Dwimmerlied
First Post
Looking for some suggestions and ideas about a creature I'm tinkering with. What I'm trying to do is create a monster for the concept I have using absolute rules as written, if it can be done.
Concept; Woodwraiths are something like a conglomerate skeleton in which rather than just bone, any "once living" material is contributed. They range in shape from humanoid to quadrupedal (and everything inbetween), but form is obscured by lopsided and disparate assemblages of various skeletal remains of both plants and animals, with assymetrically projecting branches and bones; the similarity to real creatures seems to be the product of some mocking parody.
This "thing" is the product of necromantic energy used to animate the rich, decaying organic matter of the forest floor. In some tainted areas of the forest, this natural energy can spring forth spontaneously, but some dark druidry can also emulate this magic.
Crunch; The closest I can get to manifesting this in game mechanics is to use the skeleton listing from MMi, and applying some kind of plant template. This is ideal, because of its simplicity. The problem is, I can't find a simple plant creature template (does anyone know if there is one?).
There are a few alternatives I've found; Woodling, Wood element creature which are OK, but not perfect because they add features (and presumably this factors into CR increase).
If there are no suitable templates, I'm thinking to simply add plant traits. If I do this, how will it interact with the type? How will it influence the CR?
To make this creature complete, I'm thinking about designing a spell that would create these things. Are there already spells which emulate this? If not, what is the mechanical difference between an animate spell and an animate dead spell? Because presumably you could cast animate on a skeleton and get something very similar to a skeleton, right?
Finally, I'd be very interested in seeing what people think these things wood look like.
If you've read this far, thankyou! Any advice, ideas or thoughts are welcome.
Concept; Woodwraiths are something like a conglomerate skeleton in which rather than just bone, any "once living" material is contributed. They range in shape from humanoid to quadrupedal (and everything inbetween), but form is obscured by lopsided and disparate assemblages of various skeletal remains of both plants and animals, with assymetrically projecting branches and bones; the similarity to real creatures seems to be the product of some mocking parody.
This "thing" is the product of necromantic energy used to animate the rich, decaying organic matter of the forest floor. In some tainted areas of the forest, this natural energy can spring forth spontaneously, but some dark druidry can also emulate this magic.
Crunch; The closest I can get to manifesting this in game mechanics is to use the skeleton listing from MMi, and applying some kind of plant template. This is ideal, because of its simplicity. The problem is, I can't find a simple plant creature template (does anyone know if there is one?).
There are a few alternatives I've found; Woodling, Wood element creature which are OK, but not perfect because they add features (and presumably this factors into CR increase).
If there are no suitable templates, I'm thinking to simply add plant traits. If I do this, how will it interact with the type? How will it influence the CR?
To make this creature complete, I'm thinking about designing a spell that would create these things. Are there already spells which emulate this? If not, what is the mechanical difference between an animate spell and an animate dead spell? Because presumably you could cast animate on a skeleton and get something very similar to a skeleton, right?
Finally, I'd be very interested in seeing what people think these things wood look like.
If you've read this far, thankyou! Any advice, ideas or thoughts are welcome.
