Help Designing Cursed Tree...

[Scribble]

Ok... so characters in my campaign are approaching 6th level. They're currently traveling through the wasting swamp trying to smuggle a wrongly accused lord to a city state in the north where his cousin resides... Anyway along the way they encountered a small "community of halflings living in a collectiong of shacks on stilts, and barges tied semi-permanently into place... The halflings put them up for the night, but also spoke of trouble they've been having with a race they call the "Wigglums." (Tree-Frog men with poisonous tongues...) Apparently they'd previously had an amicable relationship with said Wigglums, but recently the Wigglums have been staging raids...

So of course, being adventurers they decided to look into the wigglum problem.

So when they get to the Wigglum village, I want it to be (obviously) in a very large tree. Unfortunately for the Wigglums it's been infested on the feywild side by some sort of "blight demon." It's caused the tree to become twisted and rotted, and fileld with large maggots.

I want the tree to be able to attack (possibly being able to push them into quicksand and other dangers.) in addition I want it to be able to occasionally drop maggots into an aura which also attack... I think I might make the maggots minions, but I want them to have some sort of special attack. I'm thinking maybe some sort of attack that makes PCs attack eachother?

Think this would be too powerfull? Any thoughts on fun things to add to the encounter?

Once they've killed the tree it will crack open to reveal a staircase leading down into the feywild, and closer to te roots and the blight demon...

[Loonook]

Ehh... I'll try to get a basic..


Figure it as an elite model creature, sprout 1d3 'minions' every d4 rounds. The creature gets a cone effect which causes 2(standard) damage + a 3-square push . . .

The minions appear as maggots or corrupted frog-men; the corrupted frogmen, when they are killed, have a death-throes type ability which causes Con. modifier damage and an enhanced confusion effect (let's say a 10' radius effect). Perhaps the tree has a dizzying pollen effect which causes a small penalty to saves (making these thralls work even better).

I don't know the MM building guidelines well enough to give you anything over; but the concepts shouldn't be hard to apply in a more solid function if 4e is as flexible as it is said to be.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

[malraux]

Rather than treat the tree as a single creature, I'd treat it as multiple traps/hazzards.

[Scribble]

I'm not going with a cone effect... The tree will just have reach, so it can attack anyone in it's reach with a branch, and basically slap them around... I'm wondering if adding quicksand into the mix will be too much.

The swamp has it as a danger... It attacks reflex against anyone starting their turn within it. First hit, slowed, next hit, imobalized, next helpless, then suffocation starts....

I'd like the tree to be able to thwack people into the quicksand.

The tree won't be able to move (as in movement not attack wise) so the maggots will have to be it's mobile infantry basically...

I like the death throws idea. I was thinking about that earlier. Maybe give the maggots a normal bite attack, but when they're killed they explode and the gore causes the victim to go insane and attack a friend...

I might make up a disease of some type that they might catch if they stay inside the tree too long as well... Some sort of rage like effect. Like rage zombies...

[Loonook]

Originally Posted by Scribble

I'm not going with a cone effect... The tree will just have reach, so it can attack anyone in it's reach with a branch, and basically slap them around... I'm wondering if adding quicksand into the mix will be too much.

The swamp has it as a danger... It attacks reflex against anyone starting their turn within it. First hit, slowed, next hit, imobalized, next helpless, then suffocation starts....

I'd like the tree to be able to thwack people into the quicksand.

The tree won't be able to move (as in movement not attack wise) so the maggots will have to be it's mobile infantry basically...

I like the death throws idea. I was thinking about that earlier. Maybe give the maggots a normal bite attack, but when they're killed they explode and the gore causes the victim to go insane and attack a friend...

I might make up a disease of some type that they might catch if they stay inside the tree too long as well... Some sort of rage like effect. Like rage zombies...

Yeah, but giving the tree the ability to swing around knocking away all of the party (and possibly exploding some of its own confusion-based maggots) would make for a attack synergy.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

[Scribble]

Originally Posted by Loonook

Yeah, but giving the tree the ability to swing around knocking away all of the party (and possibly exploding some of its own confusion-based maggots) would make for a attack synergy.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

That I like... giving it the ability to explode some of it's own maggots. Kind of like that Pit Fiend? (I think) attack where it slides its minions at you and makes them explode.

[Loonook]

Originally Posted by Scribble

That I like... giving it the ability to explode some of it's own maggots. Kind of like that Pit Fiend? (I think) attack where it slides its minions at you and makes them explode.

No clue... I don't play 4e :-P

Slainte,

-Loonook.

[Rel]

I'm not sure if this would fit with your idea in general, but the tie to the feywild got me thinking of a slightly different take.

What if, rather than the tree overtly attacking, it is much more subtle. The branches shift in and out of the feywild and can strike the PC's without appearing to move. Furthermore the tree can use this sort of teleportation magic on other, unwilling targets. So instead of having the PC's get mind controlled or go insane and attack each other, the tree teleports them in the way of each others attacks. It could even teleport one of them into the quicksand if you like.

I think this makes the tree a more mysterious and creepy adversary rather than just a big bad monster.

[frankthedm]

Here is a good article for making the mini for such a tree as this. I could not find it on the US or UK GW site as those have turned unhelpfully commercial.

Warhammer - Beasts of Chaos
oz.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/beastsofchaos/terrain/tree/treetop.htm