Treant: Wisdom of the Forest

Lore: Life Within Wood

Dwelling within ancient forests, treants are awakened trees who spend their days in quiet contemplation. Though they are very peaceful by nature, their wrath is fearsome, and they’ll quickly rise to defend their homes from hostile outsiders.

Trees destined to become treants spend many long centuries in meditation within magically dense forests under special circumstances. Wise druids and ancient treants can detect which trees have the potential, and thus protect them until their time of awakening. Once it does, the treant continues to grow like an ordinary tree, though now they use their strength and magic to protect the woodland creatures dwelling in their homes.

Though they are now fully alive, treants still spend most of their time as they did as normal trees. Only now, careless woodcutters are in for a rather nasty surprise.

You can do a surprising amount with this. Maybe the players wander into a grove and witness a treant awakening. Perhaps the campaign takes place in a highly industrial city that knocks down a treant grove, thus angering the forest, and the players need to choose between defending the city or nature. Or maybe the players simply meet a talking tree who spouts some wisdom at them. You’ve got plenty of options here!

Design: When Treebeard Shaves

Remember the Ents? Yeah, it’s just that. In case the whole ‘talking, walking tree thing’ didn’t give it away already.

Maybe it’s the Lord of the Rings nerd in me, but I fuckin’ love magic trees. Whether they walk or talk, I can never get enough of ’em. So this design is an immediate win for me.

Is it especially unique or creative? Oh, absolutely not. This is just a straight-up Ent. What else are you supposed to do with a walking, talking tree?

Also, the face. I can’t tell if it’s grumpy or just tired. Much like my co-workers every morning.

In short: this isn’t an especially incredible design. However, I love magic trees. So we’ll meet in the middle and call it acceptable.

Stats: The Walking Battering Ram

Don’t mess with the tree, man. It’ll mess you up.

A treant is a really durable monster. Its AC is pretty high, and its HP is nothing to sneeze at. On top of that, it’s resistant to bludgeoning and piercing. However, it has a pretty glaring weakness. Take a guess what it is.

It’s also a Siege Monster. If this guy attacks your cart… or your wall… or any other object or structure, it’s gonna do a lot of damage. So unless you want to know how Saruman felt, try not to piss it off too bad.

Also, it has False Appearance. When it ain’t moving, it’s just a tree.

In terms of attacks, this monster has a surprising amount of variety. Not an extremely extensive one, mind you, but quite a bit. It has a basic melee attack, it can throw a rock for long-ranged massive damage, or it can bring trees to life as allies to assist it. These tricks are simple, but it gives the battle a decent amount of variety.

While relatively straight-forward, all of this still makes for a fairly interesting and varied battle. How do the players deal with the tree minions? Can the wizards survive the hail of boulders long enough to cast fire magic? Are more treants hiding in the surroundings, disguised as regular trees? With a bit of creativity, this could make for an amazing encounter!

Placement

This was another really solid one! Sure, it’s looks weren’t amazing. But the lore and stats were shockingly strong! We’ve been on a hot streak recently! Here’s hoping it continues!

With all that in mind, the Treant is going to #40 on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Mind Flayer
4. Dragon Turtle
5. Tarrasque
6. Mummy/Mummy Lord
7. Nagas (all three of ’em)
8. Green Dragons
9. Red Dragons
10. Blue Dragons
11. Black Dragons
12. White Dragons
13. Silver Dragons
14. Couatl
15. Behir
16. Aboleth
17. Sea Hag
18. Slaadi (all six of ’em)
19. Lamia
20. Bronze Dragons
21. Brass Dragons
22. Copper Dragons
23. Gold Dragons
24. Chuul
25. Kuo-Toa
26. Gibbering Mouther
27. Kraken
28. Intellect Devourer
29. Thri-Kreen
30. Shadow
31. Chimera
32. Sphinxes
33. Death Knight
34. Fomorian
35. Bone Devil
36. Dracolich
37. Faerie Dragon
38. Gelatinous Cube
39. Lich
40. Treant <——————
41. Peryton
42. Remorhaz
43. Orcs (all four of ’em)
44. Magmin
45. Shield Guardian
46. Kobold
47. Kenku
48. Hobgoblins
49. Night Hag
50. Green Hag
51. Black Pudding
52. Ankheg
53. Hook Horror
54. Succubus/Incubus
55. Oni
56. Purple Worm
57. Storm Giant
58. Hill Giant
59. Empyrean
60. Efreeti
61. Grimlock
62. Minotaur
63. Dao
64. Cloud Giant
65. Manticore
66. Scarecrow
67. Drow (all four of ’em)
68. Shadow Demon
69. Modrons (all five of ’em)
70. Marilith
71. Drider
72. Aarackockra
73. Azer
74. Demilich
75. Spectator
76. Gray Ooze
77. Ochre Jelly
78. Hydra
79. Rakshasa
80. Marid
81. Salamander
82. Harpy
83. Werejackal
84. Otyugh
85. Satyr
86. Half-Dragon
87. Cambion
88. Fire Giant
89. Nothic
90. Pixie
91. Animated Armor
92. Roper
93. Banshee
94. Basilisk
95. Yochlol
96. Bulette
97. Cloaker
98. Darkmantle
99. Doppelganger
100. Revenant
101. Ghoul and Ghast
102. Sahuagin (all three)
103. Ettin
104. Sprite
105. Medusa
106. Pit Fiend
107. Erinyes
108. Chain Devil
109. Bearded Devil
110. Barbed Devil
111. Spined Devil
112. Ice Devil
113. Mimic
114. Djinni
115. Merrow
116. Nalfeshnee
117. Glabrezu
118. Chasme
119. Grell
120. Barlgura
121. Horned Devil
122. Balor
123. Skeletons
124. Shadow Dragon
125. Myconids (all four of ’em)
126. Piercer
127. Werebear
128. Lizardfolk
129. Vrock
130. Dretch
131. Pseudodragon
132. Gnolls (all three)
133. Goristro
134. Hezrou
135. Manes
136. Quaggoth
137. Frost Giant
138. Weretiger
139. Werewolf
140. Duergar
141. Quasit
142. Dryad
143. Shambling Mound
144. Flumph
145. Goblin
146. Nightmare
147. Rust Monster
148. Wereboar
149. Wererat
150. Githyanki
151. Owlbear
152. Planetar
153. Imp
154. Ogres/Half-ogres
155. Roc
156. Clay Golem
157. Flameskull
158. Displacer Beast
159. Carrion Crawler
160. Githzerai
161. Grick
162. Invisible Stalker
163. Rug of Smothering
164. Bugbear Chief
165. Bugbear
166. Flesh Golem
167. Vine Blight
168. Twig Blight
169. Needle Blight
170. Mephits (all six of ’em)
171. Bullywug
172. Hellhound
173. Ettercap
174. Gas Spore
175. Cockatrice
176. Lemure
177. Homonculus
178. Merfolk
179. Solar
180. Deva
181. Gorgon
182. Hippogriff
183. Griffon
184. Cyclops
185. Centaur
186. Ghost
187. Pegasus
188. Fire Elemental
189. Water Elemental
190. Air Elemental
191. Stone Giant
192. Deep Gnome
193. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
194. Stirge
195. Specter
196. Iron Golem
197. Stone Golem
198. Earth Elemental
199. Galeb Duhr
200. Helmed Horror
201. Flying Sword
202. Crawling Claw
203. Violet Fungus
204. Shrieker
205. Gargoyle