CR 1

These bushes are more of a nuisance than anything else.  They grow wild, quickly killing almost everything else that grows near them.  The only plant capable of sustaining its life among archer bushes is the jupiter blood sucker and it is commonly found with them.

   Some peasants or men of the woods occasionally hide treasures in the midst of many archer bushes.  They simply shield themselves from the thorns by hiding behind a large makeshift shield, piece of wood or a clump or rocks, casting a handful of rocks at the bushes, entering the growth, hiding their valuables and then leaving the bushes before they have time to grow new thorns.  Sometimes these bushes are used to hide openings in caves or other types of entranceways.

   Archer bushes defend themselves by shooting small thorns at whatever disturbs them.

   Archer bushes have a hardness of 2 and 4 hit points.

   Thorns (Ex): The thorns of an archer bush grow along the branches of the plant and number in the thousands.  The bush releases only the thorns on a branch that is disturbed.  Any creature within 10 feet of a disturbed archer bush must make a Reflex save (DC 11) or be struck by several of these small, sharp thorns, taking 1d4 points of damage (10 thorns hit per point of damage taken).  Any creature struck by the thorns will have a –1 conditional modifier until they are removed.

   The small thorns work their way into the skin within one day, causing swelling and infections 1n 1d3 days unless the affected character makes a Fortitude save (DC 11).  An infected character suffers a further –1 conditional modifier on all rolls for 1d6 days, at which time their body fights off the infection.  A cure light wounds will cure the swelling and infections, but the thorns must be picked out by hand.

   Thorn growth takes only 1 turn.

The Archer Bush first appeared in module B3 (Jean Wells, 1981).