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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6015798" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 292: February 2002part 7/10Bad seeds: We continue to make the wilderness more dangerous by updating a whole bunch of plant monsters from previous editions that they left out the monster manual. After all, when you're slimming the accretions of 11 years down to 256 pages, the less popular creature types only get a few examples each. You can only use them so often before the players get bored, especially as they don't normally gain class levels like humanoids. So what do these add to our wilderness trekking experience? Death heads trees are a very familiar face from Ravenloft, creeping people out, then spitting their seeds into them. Fortunately, they aren't very mobile, so if you see one, bombard it from maximum range and hope you can outpace any heads that detach and float after you. Greenvises are one I don't remember, but wouldn't be surprised if they're in some obscure old book. They emit acidic gas to weaken a party before they strike, which looks like it'd mow through a weak group. Once again, steering clear is a good option, made harder by their skill at camouflage. Myconids are another one I'm surprised didn't get in the new monster manual. But then, they have a very complicated and interesting ecology that it takes quite a bit of space to describe, plus they're not particularly aggressive, so the back to the dungeon types wouldn't want them putting too much ambiguity into the game. Bah. Needlemen are also familiar, and of course ranged fighting is their schtick, so the boot may be on the other foot if you get lost in alpine forests. And since they can pincushion you pretty effectively, you'd better have some good artillery or be good at using the trees as cover. Orcworts are like yellow musk creepers, only they grow their own humanoids to attack things and turn them into fertiliser instead of taking over existing creatures. This does mean you'll face more of them at once, and they'll be in better condition, which makes them a good variant for higher level parties. After the body horror loses it's shock value, you just want to get to the fights. Red Sundews are much more mobile than most large plant monsters, so you can't just leave behind the problem of a giant sticky tentacle monster eating up everything in it's path. So this is mostly old monsters, but they're still goodies. It's all too easy to forget plants, when they're such an important part of our environment, and you can make them into interesting challenges quite easily. Nodwick gets shown up by the forces of nature. Elminsters guide to the realms: Ed gives us another out of the norm minidungeon for adventurers to visit, explore, maybe find a few cool items, and then come back too later and find new secrets each time. A mysterious floating rock with several different hidden rooms in it, each with their own challenges and rewards, this is the kind of place that probably won't kill you, but may well leave you befuddled, and if you push your luck and try to destroy the whole thing, teleported hundreds of miles away without your companions. Intermittent rewards and interesting but nonfatal challenges. Sounds like exactly the sort of thing that irritates people, and makes them all the more determined to unravel the puzzle. and of course, that kind of teleportation gives the DM a great excuse to drop players in whatever other plot they have percolating in the back of their mind, until they're high enough level for easy scry/teleport solutions to get back together. Ed's writing continues to be both fun and whimsical, which will probably make for entertaining play, as long as your players don't take things too seriously.</blockquote>

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