D&D 5E (2014) Playable Plant People

[Minigiant]

You know what 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons doesn't have in it.

Playable Plant People. A plantlike race supported officially.

The question is then "do we want them?"

A lot of plant features could be added to non-nature classes for interesting experiences for player characters. Photosynthesis instead of normal eating and drinking. Attacks with entangling vines, hammering bark, poisonous leaves, and sharp needles alongside steel blades and wood bows. PCs with enhanced vigor when under bright light. Oaken skin that is vulnerable to fire and cold. Plantlike outlooks over animalistic or humaniod ones.

Would you like that addition?

There's many ways to do it.

We could start fresh with straight up medium sized talking walking treefolk.

We could bring back the wilden. A race of natural guardians with a fey or primal origin and the appearance of trees.

If the idea of walking trees wearing armor is too jarring, you can go the Dryad or Hamadryad method. An all female race of feylike beings with plant spells or plantlike features.

My setting already has a playable plant option, the Vined. Basically short people with magical plants growing out of them.

The version that would be easiest for many to digest would be some sort of half dryad, the child of a dryad or tree nymph and a human, elf, or gnome. This doesn't break most settings that much if at all. You get a humaniod with plant features like like hard skin, photosynthesis, and entangling grasp. Great for druids, rangers, warlocks, clerics, and fighters.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

 

[Jester David]

There have been a few attempts. They've all been horrible.
4e had the wilden, which was an extension of the 3e killoren. And Pathfinder has the ghorens. And there are many, many others.

All seem rather awkward, being unrelated to the myriad plant monsters in the game. They're attempts to make a new race whole cloth, which seldom resonate as well as creatures with a legacy, who have proved interesting enough to keep bringing back again and again. It doesn't help that they're seldom worked into settings and simply forced into campaigns with minimal lore. Simply "here's a plant race that now exists because we needed a plant race!"

Most plant races are also awkwardly designed, being these plant people that paradoxically have faces with mouths, noses, and eyes despite being freakin' plants.

I'd much rather see a variant of an ent or shambling mound modified to be a PC race. The hamadryad from late 4e was also passable, but tricky since it deviated from the myth. Blights - like twig blights - seem to have found a niche so a blightling might work.

 

[Sunseeker]

I would like to see a plant race as well, something along the lines of the Sylvari from GW2.

The explanations for why plant-people look like people and not little trees are no worse than half the other explanations for why any other race looks the way they do. Magical creation that became true breeding? Good enough.

Explaining away armor can be done one of two ways:
Because they were magically made in the image of humans, they have similar weaknesses, such as a soft, squishy exterior. Thus they need to wear armor.
They are able to grow their own armor through some kind of innate magical ability that consumes spell components/materials/food/*insert resource here* equal to the value of the armor they are growing.

Origins? Likely fey or "crazy confluence of magic".

I'm okay with ent-lite people, but I think the logistics are worse for them than most people realize.

One of my favorite books on weird races, "Bastards and Bloodlines" has a couple of them. I think both a "half dryad" and a "half ent" race, but both are essentially fantasy hot chicks.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One thing I liked about 4e was all the weird race options. Unfortunately, what I saw was that most people just looked at the as collections of bonuses and abilities, rather than unique and interesting beings.

Me, I'd love to see a playable Myconid race.

In E.E. Knight's Age of Fire series, elves were outright plant creatures. And dwarves' beards were in fact cultivated mossy growths. Part of me is tempted to run a campaign where all the traditional races are in fact plant creatures of one sort or another.

 

[Minigiant]

Believability only matters if you wish to inject the plant race into an established setting where there may be conflicts. This is why half dryads are the easiest methods as most settings have them and let them reproduce.

The plant race in my setting just straight up is "a wizard did".

 

[phantomK9]

The Unapproachable East campaign setting book for 3.5 Forgotten Realms included a write up on the Volodni.

Here are some bits from their description:

More than a thousand years ago, at the end of the terrible wars that racked Narfell and Raumathar, a proud Nar lord led a host of his people into the great forests of the ancient empire, seeking to escape the roaming demons and magical plagues that ravaged his lands. Some power of the old woods — perhaps an elder treant, or even the Oakfather himself— confronted the Nar refugees to deny them refuge unless they forswore their demon-summoning ways and agreed to take the forest’s blood for their own. The lord agreed on the spot, convinced that any bargain was better than returning to certain destruction, but the price was greater than he could imagine: He and his followers surrendered their humanity in exchange for sanctuary. Thus the volodnis, the pine folk, were born.

The volodnis are a humanlike race of treefolk who defend their forest homes with iron resolve. Unlike other sylvan beings, volodnis aggressively seek to expand into new forests and grow the borders of old ones, regardless of who gets in the way. Many feel that only the fall of “warm folk” civilization can preserve Faerûn’s forests, but others hope to peacefully persuade humans to allow the return of the ancient forests.

They had some pretty buff stats, but also a +2 ECL. Basically they were a lot like Wood Elves but with a lot more resistances.

• +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, –2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma: Volodnis are hardy and intuitive, but are not exceptionally bright or personable.
• Medium-size.
• Land speed 30 feet.
• Cold resistance 5.
• +4 racial bonus on Hide checks in wooded terrain.
• Low-Light Vision: Volodnis can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions
of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Plant: Volodnis are immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, and polymorphing. They are not subject to critical hits or mind-affecting effects.
• Half damage from Piercing: Piercing weapons deal only half damage to volodnis, with a minimum of 1 point of damage.
• Sustenance: Volodnis require only 2 hours of sleep per day to gain the benefits of 8 hours of sleep (although arcane spellcasters must still have 8 hours of rest to prepare spells). Volodnis only require one-quarter the food and water a human requires, as they absorb nutrients from their environment.

• Automatic Languages: Common, Sylvan. Bonus Languages: By character region.

I've been working on converting them to 5e but haven't gotten anything that I'm particularly happy with could probably do with some tweaking. Hard to know exactly which traits to worry about and which to let fall away.

• Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
• Age: as human
• Alignment: as human
• Size: medium (slightly taller than human norm)
• Speed: 30 ft
• Darkvision: 60 ft
• Natural Camouflage: You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage when in wooded/forest terrain. You have advantage on Stealth checks made to hide while in wooded/forest terrain.
• Plant Traits: You have advantage on saving throws verses mind-influencing affects, poison, paralysis, stunning, and polymorphing. You have resistance to piercing and cold damage but vulnerability to fire. You have immunity to sleep effects.
• Sustenance: Volodnis require only 2 hours of sleep per day to gain the benefits of 8 hours of sleep, but casters still need 8 hours for spells. Volodnis need only one-quarter of the food and water of humans as they absorb nutrients from their environment.
• Languages: Common, Sylvan

 

[TheCosmicKid]

I have jack o' lanterns: animated pumpkin vines wound into humanoid shape, generally wearing clothing stuffed with straw so they don't look freakishly thin. Minor agricultural spirits created to help and protect mortal farmers, they are very friendly and down-to-earth, and can most often be seen as farmhands in isolated rural areas. But urban folk tend to view them with superstitious fear, so they avoid cities and areas with a lot of traffic.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I think vegepygmie PCs would be awesome. Imagine a character who considers eating a blooming onion to be cannibalism.

 

[Werebat]

I would like to see a plant race as well, something along the lines of the Sylvari from GW2.

One of my favorite books on weird races, "Bastards and Bloodlines" has a couple of them. I think both a "half dryad" and a "half ent" race, but both are essentially fantasy hot chicks.

Sylvari were the first thing that came to mind. Of course many of them qualify as "fantasy hot chicks" too, right down to the tragic pair of cute lesbian Sylvari in high positions of both the "good" and "bad" factions.

Hmm... League of Legends' Zyra is also a plant and a fantasy hot chick. Go figure.

 

[Ahrimon]

Yes please! Broc Lee the plant-man monk is begging to be played.