Continuing the theme of underwhelming monsters, the
Vegepygmy is basically a less interesting Myconid.
I like the art for these guys. It’s kind of creepy and weird, without going too far into actual horror mode. The weird texture on the Thorny’s back is also neat.
Back in the Olden Times, when the world was still young, TV was in black and white, and books were carved on stone slabs, there was a module called
Expedition to the Great Barrier Peaks. It was basically a ‘theme park’ dungeon; there was no rhyme or logic to the contents, just a bunch of fun and weird stuff tossed together. If you’ve ever made a dungeon without bothering to work out where the toilets are, why all the monsters are together, and how they get food and whatnot, then you’ve made something similar; but
Barrier Peaks was also a bit gonzo, with Sci-Fi elements. The Vegepygmies - aka Mold Men - were, I think, inspired by Olden Times films like The Blob and Invasion of the Body Snatchers; weird alien creatures that fell from the sky and infected people. Their inclusion here is a little odd - it seems like they’d only use these guys if they updated and expanded
Barrier Peaks, and in that case they could just provide their statblock there.
The Vegepygmies are, well, plant people. They are created by Russet Mold, like to eat meat, and reproduce by infecting humanoids or giants. They cannot speak common, but have a language, so magic should let the players speak to them. The book otherwise gives us essentially no hints of what Vegepygmies want or do, so you’re on your own if you want to think of something to use them for. I guess that they’ll fit decently well as a semi-random encounter in a Forest or Underdark adventure, being just a random group that your players could meet. They also often co-exist with Myconids, with whom they would presumably communicate by means of the latters’
communication spores. So that would allow you to add some colour to a Myconid settlement; these guys are more like normal humanoids - and have statblocks more useful for combat - if those are things that you want from a Myconid settlement. Otherwise, the Vegepygmies are likely to be either bad guys in the forest - killing woodsmen and reproducing from them - or just a group that the players stumble upon in the Underdark. You could certainly use them as a standard roleplaying encounter and as a quest giver, but I’d make sure that you have a plan for how the players are going to communicate with them first, since mime is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
There are three statblocks here: the CR 1/4 Vegepygmy, which is basically a Goblin without
Nimble Escape, the CR 2 Vegepygmy Chief, and the Thorny, which is as CR 1 dog version. They all share the Vegepymy traits of
Plant Camouflage and
Regeneration, the latter of which is kind of annoying to have on a swarm opponent. Keeping track of which Vegepgymy has regained 3 HP a round or not seems tremendously tedious, but it is certainly a distinctive racial trait. They all have Stealth scores as well as the
Plant Camouflage, so clearly some element of ambushing is implied from that. The basic Vegepygmy is, as I mentioned, a Goblin but with Regeneration instead of Bonus Action Disengage. They also have resistance to Piercing and Lightning; I can see Piercing as some sort of tough plant thing, but Lightning? The Chief is just stronger, tougher version which gets a couple attacks a round and can use a spore attack to do AoE poison to those nearby. It’s pretty interesting to have an AoE on a leader for a weak race, especially one to which the Vegepygymies are immune. Finally, the Thorny is a bit weird; it gets a rule to do extra damage when being grappled, rather than when it grapples something, and it also does not have Athletics trained. Read literally, this means that the Thorny wants to be the recipient of an enemy grapple, and then
lose the contest. Strange. It does not get any kind of pounce or knockdown attack, unlike most dog-like creatures. If I were inclined to use this guy, I’d be tempted to give him Athletics training and make his Bite attack also do an opposed grapple check, since then it would be a little more interesting.
To be honest, these guys are just sort of there. I’m not very excited by them, even if their statblocks do have some interesting elements and they appear to work in a relatively unique way.
