Archer Bush |
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Small Plant
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| Hit Dice: 2d8+4 (13 hp) |
| Initiative: +2 |
| Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares) |
| Armor Class: 17 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +4 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 15 |
| Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-3 |
| Attack: Bite +2 melee (1d3) or thorn spray +4 ranged (1d4 plus irritation) |
| Full Attack: Bite +2 melee (1d3) or thorn spray +4 ranged (1d4 plus irritation) |
| Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. (0 ft. with bite) |
| Special Attacks: Irritation (DC 13), thorn spray |
| Special Qualities: Plant traits, thorns, tremorsense 60 ft. |
| Saves: Fort +5,
Ref +2, Will +1
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| Abilities: Str 11,
Dex 15, Con 14,
Int -, Wis 13,
Cha 9 |
| Skills: Hide +6 (+14 in forested areas) |
| Feats: - |
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| Environment: Temperate plains and forest |
| Organization: Solitary or thicket (2-20) |
| Challenge Rating: 1 |
| Treasure: 10% coins; no goods; 50% items |
| Alignment: Always neutral |
| Advancement: 3-4 HD (Small); 5-6 HD (Medium) |
| Level Adjustment: - |
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The thick, stunted trunk of this wild bramble bush pokes out from a high mound of leaves and twigs. Sparse, sickly green and brown leaves hang from its gnarled branches. Numerous small, sharp thorns cover these branches, pointing outwards in every direction.
The ambulatory, carnivorous archer bush grows wild, and kills anything else nearby. Archer bushes grow best in woodlands, scrub areas, and occasionally mountains, but are never found underground except in well-lit caverns or near cave mouths. Druids sometimes cultivate and command archer bushes to guard their sacred groves or perform other tasks. Woodsmen and rangers periodically hide their valuables in the midst of archer bushes by taking cover behind large makeshift shields and sneaking up to the plants to deposit their goods.
An archer bush is 3 feet tall and weighs 20 pounds.
Combat
This carnivorous plant can sense any creatures approaching on the ground and attacks anything that gets within range of its thorn spray attack (except for flying or incorporeal opponents, which it cannot detect). Archer bushes in the same area instinctively cooperate with each other to hunt prey. A single archer bush is mostly a nuisance, but a group of archer bushes proves to be quite deadly as the plants will fire in concert with one another.
When an archer bush downs its prey, it uproots itself and crawls along the ground to devour its meal. The archer bush conceals a huge maw of hard thorns behind a pile of debris when motionless. Because this mouth-like orifice rests inside the bush, it only uses its bite attack on helpless or grappled prey.
Irritation (Ex): Any creature hit by an archer bush's thorn spray must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be sickened for 10 minutes. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from the sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Thorn Spray (Ex): An archer bush can loose a volley of thorns as a standard action. This attack has a range of 20 feet with no range increment. These thorns are treated as thrown weapons. An archer bush can fire up to three sprays of thorns before it runs out. An archer bush grows a new cluster of thorns in 1d4+4 rounds.
Thorns (Ex): An archer bush's thorns tear at any creature that touches it, dealing 1d4 points of piercing damage and also subject the creature to the plant’s irritation effect. Creatures that strike an archer bush with natural attacks or unarmed strikes, or that try to grapple the bush are subject to this damage, but creatures striking with melee weapons are not. A creature that is pushed into or falls onto a plant also takes damage from its thorns.
Tremorsense (Ex): Archer bushes have no visual organs but can ascertain all foes in contact with the ground within 60 feet.
Skills: Archer bushes have a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks made in forested areas.
VARIANTS
Several variants of the archer bush are known to exist. They use the same statistics as the typical archer bush except where noted. A few are more deadly and have a CR adjustment noted in their entries.
Sniper Bush: This variant archer bush lacks the thorn volleys of the standard bush, instead firing a single dart with deadly precision. A sniper bush possesses the sneak attack ability of the rogue, dealing an additional +2d6 points of damage. Its single dart regrows in 1d4 rounds. A sniper bush does not have the thorns special quality.
Burning Bush: This bright-red variant of the archer bush secretes a chemical similar to alchemist's fire. Its thorn volleys catch fire once launched, dealing an extra 1d6 points of fire damage. CR +1.
Arcane Archer Bush: Elven wizards sometimes magically augment traditional archer bushes, granting them additional benefits. The thorns of an arcane archer bush are treated as magic weapons for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Once per day an arcane archer bush can fire a thorn volley at each and every target within range, to a maximum of 3 targets. Each attack uses the arcane archer bush’s highest attack bonus, and each enemy may only be targeted by a single thorn volley. Using this ability depletes all remaining thorn volleys. CR +1.
Arquebush: This variant launches hard, spherical seeds rather than sharp thorns. Its seed volleys function like thorn volleys, except they deal bludgeoning rather than piercing damage. It lacks the thorns ability of a standard archer bush. When it fires a seed, a puff of pollen is released accompanied by a loud pop.
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1981 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Originally found in B3 - Palace of the Silver Princess |
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