival  +15
Languages Common, Sylvan, Treant
Gear amulet of natural armor +2 , +1 OrcBane quarterstaff , wand of cure moderate wounds,  evergreen seed pouch, backpack, belt pouch, blanket, flint and steel, holly, mistletoe, an iron pot, a mess kit, soap, a spell component pouch, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin. Coins 2,025 gp, 2 sp, (remaining coins can be spent at the GM or player’s discretion before the start of the game session)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Fire Vulnerability

Briarborn are vulnerable to fire and flames, taking extra damage (+50%) from such attacks.

Green Empathy(Ex)

Tender can improve the attitude of a plant creature as if using wild empathy. The typical wild plant creature has a starting attitude of indifferent. If the plant creature is mindless, she imparts a modicum of intellect to the plant so that it can be interacted with as if it were an animal. She can also use this ability to influence an animal, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check to do so.

Leshy Familiar(Ex)

Tender has formed an intimate bond with a nature spirit, incarnating the spirit as a leaf leshy and transformed into a fungus leshy as she advanced. She has a fungus leshy.. as a familiar and treats her druid level as her effective wizard level for the purpose of this ability. If her leshy dies, she can incarnate the same spirit again by paying the normal cost to replace a familiar. So long as the leshy lives, Tender gains access to the Plant domain as if through a druid’s nature bond class feature, but she can’t choose the Decay subdomain.

Leshy Summoner(Ex)

As a plant creature, Tender is an expert at summoning and growing leshys. She adds leaf leshysgourd leshys, fungus leshysseaweed leshys, and lotus leshys to her list of creatures she can summon with summon nature’s ally I, II, III, IV, and V, respectively.

Plant speaker

(At will) Briarborn can speak with plants as a spell-like ability.

Trackless Step (Ex)

Tender leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. She may choose to leave a trail if so desired.

Tree Shape

(1/day) Briarborn may use tree shape as a spell-like ability with an unlimited duration.

Weakened by Cold

As the winter slows the growth of trees, it also tires and weakens the briarborn. If a briaborn suffers cold damage, it withers and wilts, needing to make a Fortitude save equal to 10 + the half the damage suffered. Failure to save means the briarborn is staggered.

Wild Shape (Su)

Tender possesses the wild shape ability, except her effective druid level for the ability, is equal to her druid level – 2 for the purpose of determining the number of times per day she can use it. She can take the form of Small, Medium or Large plant creatures, as per plant shape I or plant shape II.

Woodland Stride(Ex)

Tender may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. Thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion, however, still affect her.

Familiar

Pftuh fungus leshy CR 2

N Small plant (leshyshapechanger)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light visionPerception +2

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+2 Dex, +4 natural, +1 size)
hp 32 (half master’s total)
Fort +9, Ref +4, Will +10
Immune electricity, sonic, plant traits

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft.
Melee bite +8 (1d6), 2 claws +8 (1d3)
Ranged puffball +10 (1 plus spores)
Special Attacks spores
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration+6)

Constantpass without trace

STATISTICS

Str 10, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 9, Wis 14, Cha15
Base Atk +1; CMB +0; CMD 12
Feats Blind-Fight
Skills Stealth +10 (+14 in swamps and underground), Survival +3 (+7 in swamps and underground); Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth and Survival in swamps and underground
Languages Druidic, Sylvan; plant speech (fungi)
SQ change shape (Small fungus; tree shape), verdant burst, improved evasion, share spells, empathic link, deliver touch spells, speak with master, speak with others of it’s kind

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Puffball (Ex)

A fungus leshy can spit a puffball as a standard action. If it hits, this attack deals 1 point of damage (this damage is not modified by Strength) and affects the target struck (but not adjacent targets) with the fungus leshy’s spores. The puffball has a range increment of 20 feet.

Spores (Ex)

A fungus leshy is riddled with molds and spores. Anytime a fungus leshy takes damage, a cloud of spores bursts from its body, forcing all adjacent creatures to make a DC 14 Fortitude save or have their vision reduced to 10 feet for 1 minute. Spending a full-round action to wash one’s eyes with water ends this effect. The save DC is Constitution-based.

ABOUT

Guardian of the deep forests and usher of the myriad of nature spirits that incarnate as leshies, Tender is defined by her purpose, protector of the plant life that is ubiquitous to the Shining Green. Nothing matters more to her than keeping her home safe and protecting and nurturing her charges.



About markt

Mark has been playing RPG's for over 25 years, the last 10 primarily online. A veteran of countless Play by Post games, he is also a content creator for OGN and an RPG Superstar alumni.

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